Where do these find these "People's Court" defendants? Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most inexcusable and out-of-touch excuses defendants brought to Judge Marilyn Milian’s courtroom.
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00:00 Wow! This is a first!
00:03 Welcome to Ms Mojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the most
00:09 inexcusable and out-of-touch excuses defendants brought to Judge Marilyn
00:15 Millian's courtroom.
00:17 You're like, "Well, it was both. I just didn't want to say that, so instead I
00:20 admitted to criminal action." There's something off.
00:24 Number 10, Big Heart, No License
00:29 Sharon Stevens is probably one of the most lovable defendants to come through
00:33 the People's Court.
00:35 "And I had just gotten sober, and so they told me that I had to have a payee."
00:40 Stevens' sister-in-law sues her for getting into a car accident with her car
00:46 and unlawfully filing a claim. Stevens, on the other hand, claims she's been
00:51 paying insurance every month, so she shouldn't have to cover the cost.
00:56 In response to the judge asking her whether she's ever been in an accident,
01:00 Stevens drops this fun little tidbit.
01:03 "Never been in an accident in my life."
01:05 "Well, how long have you been driving?"
01:06 "Oh, for a long time. I drove for about 20 years without a driver's license."
01:12 She did pay for the tickets she got as a result, though. We don't know that this
01:17 part of her defense helped her win the case, but the judge did rule in her favor
01:22 in the end - not that she realized right away.
01:25 "Verdict for the defendant."
01:27 Number 9. I Don't Care
01:32 "I need you to stop with the bobblehead and you're annoying me."
01:35 Two former friends end up in court over an unpaid phone bill.
01:40 Defendant Brandon Borges Gonzalez's reason for not paying up made him sound more like
01:46 a middle schooler than a grown man. Every defense sounds more and more petulant.
01:53 According to him, the plaintiff was jealous of his new friends,
01:57 and he couldn't get in touch with her because she shut his phone off.
02:01 "I don't know her number and I don't have a phone."
02:04 "I live down the block from him."
02:05 "Seriously, how do you put one foot in front of the other and not, like, just get run over by a car?"
02:11 Eventually, it starts to sound more and more like he's lying,
02:14 and he can't even really be bothered to lie well.
02:18 The worst part is probably the end, when he tries to act smart with Doug Llewellyn.
02:24 "You kind of come off as you don't really care. She did you a huge favor."
02:28 "I don't care."
02:28 Number 8. Bad Memory
02:31 Defendant Dorothy Henzey is the last person who should be all that stands between a pitbull
02:38 and the innocent public.
02:39 "There were cops all over the place when your dog bit this guy? Because she doesn't look like a guy.
02:44 You thought she was somebody else who apparently also got bit by your dog?"
02:49 "Right."
02:49 Her dog has attacked enough people that she actually thought the lawsuit was a man from
02:55 another case, which made her defense that the plaintiff grabbed her butt full apart immediately.
03:02 "I totally forgot. I totally forgot."
03:06 "How do you forget that your dog attacked another human being?"
03:12 Moving from one airheaded excuse to another, Henzey finally settles on "I forgot" as an excuse.
03:19 Her demeanor suggests that she either won't or can't
03:23 understand just how bad this could have been.
03:26 "Why? Why is that okay? If that was your arm, would that bother you?"
03:30 "Yes."
03:30 "When do people have to stop getting bit by your pitbull?"
03:34 That doesn't cut it for the judge. If anything,
03:37 it makes it worse that she can't keep the dog attacks straight.
03:41 Number 7 - Lazy Framing
03:43 "I don't believe you. I don't even understand why you're going through these herculean efforts.
03:48 Sometimes accidents just happen. I probably think the reason why is because you don't have insurance."
03:54 Plaintiff Richard Paul Sparks II was involved in a hit and run with defendant Tamara Lynn Gould,
04:02 whose defense is pretty damning. She claimed Sparks was driving under the influence and
04:08 tossed a bottle of alcohol from his car after the accident. Judge Millian has trouble believing that
04:15 the bottle, which Gould has brought into the courtroom, is genuine.
