Please be seated.
Hello, Your Honor.
Hello.
This is the case of McCrary v. Goodson.
Thank you, Jerome. Good day everyone.
AUDIENCE: Good day.
Miss McCrary, you've petitioned the court for a DNA test to prove
that the defendant is the father of your miracle baby.
18-month-old, Eriean McCrary, is that correct?
Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE LAKE: You claim
Mr. Goodson has done nothing for your daughter.
But today that's going to change.
Mr Goodson, you say the plaintiff
has brought the wrong man to court,
and you refuse to do anything for a child,
who is not biologically yours, is that correct?
Yes, Your Honor.
So Miss McCrary, how does it make you feel
hearing Mr. Goodson deny paternity?
The way I'm feeling at this moment, Your Honor, I'm furious.
I'm just tired. I'm fed up.
You know, when you already have kids, this is my first child.
You know, of course she is my miracle baby.
She is my only child.
And you know the age that I am, you wouldn't think that you'll be having a baby.
I'm like okay.
Here she go.
And I just take one day at a time.
I don't know what else to do.
Has he been involved in her life at all, 17 months?
Uh, he has been to a certain extent.
Okay, I can count on one hand, how many times.
You know.
JUDGE LAKE: One hand in 17 months, you can count?
MCCRARY: Yes, Your Honor. I'm countin' okay?
(CHUCKLES)
JUDGE LAKE: And when you see her.
(CHUCKLES)
That's my miracle baby.
You know, I didn't I didn't know I could you know conceive.
You know, when you're in a relationship with a man for so many years
you know, you have unprotected sex,
you're trying to get pregnant.
Things of that nature. It doesn't happen.
You think you can't get pregnant.
You know.
So when my baby, you know, I went to the doctor,
they told me what happened I just was like...
It just you know, she made me happy.
You are saying you guys have been on an off for this long.
MCCRARY: Your Honor.
How have you seen him deny her?
MCCRARY: He was in a store.
He was with his other family.
You know, if I see you with your teenage children and you walked past us,
how would that make you feel, Your Honor?
And it hurt you that he walked right past the baby?
Yes, Your Honor.
Mr. Goodson, did you walk past Eriean in the store
and not even acknowledge her at all?
No, Your Honor, that's not true.
When I walk, when I, we actually seen each other
at the same time. She was coming
and I was going toward the checkout.
She was going, I guess she was going to get item or something.
And we never say anything.
I didn't even know Eriean was with her.
I didn't see Eriean, I seen her, but I didn't even see Eriean.
So you acknowledged her on that day.
But you are not acknowledging that you are the father of this beautiful baby.
You do not think you are Eriean's biological father?
No, Your Honor, I don't.
JUDGE LAKE: Why?
Well...
every time we got together, it was like,
her phone used to ring a lot and, uh, she come over, you know,
we stayed two different sides of town.
She'll come over some, uh...
You know, probably a day or two.
And I might not hear from her, you know, couple more days after days
or whenever she is around.
You know her phone just constantly,
you know, it's constantly going off and
she was always secretive about it so.
You know, I kinda felt like it was somebody else in the picture and
when all...
Let me understand this.
Your relationship started as what, just a casual fling?
What was the nature of this?
Yes, Your Honor. We just was friends hanging out and
I started, you know I developed a couple feelings for her so I was like.
And I knew what you know what she had gone...
JUDGE LAKE: A couple feelings.
(LAUGHING)
JUDGE LAKE: Just a couple.
Yes, Your Honor.
JUDGE LAKE: So you developed feelings for her.
Yes, Your Honor. I did.
Do you all ever discuss making this thing a committed relationship?
That's when she disappeared, when I brought the subject up.
That's when she disappeared on me.
When I...
Did try to start a relationship with her, she disappeared on me.
You disappeared Miss McCrary, when he talked about making you his girlfriend?
Your Honor. No... No, I did not, Your Honor.
First and foremost,
you say I was being basically secretive, phone was ringing, negative.
You have a whole nother lifestyle
besides me and my daughter, you know.
JUDGE LAKE: So wait, at the time, you all were
being intimate, he still had this other family and this other life?
