Our Father (2022) Movie Script

1
[sinister music playing]
[woman] I wanna call it a nightmare.
[woman 2] It was
absolutely wrong from the beginning.
[clock ticking]
[woman 3] I personally think
it was an experiment for him,
some sick game.
[woman 4] I think
about the "why" every single day.
[clattering]
[rhythmic squeaking]
[man exhaling slowly]
[unnerving music playing]
[answering machine beeping]
Hi, Jacoba, this is Dr. Webber calling.
I have your lab results in.
So give me a call when you have a chance,
and we can go over those.
-Thank you. Bye.
-[faucet running]
[Jacoba spitting]
[answering machine beeping]
Hi, this message is for Jacoba Ballard.
This is Jane over at Dr. Chan's office.
Give us a callback. We want
to reschedule you for an appointment.
Thanks so much.
[receiver clicking]
[suspenseful music playing]
[man moaning]
[melancholy music playing]
[Jacoba] Growing up, I felt different.
I'm this blonde-haired, blue-eyed person
in a family with dark hair
and, like, olive skin and dark eyes.
So, I kept asking my mom
if I was adopted.
I kept, like, reassuring my parents,
and I'm like, "It's fine if I am,
you can tell me. It'll be okay."
Finally, my mom told me the truth.
So, I've known since the age of ten
that I was from donor sperm.
[woman sighing] I believe it was 1979,
and I wanted a child so bad,
but my husband could not have children.
So I went to see Dr. Cline
for artificial insemination.
I was young.
I think, like, 20, 21.
He was professional.
[inaudible]
[Debbie] Uh, we didn't really say a lot.
I mean, he just told us
that he would match us with a donor
that looked like my husband.
He was gonna use medical students,
their sperm.
And so, when I start ovulating,
I went in, they did the procedure
and, um, I went home, and I was pregnant.
[chuckling]
[Debbie] She's my everything.
[smacking lips]
I love that child more than life itself.
[cicadas chittering]
[wind whooshing]
[birds calling]
[melancholy music playing]
[Jacoba] I always had
this longing for siblings.
I just wanted somebody that related to me,
that's, you know, my brother or sister,
and I just wanted to have that bond.
When I was around the age of 18,
you know, around, like, 1999,
there wasn't commercial DNA testing.
All I knew
was my mom went to Dr. Donald Cline,
and he was the go-to doctor.
My mom was told that
they used a medical resident
for donor sperm,
and they never used
the medical resident or the donor,
say, more than three times.
So, since there was me,
I figured that I might have
one or two half-siblings.
So, I looked him up,
and I called him at his office.
He actually answered the phone.
I wanted to know if he had a donor number
or my mom's medical records
to where I could have
some kind of identifying information.
He was very
straightforward, matter-of-fact,
um, no empathy.
But I remember asking him,
like, telling him
I wanted to find half-siblings,
and he said that
I can't ever know that information.
My mother's records have been destroyed.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] He wished me good luck,
and that was it.
I just went on with life and, you know,
married, raised my children,
and hoped that someday maybe
I would find a sibling or two.
[melancholy music playing]
Watching our friends' children
growing up around us
left us feeling isolated and desperate.
But as we found out, we were not alone.
One out of five couples
living in the United States
experience infertility problems.
[promo narrator] The physicians and staff
at Indianapolis Infertility
can help you understand your particular
infertility problem more clearly.
Both Dr. Donald Cline
and Dr. Robert Colver
are specialists
in the field of infertility
and have achieved excellent results
in diagnosing and treating
thousands of infertile couples.
[woman] Dr. Cline was the best-known
infertility doctor in Indianapolis.
And I started working for him
in '81 to '94.
I worked 13 years.
[man] I was partnered with Dr. Cline
from 1987 to 1991, and I have to say,
my career wouldn't be
what it has been over the last 35 years
if it hadn't been for Don Cline. So
You know, I have a very special place
in my heart for that man.
Before '85, for an insemination
or for a donor insemination,
fresh sperm was used.
And back then,
you didn't have, like today,
you go on a website, 300 guys show up.
[Jan] We had a notebook
so they could pick
from what donor criteria they wanted.
The hospital was--
It's just right across the street.
And I actually went to the hospital
and met some of the donors
because they were residents,
and I knew 'em.
And they would pass me the specimen,
and I would take it back to the office.
It has to be kept warm, body temperature.
And so I transported the sample in my bra,
so the sperm was still viable
by the time I got it over at the office.
It was a great field.
It was really interesting.
We were putting tubes back together
so people women could get pregnant.
And he had
a terrific success rate at that.
[Robert] We'd do laser surgery on tubes,
and that was a new thing
that Don did that other doctors didn't do.
For these couples, you have to have them
really think through this,
talk through this, pray about it.
Really feel like you thought through
this whole thing, because
once you do that donor insemination
and they get pregnant,
that's their baby. Forever.
[birds chirping]
[tense music playing]
[woman] It was always very emotional
when one of your girlfriends
would call you and say she was pregnant
because there were several times
that I'd get off the phone,
and I'd just cry
because I wanted a child so bad.
My husband and I had gone
to various fertility doctors
trying to find my issue.
It was hard on me and my husband.
But I thought, "Okay. I've finally found
a doctor that might be able to help us
because he was so well-known."
[dog barking]
I was about 27.
I, uh My husband and I
talked about having our own children.
My husband got tested,
and he was infertile.
I was told, "The only person
who's doing live sperm donor insemination
is Dr. Don Cline."
"He's the best of the best, so go to him."
[ominous music playing]
[Liz] By that point,
it'd been two and a half years
of having my period
when I wanted to really conceive,
taking my temperature, and
for every month and every day.
So it was the first time I felt--
It was hopeful.
[light music playing]
[Dianna] I carried my husband's sperm
in a little container.
Well, we didn't have much time
because you had to have it there,
I think, within an hour.
And then there was this room
that I would go into
for the artificial insemination,
right then with the sperm,
with some kind of long, like, um
Well, it looked like a needle-type thing,
but that was all I remember.
[dramatic music playing]
[Liz] He'd walk me back to the exam room,
I'm lying down,
and my knees are up in the air.
He said, "Okay. I'm gonna, uh,
put this this specimen in you."
So I wait on the table
for about 20 minutes.
I was thinking actually positive thoughts.
I was thinking,
"Wow. I might be able to have a child."
When the doctor's office called me
and told me I was pregnant,
I I couldn't believe it.
[ominous music playing]
[Dianna] We were just so happy
when I had her.
I even took Julie back into the office
and then showed her off to Dr. Cline.
[melancholy music playing]
I thought I had altitude sickness.
[laughing]
So I laid off a little bit of skiing,
and ate more crackers, and drank some tea,
and, um, never thinking I was pregnant.
I thought I was just late.
I was ecstatic.
I thought it was a gift at the time.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] In 2014, you see 23andMe
on, like, every other commercial on TV.
I was 35,
and I told my husband
I was gonna take a DNA test
because I figured,
at least, I had one or two siblings.
I felt like it was kind of a bonus
if I did find the donor,
but that wasn't, like, my goal.
My goal was to find a sibling.
-[keyboard clacking]
-[unnerving music playing]
[Jacoba] The fall of 2014,
I received my results.
