Coleman and Jo met in 1991 at the Arlington apartment complex where they lived, and they had an "intermittent" sexual relationship, according to court documents.
At the time Coleman was a police officer and was launching his career as a bodybuilder, a career that eventually brought him eight Mr. Olympia championships -- a record that only one other bodybuilder has achieved.
After Jo moved to California in 2001, she and Coleman remained friends. He occasionally saw her when he went to the Los Angeles area to visit his daughter, an aspiring actress. He also saw Jo when he participated in bodybuilding competitions in California.
In 2006, Jo said she was planning to become a parent through artificial insemination, so Coleman agreed to donate sperm so she would know whom the sperm came from.
"She came to me and said she wanted to go through a sperm bank and get pregnant. I said I could probably do that [donate sperm] for you," he said.
In June 2007, Jo gave birth to premature triplets. Six months later, Coleman married someone else, and in March 2008 one of the triplets died.
In court testimony, Jo described a relationship that was not as casual as Coleman remembers it. She contends that she and Coleman talked about getting married and having children, court records say.
After her children were born, Jo said, Coleman signed papers stating that he was the father and visited the children in her home and had an overnight visit with them at his daughter's apartment.
But Coleman and court documents say that although he visited the babies at Jo's house, he did not take steps to declare that he was the children's father, such as welcoming them into his home.
And while court records say that five days after Jo delivered the triplets, Coleman signed documents at the hospital saying he was the father, Coleman said he thought he was signing forms that only confirmed that he was the sperm donor but not the father.
Coleman said he did not have an understanding of what he was signing and did not read the forms. He also did not have an attorney.
Lower courts said the documents that Coleman signed made him responsible for the children's care, but the appeals court sided with Coleman.
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http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/04/09/3871461/appeals-court-rules-arlington.html#storylink=cpy