Oh, okay. Yes, Your Honor. (CHUCKLES)
(AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING)
Ow!
MCCRARY: Oh, okay.
That's important testimony.
Yeah.
So... when you said you were going to reach out
to her to let her know, you want to make things a little more serious,
how serious could it get when you already had another person?
No, we was... We was married but separated.
JUDGE LAKE: Okay.
So and she was just like...
She's like, "No, I don't... That's not what I want right now."
Just so you know...
JUDGE LAKE: But do you blame her for maybe
being a little nervous because even though you were separated,
you were still technically married, and I always say
a man is married until he is divorced.
MCCRARY: Okay.
It's just... That's the way it is.
(AUDIENCE CLAPPING)
So do you understand why she might be a little reluctant
to go in and move in and create this life over with you,
when you were still legally married?
MCCRARY: Mm.
Yes, I understand.
JUDGE LAKE: Was that why you were reluctant?
Or were you reluctant for another reason as well, Miss McCrary?
MCCRARY: No, Your Honor. That's basically,
you know, the reason why would I wanna be with a man
you already got ties with, with another situation?
You gotta stop what you doing.
You know, and then you saying you set me down, it never happened that way.
You know, when you're talking to someone about
committing and a relationship,
it's about you guys not somebody, your ex, not my with my phone ringing.
That's not the point, the point is that we're adults.
Okay, sit and talk to me.
I know when I conceived.
I... I know, I know the exact date.
What is the day you conceived?
He picked me up that night from work, July the 10th.
Okay, If I'm not mistaken, we go to American Deli.
Okay. Okay.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
(CHUCKLES) Okay, he likes to eat.
I like to eat, not a problem, okay?
Extra chicken, extra cheese. Sub sandwich.
Okay, so with that being said.
You sum up well enough.
You know, you...
When you've grown, you're nasty, you get in to him.
I like the things he do to me, vice versa.
You know, we enjoy each other. Why not? We're grown.
You know, we hadn't have protected sex.
So come on, you know at the end of the day,
when it's all said and done, that night, how was it? (CHUCKLES)
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
How was it? You tell me.
'Cause it's great. Okay.
I'm afraid to ask.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
Imma leave the question alone.
Mr. Goodson didn't answer, so Imma just go leave it alone.
Bottom line is you all were in a sexual relationship
and you remember it down to the extra chicken and extra cheese.
The extra chicken, Your Honor, the extra cheese,
the extra lick from the front to the back.
(AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING)
The extra...
Yes, Your Honor. I do, I do remember.
I do. I do.
My day...
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
She said it was extra.
MCCRARY: Yeah.
Supersized.
Supersized.
I don't know. I don't know if I wanna know.
I don't know if I wanna know.
Cancel that.
So you were having a sexual relationship and you know the date?
Yes. Yes.
You're confident, so when you
found out you were pregnant,
and you got your window of conception,
you knew you were intimate with Mr. Goodson.
What happens when you find out you're pregnant?
Well, of course I told family members.
And you know, they were up for my decision.
And I had to just sit, you know, think about it.
Uh... you know, I gave him a call.
You came right away.
So when I told him, he was just up for it.
"I'll be there.
"I'll rub your stomach.
"Take you to doctor's appointments."
You know, things like that.
And I just felt like okay.
Well, you know maybe he here for me.
Maybe he's gonna be here for me.
Got me thinking that you know, all is gonna be all okay.
It was not all okay.
You know, I don't wanna be by myself.
JUDGE LAKE: And so, Mr. Goodson, you promised
Miss McCrary that you were gonna be there for her?
MCCRARY: Doctor appointment.
No, Your Honor.
Did you believe?
GOODSON: I asked her. I asked her
why she telling me?
We have... we haven't had been talking.
Hadn't had sex, didn't hear from her...
Like I said about three to four months. Then all of a sudden
I gets a call and say,"Hey you know,
"I'm pregnant." And so I was you know my expression was like,
you know, why you telling me?
When she, then she had told me that, you know, she had been,
you know, sleeping with someone else.
Aw...
(AUDIENCE EXCLAIMING)
Wait! When's that part come in?
Uh... I can't remember the exact discussion
we was having but I know it came to the point about
uh, us you know, seeing other people.