I remember that day vividly.
It came back that I was related to
seven siblings.
It was actually immediate excitement, um,
with concern.
Finding out
that I had siblings was amazing,
but there's, you know, eight of us.
What what's going on here?
Because my mom was told
that they never used a donor
more than three times.
Three times was the ideal.
We didn't want a large population
with all the same father.
There's the concern for consanguinity,
uh, having too many people
in a certain geographic area
that could potentially be your brother
or your sister, and you didn't know it.
Because you could potentially
have a brother and sister marrying.
[ominous music playing]
[Jacoba] Hold up. [chuckling]
This doesn't make sense.
Obviously, you used someone's sperm
more than three times.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jacoba] And that's when we started
to do our own investigating.
Every weekend, we would call each other,
or we would plug names into Ancestry
and work on a family tree.
We joked one day, trying to figure it out,
and we're like, "Wouldn't it be crazy
if it was the doctor?"
But we disregarded it, and we're like,
"Probably not, but we'll go through
this journey together."
"We'll help each other find
who our biological father is."
We were able to just focus
on our paternal matches,
and we all matched a lady named Sylvia,
who was our second cousin,
and she was on 23andMe.
So, we had messaged her.
I asked her what surnames
was in her family tree,
and she gave us a whole list of names.
One of the names
that popped up was Swinford.
Swinford is
Donald Cline's mother's maiden name.
I said, "By any chance,
do you have
the name Cline in your family?"
She said, "Oh yes,
I completely forgot. My cousin Don."
"He's a doctor."
[dramatic music playing]
[Jacoba] Right then, my stomach dropped,
and I felt sick because she just confirmed
what I think we probably already knew,
but we were hoping wasn't true.
Dr. Donald Cline
could be our biological father.
I was in shock.
[sighing heavily]
There were so many emotions.
So many questions.
He lied about a donor being used.
Why did he do it?
And how long did he do it?
And how many siblings do we have?
I honestly didn't know who to go to.
I googled, like, "Where do you make
a complaint against a doctor?"
That, in turn,
led to me filing a complaint
with the Attorney General's office
for Indiana.
So, then I received a form back
from the Attorney General's office
that was like,
their generic messaging like,
"Hi. We've received your complaint,
and it's gonna be investigated further,
and someone will be in touch."
We waited and waited.
Nobody was returning my calls.
No questioning, nothing
from the Attorney General's office.
[papers rustling]
[Jacoba] I wanted answers.
So I reached out
to every news outlet, big and small,
and nobody would pick up the story.
and I'm Angela Ganote.
Yeah. We're starting off
on a chilly start today,
but it's gonna warm up and warm up fast.
[Jacoba] I was watching TV one day,
and I was like [exhaling sharply] "Her!"
-[phones ringing]
-[Jacoba] "I forgot to send it to her."
[Angela] In February of 2015,
I logged onto Facebook,
and I had a message from Jacoba.
The message was in-depth,
saying that she believed
a doctor in Indianapolis
had inseminated multiple women
with his own sperm.
It was shocking,
but it was also backed by proof.
Before Jacoba came to me,
she had reached out
to Attorney General of our state,
the Attorney General of the United States.
She had reached out
to national news organizations,
and she had gotten no response.
And I thought,
"Why is no one listening, or at least
finding the truth?"
I walked into our news director's office,
and I said,
"You guys are not gonna believe this."
[dramatic music playing]
[Angela] I reached out to Dr. Cline
in the very beginning.
He told me that he was not the father.
He told me that he only used sperm
from a doctor in training,
that there is no way possible
that the siblings had more
than three brothers or sisters.
I asked if he would like
to see the DNA evidence.
I asked him if he would like
to provide his own DNA
so that he could help them.
"If you're not the father,
have a DNA test and prove to them."
And he wouldn't.
[phone slamming]
[Angela] So when we
first aired the first story,
I couldn't use his name,
and that was, um, hard for me.
Sisters, born here in Indiana,
uncover a family secret.
Their dad is not their biological father.
They are donor children,
the product of an anonymous man
who donated his sperm.
[Jacoba] Since we didn't have
Donald Cline's DNA,
we couldn't really move forward
until we had him take a DNA test
to prove that
he was our biological father.
Like, we knew it in our gut,
but we didn't have anybody at the state
that would get back with us, and
they weren't in any hurry
to get a DNA sample from him.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] So, one of my half-siblings
messaged all
of Cline's children and grandchildren
that were over the age of 18.
Basically said,
"Our mothers went through
infertility treatment."
"Did somebody
in your family donate sperm?"
[birds screeching]
[Jacoba] It was probably
a week or two later,
Cline's son messaged me.
So, I met with Doug and Donna,
which are two of Cline's children,
with his wife, Audrey.
I chose to do it at my church
because I felt more comfortable.
I don't know these people,
and these are some big accusations.
They said they had talked to their dad,
and he did admit
that he was our biological father.
But Doug said that the only time
that Cline used his sperm
was when he didn't have access to a donor,
and as far as siblings go,
there was absolutely no more than ten.
[suspenseful music playing]
[man moaning]
[dramatic music playing]
[woman] I had seen
the news pop on one night
[Angela] they are donor children
searching for answers
[woman] and I saw Jacoba on TV,
and my husband thought
that we looked a lot alike.
My husband's exact words were,
"I don't feel like
this is going to end well,
and I want you to be aware of that."
So I talked to my mom.
[Dianna] My daughter called me and said,
"Should I get tested?"And I said, "No."
'Cause I, at that point in time,
I thought it was
my husband's sperm that he had used.
She said,
"You know, honey.
This doesn't apply to you."
"This doesn't pertain to you at all.
I know you're your dad and I's."
Um, but something in my gut,
I just couldn't let it go.
So I notified Jacoba via Facebook.
She wasn't really sure
if this would pertain to me at all,
'cause I was supposed to have been
from my father and not a donor.
So she said the best way
to do it is just take a test.
And once I took that test,
if we were related,
her name would show up.
[sniffling]
[breath shuddering]
Hardest thing I've ever had to go through.
Go back to everything
that you've known about yourself.
[sniffling]
[Julie] It just completely
washes away your identity.
And you really have no idea
who you are anymore.
We both cried on the phone,
and then I had to
[breathing deeply]
figure out a way
I was gonna tell my husband
'cause I knew
that it was gonna devastate him.
I said, "Remember
when we went to Dr. Cline?"
And I said, "Unfortunately, um,
Dr. Cline didn't use your sperm.
He used his own."
"So
we're just now finding out
that Julie is not yours."
My husband started crying.
And he said that,
and I'll never forget these words.
He says,
"He's taken everything away from me."
[melancholy music playing]
And he did.
It's hard.
I mean, what did he do
with my dad's sperm?
He just threw it away like it was nothing?
I mean, it's just-- It's wrong.
[Jacoba] After I met with Doug,
he had called me and said,
"I will do whatever it takes
to get you the answers."
And I said, "We want to meet him."
"We have questions for him."
"I want him to look us in the eye."
"You at least owe us that much."
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] And so he set up a time
for myself and five other siblings
to be able to meet Cline.
[clattering]
[Jacoba] It was almost like
the moment that his feet hit the floor,
you could hear his footsteps,
and you could hear his cane.
