WEBVTT - The Girlfriends S3/E6: Guilty Schmilty 0:00:00.040 --> 0:00:03.559 Hey, girlfriends, it's Anna. Most of this episode takes place 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:06.520 in prison. There's going to be some mentions of murder 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:10.559 and some very serious domestic abuse, but you'll also get 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:12.320 to meet some more of the women Kelly got to 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:14.880 know while she was locked up, many of whom have 0:00:15.000 --> 0:00:18.960 stories just as incredible and complex as hers. If you 0:00:19.000 --> 0:00:21.120 feel impacted by some of the themes in this show, 0:00:21.280 --> 0:00:23.439 you can reach out to No More. There are a 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:26.439 domestic violence charity with a lot of great resources to 0:00:26.480 --> 0:00:29.639 help you or your loved ones. You can search No 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:32.040 More dot org and we've also put a link to 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:35.760 their website in the episode description. And as you know, 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:43.720 we all swear a little bit. It's October twenty thirteen. 0:00:44.560 --> 0:00:48.640 Alone in her cramp cell, surrounded by towering piles of 0:00:48.720 --> 0:00:53.920 legal documents, Kelly Hannett relives her trial over and over. 0:00:54.720 --> 0:00:59.080 I was broken apart clearly for the first few d's 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:00.960 asley I lead in bed. 0:01:01.200 --> 0:01:06.240 Her fellow Ryker's Island shorties can't believe the jury's decision, She. 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:08.720 Says, she had been found guilty. Well, like kill, it 0:01:08.800 --> 0:01:10.640 is not playing because Kelly is a joke starre too. 0:01:11.200 --> 0:01:14.640 That's Angelica who you heard from an episode for Kelly's 0:01:14.680 --> 0:01:16.120 friend with all the makeup tips. 0:01:16.640 --> 0:01:20.000 She will say, Now they found me guilty, and she 0:01:20.560 --> 0:01:26.000 broke down and we were shot in. 0:01:26.400 --> 0:01:31.399 All of us started crying like how like how is 0:01:31.480 --> 0:01:32.440 that possible? 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.800 Kelly left the courtroom, promising herself that she would take 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:41.679 down the prosecutor from her trial, Assistant District Attorney Sean Clark. 0:01:42.520 --> 0:01:47.960 But instead she's barely left herself for days. She's moping hard, 0:01:48.480 --> 0:01:56.560 head deep under the covers. Eventually, Angelica decides enough is enough. 0:01:58.880 --> 0:02:02.440 We had a rule, you have three days. 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:04.240 Of feeling sorry for yourself, and then you gotta get 0:02:04.280 --> 0:02:08.000 out and figure it out, right D number three. 0:02:08.360 --> 0:02:09.600 I borge into herself. 0:02:09.600 --> 0:02:12.160 That's all right, she said, shouty, that's it. 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:13.919 It's cool. It's time to get up. 0:02:16.520 --> 0:02:19.000 So I got up. I sat up, and she said 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:21.920 what are you doing? I mean, what are you doing? 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:25.400 I said, what do you want me to do? I 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:26.200 was found guilty? 0:02:26.240 --> 0:02:26.680 You know that. 0:02:27.639 --> 0:02:36.680 She goes, ah, guilty, shmilty. She said, look around, paperwork, paperwork, 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:39.320 paper All I see here is paperwork. 0:02:39.440 --> 0:02:39.720 Kelly. 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:44.240 I said, yeah, I know, and it all went to nothing. 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:47.000 She goes, oh no it didn't. No, No, you're not 0:02:47.000 --> 0:02:47.919 gonna go there with me. 0:02:48.880 --> 0:02:53.400 Take your butt to that little library and figure something out. 0:02:54.360 --> 0:02:58.320 Laying here is an option. You gotta get up, and 0:02:58.320 --> 0:02:58.800 you gotta go. 0:03:04.320 --> 0:03:08.919 I'm Anasonfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts, 0:03:09.360 --> 0:03:35.360 This is the Girlfriend's Gelhouse. Lawyer is episode six, Guilty 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:49.960 Schmilty By November twenty thirteen, Inspired by Angelica's Tough Love, 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:53.320 Kelly is back in the Riker's law library. 0:03:54.360 --> 0:03:56.880 I started looking through everything, and that's when I found 0:03:56.920 --> 0:03:58.480 a three thirty statue. 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.680 At three thirty motion to set aside a verdict. 