J.C. Rice
Jared Rosenthal delivers paternity news to families.
It’s Father’s Day — but do these New York men have reason to celebrate?
The Post spent the past few weeks cruising shotgun in a mobile DNA-testing truck helping doubtful dads find proof of their progeny.
Health Street, the testing company, has two 27-foot Winnebagos — “Who’s Your Daddy?” emblazoned on either side — that rumble through the city seven days a week offering a range of services, including drug and heritage testing.
For those who expressed interest in paternity tests, The Post offered to pay the $350 collection fee as an early Father’s Day gift.
Both dad and the child in question underwent a simple cheek swab — and a few days later, their results were ready.
“It’s life-changing news that we give,” said Health Street owner Jared Rosenthal, 42, adding that revealing test results is one of the most difficult things he has to do, bringing either a twinkle — or a tear — to a suspected father’s eyes.
“We take it very seriously, because whether the person turns out to have the biological relationship they were hoping to have, or not, it’s going to affect them,” he said.
Helayne Seidman
JUNIOIR DUDLEY, 33
When Junior Dudley met his 29-year-old now-ex, the two shared two things in common.
“We both wanted a pet monkey,” he said. “And we were both looking for love.”
They found the latter, having five kids together — or so Dudley thought.
“She cheated on me,” said Dudley, an avid vintage-toy collector who starts a job with the Parks Department tomorrow. “She wanted a guy who was more street — she was intrigued by that a lot.”
He endured her indiscretions for at least two years, he said — with other Casanovas including his own brother.
“Some people say that [one of my kids] looks like my brother,” he said.
After splitting up in 2012, Dudley has been wracked by doubt, scrutinizing his kids’ features, studying every story or excuse he says his ex concocted.
“I need to know, was she that bad of a person?”
REVEALED: He’s the daddy — of all five! “Yes! So all five are mine? That’s a blessing,” said Dudley, who pumped his fist each time a name came back positive. “I didn’t have a father figure when I was growing up. It would have hurt me, but I still would have been their father.”
J.C. Rice
ANTHONY COOPER, 56
It took a tragedy for Anthony Cooper to learn he might be the sire of his eighth child.
Cooper, a grandpa who lives outside Atlanta, was at a party in 2010 when he heard that a one-time flame, Bonita Moss, had disappeared near her home on Rockaway Parkway in Brooklyn in 2006.
He had known Moss since she was 18, and the two had a long connection, staying in touch for years. During that time, Moss had a baby girl, Ciara. “She never said it was my daughter,” he said. “I don’t even think she knew that was a possibility.”
That’s because Moss— whose seven biological kids are with three other women — was messing around with another guy at the time Ciara was conceived, said Cooper.
But he still kept an ember on the fire for Moss, who remains missing but would now be 52.
With kin in Coney Island, Cooper, a music producer by trade, began to travel back and forth to see if he could help find Moss. “I still have that love for her,” he said.
The silver lining was that he met and grew close to Ciara (above with Cooper), 25 — in whom he noticed striking similarities to his own features, particularly his nose and cheekbones.
“I can’t see me in her baby pictures, but I see it now,” he said.
REVEALED: He’s not the daddy. “She calls me dad and her daughters call me granddaddy — that’s not going to change,” said Cooper, who said he’d seek to adopt Ciara if she’s game.
She is. “Test results don’t change anything,” she said.
Helayne Seidman
KEITH PADGETT, 53
Shilow Gaillard admits to being a bit of a free spirit — which is why she wanted to have her fiancé tested, to be sure he’s the father of the child he’s helping to raise.
Gaillard, 25, said she had several paramours when baby Thailyn — who celebrates his second birthday today — was conceived, including an ex-fiancé, an ex-boyfriend and current fiancé Keith Padgett.
“I wasn’t looking for anything specific,” she said.
After her ex-fiancé hit the road — he was previously tested and was found not to be the daddy — Padgett became part of the picture again, encouraging Gaillard, Thailyn and a daughter from another relationship to move into his Bed-Stuy pad this past January.
“He calls Keith ‘Daddy’ now,” Gaillard said of Thailyn (all together above). “It’ll be a great Father’s Day gift if he actually is the daddy.”
REVEALED: Indeed, he’s the daddy. “Stop playing, man! Stop playing!” said an ecstatic Padgett, a drug counselor and chef. “Guess what? I was his daddy before, and nothing would have changed that. But I have to admit, it’s even better knowing now that he’s my blood for real.”
Gaillard took the occasion to tease. “Before, I wasn’t stuck with him — now I am,” she said, smiling.
Helayne Seidman
MARCUS MADDUX, 25
Marcus Maddux had plenty of reasons to shape up and become a father to 1-year-old Laila — and one big reason to doubt that she was even his.
“Her mother says she’s not mine — that’s a good reason,” he said.
Marcus said he left a life of crime behind once he heard his 23-year-old girlfriend was pregnant. He quit the hustle, got his GED and got a job working maintenance in a homeless shelter on Tilden Avenue.
“You have to have something in your life that makes you want to change,” said Maddux, whose last formal schooling was at IS 271 in Bed-Stuy. “The love I have for my daughter changed my life.”
Meanwhile, things quickly soured between Maddux and his ex. “I proposed about a year ago, but that didn’t go very far,” he recalled. “Her mother stepped in, told her it wasn’t real love.”
The two broke up, and now he rarely sees his daughter, whose name is tattooed on his chest.
But the baby’s skin, he’s been noticing, is suspiciously lighter than his own, he said.
REVEALED: He’s the daddy. “I’m really excited and happy right now,” said Maddux (above with Laila), who is battling for joint custody. “I’m glad I have the proof.”
William Miller
FRITZ RAYMOND, 37
Ex-Marine Fritz Raymond was walking along Parkside Avenue in Brooklyn 15 years ago when he first laid eyes on the woman who would eventually bear his could-be child.
“I liked her style — and she was pretty good-looking,” he recalled. Raymond started talking to her and the two became a couple. Then, two years later, she was pregnant and living in his Bed-Stuy apartment.
But this was hardly a storybook romance.
“Men were even calling my phone left and right asking for her,” Raymond said. “There were guys coming to the apartment.”
And then the final straw — at around the time the baby was conceived, he walked in on her with another man, he said.
Raymond, who aims to go back to school for social work, said he’s been suspicious ever since — especially now that his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi Coley (above, with Raymond), is already as tall as he is, 5-foot-6.
“In the back of my mind, I thought, ‘She is not my child,’ ” he said, admitting he’s been in and out — mostly out — of his daughter’s life for years, blaming his ex’s behavior.
REVEALED: He’s the daddy. “This is an opportunity to get closer to my daughter,” Raymond said, adding that part of him hoped the results would come back negative — just so he wouldn’t have to deal with his ex.
GBuiso@NYPost.com