He was not showing emotion.
And on his hip,
I could see the outline of a gun.
I think that it was
partially to intimidate us.
So he introduced himself,
and he went around the table,
asking each one's name, age,
and what they did for a profession.
It was almost like he was ranking us.
Like, "Let me see
which one of my offspring
made it to the top."
[inaudible]
I felt like we were being judged.
Then we asked about medical history
because some of us,
we have autoimmune disorders and stuff.
He said that there was nothing
that we needed to worry about.
He had a piece of paper with him
that he brought scripture on.
Jeremiah 1:5.
[Jacoba inhaling deeply]
[Jacoba] I remember him looking at me
and going, "Jacoba, this is for you."
Because he knew
I was having a hard time with this,
and I'm like, "Put that shit away."
I said-- I did, I said,
"Just put that shit away."
"You're not gonna use my God
to justify your actions."
One of my siblings did ask him
why he used his own sperm.
And he said that he only did it
because he felt like the mothers
were just basically desperate for a child,
and he was doing it to help them.
Finally, he said that the absolute number,
there would not be more than 15 siblings.
[numbers clicking]
[man moaning]
[suspenseful music playing]
[man] It's just too fucked up.
[sighing heavily]
I I just felt bad for my mother.
I mean
here she was, you know,
a young woman
just wanting to have a family
like anyone else.
It's a sick individual
that puts themselves in that position
to be able to do that.
There are parts of me that wish
that I never had to deal with infertility.
I wish that walk on no one.
The way it worked
for me with Cline is, uh,
I would go to his office.
[keys jangling]
[Liz] He was always
the only one in the office,
whether I was coming in
on a weekend or during the week,
during the midday, or late evening.
He was the only one that greeted me
in his office, which was strange.
[door closing]
[Liz] And now the truth is that,
as Cline was closing the door
and I'm undressing
and putting my feet in the stirrups
getting ready for him
to bring in the donor's sperm,
he was in the-- some other place
in the office ejaculating,
and not only creating the erection,
but he has to go in full force
in a sexual manner
to create that ejaculation.
To me, that has always remained
a very sad part to me,
and disgusting.
That he was placing then his semen
into some kind of syringe,
and then he's got to place that syringe
at the base of my cervix.
[unnerving music playing]
[Liz] The fact that he
was still in an endocrine high
from having the ejaculation
has no place in a medical setting.
[breath shuddering]
[Liz] When Matt's DNA test came back
my first words were,
"I was raped 15 times
and didn't even know it."
[Matt] This is unbelievable.
How the fuck did no one know?
I mean, just even the act of what he did
for so many years,
and to just get away with it
for decades, and no one knew anything.
No one in the office?
Come on.
Well, here's the thing.
There wasn't much traffic
on that first floor
other than
we'd come directly into our office.
Don could have
clearly collected a specimen,
and then he got it back,
and no one would know.
They could-- The nurse
could be in there for the insemination.
They wouldn't know if it was
a donor from the hospital or not.
Dr. Colver and I have discussed it,
and we had no idea.
It just was never a thought,
because it was so totally opposite
from his normal behavior.
[dramatic music playing]
[Angela] This was a person
of a position of power.
He's known in our community
as a philanthropist.
He's known in our community
as an elder of the church.
[Jan] He was always a doctor.
He was not gonna sit there
and chat with you.
It was all pretty much
doctor-person relationship.
Or a stern father figure,
if, you know,
if you can relate better to that.
Mark was stationed
at Grissom Air Force Base,
and so was Don,
and we were socially friendly.
I would say arrogant fits him,
for some reason.
I mean, I don't know
exactly why I felt that way.
You you do because you were
in study groups and so on.
Uh, he was he was okay.
I mean, he obviously was a bright guy.
He thought he knew-- He did know a lot.
He always was confident.
He always was self-assured.
He wasn't-- I never saw him doubt
that what he was doing wasn't right.
If you knew something,
and he knew something, he knew more.
That was his attitude.
He always belittled
how much I knew about child de--
You know, child development, even.
I mean, that was my area of specialty.
Uh, I I have a PhD in neurobiology,
and I'm also, um,
an occupational therapist,
and I treatedpreemies.
But he knew more.
If you crossed him
[imitates squelching]
that was it.
-[phone ringing]
-[indistinct chatter]
[Angela] The first conversations
that I had with Dr. Cline,
he told me
that he was protected under HIPAA.
He told me that I could be sued
or that Fox 59 could be sued.
[phone ringing]
[Angela] He made it very clear
that I needed to be careful.
[Jacoba] So, that's when Cline called me.
I was in shock.
I don't know what it was in me.
He called my home phone,
and I recorded that conversation.
-[Don] Jacoba?
-[Jacoba] Yes.
[door squeaking]
Uh, this is Dr. Cline.
Uh, do you have time
to talk with me just a little bit?
-[Jacoba] Yes.
-[Don] Okay.
Um, I'm getting, uh,
a real problem with, um,
uh, the television station, um, 59.
[Jacoba] Mm-hmm.
[Don] Um, they are demanding,
um, that I meet with them.
Uh, I can't do that.
Uh, it's not fair to me.
It's not fair to you all.
Uh, they're they're trying to make a, um
[Don sighing] Oh
They're they're trying to, um
improve their ratings,
and, um, my wife and I,
after 57 years of marriage
Um, if if this comes out,
uh, our marriage will be over.
Um,
can you help?
[Jacoba inhaling deeply]
I mean, no disrespect,
but I feel like what you're telling me
is to keep my life a secret.
That I am not allowed to know who I am
-[Don] Well--
-when I didn't do anything wrong.
[Don] Well, yes, but you know, I didn't--
At the time, I didn't feel like
I was doing anything wrong either.
[Jacoba] But you-- I feel like I'm
being blamed for this, like it's my fault.
I don't understand.
[Don] It's, uh, it's your fault
because I don't care who you tell.
It's just
putting it on television
for the entire world to see.
[Jacoba's breath shuddering]
[Jacoba] Well, I I cannot
Like I said, I can't control her.
I can't stop that. I can't.
[Don] Well, because you you
you can stop talking to her and say,
"You know,
I I just don't want to share anymore."
I'm just telling you what's gonna happen,
and I'm going to be hurt badly.
[Jacoba sniffs] Well, that's
what's happened to everybody so far,
and you know,
that that's because of the actions--
[Don] This tells me that
that's exactly what you want.
[printer whirring]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] When you push me,
I'm gonna push back 100 times more.
So when he called me, it's like,
"Bring it on."
["All My Tears" by Ane Brun playing]
[Jacoba] "Bring it on
because I'm ready to fight you."
When I go, don't cry for me
In my Father's arms, I'll be
[Jacoba] I contacted
the Attorney General's office again
to get a status on this complaint,
and nobody was returning my calls.
Sun and moon will be replaced
With the light of
[Jacoba] So I decided
to investigate him myself.
And I will not be ashamed
For my Savior knows my name
[Jacoba] I started researching
everything about him,
from papers written, to articles,
to conferences he had attended, to blogs.
It don't matter anywhere I lay
[Jacoba] It was so much research.
All my tears be washed away
[Jacoba] I had just papers everywhere
to prove that I wasn't some crazy maniac.