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:05.760 November fifth, twenty thirteen. It was my first motion that 0:04:05.800 --> 0:04:11.160 I put in, was all in and written, and it 0:04:11.280 --> 0:04:12.920 was sixty eight pages. 0:04:14.120 --> 0:04:17.120 Kelly doesn't want to leave anything to chance with this document. 0:04:18.520 --> 0:04:21.760 She picks up the phone and calls, of all people, 0:04:22.279 --> 0:04:26.159 prosecutor Sean Clark, the man who's just got her sent 0:04:26.240 --> 0:04:26.719 to prison. 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:28.800 I wasn't sure if he was going to hang up 0:04:28.880 --> 0:04:33.960 on me or speak to me, but he did say, yeah, yeah, 0:04:34.000 --> 0:04:36.920 I received it. I said, so, what would happen when 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:40.640 I go back to court? Probably nothing, It'll probably be adjourned. 0:04:41.920 --> 0:04:46.200 And this was the beginning of a seventeen month war 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:47.400 of attrition. 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:52.440 For seventeen months. Kelly, a self taughtu our house lawyer, 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:58.680 holds her sentencing at bay, trying every legal avenue she 0:04:58.720 --> 0:04:59.279 can find. 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:03.120 He wrote emotion. I wrote emotion. Maybe sometimes that every 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:07.440 opposition I wrote for, and it came to a point 0:05:07.440 --> 0:05:13.799 where they stopped answering me, so I kept writing motions anyway. 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:17.760 A lot of Kelly's motions focus on what's called the 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.840 Brady Rule. It states that all evidence from the police 0:05:21.960 --> 0:05:24.760 and prosecution is meant to be turned over to the 0:05:24.800 --> 0:05:30.000 other side, especially things that could benefit the defense. And 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:33.600 while it hasn't been proven, Kelly alleges that this Brady 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.680 Rule was violated and that some evidence wasn't handed over. 0:05:38.400 --> 0:05:41.520 She also states that much of what's missing relates to 0:05:41.600 --> 0:05:46.640 the problematic eyewitness Amando Perez. She found evidence in a 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:50.080 police officer's notepad that he was known by a different name. 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.120 They made a mistake, they didn't redact one of the 0:05:53.160 --> 0:05:56.680 portions and it said witness Armando contreris Perez. 0:05:57.400 --> 0:06:01.440 According to some online slew thing, Kelly's brother, rond Amando 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:05.960 Contreres Perez, well, he has some skeletons in his closet, 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:07.560 so I. 0:06:07.640 --> 0:06:11.360 Witnessed my trial had an extensive criminal background that was 0:06:11.480 --> 0:06:15.040 not turned over to me. Basically the biggest Brady violation 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.080 of all Kelly suspects. 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.800 Armando may have a criminal record, and that it could 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.520 have been white in exchange for his testimony against her, 0:06:23.160 --> 0:06:25.919 although this hasn't been proven, and while I've seen a 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.600 photocopy of the notebook with the Contrera's name in it, 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:31.680 I haven't been able to find these criminal records myself. 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:36.320 But that doesn't mean it's all just tinfoil hat nonsense either. 0:06:37.400 --> 0:06:41.320 Prosecutors do strike deals with individuals who have criminal charges 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:44.960 or convictions in exchange for their testimony against someone else. 0:06:45.920 --> 0:06:48.080 Then there are the moves Kelly Mankes that are a 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:54.800 little more unorthodox, especially when it comes to Judge Lasac. 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:58.520 I got a hold of his first grade teacher. 0:06:58.760 --> 0:07:02.520 Kelly says. She makes then through a chaplain called Sister Eileen, 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:06.120 who she met at Riker's And Sister Eileen knew the 0:07:06.240 --> 0:07:07.880 nun who taught at the judge's school. 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:12.040 So the first grade teacher called them back, and from 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.320 my understanding, she was really pushing him and prodding him, 0:07:15.360 --> 0:07:19.600 like set this girl's verdict, decide, like listen, I'm your 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:23.480 first grade teacher. They tried the porn nuns. 0:07:23.480 --> 0:07:27.800 Kelly says. She also manages to somehow find the number 0:07:27.880 --> 0:07:31.760 for Judge lay Sack's best friend. She is nothing if 0:07:31.800 --> 0:07:32.560 not resourceful. 