Practice English Speaking&Listening with: Woman Claims a Ghost is the Real Father (Full Episode) | Paternity Court

Please be seated.

Hello, Your Honor.

Hello.

This is the case of Chmielinski v. Brown Long III.

Thank you, Jerome.

Good day, everyone.

AUDIENCE: Good day.

Ms. Chmielinski, you say you had a loving five-year relationship

with the defendant's son, Georgie,

who unfortunately died in a motorcycle accident.

You claim the defendants initially accepted your son Xavier

but now need proof that they are Xavier's grandparents,

is that correct?

Yes, Your Honor.

JUDGE LAKE: Mrs. Brown and Mr. Long,

you say you don't know Ms. Chmielinski

and claim your son was never in a relationship with her.

You believe she has made up a fairy-tale love affair with Georgie

and he is not Xavier's father, is that correct?

BOTH: Yes, Your Honor.

So, Ms. Chmielinski, what is riding on today's results for you and your son?

Um, my son needs his family.

He calls her "Nana"

and she's been in his life.

CHMIELINSKI: We need answers. He has nobody.

Listen to me...

Okay, let's keep it real, please.

Okay?

Take me to the day you found out Georgie passed.

I was devastated.

(SNIFFLES)

Heartbroken.

Confused.

But why... Just make me understand one thing.

Why didn't I know about you?

I don't understand why you didn't know about me, either.

Okay, that's not an answer.

Why don't I know about you?

LONG: Five-year relationship?

I've never seen you in my house.

Did you ever ask Georgie, "Why you haven't introduced me to your parents?"

No, 'cause we were just friends.

It was like a sexual friendship that we had for so many years.

For five years?

Yeah.

JUDGE LAKE: So, how did you find out that he passed away?

(ARGUING INDISTINCTLY)

He had a girlfriend.

Yeah, no matter who we were with.

We still had sexual relations.

And so, who told you he passed away?

CHMIELINSKI: My sister.

I just kept calling his phone and calling his phone,

he wasn't answering.

JUDGE LAKE: Now, at that point that you found out that he'd passed,

did you call his parents,

or you felt like you didn't know them...

I didn't have her number.

I don't know her. I didn't know her.

I met her after Georgie passed.

So, at what point did you finally decide,

"I need to reach out to his parents..."

She didn't, I reached out to her.

Oh.

BROWN: I reached out to her.

Okay, my son is not here.

He's not here, okay?

I'm picking up where he left off.

JUDGE LAKE: Take your time, I know it's hard. Go ahead.

LONG: Basically, we found out

when he actually sent me a picture or text message

when I was talking to him one time.

And he sent me a picture and he said,

"Dad, what do you think?

"This could be my kid."

And I told him at that time that I really couldn't tell from the picture.

How old was Xavier when you got that text?

A year old because he, um...

He gave it to me also.

So, I knew everyone that he interacted with.

Okay?

I'd never seen her before.

I was just about to ask you,

is it your testimony you never met Ms. Chmielinski?

BROWN: No.

Did your son ever mention Ms. Chmielinski?

BROWN: No.

What had happened was,

she says that this baby is Georgie's.

Two years pass

and the only reason why I pursue this test

is because a friend of Georgie's,

a very close friend,

told him, "Listen.

"You need to find out if this baby is Georgie's."

So, there's other people in the neighborhood must be saying something

because he came to me after two years.

Okay.

BROWN: Okay?

He brought this to my attention.

It went over my head.

You told me that he looks like all your other grandkids.

My grandkids are biracial.

But that's what you said, "He has Georgie's nose."

My grandkids are biracial.

I don't wanna look at this baby

and see something that's not there.

Why are you so upset, Ms. Chmielinski?

Because it hurts.

JUDGE LAKE: Because you feel like they don't know?

You want... She wants it to be Georgie's.

CHMIELINSKI: Me and Georgie was doing a home DNA test

a couple months before he had passed.

And we couldn't come up with the money.

So, after, I think it was, like, five months,

then he had passed away, so then...

You should've come to me. You should've came to me then.

How old was Xavier

when Georgie died?

He was two weeks before he turned one.

JUDGE LAKE: Okay.

Did Georgie accept Xavier?

Did they have a relationship?

He saw him a couple times.

They took pictures together.

Five-year relationship,

you only saw him a couple times?

Not with the baby.

Why did he only see the baby a couple times

when he was almost a year old?

CHMIELINSKI: Because he wasn't positive if it was his or not,

so, he didn't wanna get too, too close, you know?

He just wanted to know if the baby was his.

When did you tell Georgie you had a baby?

CHMIELINSKI: When the baby was five months old,

Georgie came to me, called me and said,

"Your son has my nose."

And I said, "Oh, my God. You're right."

BROWN: He came to you...

CHMIELINSKI: He said, "Your son has my nose."