All my tears be washed away
[Jacoba] He wanted me to keep quiet.
And he wanted me to keep quiet
because he knew
that there were more siblings.
[song fades]
[numbers clicking]
[man moaning]
[tense music playing]
[woman] My husband
gave me a DNA test as a gift,
and then I got a message saying,
"I think we're related."
When it all hit me, I kind of
just sat and stared
for the rest of the day.
And then, for the next couple of weeks,
had a complete identity crisis,
and I couldn't look in the mirror.
I didn't wanna think
about where I got my hair from,
or where I got my eyes from,
because I had always thought
those were from my dad.
There was never any reason
that I would have questioned anything.
My parents trusted their doctor,
who said that it would be
better for me to not know,
and that I would never find out.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jacoba] Every time
that a new sibling pops up,
I know that I'm going to call them,
and I know
that, um, I'm going to ruin their life.
It's hard because we know
what we went through.
[crying] And we're making someone else
go through this exact same thing.
[birds chirping]
[Heather] The first people who reached out
to me were Julie and Jacoba.
I messaged them back and said,
"I need some time to process."
"I'll reach back out later."
Um, and so
it was probably a couple of months
before I, um, actually reached out
to to have a conversation with anyone.
Um,
your world is changing.
[Jacoba] When you have
new siblings pop up,
you are on the phone with them for hours
because it's the worst day of their life.
You've lived that over and over and over.
[numbers clicking]
[man moaning]
[woman] I asked
for a DNA test for Christmas,
and I was really confused
'cause all of these random names to me
were popping up,
and it said, "Close Family."
And so I really did not know
what "Close Family" meant.
It did did not even--
I did not even think,
"Oh, brother or sister,"
I didn't even think, "Cousin."
I got a message
that a new sibling popped up,
and I logged in,
and it said, you know, "Lisa,"
and her last name,
and I was like, "Huh, I know her."
Her husband taught
my daughter on the softball team.
Um, my daughter and her daughter
played basketball together.
I sent her a message, and I said,
"Hey, did you happen
to do an Ancestry test?"
She said, "Well, do you know
about the Dr. Cline story?"
And she said, "He's our father."
And I honestly, I started laughing.
I I was thought Julie was kind of crazy.
I was like, "What are you talking about?"
"There there's no way he can be my dad."
And then I called my mom.
I said, "Hey, Mom, did you and Dad
ever have any issues conceiving me?"
She said, "Well, I didn't,
but yeah, your dad did."
And so my heart dropped a little bit.
And she said,
"He actually had a low sperm count,
and his doctor recommended us
to a specialist."
I said, "Mom,
was this specialist in Indianapolis?"
And she said, "Yeah, why?"
And I said, "Was it Dr. Donald Cline?"
And she said, "Yes."
[dramatic music playing]
[Lisa] She said,
"I went and had the procedure done twice,
but both times your father
was there with me and provided a sample."
And so, at that point,
I realized my mom and dad had no idea.
They thought all along
that I was my dad's.
[unnerving music playing]
[Lisa] I worry for my kids,
especially I have siblings
that live in the same town as me,
and our kids go to school together.
And so, I've had to have the talk
with my daughter about,
"You've got to be careful
when you start dating."
"We got to be aware
of who this person is,"
but it's definitely a huge concern.
When we get a new sibling alert,
you're praying,
"Please don't let it be somebody I know."
Or"Please don't let it be
somebody I dated."
And I'm sure it's bound to happen.
[train horn blaring]
[Jacoba] The majority of us live in,
like, a 25-mile radius of each other.
There's also quite a few
that live within minutes of Cline.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba sighing] I walk around,
and I could be related to anyone.
I mean, it's just common for me
to pass people on the street,
um, at work, wherever I may be,
and, I mean, I'll look at them and think,
"Oh, the way you stand, the way you look."
"You could be related to me."
[Matt] We live in this small community.
[crows cawing]
[Matt] Everyone that you interact with
appears to have
some sort of connection to Cline.
My dentist across the street
was a patient of his.
My next-door neighbor
was the nurse to one of my half-siblings,
and then there's this connection,
or there's that connection.
"Oh, my mom saw them at the nail salon."
I think without a doubt,
there are probably people that I've met
that are my half-sibling,
and I just don't even know it.
They don't even know it.
[high-pitched whirring]
[kids clamoring indistinctly]
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] Who knows
how many siblings we have?
[birds chirping]
[phone ringing]
[Angela] I had emailed Dr. Cline
and told him,
"We're moving forward with the story.
We would be using his name."
You know, "This is the time
for you to come clean to the public."
So, finally, he said, "If there's no audio
and no video, I will meet with you."
I asked him if he wanted
to come to FOX 59.
He said no. I said,
"There's a restaurant
close to the TV station."
And I wanted to be close to the TV station
because I wanted
to make sure for my safety.
I wanted it to be someplace
that I felt safe.
My boss at that time wanted me
to take our security guard with us
because she feared for my safety.
We knew that Dr. Cline
did not want to, quote, "be outed,"
and Jacoba told me that he carried a gun.
We thought that he was desperate.
-[car horn honking]
-[dog barking]
[Don] She is, um, uh,
demanding I meet with with them.
They're going to force me to do this.
-[Jacoba] Mm-hmm.
-[Don] I've gotta tell the truth.
-[Jacoba] Mm-hmm. Well--
-[Don] And I don't want to do that.
[Angela] I was very nervous,
and when he came in,
it was within minutes he's asking me
if guns are allowed in the restaurant.
And I'm thinking,
"What a weird thing to say to me."
Then I'm looking down, and it looks like
he has a gun underneath his sweater.
There's something bulging
on the side, and I'm thinking,
"I don't wanna be crazy,
but is there any chance
that he could pull out a gun
and shoot me?"
I honestly thought that.
[indistinct chatter]
[Angela] One of the first things
he said in our conversation
was that he knew where I lived,
and he knew where I was from.
Remember, this was
after he had said before,
"Be careful."
The meeting was about an hour long,
and I feel like he was begging me
to not air the story.
He said, "It will ruin my marriage."
"It will hurt my church.
I'm an elder at the church."
[inaudible]
[Angela] I let him know that we have
that burden to tell the truth,
and the truth matters.
[crows cawing]
[birds chirping]
[Jacoba] So that's when, like,
the whole whirlwind just started with him,
and strange things started happening.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] I had woke up one day,
and all of the lug nuts
were missing off of my car.
And I'm talking all four tires.
And that's scary.
[breath shuddering]
So, yeah.
[chuckles lightly]
Um
[crying] And you can't tell me
that that's like some freak
Yeah.
I was hacked.
Everything that I had saved
to a Google Drive
of publications of Cline was just erased,
and every single email
regarding him was gone.
[unnerving music playing]
[Heather] Soon after I went public,
I started getting harassing phone calls,
like the cemetery
asking if I wanted to buy a plot
for me to be buried in.
I think it was to rattle me.
Um
to to re-traumatize me
so that I would be quiet.
I don't think he wanted, um, any of us
to talk publicly if he could help it.
[Jacoba] In my gut, I feel
like we're being harassed and stalked
to get us to shut up,
especially when Cline called
and threatened me over the phone.
[Don] What you're doing is
that you're telling the world,
and the world doesn't need to know.