Then she say, "Well, I have been sleeping with..."
Uh, she never said the dude's name
but she said she'd been sleeping. And I said,"Well..."
And this is my exact question I said,"Well...
"If you felt like that was my baby,
"how do you gonna go sleep with another man,
"while you pregnant with another man's baby?"
Well you know I... I say women don't do that, real women don't do that.
I said,"You felt like
"this was my baby, but you gonna go have sex with another man."
I said,"I can't just sit up and say
'you know, that's my baby.' I'm not going for that one."
So in your testimony, a few minutes ago, Miss McCrary,
you said you realized Mr. Goodson
fell in the window of conception.
When you had to think about it, did you have to think about it because you were intimate
with somebody else around the same time?
No, Your Honor. I thought about it because
as a woman, you said that real woman shouldn't have sex
with other men but at the end of the day...
Not when they're pregnant.
Mr Goodson, at the... Why not while they pregnant?
With another man's baby.
Okay.
But at the end of the day, when you go back to your dates,
a real woman knows who she's having sex with.
You know, when I told him my dates,
and I went back and told him specifically when it happened,
why... you know what we was doing.
"Oh, yeah. It could be a possibility. Oh, yeah."
MCCRARY: Okay.
That was a good impression.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHING)
JUDGE LAKE: That sounds about right.
So that's what you said, "Okay, yeah. That could be a possibility."
Your Honor, I did tell her. I said,"I know we had going on, so I'm not going just...
All right, I just do you wrong. I said, "No.
"She's not mine. This, that and the other but..."
You sit here telling me you having sex with another man
while you pregnant, this is supposed to be my baby.
I can't just... I can't just say that she's mine.
Now that you found out, you know it's a possibility,
are you present during these doctor's appointments and
and all the way up to the birth,
were you there when the baby was born?
No, Your Honor. I can't uh...
I can... I went down to the hospital
I think like the second day after she was born.
And you know I seen, you know she's a beautiful baby.
She's a beautiful little girl.
And, uh, you know, I seen her.
She looks just like you.
And...
And I know kids can, you know they'll come out light
and eventually they'll get dark and look like...
You know but...
I've been through this before.
You've been through a paternity issue before?
GOODSON: Yes, Your Honor.
All right.
And...
GOODSON: Yes, Your Honor.
Was it determined that you were the father or you were not?
I was not the father.
JUDGE LAKE: You were not.
After four years.
That is not my fault.
Your Honor, it is not my fault.
GOODSON: And like I told...
GOODSON: I'm not blaming that on her, but at the same... I can't...
That crushed me when I found out...
So what you're saying is this is part of the reason why you haven't fully
attached yourself, is because you've been through this
and been hurt before?
Yes ma'am, after... Yes ma'am.
And when you went and your looked at the baby.
GOODSON: Yes, Your Honor. I looked at her.
You know I held her.
I say you know I told she was beautiful.
Forcefully, Your Honor.
What do you mean?
MCCRARY: Cause my relative, he didn't say, "Let me see the baby,
"let me see that baby, let me see your baby."
You know, my relatives...
She had two other people in the room.
Doesn't matter who I had in the room.
Everybody was holding her.
I was all with...
Everybody else was
passing her around.
When I had my daughter, Your Honor.
Please, Goodson.
Don't deprive your baby because of what you got going on.
That has nothing to do with me.
Period. And then...
JUDGE LAKE: So what happens when
he gets to the hospital?
MCCRARY: He gets to the hospital,
I'm sitting with my daughter, from... A relative took my daughter,
placed her in his hands.
You didn't ask to see her for real.
A woman gonna be a woman, a man gonna be a man.
If you already know what it takes to be a father in a kid's life,
you gonna be there regardless even if you have doubts.
Period. Point blank.
Okay.
JUDGE LAKE: So when he saw the baby,
when you were in the hospital and he saw the baby,
did you feel like in that moment he said,
"Okay, it's a possibility."
It's a possibility.
Or do you feel like he immediately denied the baby?
What kinda energy, how did you read him?
I... I mean I have been reading him
since I told him I was pregnant.
