Roommate’s Secret Lab

0:01 Planiff Victoria Hegwood says she opened her home to the defendant

0:05 when she showed up with no place to go.

0:08 However, Victoria claims that after the defendant

0:10 started having fights with their third roommate,

0:13 she moved and left Victoria with a phone

0:15 bill full of collect calls from her jailbird boyfriend.

0:19 She's suing today for the unpaid bills and a stolen dog.

0:24 Defendant Teddy King and her witness Porsche Mark

0:26 say that when they moved in with the defendant,

0:28 she tried to con them into footing the bill

0:30 for the medical marijuana lab in her basement.

0:34 Teddy says the plaintiff is obsessed with marijuana and she

0:37 denies owing the plaintiff for a phone bill or a dog.

0:41 Prove your case.

0:42 It all started back in November of 2000 2006.

0:46 Teddy was my friend and she showed up at uh my door homeless

0:52 and in desperate need of a place to stay with Porsche and Porsche's

0:55 2-year-old son and uh I opened up my house to them to let

1:00 them stay with a provision that they'd help me pay extra utility.

1:04 Your honor, she wanted me to pay for her medical marijuana lab in her basement.

1:09 After we found that out, I wasn't paying anything.

1:11 You wanted them to pay for your medical marijuana lab?

1:15 No.

1:16 Yes, she did late in life.

1:18 Medical marijuana lab is paid for by the purchasers, right?

1:22 Right.

1:23 Yeah.

1:24 No, not the electricity bill.

1:26 Let her finish.

1:27 If she had medical marijuana,

1:28 she was selling it and that means she could pay for it herself,

1:34 right?

1:34 Go ahead, ma'am.

1:36 Okay.

1:36 Well, I wasn't getting any compensation or help with the extra

1:40 utilities and um it turned out that I had to uh well,

1:46 Porsha and Teddy got into a fist fight and Porsha was asked to leave.

1:51 Your honor, if if we had got into a fist fight,

1:53 do you honestly think we'd be sent here just buddy buddy friend?

1:56 I mean, that's ridiculous.

1:57 We have never had a fist fight some

1:58 of that weed and ain't no telling what she exactly.

2:02 We never have had a fist fight, your honor.

2:04 That's a lie.

2:04 That is a lie.

2:05 It's not alive.

2:07 She knocked a bunch of stuff down out

2:09 of my attic and broke it when she uh they got

2:12 What else do you want to tell me about your roommate?

2:14 Okay.

2:14 Well, Teddy stayed.

2:16 Still didn't pay me anything,

2:17 but was accepting collect phone calls from her boyfriend in prison,

2:21 which I was giving her the statements for her to pay,

2:23 and she never paid me anything.

2:25 So,

2:26 how much did she uh There's about $1,200 worth of

2:30 collect calls.

2:31 Okay.

2:31 Her boyfriend happens to be in jail with my ex-boyfriend.

2:35 That's how we met each other.

2:37 Her boyfriend was with your boyfriend.

2:40 They met each other

2:41 in jail.

2:43 That's how they left y'all to be with each other.

2:46 IS THAT WHAT YOU

2:47 NO, THEY'RE they're in the same inst They were in the same institution.

2:51 So my boyfriend, I didn't have a collect phone call.

2:53 She was selling her phone line.

2:54 So girls would come to the house and pay, you know, $3 a phone call.

2:58 She had women in there coming in in and out.

3:00 I mean, she would have Porsche accepting calls, calling girls on three-way.

3:04 This is how she made her money because her phone bill was paid.

3:06 You just told me she made her money selling.

3:08 She didn't sell it.

3:09 That's all personal.

3:10 That was personal.

3:11 That was all personal.

3:12 She cooks brownies, cookies, popcorn,

3:14 everything with medical marijuana, weed, butter.

3:17 I mean, she's obsessed with weed.

3:19 The woman is obsessed.

3:22 Go right ahead.

3:22 We agreed to pay $50 a month for the electricity.