04:20 "You have a bottle for me today?"
04:21 "Yes."
04:21 "Yeah, may I see the bottle? Okay. And what's that a bottle of?"
04:25 "Henzey."
04:26 "Henzey. And that's the bottle he threw out of the car that magically didn't shatter."
04:30 She figured Gould was probably uninsured and tried framing Sparks to get out of paying.
04:36 This becomes even more reprehensible when we learn she tried to use the plaintiff's
04:42 previous DUIs against him, despite his eight years of sobriety,
04:47 and doesn't even remember saying this in her answer to the complaint.
04:52 "I have two DUIs in my background. One in '94."
04:54 "Which is exactly what you said. You don't remember saying that?"
04:57 "No, I don't remember saying that."
04:58 "Okay, that's magical."
04:58 It was all a lot of effort for nothing.
05:01 Number six, just a helpless old woman.
05:05 To have his signature on it.
05:07 "Oh, I didn't know that."
05:08 "Really?"
05:09 The plaintiff bought a car from the defendant,
05:11 who later repossessed the car when he couldn't keep up with payments.
05:16 However, for that to happen,
05:18 defendant Sandra D'Amour would have had to forge his signature on a title.
05:23 "The only way they could have done that is if you forged his signature and said,
05:27 'I repossessed the car. Here, put the title back in my name.'"
05:30 D'Amour tries to portray herself as a weak, vulnerable old woman
05:34 who's afraid of the plaintiff, and even tries to gain sympathy for having deceased children.
05:41 But none of this changes the fact that there's no way she could have repossessed the car
05:46 without forging the plaintiff's signature.
05:49 D'Amour also admits to going to the plaintiff's property herself a few times
05:54 with the aim of repossessing the car herself.
05:57 So the helpless card isn't really working for the judge.
06:01 "Please don't play that card because you're repossessing stuff in the middle of the night.
06:06 You are the most fierce 70-year-old, so don't play the victim. I can't stand that."
06:11 Number 5. No warranty
06:14 "So who at your dealership thinks that I am an idiot?"
06:21 Rinoso is exactly the kind of used car salesman that keeps court shows on the air.
06:28 He's smug and self-assured, but once the evidence piles up against him, he's speechless.
06:35 "Where is his signature at any point in time? Is there a signature?"
06:39 "We have his signature on the bill of sale, which is..."
06:41 "Well that's a signature. You do understand that that is one legal document,
06:45 and this is another one, right?"
06:46 He insists that the warranty the plaintiff tried to use had been purchased.
06:51 But the only record of the warranty doesn't have the customer's signature on it.
06:56 He has an elaborate story about the way the company does business,
07:00 and Judge Millian lets him spin his wheels for a bit before ultimately dropping the bomb on him.
07:07 There is no warranty filed with the company he's been telling her about.
07:11 She already checked.
07:14 "See, I took the liberty of calling Penn Warranty Corporation before coming out here.
07:21 And you know what the funny thing is? They don't have a contract for him."
07:26 Watching the defendant silently crumble as she finds out he just pocketed the man's money
07:32 is exactly why we watch these shows.
07:36 Number 4. Sorry Not Sorry
07:39 We've seen our fair share of remorseless litigants, but this defendant is in a league of her own.
07:46 Defendant Stephanie's audacity is almost impressive.
07:50 "How long you been using men like this? Always?"
07:53 "No, not really."
07:55 "I don't know whether to think you're a terrible person. I probably do."
08:00 She's up front about why she accepted all his gifts,
08:03 and pretty much admits to taking this guy for a ride.
08:07 And she can't even stop herself from smiling the whole time
08:11 because she knows how it sounds, but just doesn't care.
08:14 This guy didn't get anything in writing,
08:17 so there's really no proof that the gifts and money he gave her
08:21 were really supposed to be loans she'd have to return.
08:24 "That's what makes you believe there's a Rebecca?"
08:25 "Let me ask you a question. Why don't you pick a name like Rebecca?"
08:31 While her excuses might be bad, there's not a lot the judge can do without proof,
08:36 so she ends up ruling for the defendant.