But when he came physically
up to the hospital to see Eriean, it was just like,
"Okay, wow!"
She looks like me and you.
You know what I'm saying like...
That's what he said?
No, I am... I was getting at it impression but that's message, yeah.
You know, you sending me text: "Wow, she look like me and you" and I say "Wow wow wow."
So wait a minute Mr. Goodson. So when you
saw the baby, you did feel like the baby looked like you and Ms. McCrary?
I... I felt like I've seen some features of me in her.
But I... like I told, I said from where I done been through already,
you know the things that she told me she did, I told her I just couldn't.
I couldn't just up and say, "Yeah I'm I wanna take on this responsibility."
Like... I don't I have six kids already. I don't have no problem
with the responsibility.
You have six kids already?
GOODSON: Yes, I do.
All right, so...
Did you sign the birth certificate for Eriean?
No, I did not.
I just didn't wanna tie myself to that responsibility
until I knew that she was mine.
MCCRARY: It takes two, Your Honor.
You come with chump change. Don't ever don't do it.
You know, you help me. If I have something I have, Imma say you what I have had.
You can't food a half bill and then, come on now, you saying that
I bailed out on you.
Make it make sense, baby.
You said,"Make it make sense."
MCCRARY: Mm-hm.
JUDGE LAKE: And that you feel...
JUDGE LAKE: ...hurt.
Uh-huh.
Because this time instead of running,
you're staying, 'cause you got this little girl
and you really believe this is her biological father
and you don't wanna rip that from her.
At all, Your Honor. I...
JUDGE LAKE: This is why we do this.
Because she does have a right to know.
Yes, she do.
It's not her fault. (CLEARING THROAT)
JUDGE LAKE: I have to ask you Miss McCrary,
the other gentleman, the gentleman you admittedly had sexual relationship with.
You said it wasn't during the window of time that Eriean was conceived, but
do you know where that gentleman is?
I do. He...
JUDGE LAKE: If in fact,
Mr. Goodson is not her biological father?
I do. I've spoke with him about it. Your Honor. I have spoke...
JUDGE LAKE: You have?
Yeah.
He comes and you know says certain things like
"You know, you ready for it?" Hey... I'm ready when you are.
If that's the case, you know but...
JUDGE LAKE: What is he saying you ready for?
To basically get a test for my daughter and him.
JUDGE LAKE: Because he has...
Because he has doubts also.
But I know. You know, I feel like in my gut feeling
from eyes to cheeks to forehead to baby pictures.
That he has from her baby pictures at birth
that he is Eriean's biological father.
Let's see if your thoughts about this are true.
I have the results. Jerome.
(AUDIENCE CLAPPING)
These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows.
In the case of McCrary v. Goodson,
as it pertains to 17 month old Eriean McCrary,
JUDGE LAKE: It has been determined by this Court,
Mr Goodson, you...
...are the father.
Okay.
(AUDIENCE APPLAUDING)
GOODSON: Okay.
You are the father.
GOODSON: Okay, well. I wanna apologize to you.
Now that it's over with, you'll never have another problem out of me.
MCCRARY: A woman knows who she has sex with.
I don't know about...
JUDGE LAKE: Sometimes they don't...
JUDGE LAKE: ...Miss McCrary.
MCCRARY: I'm one of them. I would know.
(AUDIENCE CLAPPING)
I wouldn't have known.
You have come to the one place.
That's damn right.
where Jerome and I know that sometimes
they don't always remember.
That's why this is such a blessing.
MCCRARY: Most definitely.
JUDGE LAKE: Is because...
JUDGE LAKE: You all have been very honest here.
Little bit more than even I was prepared to receive.
But at the same time, this is what meeting a crossroads,
coming to a crossroads in life, and making the decision,
that I'm just gonna make the right turn.
And that requires sometimes coming clean about some things
and figuring out how we move forward.
So we got an innocent baby, we need to handle her with care.
JUDGE LAKE: Right?
Yes, ma'am.
All right, we have counseling and resources for you both.
I want you to take advantage of it and most importantly,
take care of that beautiful little girl.
I wish you the best of luck.
Court is adjourned.
MCCRARY: Thank you, Your Honor.
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