BROWN: Just out the blue?

Yeah, when the baby was five, six months old.

So, the truth is you don't know for sure.

You really don't.

No.

Okay, so, let's just get down to the bottom line.

You don't know for sure.

JUDGE LAKE: So, you and Georgie

tried to figure out the timeline

and tried to execute a test to get the answer.

Unfortunately, due to his untimely death

and the fact that the specimen had expired,

you were unable to complete that test.

BROWN: Right.

LONG: Yes, Your Honor.

He took the initiative,

as a young black man,

who usually would run the other way...

You know.

And took initiative and wanted to find out if the baby was his.

Ms. Chmielinski, I wanna ask you

and I have to ask this respectfully,

how many other possible fathers are there?

There's just one.

So, just one other possible person.

Wait a minute. Wait, wait, wait.

Wait. Come now, we here to get the truth.

We here to get everything out in the open.

We're here to find out if my son has a child.

CHMIELINSKI: Mrs. Brown...

We here to find out if I'm the grand-mom

of your baby.

What are you asserting, Mrs. Brown,

that there are more men than just one additional man?

One.

BROWN: It can't be.

So, there's one other man besides Georgie?

So, what, there's one other, you're saying?

Yeah.

Yeah, it's him and the other guy.

Oh, one other man. Okay, okay.

Did you ever tell the other guy?

He had passed away when I was five months pregnant.

He had got murdered.

BROWN: Oh, good Lord.

A family member of mine had contacted his family,

they did not respond until Xavier turned two.

And they said, if I come up with the money,

then they'll do the test.

So, both potential fathers of this beautiful little boy have passed away?

Yes. Yes, Your Honor.

So, what happened to the parents?

I can't contact... A friend of mine contacted his sister.

And they seem like they don't want nothing to do with it.

And so...

Is that why you've reached out, too?

I just wanted both of them,

both the grandparents, you know, to know.

Because they've both lost a child.

We all wanna know, but you can't delusion yourself.

BROWN: Georgie was popular. I'm gonna tell you like it is.

He was very popular.

Very popular.

And a lot of women wouldn't mind having Georgie's baby.

BROWN: He's not here to defend himself.

As far as saying, "No, you're wrong, you're wrong."

How many other women could've said the same thing?

Because, you know, so...

I'm here.

I'm here to find out.

Ms. Chmielinski, when you talk to Xavier about his father...

He's two now.

CHMIELINSKI: Mmm-hmm.

Do you talk to him about his father,

who do you tell him his father is?

I tell him Georgie.

See, that's the problem. That's the problem.

What do you tell him?

That he watches his videos and I say, you know, "That's Daddy."

And he points to the videos and says, "Daddy"?

BROWN: He calls him Daddy.

Because, either way, Georgie told me

no matter what the results were when he was alive,

that he was gonna be in his life.

Really? Georgie couldn't even take care of himself.

I know. I understand that.

And I told you that the day before the funeral.

He wanted it. I could see that he wanted it.

But he wasn't just gonna claim it.

He was gonna dig and find out.

So, you feel like the reason why he said,

"Mom, who does this baby look like?"

You felt like it was because he wanted the baby

but he just wanted to be sure.

He was looking for something that wasn't there.

My problem is it was after the fact,

after he passed... Two years passed.

I went on with my life.

Okay, grieved for two years.

That's why I didn't bother you.

Wait a minute, let me finish.

And those were the worst two years of my life.

(SNIFFLES)

Those were the worst two years of my life.

So, I wanna know if Georgie has a child.

Why wouldn't I try to find out?

And how come it took so long?

So, if I wasn't here today,

the baby could be a teenager

and not know who his dad is.

If I didn't step in...

You know? This is something that she should've done

a long time ago.

When it first happened, she should've said, "We wasn't sure."

I would've went along with her.

Because you told me the truth and said you wasn't sure.

Okay, that was truthful.

All right? That's all.

So why did I have to wait

till the baby is three years old?

'Cause I didn't have money, to come up with all that money for the tests.

It's not all about... You never asked. That's what I'm sayin'.

Okay.

BROWN: What about the video?

The video. The spirit video.

BROWN: What about the video?

I wanna know about the video.

CHMIELINSKI: What do you mean "video"?

The video you showed me.

All right, so now tell me about this video you mentioned.

This video was when me and my friends were sitting in the car...

She's trying to convince that there's a video with

a spirit of Georgie in the video.

Oh. Is this the video...

(BOTH CLAMORING)

JUDGE LAKE: Hold on. Is this the video you submitted to the court?

Yes. Yes, Your Honor.

So, you say this is a video of your son Xavier,

and in the video, you can see Georgie's spirit.

Yes, that it looks like a spirit...

It's like a cloud.

JUDGE LAKE: Okay, talk me through this video.