3:25 She goes to do laundry after we find

3:27 a $500 electricity bill that she wants us to pay.

3:29 When we go to do laundry, she finds this huge lab.

3:32 She's got three bedrooms upstairs.

3:34 All of them had tropical birds in them.

3:36 Heat on all the time.

3:37 We never knew this when we moved in.

3:38 We never knew it'd be a $500 electricity bill.

3:41 What was your agreement when you moved in?

3:42 To pay $50.

3:43 It was It was to pay a portion of the electricity.

3:45 She said to help her out with the electricity, which just the electric Uh-huh.

3:49 Just the electricity bill.

3:50 And then I paid for each one of my phone calls that I got.

3:53 How much did you pay toward the phone bill?

3:55 Um, every single month it'd be like $200.

3:57 Some some months it was like $150.

3:59 How long did you live there?

4:00 I lived there from November until June.

4:02 Ma'am, how much do you say she paid on the phone?

4:04 She didn't pay anything on the phone bills.

4:06 And here's the phone bills.

4:07 I mean, that's unrealistic for I Yeah,

4:09 I asked her for money, but she'd never give me anything.

4:12 Over the course of six or seven months, she never paid anything.

4:14 String along telling me she was going to give me money.

4:18 And when finally about the third month, why didn't you say she stringed?

4:21 Yeah.

4:21 Third month after that, I I stopped letting her accept them.

4:26 She would accept them when I wasn't there.

4:29 She would accept the calls and I quit accepting them and giving them to me.

4:33 How did she ultimately leave the premises?

4:36 I had written her a 30-day give me some money or find a new place to live.

4:40 She got ballistic.

4:42 Is this true?

4:43 Your honor, she doesn't work.

4:44 She's at home.

4:44 I didn't ask you that.

4:45 Did she give you a 30-day notice

4:47 on one day?

4:47 She did.

4:48 And I moved out that same day.

4:49 She kept all of my clothes.

4:50 She kept everything I owned in that house.

4:52 Why did she give you a notice to leave?

4:54 Um, she because I found out I was pregnant and she said that she hated kids.

4:58 I'm ruining my life.

4:59 She told me I was like a daughter to her.

5:01 Um, after she found out I was pregnant and I I wasn't staying there anymore.

5:04 I was staying with my boyfriend.

5:05 We were waiting for her house to open up.

5:07 Um, she was You don't remember her saying anything about you owe her money.

5:10 All she talked about is you being pregnant

5:12 and your boyfriend in prison when she asked you to leave.

5:15 No, she told me you never stay here anyway,

5:16 so why should you be able to come and go?

5:18 This isn't She called it um house

5:20 a flop house because I would come in, I would change,

5:22 and I would just go to work.

5:23 I left my clothes there and I lived with my boyfriend off and on.

5:26 She said if I had a place to stay that I should move out.

5:28 This is a 30-day notice.

5:30 Did you receive this?

5:30 Hand this to her, please.

5:36 This isn't the copy of Did you have a copy?

5:39 No, but I

5:40 Do you recall what it said?

5:41 Um, it said this is a 30-day notice to move and then

5:44 um an hour later she gave me a 24-hour notice to move.

5:47 She didn't say why on the notice.

5:49 She told me because I had somewhere to stay.

5:50 When I first moved in, the agreement was She didn't mention money at all.

5:53 No, it never the agreement never

5:55 suing you today for money.

5:57 She I don't know why she's suing me because she doesn't pay her phone bill.

6:00 She has a trust that pays it.

6:01 That's why she was making money.

6:02 She had no money to get the money out of her trust.

6:05 This is June of 07, right?

6:07 That's when you moved.

6:09 Yeah.

6:09 All right.

6:09 Let's get to the dog you suing about.

6:11 Yeah.

6:11 She blatantly broke into my house into my bedroom

6:15 and stole the dog that Porsha bought.

6:18 She bought the dog for you?

6:19 No, she bought the dog and brought it to my house without asking to bring it.

6:23 She gave the dog to you.

6:25 No, she abandoned the dog.

