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Missing Man's Wife Goes to Court to Fight Amnesiac Claiming His Identity

By James Fanelli | October 17, 2014 1:23pm | Updated on October 20, 2014 8:52am
 The wife of an East Village father of three who went missing more than 20 years ago went to court to fight an amnesiac's claims that he's her long-lost husband.
Family of Missing Man Fight Amnesiac's Claims
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MANHATTAN — The wife of an East Village father of three who mysteriously disappeared more than 20 years ago went to court Friday to fight a California amnesiac who says he is her long-lost husband.

Leslie Bright, 63, appeared in Manhattan Surrogate's Court Friday to challenge a court petition filed earlier this year by amnesiac Kwame Seku, 65, in which he claimed that DNA testing proves he is her  missing husband, Winston Bright.

Bright had her husband, a telephone switchman, declared dead in 2000 after a decade of searching for him came up empty. By declaring him dead, she was allowed to collect his pension from Verizon.

Aside from proving his identity, Seku's petition also wants to win back the Verizon pension from his wife.

"He never came and showed us any kind of proof," Leslie Bright told Manhattan Surrogate Court judge Rita Mella on Friday, adding that there are many inconsistencies in his account.

Even if DNA tests can prove that Seku is her long-lost partner, he's a fraud for disappearing for 20 years and only showing up to wrangle money from her, Leslie Bright told a reporter outside of court.

"He's Winston Bright and he's a scammer," said Leslie, who is wheelchair-bound and lives off the $300-a-month pension and Social Security. "When he came back, it was only for him to get money from the phone company."

Seku's filing says that he suffered memory loss in 1990 and somehow ended up in San Diego, where a judge gave him a new identity and he started over as a teacher. His lawyer said genetic tests between her client and Winston Bright's mother back his claim.

"We have the DNA tests that prove 99 percent that he is related to his mother," Emilee Gayle Wyner, a lawyer for Seku, told Judge Mella.

"We have before us a very unusual application," Mella said during the brief court appearance on Friday in which Leslie and her three children showed up to stop Seku. 

Mella said that since Leslie appeared to contest Seku's petition, she will hold a trial to determine his true identity. Leslie has until Nov. 14 to file a formal response to Seku's claims, Mella said.

Seku could not immediately be reached for comment.