Speaker A
[Music] Plaintiff Carmelita Medina jaded the defendant, and she claims he was an abusive drug addict. Carmelita says the defendant assaulted her multiple times, once when she was pregnant, and as a result, she had him arrested. Carmelita's suing her ex for a child support refund and emotional distress. Defendant Christopher Patterson claims Carmelita is lying about the assault, and he insists all of the cases against him were dropped. Christopher says he's been the primary caregiver for his daughter for years because Carmelita wanted to party instead of being a mother, and he's counter-suing for pain and suffering. Start with you. Okay, Chris is my ex abusive, uh, drug addicted, uh, ex-boyfriend. Um, we started dating in June of 2007, and it didn't start getting violent until the brown when I found out I was pregnant. That was in September of 2008. One instance was when I was seven months pregnant. It was in April of 2009. Uh, Chris picked me up from work, and when I got in the car, he just began hitting me, and it continued until we got to his mother's house, in which, uh, we went to the house, we were fighting then, and he locked me in a room and left with my car. The reason was no, he was drunk. He didn't claim well, he, he didn't make up something. He was belligerent, and it was going on about something his mother told him. I have no idea what it was about. So his mother actually let me out of the room. I called my sister. She took me around the corner to the police station. I filed a police report. He was arrested the next day. They admitted me into the hospital to watch me since I was pregnant, and from then I got a restraining order against him. So we were, we separated for a little bit, then we eventually got back together. Then in September went to police. What happened? Well, he went to court, and I went to the first court hearing. He pled not guilty, and I do know that they ordered him to some classes. I don't know what happened after that because I didn't go back to court after that. Then in September of 2009, uh, again, he was drunk, and we got into another fight, and he went to go swing a bottle at my head, and I blocked it, in which he broke fingers on both of my hands. So I had surgery for that, and I had casts on both of my hands. So I went to the police again. He got arrested again. Another police report was filed, another restraining order against him, and again, due to stupidity, I went back, and what happened with the police? I didn't press any charges so we can try to work it out, and then we finally broke up. It was in December of 2011. So then in January, how did you break up that time? It was, it just began, it just got too much. I got tired of the fighting, and yeah. It was addicted to what type of drug? Um, he would do, uh, pills. He was on pain pills, uh, other things to get him off of pain pills, as well as cocaine. He was sniffing here and there. Um, then for January of 2011, uh, when I finally did leave, uh, January 2012, I'm sorry. Um, I went to get my daughter from him. He was drunk, so I came back with the police. They mean get him, get your daughter. Well, when I left in December, he wouldn't let me take my daughter with me. It was the end of December, so she called the police then? Yes, but they told me that it was a family custody issue, right? So I had to take it to family court. So I immediately went because it was the weekend. I went that Monday and went to the judge. I got an immediate order for custody, and we went back to, I went back with the police, and child protection got involved because he was drunk and had her in the house with him. So they granted me sole custody, and he eventually got supervised visits. So, and it was, I believe in May of 2014, we got joint custody. No, I'm sorry, October 2004, we just got joint custody. October 2014. Right, and I recently just got married in May. So after that, it became a problem when I would go and pick up my daughter. There was no day specified in the previous order. It was just any day that we agreed upon about visitation, right? So it was just, it just said 24-hour notice and any days that we agreed upon. So at that point, we have verbally agreed to split the weeks. Get into the current custody order. It was, I have her from Thursday mornings until Sunday. Still joint custody, right? Still joint custody. And it also said in there that he couldn't relocate. He couldn't leave out of the state without notifying the courts two weeks ahead of time for vacations or anything. Okay, so during that, uh, process, it also had in there that I was able to take her because we were planning a family vacation to Disney World in July, in which I did. During that time that I was gone, uh, that's when Mr. Patterson went to, uh, the courts and filed for, uh, child support. No, he filed for child support, and he was granted a temporary order, but I wasn't at the court date because I was out of town. That was in July. July, right? So that's what brings us here today because from that, they started garnishing my paychecks and taking any income that I had to pay to Mr. Patterson once it was awarded him a hundred dollars a week. How much have you paid? A fit 1500 and, uh, eighty-two dollars. All right. And 52. All right. I'll get back to you and let me allow him to give some background. Sir, okay, sir. Um, I was with her, uh, in 2007. We stayed together about seven years. Um, the whole time that we were together, I was the primary caretaker of my daughter. She was a party girl. She, but you lived together? Yes, we lived together for two of those, like seven years. She was a party girl. This is the type of stuff she liked to do. I got pictures and if there's more, but I didn't think they were appropriate for the court. That's, that's the, yeah, you don't know whether they were or not. Don't you choose? All right, so you're showing that she wore sexy outfits when she went out. Big deal. That's how the relationship was. She was cheating. I was at home taking care of the baby. All you caught her cheating? Yes. Yes, I did. Describe that since she described all the, and we're gonna get to whether you want to defend these assaults, but what is it you want to say she did to you? Oh, she had other boyfriends that, you know, I would see text messages, and, you know, I would catch her cheating and stuff like that. Give me another catch other than text message. Text messages. I've seen her out with people before. All right, you know, just things like people told me things. It's like a guy called me, called me before, you know, threatening me, talking stuff. You said he making every single thing up. That's enough. Do you want to respond to the assaults? Oh, the assaults, she made all that stuff up, sir, because I wouldn't let her see the baby, and I'm gonna get to that because when we parted ways, have you ever been convicted of anything? No. All of that charges were dropped because it didn't add up. Okay, and, um, I wouldn't let her see the baby. That's when she would get crazy, or she would accuse me. I was working and going to school a lot. She would accuse me of cheating and stuff like that, and she would get violent with me. You were going to what type of school? Uh, college. I was going to college, so I was the primary caretaker of my, of my daughter for her whole life until I decided to move to, um, Florida to better my child's life. I had finished school. When you say primary, you all didn't share sole custody as she says on paperwork? Yes, because as you all went to court for custody and they gave her sole custody, they didn't give her sole custody. I agreed to, there was a, um, a law guardian. What? There was a law guide involved in the case. They kept it going on and on and on for like a few months. So me and her had a conversation where I would agree to, to for her to have, um, the custody of the child, but she would give her back to me, which she did after court, and I have proof of that right here. Letters from the school that they only dealt with me, letters from the doctor that they only dealt with me. It was only up until last year that she even knew what school until she knew what school that the ba