0:07:33.120 --> 0:07:38.000 I left a message on his best friend's voicemail telling 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.160 the best friend how I'm innocent and they've made a 0:07:41.240 --> 0:07:42.000 huge mistake. 0:07:42.480 --> 0:07:45.440 I'm sure this all went down great with Judge lay Sack. 0:07:46.360 --> 0:07:51.000 Kelly battles on and on and on, but after holding 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:53.520 off her sentencing for nearly a year and a half, 0:07:54.000 --> 0:07:58.480 she's exhausted all her possible motions. No more delays. It's 0:07:58.480 --> 0:08:05.920 time to go back to court. It's March twenty fifteen. 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:10.040 Kelly Hannett is standing in the same courtroom where she 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:14.920 was found guilty seventeen months ago. It's time for her sentencing. 0:08:15.640 --> 0:08:19.600 She's facing twenty five years to life. This is Kelly's 0:08:19.640 --> 0:08:24.480 final opportunity to speak, and in true Kelly style, she's 0:08:24.520 --> 0:08:26.280 taking full advantage of it. 0:08:27.160 --> 0:08:31.960 I went on and on and on and on. I 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:37.400 was citing case law and constitutional violations. 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.520 I've seen the transcripts of this. It really does go 0:08:40.640 --> 0:08:43.280 on for page after page. 0:08:43.320 --> 0:08:45.520 All of these people were standing in front of me 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:47.800 as I went on and on and on, and I 0:08:47.840 --> 0:08:51.079 looked at some of their faces and their mouths were 0:08:51.200 --> 0:08:56.600 up and like shock and awe. That was one of 0:08:56.640 --> 0:09:03.000 my proudest moments because I had the ada. She means 0:09:03.040 --> 0:09:08.319 Sean Clark suck in his teeth, sighing, and what does 0:09:08.360 --> 0:09:11.000 it feel like? I felt like saying, like, you shut up, 0:09:11.000 --> 0:09:11.840 it's my time now. 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.000 Kelly also says how sorry she is for Angel and 0:09:20.040 --> 0:09:23.120 his family, but that she shouldn't be held responsible for 0:09:23.160 --> 0:09:28.160 his murder. She says, I did not contribute to that 0:09:28.240 --> 0:09:32.240 death in any way, shape or form. I was definitely 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:37.040 afraid of my co defendant. Kelly also says that had 0:09:37.080 --> 0:09:39.680 she not done what she did, Tommy would have killed 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:43.040 her as well, and that instead of prosecuting a case 0:09:43.080 --> 0:09:53.200 with one victim, it would have been too Kelly ends 0:09:53.200 --> 0:09:57.520 her monologue by thanking Judge Lasak for his patients. Then 0:09:57.760 --> 0:10:01.080 it's time for the judge to deliver his center, and 0:10:01.120 --> 0:10:04.680 he doesn't hold back. I've asked producer Jake to read 0:10:04.720 --> 0:10:06.000 from the court transcripts. 0:10:09.720 --> 0:10:12.120 We had to delay the sentence to allow you to 0:10:12.160 --> 0:10:15.839 make every three point thirty motion that you deemed necessary 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.800 to make. And it has been delayed for quite a 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:23.240 number of months. This is a very sad case. The 0:10:23.320 --> 0:10:27.640 court takes no pleasure in any sentence, especially a sentence 0:10:27.640 --> 0:10:33.280 regarding a case like this. You are not the victim 0:10:33.520 --> 0:10:39.480 in this case, and you are not a witness. We 0:10:39.520 --> 0:10:43.960 all make choices in life, Miss Harnett, on this particular 0:10:44.080 --> 0:10:47.720 night July seventh, back in twenty ten, you were with 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:50.560 a person that you made a choice to be with, 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:56.880 mister Donovan. You had a choice to take ten years 0:10:56.920 --> 0:11:00.400 on manslaughter plea, and you chose not to, just like 0:11:00.440 --> 0:11:03.160 you chose to stay with mister Donovan, and you chose 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:06.120 not to try and stop him, and you chose to 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:09.920 give him that sneaker lace, and you chose to kick him, 0:11:10.559 --> 0:11:13.920 kick mister Vargas when he was down on the ground. 0:11:15.559 --> 0:11:19.200 These are all choices that you made at that time. 