-I--
-[Jacoba] I'm not trying to do harm.
[Don] Well, you are.
[sinister music playing]
[Jacoba] I'm not scared of you.
You can threaten me,
but I will never back down.
I am going to expose you.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] And I'm gonna expose
all of your secrets.
[birds chirping]
[Jacoba] I found out that
in 1963
[whistling]
[Jacoba] he was driving
[girl giggling, screaming playfully]
[Jacoba] and this little girl
darted out between two cars
-[thudding]
-[tires screeching]
[Jacoba] and he hit her.
-[inaudible]
-[suspenseful music playing]
[birds chirping]
[Don breathing heavily]
[woman] No!
[woman screaming]
[Jacoba] She ended up dying.
He has told everybody
that's when he changed his life.
That's when he found God.
[music fades]
[Mark] That traumatized him.
After that, he became more religious
and, um, churchgoing
than he had been before.
Maybe he thought
that this was his way of giving back,
that he took a life
that really wasn't his fault.
Now, he was going to give back.
Maybe that was a psychological process
going through his mind.
But it doesn't really matter
because that should not have been a way
that he was trying
to try to, uh, make amends
for some terrible accident that happened.
[dramatic music playing]
[Jan] He was very religious,
had very deep roots,
and he and his wife taught
marriage counseling in their church.
They taught Sunday school.
And whenever he was
in the office and all of us were there,
he would sit down, and we would wait,
and he would say a prayer.
He, at some point, asked me
if I was Jewish,
and I said yes.
And I said, "And by the way,
I'm very uncomfortable with your office
full of all kinds of Christian sayings."
Things like,
"If you want to get into heaven,
you need to be Christian."
[bell ringing]
Yeah. I knew I knew Donald Cline.
[sprinklers running]
[man] The church is set up
where they have an eldership.
So they have seven or eight men
that governed the church body
as far as what was taught,
and he was one of those elders.
We would go over
to his house for baptisms.
Literally, 50 to 100 people
would attend baptisms
right there in their
at their swimming pool.
[water sloshing]
[man] That's where
we really got to know them.
From a Christian perspective,
you have to say,
"Hey, we we all have
skeletons in our closet."
"We all have done things
that we regret doing."
[suspenseful music playing]
[man] I know that he and God
have reconciled that.
That he's been forgiven,
and that he has moved on from that,
and he's a different person now.
[Jacoba] He portrays himself
as this godly man.
And I know we all make mistakes,
but I think there's more behind this.
What made him
every day wake up
and decide to go into his work,
masturbate,
and place it unknowingly
inside women without their consent.
He could've stopped at any point,
but he kept doing it
over and over and over and over.
[numbers clicking]
[man moaning]
[man] Growing up, I kind of knew
that something was off.
Something was different.
You know,
why do I got blond hair, blue eyes?
[keypad beeping]
[man] Everyone in my family
has dark eyes and dark hair.
So, I got an Ancestry kit
just to figure out where I came from.
[clattering]
[man] When Ancestry results
came through, my coworker said,
"Well, you'll have
11, 15 hits on Ancestry."
[smacking lips]
Well, when I opened up mine,
I had over 3,000 hits.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jason] And then immediately after that,
Jacoba called me.
"I'm your sister."
And she told me the truth.
I don't even know how to tell you
the emotions that came over my head.
Took me to an incredibly dark place.
Why?
Why feel the need to do this?
Is it to to further your career?
Is it to be the best of the best?
Is this to create life?
Is this some sort of sexual thing?
Like, I don't know.
I feel like he's hiding
something more sinister.
[doorbell ringing]
[footsteps approaching]
[Jacoba] Jason, we talked on the phone
a lot before we got to meet.
Hey, how are you?
[Jacoba chuckling]
This is crazy.
[Jacoba] I know!
Jason and I are very similar.
Like, we can
read through people's bullshit.
When someone isn't religious,
and you're gonna use
religious verses to justify your actions,
that just makes it even more--
Worse. I would have just laughed at him.
Well, and it makes it even more
of a reasoning of people saying,
"That right there is why
I would never be religious
because of fuck nuts like you."
And it took all I had in me
to talk to him on the phone
that day without going off.
And I thought,
"You've just got to remain calm
because you're recording this,
and try to get as much out."
Let me hear it.
[Don] You know, I know
that nothing happens without God,
um, allowing it.
-[Jacoba sighing]
-[Don] Um
[Jacoba] See,
I think that's where our problem is.
I don't think that God
should have allowed it in the first place,
and I really think that we ask ourselves
every day, "Why are we here?"
I think that's, like,
a lot of our problems. [scoffing]
Yeah.
[Don] Well, you know,
I mentioned one of my favorite, um
One of my favorite scriptures
was Jeremiah 1:5.
If you'll remember, it says,
"Before I formed you
in your mother's womb, I knew you."
[Jacoba] Mm-hmm. Yeah.
[Don] Um,
and and that tells me,
and it should tell everybody
that no one is born as a mistake.
Before I knew you, in your mother--
What it What was it? It's--
"Before I formed you in
your mother's womb, I knew you."
Jeremiah 1:5.
Which really just kinda
nails it all home
that he knew what he was doing.
He knew exactly what he was doing with us.
I've just become obsessed with the story
and trying to piece everything together.
When I was sent an email
from someone
at the Attorney General's office,
I would go through,
and the person that sent me the email,
and every person
that was copied in on that email,
I would search them on Facebook.
And one of the people with the state
has a "Quiverfull" email address.
That's when it was--
"What is Quiverfull?
Like, what the hell is it?"
[keyboard clacking]
God says, "Children are a blessing."
"We should want to have
our quiver full of them"
[Jacoba] Quiverfull.
It's essentially a cult
aimed to having
as many children as possible.
If a man with his wife
has a lot of children,
he will send them out as arrows.
He's like a warrior for God,
and he sends his children out
as arrows into the world,
who will be ambassadors for God.
[unnerving music playing]
[woman] The children are raised
to actively participate in government,
to actively run for office,
to seek positions of political prominence,
and eventually that the civil law
will actually be the Bible.
[Jacoba] Lo and behold, Jeremiah 1:5,
the verse that he kept using
is one of the Bible verses
that Quiverfull uses.
[keyboard clacking]
[Jacoba] Basically, for them,
women are just-- You you breed.
Was Cline in this Quiverfull movement?
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] Were all of us part
of some sick, twisted, secret society?
There's so many theories
that I've thought of in my head.
[Heather] I think the philosophies
or the beliefs of the Quiverfull movement
seem so outrageous to me
that it's hard for me
to actually believe that it's real.
I agree with that
and that we could even be a part of it.
[Heather] Mm-hmm.
[whispering] Yeah.
[Julie] With the Quiverfull theory,
back when we were all conceived,
that theory was
to produce more of the white race
because they were in fear
that other races were infiltrating that
and the white race
would eventually disappear.
I mean,
when you look at that wall of babies,
it is all Caucasian babies.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Jacoba] It's crazy because every time
we get a DNA match,
it's like, "Yep.
Looks like one of the Cline boys,"
or "Looks like a Cline girl."
Most of us have blond hair
and blue eyes.
I hate to say this
'cause it sounds so-- But it's almost like
we're like this perfect Aryan clan,
and it's disgusting.