6:26 No, I left the dog in Teddy's care.

6:28 I had a dog.

6:29 The dog when you moved out?

6:30 Yes.

6:30 My dog and her dog?

6:31 Yes.

6:32 And she called the police.

6:35 Ma'am, you say she took the dog, right?

6:36 The defendant.

6:37 I had had the dog for 4 months.

6:39 I understand that.

6:41 But she took the dog with her.

6:44 Yeah.

6:43 And she was the original owner.

6:45 Yes.

6:45 The original owner says, "I left the dog with my friend."

6:50 But your honor, they had a fist fight

6:53 and that just doesn't make sense at that time.

7:00 You've been smoking today.

7:01 Thank you.

7:03 Thank you.

7:06 Thank you.

7:10 You want to speak, ma'am?

7:11 Your witness want to come up?

7:12 Come on up, man.

7:14 Yes.

7:15 I'm Pam North and your honor um she has um had that dog for 4 months and it's

7:21 the only house home that the dog ever knew

7:24 and she took care of that dog and she even has

7:27 a testimony from her therapist that it was a te

7:30 it was a therapy dog for her and Porsha

7:34 did abandon that dog there and Teddy couldn't even

7:38 take care of her own dog let alone another dog.

7:42 Do you hear what the owner has said today?

7:45 Yes, I did.

7:46 Says she didn't abandon.

7:47 She says she left it with her friend who took it with her when she moved.

7:50 I believe her.

7:52 And the owner uh let's see your phone bills.

7:54 Ma'am, do you have any evidence that you paid any of the bills?

7:58 She had a trust fund and she she used

8:01 to turn in her phone bills and like we'd go shopping.

8:03 We'd give her um our like our clothing receipts and she

8:06 would get money back from this day because she had no income.

8:08 But she had this trust fund from when her mom had died.

8:10 It was like $40,000.

8:12 It has to do with the payment.

8:12 She sent the phone bill she would send in.

8:14 She would not give us any like That's why there's no rental agreement.

8:17 There's no electricity bill receipt.

8:18 She would not give us a receipt,

8:19 but we paid her cash every single time.

8:22 You as well?

8:24 Yeah.

8:24 How much did you pay?

8:25 The time I was living there,

8:26 I gave a total of like 400 and I only stayed there like 4 months.

8:31 So you gave her 100 a month and you say you gave her 200 a month.

8:35 It went from 200 to 300.

8:37 And you Okay.

8:38 And you lived there how long?

8:39 Once again, I lived there from June I mean from November to June.

8:44 8 months.

8:46 So you paid her approximately $2400 in phone

8:52 bills and you paid her $400 in phone bills.

8:58 So that would have amounted to $2,800 you all paid her in total.

9:06 So, ma'am, how much was your phone bill averaging per month?

9:12 There's $1,200 in collect phone calls there for which months?

9:17 For all of the all together?

9:19 All together.

9:19 And they say they paid you 2,800.

9:22 They say they paid you nearly double the amount.

9:24 They're so generous.

9:25 They paid you double the amount.

9:27 She was on SSI.

9:28 That's why we couldn't furnish, you know, any proof.

9:30 That's why you were nice enough to pay her double than what was owed.

9:33 No, because we were part of it was for electricity,

9:36 part of it was for like she didn't buy $50.

9:38 Remember that's all she charged was $50.

9:40 But we never asked her for proof of the bills or anything.

9:42 She would just show us.

9:43 So you paid her double without even asking.

9:46 YOU GAVE HER TWO 300 A MONTH.

9:48 DIDN'T EVEN ASK for a bill.

9:49 How generous are you?

9:50 She was going to food bank.

9:52 Please continue your generosity today.

9:58 I'll grant you your $1,200.

10:01 However, ma'am, I do believe them when she refers to it being her dog and having

10:06 left the dog with her friend who

10:08 subsequently took it when she left the premises.

10:11 $1,200 for the phone bill is your judgment.

10:14 Have a good day.

10:15 Thank you.