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.520 And I'm sure Miss Harnett, you would wish you could 0:11:23.559 --> 0:11:26.920 turn back the clock to July seventh, twenty ten and 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:30.280 act differently, and this never would have happened, and we 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:33.880 wouldn't be here and mister Vargas would be with his family. 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.120 But we have to deal with the reality, and the 0:11:38.200 --> 0:11:42.920 reality is that you and mister Donovan acted in concert 0:11:44.120 --> 0:11:52.559 and killed him. 0:11:52.679 --> 0:11:56.160 That was like a pretty terrifying transcript from her case, 0:11:56.280 --> 0:11:58.559 wasn't it. Yeah, you did this and you did that, 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:00.880 and this is who you are. You know, you are 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:03.280 not a victim in this case. You are not a witness. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:05.040 It is heavy, it's really heavy. 0:12:05.240 --> 0:12:07.640 Yeah, it's that use of the word choice that you 0:12:07.800 --> 0:12:09.560 chose to do this, you chose to do that. 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:14.280 There's no nuance in it for the judge. It feels 0:12:14.320 --> 0:12:17.600 like the judge is almost like a representation of the 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:21.160 brick wall that like somebody in Kelly's position hits over 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:24.720 and over again as they try to just get understanding. 0:12:25.120 --> 0:12:27.800 Yeah, and it makes sense that after that experience, she's 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.160 become so passionate about trying to get people to really 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:34.319 see who she is, you know, like to understand that 0:12:34.400 --> 0:12:38.280 there's the like domestic violence aspect, as she said to me. 0:12:38.720 --> 0:12:40.960 Yeah. 0:12:41.080 --> 0:12:45.439 On March twenty fifth, twenty fifteen, Kelly Harnett is sentenced 0:12:45.440 --> 0:12:48.920 to a minimum of seventeen years in prison for the 0:12:49.000 --> 0:12:53.400 murder of Reuben Angel Vargas and one year for the 0:12:53.400 --> 0:13:01.960 criminal possession of a weapon a shoelace. In the eyes 0:13:02.000 --> 0:13:05.800 of the law, Kelly is a murderer, a villain, not 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:10.480 a victim as she claims, And now she's finally going 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:16.240 where she belongs, Bedford Hill's Correctional Facility, the only maximum 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:21.640 security women's prison in the state of New York. When 0:13:21.679 --> 0:13:25.320 Kelly gets to Bedford, She's immediately dropped into a new world. 0:13:26.160 --> 0:13:29.000 She's out in the sticks of upstate New York, over 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:32.200 forty miles away from her family back in Queens and 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:40.880 away from her Riker's Island. Shorties after arriving, Kelly's brought 0:13:40.920 --> 0:13:43.080 to an area known as the Jungle. 0:13:43.600 --> 0:13:46.720 Why was it called the jungle because they're crazy. They 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:49.720 set their cells on fire on a regular basis. One 0:13:49.800 --> 0:13:52.560 time there was the fire, but I hadn't been able 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.560 to use the phone for a week, so since everyone ran, 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.640 I ran into the phone room so I could finally 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:00.760 make a phone call. And I was like, well, when 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:04.400 the fiery gets really bad, I'll run. Like this is 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:05.720 how crazy it is in there. 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:11.520 But underneath all the chaos, many of Kelly's fellow inmates 0:14:11.880 --> 0:14:13.280 are lifeless. 0:14:13.160 --> 0:14:18.080 Bad fruit. Everybody's dead. Everybody's dead inside. They're walking around, 0:14:18.120 --> 0:14:19.200 but there's nothing in there. 0:14:20.280 --> 0:14:23.960 Locked up away from her family, away from the world 0:14:24.680 --> 0:14:28.920 surrounded by women so broken they're almost more zombie than human. 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.560 It would be understandable for anyone to throw in the 0:14:32.600 --> 0:14:36.760 towel and join the walking dead. But this is Kelly Harnett. 