That Time A Paternity-Court TV Show Centered On A Guy Who Was Fatally Shot In Philly
As noted this weekend, I’d never heard of “Lauren Lake’s Paternity Court” until I got word that there was a case involving Philly love, parenting and death would be on it.
That local angle is why I spent 30 minutes watching the case of “Brogden vs. Sugden-Jones” on which Timesha Brodgen took to the airwaves “to prove that Tyrell Jones is her daughter’s biological father.” Mr. Jones is no longer among the living.
The late Mr. Jones’ sister Tiona Sudgen questions whether “her late brother is the father of Kwamirah,” the one-year-old daughter at the heart of a conflict that has rendered her mother unable to recover from the loss of her son, who was fatally shot on North Marshall Street near Sixth and Olney in Jan. 2014. RIP.
Tiona says she has “no help at all,” and that the Sudgen’s family hates her.
Says Tiona, Timesha slept with two of her brothers and that that living brother could be the father.
Explains Timesha, she got drunk and mad and had sex with the brother Paul (once!) because the late brother was running around behind her back.
“It’s just affecting our family too much. We have to get this over with,” says Tiona, whose brother Paul was very upset about having to take the requisite paternity test.
“This is indeed a family affair,” said Judge Lake of the fact that the paternity test will determine which Sugden-Jones brother was the father of Ms. Brodgen’s baby girl.
Presented as a witness was Deanna Chambers, the mother of Tyrell’s “middle child” who noted that Tiona was at her house when Kwamirah was born and had no interest in going to the hospital.
She said she was eight-months pregnant at Tyrell’s funeral.
Anyway, Tierra Jones — another sister of the fallen — also refutes Timesha’s claims. She feels as if her brother is no longer here to defend himself and that’s kinda sleazy.
“If he was here, he might’ve said ‘it’s my baby,’ but he’s not here,” says Tierra, who feels strongly that it is because Timesha “got around” and that “the baby doesn’t look like my family.”
After 25 minutes of back and forth (and commercials), Judge Lake gets to the DNA test results.
Phase One: Determine whether one of the Joneses is the father.
Phase Two: If so, which?
Here we go with the results:
Kwamirah, 17 months, is in fact related to the Jones family. Furthermore, the DNA test assessed paternity to the late Tyrell.
Though none of the involved parties liked one another in the past, the results elicit apologies, hugs and a lot of tears. Judge Lake hopes this will build a familial embrace that makes the future brighter. For young Kwamirah’s sake, let’s all hope that happens.