It's sad that we have
to have conspiracy theories
to understand why he did this.
If he would just tell us,
then we wouldn't have to go through
of trying to find
all these different reasons
Life would be easier for him if he did.
It would help all of us heal too.
But you're not gonna
get that from somebody
that does not have
compassion or any empathy.
It's disgusting to sit there
and lay in bed at night,
and wonder if the person that created you
is some racist bigot,
and he used my mom as a pawn.
[Jacoba sniffling]
[Jacoba] And he did it
over and over and over again.
Ugh. [sniffling]
Ugh!
[Jacoba sighing]
I didn't ask to be born.
I didn't ask to be born
into this situation.
But this is my life.
[Debbie] But it's not your fault.
No, it's not, but then you have this man
who shares half of my DNA.
Our DNA.
[Jacoba sniffling]
[Jacoba] There's just
so many theories, and I
I don't think we'll ever know
why he was doing it,
but
I want him to have to pay for it.
I want an investigation.
I want him punished.
[scoffing]
[keyboard clacking]
[Jacoba sighing] The Attorney General's
office didn't give a shit.
We were told that
they couldn't give us any information
and we weren't allowed to know.
And we just kind of got disregarded.
The one person that we had
was Angela Ganote,
calling and asking them,
"What are you going to do?"
[dramatic music playing]
[Angela] I had started back in 2015,
asking the Attorney General
for an interview,
asking anything that I could know about
this, and they would tell me nothing.
And then I also reached out
to the Marion County prosecutor
and said, "Is anyone listening?"
Finally, the spokesperson
from the Marion County
prosecutor's office said,
"Angela, I'm sorry.
I don't-- Somehow I missed it."
I laid out a long paragraph
of the whole story and what had happened.
I had even sent our story
that had aired and said,
"Did you watch our story?
I've been asking these questions
for more than a year,
and I'm getting nowhere."
"And I feel like it's time that
the prosecutor, or the Attorney General,
or somebody sits down
and answers the questions that I have."
When we got the media inquiry,
there hadn't been
any true investigation done anywhere yet.
But at the end of the day,
there's just no crime that touches
this particular act.
That's our problem.
[chuckling lightly]
So I remember we were sitting there,
and, um, you know, we're asking him,
"How is this not rape?"
I don't deny
that it was a sexual violation.
But legally, it isn't a sexual violation.
"I feel like my mother was raped"
is a valid human emotional statement.
But"Dr. Cline committed rape"
is a legal assertion that was not true,
and I wasn't gonna put it on paper
with my signature.
And I said, "What about battery?"
And [scoffing] he got rude with me.
He said, "I don't know how many times
I'm gonna have to tell you this."
"I can't charge him with battery.
It wasn't battery."
I, uh, was so pissed.
I looked at Tim Delaney, and I said,
"So if I spit in your face right now,
it's not battery?"
And he said, "It is,
because you'd be spitting on me."
And I'm like, "What the fuck?"
"So a doctor can go jack off
and put their sperm in a woman
who's their patient that did not consent
to have their doctor do that,
but yet, you're gonna tell me
that if I spit inyour face,
I'd be arrested and charged with battery?"
Jacoba and a lot of the individuals
touched by this were very emotional,
and had, um, a feeling
that what I was there to do,
wasn't to apply the law
to determine whether or not
Dr. Cline had committed a crime.
They thought I was there
to deliver catharsis.
And I wasn't.
[unnerving music playing]
There's unequal application of the law.
It happens every day,
it happens all over the United States,
and it happens here in Indiana.
Was there fraud?
Was there something else?
I just didn't feel like
it was investigated enough
to look at
what could he have been charged with.
There was never
a good explanation in my mind.
[Liz] I had a copy
of the Indiana sexual assault law,
and I said, "Surely, there's somewhere
in this law that you can say--"
He says, "No, it has to have
both components. It has to have force
and non-consent."
When you talk about rape,
there is a provision
in Indiana law that says,
"Rape can include conduct
which a victim does not know is sexual,
but the perpetrator knows is sexual."
And that, I think,
is actually the closest charge,
because in order for him
to produce this sperm sample,
he had to masturbate
in very close proximity
to the office where a patient was waiting,
unclothed from the waist down,
with a paper cloth covering her knees,
and knees spread apart.
Who's to say when this touch
stops becoming sexual
and starts becoming clinical?
I think even if he's not thinking
of the patient in a sexual sense,
the very fact that he's still
under the effects of physical arousal
makes this a sexual touching.
Even if he's thinking of his wife
or a pink fuzzy bunny rabbit,
it is still a sexual act.
[suspenseful music playing]
But I also think
we have to see Tim Delaney
in the context
in which this case was brought.
And so when I interviewed Tim Delaney,
he said that Indiana juries
were not willing to buy
rape-by-deception theories.
The jury is going to say,
"This woman consented to insemination."
"This woman wanted a child."
And the question is always out there,
"Does this woman's desire for a child
legitimate Donald Cline's deception?"
And unfortunately, that is a question
that Tim Delaney had to weigh
would enter into the minds of jurors.
[Debbie] If he asked me
if it'd be okay for him to be the donor,
I would have not said yes.
I would say no.
[Dianna sighing]
It was a violation of him into me.
The issue for me is there was no consent.
He didn't give me a choice.
[indistinct chatter]
[Angela] The Attorney General's office
had at least
reached out to Dr. Cline at some point
and asked him if he
if he had used his sperm,
or had asked some sort of question
because Dr. Cline told me that.
He told me that he filled it out,
and that he denied anything,
that he wasn't the father.
I don't know what's in that letter
'cause I've never seen it,
but I know what our conversation was.
Dr. Cline told me that he talked
with the Attorney General's office
through paperwork,
and that he was not the father.
That was really what ended up
getting him in trouble,
because he lied to me, and I knew it,
and he lied on the paperwork
to the Attorney General's office.
So at one point,
I reached out to the Attorney General,
and say, "You know he's lying to you."
He lied and said
that he never used his sperm
to inseminate his patients.
[Tim] Only after we determined
that the Attorney General's office
had sent those letters
were we able to come up
with a theory for how to proceed.
We wanted to nail him with something,
and the fact that
we finally got something,
it was like a "hurrah" moment.
And not only that,
he also added that he was going to sue me
for libel and slander.
[suspenseful music playing]
[Tim] Denying is obstruction of justice,
but denying and threatening,
and, to paraphrase, saying,
"Do you know who I am?"
was more than enough.
It was like, "Eureka!" The, you know
The bathwater started spilling out.
I said, "Oh my God, we've got an angle."
[dog barking]
[police siren chirping]
[dog barking]
[Tim] After we began the investigation,
obviously the first step
was to get DNA from Dr. Cline.
[indistinct chatter over police radio]
[Tim] He was sick.
He had pneumonia, I believe.
So he said, "Don't come too close."
And we said,
"We have a search warrant for your DNA."
He asked a little bit
about "What is this all about?"
But he knew what it was all about.
[inaudible dialogue]
[Tim] Detective Sergeant Carmen Walker
of the Marion County
Sheriff's Office said,
"We need you to open your mouth."
[inaudible]
[Tim] And he complied.
He did not look like he was enjoying it.