0:14:37.280 --> 0:14:39.520 She hasn't given up so far, and she's sure is 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:45.600 shit not going to give up now. Every morning, in 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:49.200 her green prison uniform, Kelly sits in her cell, in 0:14:49.240 --> 0:14:52.920 front of her mirror and brings herself to life. 0:14:53.880 --> 0:14:57.000 I made sure that under my state greens that I 0:14:57.040 --> 0:14:59.160 always had a T shirt on that was a different 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:03.440 color than green, and that had to match my eyeshadow 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.760 as well as my lipstick every day and usually my earrings, 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.760 and I always wore a headband that matched that, because 0:15:13.360 --> 0:15:20.760 that's a sense of individuality. I'm Kelly cloaked in a 0:15:20.840 --> 0:15:27.120 guilty person's uniform, but I wanted the individuality to shine 0:15:27.160 --> 0:15:36.160 through because I'm not guilty. I realized that when you're 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.200 just a detainee. 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:40.360 Meaning still a ways in your trial, you have. 0:15:40.320 --> 0:15:43.160 Life and hope and whatnot. Now these people are walking 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:48.920 around with these twenty five to life sentences and they're hopeless. 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.800 I know so much about the law, so my first 0:15:52.840 --> 0:15:58.320 thing was Jesus Christ, I have to help these people out. 0:15:59.480 --> 0:16:02.520 Kelly's the first couple of weeks keeping her head down 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:06.200 getting to know the lay of the land, but she 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:08.560 can't stay away from the law library for too long. 0:16:09.440 --> 0:16:11.880 And it's in there that Kelly starts to find people 0:16:11.920 --> 0:16:16.080 who can relate to all the frankly fucking crazy experiences 0:16:16.160 --> 0:16:17.480 she's had while locked up. 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:22.640 One day, I started talking to him about how Riker's 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:25.560 iamon wanted to cut my leg off one time and 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:30.040 they had the wrong person. They literally wanted to amputate 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.920 my leg. Then they told me I had a tumor, 0:16:33.120 --> 0:16:35.960 and I busted out laughing. I said, bring me back 0:16:36.000 --> 0:16:37.960 to the unit. Me and my tumor would like to 0:16:38.040 --> 0:16:39.960 leave now. I didn't have a tumor. 0:16:41.600 --> 0:16:45.520 So he was overhearing Kelly holding court is one of 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:48.440 the prison officers. I'm just going to refer to him 0:16:48.520 --> 0:16:50.600 as the officer from here on out. 0:16:51.320 --> 0:16:54.240 He actually started laughing. He said, Jesus, I thought it 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:58.480 was bed here. And then he started speaking to me, 0:16:59.120 --> 0:17:03.720 and clearly I wanted to jump there, so I inquired, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:09.120 and immediately he asked me, like, do you have any experience? 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.280 And I said a little bit. 0:17:13.960 --> 0:17:18.360 Kelly is intrigued by the officer. There's something different about him. 0:17:18.760 --> 0:17:21.120 He doesn't treat her like an inmate, like a number. 0:17:21.640 --> 0:17:28.000 He's attentive. By August twenty fifteen, Kelly becomes a qualified 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:32.280 law clerk here in Bedford, making about twenty four cents 0:17:32.280 --> 0:17:37.640 an hour. Kelly's back where she loves to be, neck 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.480 deep in a bunch of legal papers with a list 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:42.680 of grateful clients as long as her arm. 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.600 I don't know how many motions I rolled. I was 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:48.480 doing so much work. 0:17:49.040 --> 0:17:51.960 And rather than embarrass myself by trying to explain the 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:55.880 complicated legal tactics being offered to the women of Bedford. 0:17:55.480 --> 0:18:00.960 Hills, now it gets a little complex because for just vacation. 0:18:01.640 --> 0:18:04.440 I'll leave it to Kelly Harnett esquire. 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:09.280 I wrote her brief, and it was due to a 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:12.640 justification to fancountcy CPL three thirty thirty. Yet, like I said, 0:18:12.760 --> 0:18:16.040 martians satisided vertict mass up section one of three thirty thirty, 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.680 which they said it must be two scent. There was 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:22.200 the weight of the evidence that behavior's corpus. I could 0:18:22.200 --> 0:18:25.080 always do an article seventy eight, which would be directing 0:18:25.160 --> 0:18:31.640 that the jury was wrong to date, I could reiterate everything, 0:18:31.720 --> 0:18:37.480 including all of the cases. I became a person full 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:39.840 of hope for so many people at Bedford. 