CHMIELINSKI: We're sitting in a car right now

and my friend is videotaping him

and talking to him.

And as you can see on the right,

there's like this cloudy

thing that comes out of nowhere, and my

son looks at it and then it goes away.

Let me see that again, please.

Just looks like a reflection.

JUDGE LAKE: This is slow motion.

A white cloud right there.

And no one was smoking in the car?

BROWN: I said it was smoke.

We don't smoke in the car with my son.

I was just about to say you better not be.

So, that's how I definitely know it was not no smoke.

And she sent it to me, yeah.

Yeah, and I sent it to her

and that's when she was like, "Oh, my God. What is that?"

And she told me about her experience.

No, I didn't say, "What is that?"

Because I'm not in the car, so...

Wait a minute, what did she tell you

about this video?

She said, "That's Georgie's spirit."

And then what did you say to her?

BROWN: I'm like, "Wow." You know, "That's deep."

I'm not a religious person.

I'm a spiritual person.

I said, "Wow, look at this. It looks like a spirit."

At this point of time, when it comes to Georgie, just listenin' to his name...

Sends chills through my body.

JUDGE LAKE: So, as you look at the video

and you see this smoky cloud-like feature

come through this video, what do you think?

I'm sorry.

It's okay. I know it's hard.

I'm sorry.

BROWN: Um...

I just wanna know.

I just want answers.

I just want answers. I need to know if the baby is mine

so I can be his grandmother.

Because the truth is you don't wanna be attached.

You don't want to become attached.

BROWN: No. That's why...

Baby called me "Nana."

I didn't scream at her about it.

I just was like,

"I need to do something about this now.

"I need to do something now

"before it gets too out of hand."

That moment. Yes.

So, what's the meaning behind him calling me "Nana"?

Is it because he's my grandson?

Or because I allow him to call me "Nana"?

You understand, Ms. Chmielinski,

even if out of the kindness of her heart

even out of her grief,

she says, "Just have the baby call me 'Nana,'"

in the back of her mind she doesn't know for certain.

Right. I understand that.

JUDGE LAKE: And the real truth is,

you don't know for certain.

Right. I understand that.

But I have the results and we can all find out for certain right now.

Jerome.

These results were prepared by DNA Diagnostics and they read as follows.

JUDGE LAKE: Are you okay, Ms. Brown?

Do you need to sit down?

Are you okay?

Okay.

Because there wasn't a blood card available

to test the DNA of the deceased Georgie Long IV,

we performed a DNA test with his surviving parents,

George Long III and Geneva Brown.

The results are as follows.

In the case of Chmielinski v. Brown Long III,

when it comes to two-year-old Xavier Chmielinski...

JUDGE LAKE: It has been determined by this court

the percentage of relatedness

between Ms. Brown

and Mr. Long

and Xavier Chmielinski is...

Zero percent.

(CRYING)

I'm sorry.

I'm so sorry.

CHMIELINSKI: I'm sorry.

JUDGE LAKE: I'm so very sorry.

I'm sorry, Georgie.

I'm sorry.

CHMIELINSKI: I'm sorry, Ms. Brown.

BROWN: This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.

JUDGE LAKE: I know.

LONG: And for me, that was my only son.

BROWN: That was his only son.

LONG: Would've been nice.

And I can tell from both of your reactions

that deep in your heart, you wanted it to be true.

You just wanted to know for sure.

LONG: Yes, Your Honor.

I was ready to take the baby.

Ms. Chmielinski...

BROWN: You look like you knew.

No, I don't. I'm shocked. My heart is beating. I'm shaking.

It looked like you knew.

I didn't know.

There was two possibilities.

(BROWN STAMMERING)

For you do be so indulged in him...

Because he looks just like...

BROWN: Emotionally, you look like you knew.

Because I've been crying all day, and I'm just...

My reaction is I'm shocked.

I apologize. I really do.

From the bottom of my heart, you don't know how much I feel so bad.

JUDGE LAKE: You really thought this was Georgie's baby.

I really did.

The other man...

You've said that he has passed on

and his family has expressed no interest in being a part of Xavier's life.

Yes, Your Honor.

That's why this courtroom exists.

We're here for children.

I realize that there's a level of shame and embarrassment in this

but if you lay down with a man for five years,

you're gonna have to make that tough phone call

to the parents of that other man,

to the family of that other man.

and say, "Listen, I need to get this test.

"This child needs to get this test."

And if you need this court, we're here for you, okay?

Thank you, Your Honor.

JUDGE LAKE: I'm so very sorry, Ms. Brown.

And Mr. Long, I really am.

Thank you.

We will do our best in any way possible, Ms. Chmielinski

to help you, we have counseling and resources for you right now, all right?

JUDGE LAKE: I wish you all the very best of luck.

Court is adjourned.

(APPLAUSE)