[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Taylor reiterates claim that she's pregnant with Nowitzki's child

04:53 PM CDT on Saturday, May 23, 2009

By BRAD TOWNSEND / The Dallas Morning News
btownsend@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News

BEAUMONT – Through the glass of visitation booth No. 48, Cristal Taylor's hazel eyes flashed varying emotions. Desperation. Confusion. But, mostly, anger.

On Friday, a day after Mavericks star Dirk Nowitzki's attorney publicly doubted Taylor's claim that she is pregnant, Taylor fought back during her first face-to-face interview since her May 6 arrest at Nowitzki's home.

Well, as face-to-face as a prisoner in the Jefferson County Correctional Facility is allowed to get to a visitor.

"I'm willing to take a polygraph test on anything I state; can they do the same?" she asked of Nowitzki and his attorney, Robert Hart. "This is getting outrageous. It's turning into such drama."

On Monday, Taylor told The Dallas Morning News that Dallas County jail officials gave her a pregnancy test as part of a routine screening.

But jail officials and a spokesperson from Parkland Hospital, which monitors prisoner medical needs, said pregnancy tests are only given if there are pre-existing circumstances.

On Friday, Taylor altered her version. She said a jail official asked her how long it had been since her last menstrual cycle, to which she replied she couldn't remember. "That's when they said, 'I want you to urinate in the cup for me.' "

On Monday, Taylor said she believed she was about 4 ½ weeks pregnant. On Friday, she said she thought the reporter was referring to how long she had been pregnant at the time of the May 6 test. She said she now believes she is nearly seven weeks pregnant.

But Taylor, 37, reiterated her claim that she took two pregnancy tests at Dallas County jail, and that both turned positive results.

In a statement he issued Thursday, Hart said, "We have been told that she was not administered a pregnancy test." Privacy laws prevent law enforcement and hospital officials from releasing such medical records without the patient's consent.

Hart declined to comment Friday when asked to clarify that statement and respond to Taylor's counterclaims. Hart also had said, "As with all things coming from this woman's mouth, we are highly skeptical."

Taylor said her mother and sister called to inform her of Hart's comments. Taylor said she left Hart a voice message demanding an explanation.

"But I don't want to talk to an attorney," she said. "An attorney did not help me make this child. Dirk did."

As of Friday, Nowitzki still had not commented on Taylor's pregnancy claim, which she first made Monday night in a prison phone call to The Dallas Morning News. In his statement, Hart assured that in the "remote" chance Taylor is pregnant, "Dirk will do whatever can be done to ensure the well-being of the child."

Photos of Cristal Taylor, who was interviewed Friday by the DMN at the Jefferson County Correctional Facility in Beaumont.

Taylor, who previously told The News that she and Nowitzki had lived together for 1 ½ years and became engaged on New Year's Eve, wondered why Nowitzki himself hasn't spoken.

When informed Nowitzki flew from Dallas to Germany on Thursday, Taylor closed her eyes, and her shoulders drooped.

"He's good at running," she said. "But, I mean, he can run to Germany and run to Austria, or wherever. But me and his kid are still going to be here."

Living a nightmare

During the last three weeks, Mavericks fans have come to recognize Taylor from a YouTube video and less-than-flattering mugshots.

At 2 p.m. Friday, she entered visitation booth No. 48, a cinder-blocked room roughly 10 feet long and half as wide, with stationary metal stools and counters separated by glass and a two-way speaker.

Wearing an orange jumpsuit, she was strikingly tall, about 5-10, and wore a long ponytail, tied with a piece of string. She nodded and smiled, then sat down.

"I keep crying myself to sleep at night," she said. "I'm praying to God that I will wake up and find out it's just a nightmare. I dream that Dirk is going to come in and ask me if I'm ready for dinner.

"But I keep waking up in hell, over and over again."

Taylor said she doesn't understand how Nowitzki and/or his attorney can deny the possibility that she might be pregnant.

She said that through most of the 1 ½ years she lived with Nowitzki, she took a birth control shot called Depo-Provera. But she said that about three months ago, Nowitzki told her, "That's the last shot, so we can work on having a baby."

Said Taylor: "We were sleeping together almost every day. What did he think was going to happen?"

According to Federal Drug Administration literature, Depo-Provera injections cause a resting state in ovaries. Taylor noted that after she stopped injections, she experienced at least one spotty menstrual cycle, which she said is why she told Dallas jail officials she couldn't recall her last full cycle.

According to the FDA, missed or spotty cycles are a side effect of Depo-Provera.

"Dirk is a grown man," Taylor said. "Why is he having a lawyer doing his talking for him? I'm shocked at Dirk. Shocked. I love him with all my heart, and I'm appreciative of what we've had, but I don't get it."

Of Hart's statement that Nowitzki would "ensure the well-being of the child" if Taylor is pregnant, she said, "He made this baby with me. Taking care of it isn't the honorable thing; it's the law. If he doesn't do what he calls the 'honorable thing,' he should be sitting where I am."

'Miss Nowitzki'

The Jefferson County Correctional Facility sits on a desolate stretch of Highway 69, just inside the Beaumont city limit.

Taylor is one of 20 female prisoners sharing a block. She said guards and fellow prisoners have been kind. She is prisoner No. 16. Many, she said, refer to her as "Miss Nowitzki."

One of the facility's assistant chiefs, Jeff Theriot, said he has had a "ton" of media and visitor requests for Taylor.

"She's like a celebrity in here," he said. "We haven't had anyone like that in a long, long time."

Staff writer Reese Dunklin contributed to this report.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]