0:18:40.080 --> 0:18:43.800 But Kelly's not content with just inspiring hope. She wants 0:18:43.880 --> 0:18:48.080 to do something big, something she says, no female Geilhouse 0:18:48.160 --> 0:18:51.400 lawyer in the state of New York has ever done before. 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:56.560 With this in mind, one day she asked the officer 0:18:56.680 --> 0:18:57.639 a question. 0:18:58.080 --> 0:19:02.880 How many people have got and other incarcerated individuals out 0:19:02.960 --> 0:19:10.959 of here? He goes, like, you mean other inmates. Nobody's 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:19.840 ever done that? I said nobody. He said no. I said, 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:21.560 I'm going to be the first one to do that. 0:19:22.480 --> 0:19:24.800 He looked at me. He goes, I hope you are. 0:19:25.480 --> 0:19:26.240 I hope you are. 0:19:47.680 --> 0:19:53.359 If I asked you to picture Kelly in prison, what's 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:56.440 the moment that you're seeing in your head. 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.520 Her yelling out of her cell or her door to open. 0:20:01.520 --> 0:20:05.119 This is Trinity. She was in prison with Kelly. They 0:20:05.160 --> 0:20:07.600 lived on the same block, but they first met in 0:20:07.640 --> 0:20:08.600 the law library. 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:10.119 She's gonna laugh when she hears it. 0:20:10.160 --> 0:20:11.840 I'm telling you, she's gonna laugh because she knows what 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.639 I'm talking about. 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:21.000 Every morning at Bedford Hill's correctional facility, all inmates are 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:23.280 woken by the sound of their cell doors opening. 0:20:23.800 --> 0:20:25.159 They all open at once. 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:28.199 All except Kelly's. 0:20:28.240 --> 0:20:33.800 Every single day she had to yell to get her 0:20:33.800 --> 0:20:37.400 door open, open, three open, three. 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:39.480 Open like you can you can like wait for it. 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:44.400 All the doors would open, bam open three every single 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:47.399 day like it got Oh my god, like I literally 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:48.440 lost my mind over. 0:20:50.000 --> 0:20:52.760 Trinity is thirty years old now, but she went to 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:54.919 prison when she was just a teenager. 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.879 Like Kelly, I have a domestic violence case. When I 0:20:58.920 --> 0:21:02.479 was seventeen, I was with my father. My dad has 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:06.359 always been like an alcoholic and a pretty abusive towards 0:21:06.400 --> 0:21:10.800 us growing up. My incident was it happened in July 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:18.040 twenty twelve. The short version is that my father was 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:23.480 drunk and tried to kill me, and I ended up 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:26.640 killing him and then I got arrested. 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:32.080 Trinity's story is depressingly similar to so many of the 0:21:32.119 --> 0:21:36.240 women I've spoken to while making this series, women who've 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:40.440 experienced a life full of violence and extreme trauma, setting 0:21:40.440 --> 0:21:44.600 them on a catastrophic path. Often they had to come 0:21:44.640 --> 0:21:48.520 to prison to finally be free of their abuses and 0:21:49.040 --> 0:21:50.760 to find a real family. 0:21:52.480 --> 0:21:55.520 In Bedford, Like we have nothing to do, so it's 0:21:55.560 --> 0:21:58.000 like we just talk or laugh or play games or something, 0:21:58.000 --> 0:22:00.879 watch a movie or whatever. One time we were playing 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:03.000 this boarding I think it was from my birthday party, 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:06.680 something like scategories, where it's like you had to roll 0:22:06.720 --> 0:22:09.320 the die with the letter and then you had to 0:22:09.359 --> 0:22:11.080 like try to like write down all the things that 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.520 began in that letter. So it was like different types 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:18.320 of cars, and the letter started with h I'm thinking 0:22:18.359 --> 0:22:19.200 like a Honda. 0:22:20.200 --> 0:22:24.440 Kelly's team mate is doing some more let's say lateral thinking. 