[crows cawing]
It came back 99.9997%
that I am his biological daughter.
[Carmen] And how many times
did you use your own sample?
[Don] Sparingly, but
keep in mind,
we're talking 30 to 35 years ago,
and I I can't remember.
All the records have been shredded.
[anchor] The fertility doctor
at the center of a controversial case
is headed back to court
to answer criminal charges.
[anchor 2] Dr. Donald Cline is charged
with two felony counts
of obstruction of justice
for statements he made to investigators.
[anchor 3] The retired
Indianapolis fertility doctor
now plans to plead guilty
to obstruction of justice.
Prosecutors say he intentionally
misled investigators about a case
that's turned dozens
of people's lives upside down.
And it was literally 20 months ago
that I got a Facebook question to me,
"Angela, can you help me?"
And thank you for believing in them,
because no one else did but you.
Yeah, thank you.
He didn't want to go to trial
because more information would come out,
and then also,
he'd probably get more of a punishment.
So he changed his plea to guilty.
[tense music playing]
[Jacoba] I felt good
that day at the court hearing.
Even though I knew
that all he was being charged with
was two counts of obstruction of justice,
I thought, "Fucking finally. Something."
[Matt] I didn't wanna make
eye contact with him. I
I was afraid of him.
[Julie] Uh, he actually walked right
past me and brushed up against me, and
it almost brought me to my knees.
[crying]
That was my first time seeing that man
and being that close to him,
and there was no regard for us.
[Don] Your honor, I'm asking for mercy
and compassion for myself.
I've tried to live out my life
showing honesty and care to others,
and I will continue to do so.
[Heather] He looked very old
and weak, and part of me thought,
"Is this an act that you're putting on
to get the judge to go easier on you?"
[suspenseful music playing]
[indistinct talking]
I was allowed to give
a victim-impact statement
because I was one of the originals
that filed a complaint with the state.
My hope was that the judge
would be appalled by this,
and that he would at least get,
like, some jail time.
These are my words to Cline.
Every time I or my half-siblings
look up our name,
we all have the same issue tied to you.
It has caused anguish in everyone,
and some of us have
wanted to die from this pain.
For 30 years, my half-sister, Julie,
believed her dad was her biological dad--
Objection, Your Honor.
Relevancy.
We had agreed
to the wording of the statement.
Literally redlined it.
And I had things crossed out
or highlighted thatyou can't say.
Because of your denials,
I feel you have
no consideration for the mothers
who came to you,
us as your biological children,
or your wife
and the four children you had with her.
It was always about you.
You lied. You still lie.
You even have your family believing you,
and that sickens me.
-Our mothers trusted you
-[lawyer] Objection!
She she went for it.
I don't know if I would've had the courage
to do that in front of a judge.
But, you know
[Jacoba] I'm asking you to look at the
depth of the reasons he is charged with--
[lawyer] Objection!
What we're really getting at
is the inability of victims
to tell their stories.
Those who testify can only testify
to to what is relevant
to a criminal proceeding.
But-- And what is relevant
to Cline's proceeding
was not what happened in the '70s or '80s,
not the births, not the fertility fraud.
It was the lies to the state.
In Cline's proceeding,
the state was the victim. They weren't.
[judge] I do want to reiterate, probably
for the fifth or sixth time at this point,
that the court, by law, can only consider
the charges
that Dr. Cline's plead guilty to,
the obstruction of of justice charges.
Obviously, it would be inappropriate
for me to consider outside of that realm.
What we asked for the judge to do
was twofold.
One, to make sure
that these crimes remained as felonies
on his record, and two,
deliver executed time,
an executed sentence,
meaning time served in jail.
[lawyer] We received a number
of support letters for Dr. Cline.
These are letters
from members of the community,
former patients, and members
of Dr. Cline's family and church.
These individuals have known
Dr. Cline for many years.
And they evidence
a strong connection to his family,
the community, and that rehabilitation
is not only possible
but actually has already taken place here.
[Matt] A lot of folks submitted letters
on his behalf to the judge.
I believe there was one
that came from a prosecutor
from Boone County,
which is where he lives,
saying that "This guy is a good man,"
you know, "He should get some leniency."
[producer] Is that an odd thing
for a prosecutor to write to a judge
if it's a friend?
I'd do well not to comment
on that particular question.
That's when I, in my gut,
felt like the state was corrupt.
There were people corrupt,
and they were friends
with him or something.
[judge] Please remember
that whatever happens during sentencing,
the people that love you
are gonna continue to love you.
[Jacoba] The judge seemed
very sympathetic towards him,
like on the verge of tears.
[judge] With the limited resources
that we have, overcrowding at the jail,
and your lack of a criminal history,
um, an executed sentence is nothing
that the court is gonna order.
I really wanted him to have jail time.
I really did.
I thought that that would bring
a little bit of closure to me.
[voice breaking] But no.
[judge] I know that this is your
first offense, but Dr. Cline, I do believe
that the facts support going ahead
and sentencing you as a level 6 felon.
Um, as to fines and costs,
sir, the court will fine you $500.
[Julie] And so he got
the two Level 6 felonies
with complete suspended sentences
and a $500 fine,
which is a slap in the fucking face.
[dramatic music playing]
[inaudible]
[reporter] Dr. Cline,
do you have any comment at all?
[reporter 2] Dr. Cline, what would you
change now if you could change anything?
[Jacoba] This was a span of two years
from me filing a complaint,
to them actually,
finally doing something about it.
[elevator bell dings]
[Jacoba] And
[scoffing]
this judge just let this man
pretty much off the hook.
[tense music playing]
[Jacoba] And I dread
every new match that comes.
But they just keep coming,
and you never know the day
that you're gonna wake up,
and then they're going to be there.
[numbers clicking]
[man moaning]
[suspenseful music playing]
I just-- Uh, I feel like he
That this was some sick
game experiment for him.
[breath shuddering]
[Don] As far as I know,
all of theinseminations
that I did with my sample,
um, and again it was sparingly,
um, had a healthy baby.
It was, you know, important to my parents
that it was someone that was healthy,
and for him
to turn around and violate them
and do this without their consent, and
there's a lot of us
that have the same health issues.
Almost every single one of us.
[Jacoba] I've been to so many doctors,
been to the Cleveland Clinic.
They don't know what's wrong with me.
I'm sick.
And other, um, siblings have, um,
autoimmune diseases and stuff.
[breathing deeply]
I have an autoimmune disease, yeah.
It's, um, a blood clotting disorder,
um, which I didn't know
until I had a miscarriage,
and, uh, we were determining
what would have caused that.
I mean, I've had
[exhaling sharply]
colonoscopy, endoscopy, I've had--
I mean, I've spent weeks in the hospital,
losing 15 pounds at a time.
I have a lot of digestive,
um, and colon issues, and
no one on my mom's side does.
[Mark] In the early '70s,
I had heard
that he was having trouble, uh, operating
because he had rheumatoid arthritis.
And he had-- His hands were swelling up.
I I, at that time,
I felt I would hate to see him,
his career of being a great surgeon end
because he couldn't get
the right treatment for his arthritis.
And so, I called our chief of medicine,
told him about Cline's problems.
And he said,
"Yeah. Well, let me call Dr. B. up there,"
and Cline went down and met with him,
and he told him what to take,etcetera.