08:39 "It's still not going to happen because you don't have any proof that you did anything,
08:43 but sugar daddy the hell out of this. So you reap what you sow."
08:47 Number three, deny, deny, deny.
08:51 "Why won't you give him his security deposit back?"
08:53 "Your Honor, I'm not familiar with this gentleman."
08:58 It's not clear whether her flat effect is a sign of exhaustion or just apathy,
09:04 but the landlord in this case has a pretty novel excuse for not paying the plaintiff.
09:10 The apartment the plaintiff is suing her over was never rented to him, but to someone else.
09:16 "I don't have any evidence or memory of him giving me any money."
09:23 She says the pictures he brought of the disgusting basement apartment
09:28 are not even from her unit.
09:30 Of course, none of this holds up once the judge sees evidence that she accepted payment from him.
09:36 "Talk to me. Defend yourself."
09:39 "Your Honor, I'm not sure what property that is."
09:43 Even after she loses, Roberta still denies being at fault.
09:49 Number two, keeping her safe.
09:51 When the plaintiff's troubled daughter came to the defendant and told her she was being abused,
09:57 the defendant's motherly instincts kicked in.
10:00 "I thought I was keeping her safe."
10:02 "Why?"
10:02 "Because she told me she was being abused."
10:04 Melinda McManus hid the teenager, who was her son's girlfriend, in her house for six days,
10:12 all the while police scoured the surrounding areas.
10:16 During this time, the plaintiffs had no idea whether their missing daughter was even still alive.
10:23 "I thought she was gone."
10:25 "I'm sorry. Did you tell that to the police?"
10:28 "No."
10:29 There is clearly some messy family drama involved on both sides,
10:34 but that is neither here nor there when it comes to defendant McManus's weak reasoning
10:39 that she thought she was keeping the girl safe.
10:42 "Why did you lie to the police?"
10:43 "I thought I was keeping her safe."
10:45 "Over and over you lied to the police. Each day they came to your house and you lied.
10:49 When did you find out that you were harboring a missing child?"
10:52 It doesn't hold much water when you consider there were SWAT teams searching for her at the time.
10:59 Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honourable mentions.
11:05 Texting and bike riding, a defendant lies about how an accident happened.
11:10 "Well, you think she just made that up and you didn't say it?
11:13 Sweetheart, you're under oath.
11:16 And you have an opportunity to be an example for other people right now."
11:21 I am doing everything I can.
11:24 A landlord lets her tenant sit in 19 degree weather without heat.
11:29 "What you needed to do was shell out some money.
11:32 No, no, not a month later. You needed to be on it because you have a requirement
11:39 under the law to provide heat."
11:43 Something borrowed, something stolen.
11:45 The defendant tries to dismiss that the plaintiff made a pass at him
11:50 by confessing to an illegal drug deal.
11:52 "You would rather not say that and say the weed deal? Because the weed's illegal."
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12:12 Number 1. I just billed the website
12:17 "I've seen some of these sites and I know that you saw that it was a personal smear campaign."
12:23 The plaintiff, whose advocacy against child abuse has apparently made him many enemies,
12:29 finds himself the target of a vicious and disgusting online smear campaign
12:35 and he's suing for defamation.
12:37 Enter the defendant, the man responsible for building the website that hosted
12:43 edited pictures of the plaintiff and allegations of sexual abuse against him.
12:49 "This is not me, this is what my clients wants to put, this is not my website."
12:54 "Right, but your client doesn't put it on, you put it on."
12:56 The defendant's pathetic excuse that he was just doing what he was paid for
13:01 and therefore isn't responsible makes the judge as irate as ever.
13:07 Here's an expensive lesson about having a good moral compass, folks.
13:12 "You are the quintessential definition of a guy controlling the content that goes on
13:19 and you can get sued for defamation."
13:21 Which of these excuses made you roll your eyes the hardest? Tell us in the comments.
13:27 "Did you just hear yourself? How many times has your dog bit someone?"
13:33 Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms Mojo.
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13:43 [Music]