0:22:25.080 --> 0:22:29.320 Her partner said a hearse and it was so funny, 0:22:29.640 --> 0:22:32.119 and Kelly thought it was the funniest thing. I mean, 0:22:32.160 --> 0:22:35.439 she was laughing for so long and it made me 0:22:35.600 --> 0:22:36.160 laugh too. 0:22:36.520 --> 0:22:41.840 Yeah. Wanting to stop her Badford family from becoming totally hopeless. 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:45.400 Like so many of her fellow inmates, Kelly pushes them 0:22:45.440 --> 0:22:48.920 to relook into their own cases, like she's doing with hers. 0:22:49.840 --> 0:22:52.960 Kelly taught me that you can get out on a technicality, 0:22:53.160 --> 0:22:55.680 like an infraction like something like that. So she encouraged me, 0:22:55.720 --> 0:22:58.120 you know, like read your transcripts, go over it. If 0:22:58.160 --> 0:22:59.800 it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have done that. More 0:22:59.800 --> 0:23:00.400 than likely. 0:23:01.600 --> 0:23:05.000 Working alongside Kelly in the law library, Trinity can see 0:23:05.040 --> 0:23:08.440 how many inmates are relying on her. Kelly sees the 0:23:08.520 --> 0:23:09.240 benefits too. 0:23:09.920 --> 0:23:13.600 I had the protection from the Law Library. If somebody 0:23:13.760 --> 0:23:16.960 tried me, I always tell them like, listen, this is 0:23:17.000 --> 0:23:20.760 something you don't want to do, because I guarantee you 0:23:20.760 --> 0:23:23.440 you will need me at some point in your bid. 0:23:23.800 --> 0:23:27.280 And then other people would finally say, oh, this one 0:23:27.440 --> 0:23:30.600 you don't touch like anybody else. I don't care. But 0:23:30.680 --> 0:23:33.119 it's just because I was like the only lawyer you know, 0:23:33.920 --> 0:23:38.160 Jelhouse lawyer. Obviously, Yeah, the. 0:23:38.160 --> 0:23:41.879 Law Library offers physical protection from the other inmates, but 0:23:41.960 --> 0:23:44.960 it's so much more important to Kelly than that. It's 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:54.080 her sacred safe space. But then something happens, something that 0:23:54.119 --> 0:23:56.680 puts Kelly at risk of losing the law library job 0:23:56.800 --> 0:24:01.560 she's worked so hard for. Kelly begins to spend more 0:24:01.600 --> 0:24:04.520 time with the officer. He's been so helpful to her 0:24:04.560 --> 0:24:07.840 throughout her incarceration so far, and as Kelly sees it, 0:24:08.160 --> 0:24:10.040 he's one of the few good men she's met in 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:16.680 her life. But one day, Kelly says, their relationship crosses 0:24:16.720 --> 0:24:20.600 a line from prison guard and prisoner into something else. 0:24:21.760 --> 0:24:24.080 Yeah, he definitely he put the moons on me. He 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:28.199 started touching me and things of that nature. I'm not 0:24:28.280 --> 0:24:31.600 going to lie. When we kissed for the first time, 0:24:32.600 --> 0:24:39.080 that felt nice. I wanted to feel love, and when 0:24:39.080 --> 0:24:45.800 you're taken away from human contact for so long, just 0:24:46.119 --> 0:24:51.640 this feels good. I always just wanted to kiss and 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:55.560 like a hub I felt a lot when I kissed him, 0:24:55.720 --> 0:24:59.280 and he said that he felt a lot too, And 0:24:59.320 --> 0:25:03.600 then I was to get excited like I have a boyfriend. 0:25:09.400 --> 0:25:13.640 Deep down, Kelly knows what the officer is doing isn't right. 0:25:14.600 --> 0:25:17.080 It was weird. It was kind of maybe like they 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:17.960 call it grooming. 0:25:18.840 --> 0:25:23.400 I felt violated in every prison, not only in New York, 0:25:23.560 --> 0:25:27.120 but across the whole of the USA. Sexual or intimate 0:25:27.160 --> 0:25:31.880 relationships between prison officers and inmates are forbidden, and it's 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:35.400 not just against the rules, it's a crime. Even if 0:25:35.400 --> 0:25:39.159 both the officer and inmate claim it was consensual, the 0:25:39.240 --> 0:25:42.520 law wouldn't agree. The power and balances involved are just 0:25:42.600 --> 0:25:43.080 too great. 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:45.919 I felt that I couldn't tell him no. 0:25:46.840 --> 0:25:50.240 Kelly's worried what if this could jeopardize her access to 0:25:50.359 --> 0:25:51.200 the law library. 0:25:52.240 --> 0:25:55.520 The law library is my life, and without the law library, 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:57.000 I'll probably never get home. 0:25:57.800 --> 0:26:00.320 Kelly also knows how many of her fellow in mates 0:26:00.359 --> 0:26:01.400 are depending on her. 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:04.680 I'm gonna let the whole facility down if this ever 0:26:04.760 --> 0:26:08.719 gets out, because I'm taking care of everyone's cases, and 0:26:08.760 --> 0:26:12.520 what would everyone ever do? So I felt that I 0:26:12.560 --> 0:26:14.840 had to let him do these things to me. 0:26:16.240 --> 0:26:20.480