So, once he got on the right medications,
he seemed to be fine.
[Shereen] His symptoms abated.
[glass sliding]
[Robert] I know
in talking to a sperm bank,
30% of the guys didn't even make it
past the questionnaire
because of what was in their family.
History of cancer, history of whatever,
even color blindness, for goodness sakes.
Now, looking back at it, and being like,
"Okay. He's got an autoimmune disease,
um, and his sperm
wouldn't have even been allowed
to be a donor because of that."
Like, "Dude, you knew this."
"You knew you knew you had issues."
"Like, how how dare you?"
[smacking lips] Yeah.
[scoffing]
Now, there's the Don Cline we knew,
that I knew, that I th-- knew well.
And there's the Don Cline
I would have never imagined.
[suspenseful music playing]
[sighing heavily]
Yeah.
Yeah. It broke my heart.
[exhales sharply]
Evil.
And I-- If Don was right here,
I'd say that right to his face.
[Jacoba] Still to this day,
there are people
in his community that back him.
And people that sit there and say,
"But he is such a wonderful man."
And I just want to look at those people
and say, "Well, then maybe
he should have put his sperm
in your wife without her consent."
"And then how would you like that?"
[numbers clicking]
[man moaning]
[melancholy music playing]
I took a 23andMe DNA test because,
about four or five years ago now,
mychildren and I were both diagnosed
with a genetic disorder.
I got the results back.
And when I got to the genetic DNA family,
there were half-siblings listed.
And I honestly just thought,
"Oh, this is a mistake."
Because by that time,
I didn't know that my parents
had any type of fertility treatment
other than receiving
fertility medications.
So I kind of just put it out of my mind,
and didn't think anything of it.
[suspenseful music playing]
And then I had
a couple messages from Jacoba.
And it basically said,
"I'm sure
you're confused by your results."
"Feel free to contact me
with any questions."
It didn't occur to me
that she was talking about the siblings,
so I just
kind of disregarded that message.
[Dr. Phil theme music playing]
[Alison] On December 9th of 2019,
a Dr. Phil show aired.
Well, question for you.
How would you feel if you found out
your mother's fertility doctor
was actually your biological father?
[crowd murmuring]
[breathing heavily]
When the siblings walked out
[clearing throat]
Jacoba was introduced.
You felt no remorse from him,
other than just the fear of being caught.
He was not remorseful at all.
[clearing throat]
-[Dr. Phil] None?
-He just did not want it to be public.
He told me,
"The world does not need to know."
[Dr. Phil] Wow.
I, uh, quickly got my phone
and opened my23andMe,
and all of the siblings on that show
were listed as my half-siblings.
So then I knew, I knew at that moment,
that there-- That we were a part of it.
[suspenseful music playing]
I was a patient
of Dr. Cline's for many years.
I think he took each case very personally.
At least he did with me.
He delivered the girls,
and he came over with his wife
to see our babies at home.
[Alison] So this is a picture
of my twin sister and I
right after delivery, in the incubator.
[sniffling]
[Alison] And
this is the picture of Cline
holding me as an infant at the house.
I was probably eight months old there.
I had such mixed emotions in that
the thought that he had used
his own specimen to impregnate me
made me kind of queasy
and sick to my stomach.
Whereas, um
on the other hand,
I thought about the fact
that because of his skills
in operating on me,
and and clearing up some of the things
that were causing infertility,
I was grateful to him.
So I had this mix of emotions,
and I have twin daughters
who are absolutely delightful girls.
[voice breaking] And I--
You know, you can't be angry
when you have
you have what you always dreamed of.
[dramatic music playing]
Well, it was, um, complex for me because
I was 47 years old at the time,
and to find out
[breath shuddering]
that the man I looked up to and emulated
from the time I was small
was not my biological father was crushing.
That was the biggest part.
I felt this need to protect him,
and I didn't want people to know.
[sniffling]
But the other part of my story
is that Don Cline
was also my fertility doctor.
[sinister music playing]
[Alison] He was my mainGYN.
He took care of all my gynecological needs
for the two years that I saw him.
He did my Pap exams.
He did breast exams.
I mean, I don't think
any grown woman wants
someone closely related to them,
a member of the opposite sex,
to touch them in that way, in such--
It's a very vulnerable position
that the patient is in.
And to be touching and examining
private areas of your body. It's just--
[breath shuddering]
It's-- I can't I can't even think
about it without getting upset.
I didn't get to have
that knowledge. He knew.
I didn't get to know that
or have the chance to say,
"No. I would I
I'd rather I see someone else."
"I don't I don't want someone
who is biologically related to me
to touch me in that way."
I didn't get to do know that.
[dramatic music playing]
It's almost, you know,
it's like it's like a bad dream
that you-- that's recurring.
You wanna wake up.
But every time you wake up,
it's not a dream.
[crying] I just can't believe
how it was, you know, done to us.
I really can't. And for him
to act like nothing happened.
I think that's the worst part of it.
[sniffling]
[Don] I don't want you
to think that I do this--
I did the insemination with my own sample
very blas.
Was there a sexual connotation to it?
Absolutely not.
I don't look at these people
and consider them to be my
children.
[clock ticking]
[Julie] I want zero relationship with him.
[crying] He's not my father.
[sniffling]
I may share half of his DNA,
but he's not my father,
and he never will be.
[emotional music playing]
I feel sorry for him
because his whole life to his wife,
to his own children,
to his community, to his church,
to his colleagues
in the hospital and his office.
It's all a lie.
I would like to see him
pay for what he did
[sniffling]
but I just, I feel like
there isn't gonna be any justice.
I'm okay.
This is not my issue. It's his.
[Matt] I think continually putting
his name and face in the media,
and telling our story
was the absolute way to go.
I'm not gonna run away from him.
Not gonna run away from this story.
If you were not even
experiencing problems with infertility,
if you saw Dr. Cline and you have a child,
I think it is important,
very important, that you have a DNA test.
Your child has a DNA test,
just to be certain that you know
who the father is of that child.
[Jacoba] Instead of destroying me
you made me realize my self-worth.
That's absolutely what you did.
And you made me realize
what my purpose is too.
And I'm a fighter.
And I will fight for every sibling
that I have that I know,
that I don't know,
and for every woman that you assaulted.
And I will do this
until the fucking day I die.
[suspenseful music playing]
[music fades]
["Devil, Devil" by Milck playing]
Devil, Devil
Clever Devil, Devil
How quickly they do sell their souls
For the feast and the promise of gold
But Devil, that won't be me
Devil, Devil
Bones of metal, metal
You torture saints
With a single glance
Make them think
They ever stood a chance
Do not try me, Devil, Devil
Cannot buy me, Devil, Devil
You won't make a fool of me, oh no
What makes you so special, special
To think I would ever settle
For that devious dance
Between you and me, Devil, Devil
Rebel, rebel
Call me a rebel, rebel
I walk the plank, not a tear in my eye
I won't go down your blushing bride
Under the water
I'll be sharpening my knife
Do not try me, Devil, Devil
Cannot buy me, Devil, Devil
You won't make a fool of me, oh no
What makes you so special, special
To think I would ever settle
For that devious dance
Between you and me, Devil, Devil
[music fades]