*Dang, talk about throwing some ish into the game. The court-appointed attorney for Eric Garner‘s love child is insisting that Garner’s children with wife Esaw (Snipes) Garner take DNA tests to prove he is their father. Whoa. What’s going on you ask? That’s because for whatever reason his name does not appear on their birth certificates.
Lorraine Coyle, who was appointed to represent 2-year-old Legacy Miller is making the demand while the court is in the process of dividing the $6.9 million in settlements from the city and a hospital in connection with Garner’s wrongful death due to a fatal police choke-hold, reports the NY Daily News. The request was made Wednesday during a contentious hearing behind closed doors in Staten Island Surrogate Court.
Jonathan Moore, the Garner family’s lawyer, called the DNA test demand “offensive.”
“Why do that when there’s no reason to do that?” Moore told The News. “Everyone knows they are his children.”
“I don’t think she (Coyle) would have said this if the Garner family had a different complexion,” Moore continued. If you’re wondering, yes, Coyle is white and of course the Garners are black.
Coyle says she’s not satisfied with the explanations Esaw Garner gave in sworn testimony as to why her husband’s name was left off the birth certificates for daughters Erica, 25, Emerald, 24, and sons Eric 22, and Emery, 16.
Esaw Garner said that she had kicked Eric Garner out of the hospital because he was “getting on my nerves” when she was going into labor and added that as for the birth certificates, “It didn’t make any difference to him, he knew they were his kids.”
From Attorney Coyle’s point of view, she says she was merely performing “due diligence” in representing Legacy. “The court would expect nothing less,” she said, adding no final decision has been reached on the DNA test and she has two weeks to put the demand in writing to the surrogate judge.
“I’m gathering information,” Coyle said.
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