Speaker 1: Hey, it's Sannah here to give your heads up on
Speaker 1: what to expect in this final episode. There's going to
Speaker 1: be mentions of murder, domestic abuse, and addiction phist. There'll
Speaker 1: be some distressing scenes. Oh and you guessed it, some
Speaker 1: bad language. But you'll also get to see what the
Speaker 1: future might hold for Kelly and how she's rebuilding her
Speaker 1: life beyond prison. If you're affected by any of the
Speaker 1: themes around domestic and gendered violence in this show, reach
Speaker 1: out to our charity partner No More.
Speaker 2: There are a domestic.
Speaker 1: Violence charity with a lot of great resources to help
Speaker 1: you or your loved ones. You can search No More
Speaker 1: dot org and we've also put a link to their
Speaker 1: website in the episode description. It's the twenty seventh of
Speaker 1: April twenty twenty two. Kelly Harnett is in a familiar place,
Speaker 1: a prison transfer van.
Speaker 2: She's on her way to court.
Speaker 1: Over the past decade and some change as her case
Speaker 1: slowly moved through the justice system, Kelly has made a
Speaker 1: lot of similar journeys, but this time something is different.
Speaker 3: I am not kidding. I thought I was getting kidnapped
Speaker 3: on the way to court.
Speaker 1: She's been traveling for two hours She's alone in the van.
Speaker 2: Say for the prison guards up front.
Speaker 4: It was the most surreal feeling.
Speaker 3: In the world.
Speaker 4: I'm in the van with no windows. I'm screaming at them,
Speaker 4: why is this taking someone to get there?
Speaker 3: And they're not answering me at all.
Speaker 1: In the silence, Kelly's mind kicks into overdrive, imagining a
Speaker 1: hundred different, equally distressing scenarios. Kelly's particularly anxious right now
Speaker 1: because today isn't just any other day in court. If
Speaker 1: all goes well, it will be her last, because she's
Speaker 1: finally getting resentenced. Kelly squints, blinking as the sunlight paws
Speaker 1: into the prison van, her heart beating as she wonders
Speaker 1: where the hell she is.
Speaker 3: Oh, this is Queen's Court.
Speaker 1: Safely unkidnapped and dropped off at her destination.
Speaker 2: Kelly steadies herself.
Speaker 1: Then she starts walking towards her freedom.
Speaker 3: This was so cinematic.
Speaker 4: It was like the most beautiful courtate you could ever imagine.
Speaker 4: I had on a white collared shirt, the tan pants
Speaker 4: that they make you wear.
Speaker 3: I wore my hair down.
Speaker 4: And made sure I did my makeup really nice, and
Speaker 4: I was ready to go home.
Speaker 1: Kelly strides into Queen's court flanks by two prison guys.
Speaker 1: They get into the lift and make her face the wall.
Speaker 1: Then she's called into the courtroom where she'll be standing
Speaker 1: in front of Judge Brunner dBase.
Speaker 4: As soon as I walked out, she said, good morning,
Speaker 4: Miss Harnett with this bright smile.
Speaker 5: No judge ever looked at her or smiled at her.
Speaker 5: One smile made such an impression on her.
Speaker 1: You've probably already guessed, but this is Judge dBase.
Speaker 5: I do make a conscious effort to interact with the
Speaker 5: individuals in my court. Many of the litigants. I often
Speaker 5: think that when they come in and they see me
Speaker 5: and probably think, what does she understand about my pain?
Speaker 5: But I do.
Speaker 1: Judge Dbs's son Eric died of a drug overdose about
Speaker 1: thirteen years ago. Then in twenty nineteen, her daughter Lisa,
Speaker 1: who also struggled with addiction, hit a cyclist named John
Speaker 1: James Uzma Quintero with her car. She was drunk and
Speaker 1: high at the time. John died and Lisa went to
Speaker 1: prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges. By the time
Speaker 1: Kelly walks into Judge Dbiassi's courtroom in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: Lisa is behind bars.
Speaker 5: Having had an incrocerted daughter has informed my decisions now
Speaker 5: about the length of a sentence individual should receive. I
Speaker 5: was so not versed in all of that at the
Speaker 5: time of my son's active addiction. That was me.
Speaker 3: But you know, there's only so much you.
Speaker 5: Can dwell in the past, and so what I've decided
Speaker 5: to do is to take the knowledge that I have
Speaker 5: now and to move forward and to help other people
Speaker 5: with it.
Speaker 1: Kelly has stood in front of more than a few
Speaker 1: judges in her time. It's normally been a fight well
Speaker 1: that Kelly is prepared to have again if needed.
Speaker 2: Luckily it isn't.
Speaker 4: What she said to me next was as close to
Speaker 4: indication as I'll ever get. She said to me, Miss Harnett,
Speaker 4: I just want to let you know that I have
Speaker 4: read every single page of every motion that you have
Speaker 4: ever written. She's talking about the things I was starting
Speaker 4: to write from Rikers throughout all those years, and I
Speaker 4: always thought they're throwing them in the garbage. But she
Speaker 4: read them and that meant the world to me, and
Speaker 4: she said, I know how much you went through. You
Speaker 4: stand here before me today as a true survivor.
Speaker 1: Finally, Judge debiasse Leans forward, smile still on her face,
Speaker 1: and then she says the words Kelly's been waiting to
Speaker 1: hear all this time, resentenced, time served.
Speaker 4: I said, your honor is giving me my second chance
Speaker 4: at life. I walked out the court room and when
Speaker 4: I went back into the elevator, I faced the war.
Speaker 3: They said, you don't have to face the war.
Speaker 1: No longer able to contain herself, tears start rolling down
Speaker 1: Kelly's face. Before long, her lawyer, Kate Morgalascu is by
Speaker 1: her side.
Speaker 2: I was like, it's over.
Speaker 3: It's really, it's over. It's over.
Speaker 2: Is it over.
Speaker 3: She's like, yes, Kelly, it's over. It's over.
Speaker 2: But here's the thing. Kate is wrong.
Speaker 1: Because Kelly might be getting out of prison, but this
Speaker 1: story isn't for her, not by a long shot. I'm
Speaker 1: Anison Field and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts,
Speaker 1: this is the Girlfriends Gelhouse Lawyer.
Speaker 2: Episode eight, No Regrets.
Speaker 1: After Kelly's triumphant court date, she gets sent back to
Speaker 1: prison while they sought out all the admin for her
Speaker 1: release as a bit of a distraction, and Kelly throws
Speaker 1: herself into finishing up all her legal work for her
Speaker 1: jailhouse clients. It's the morning of the fifth of May
Speaker 1: twenty twenty two. Kelly's busy putting the final touches together.
Speaker 4: I was actually up all night working on someone's case,
Speaker 4: because leaving also meant leaving people's cases behind. But I
Speaker 4: mean sure, I kind of wrap everything up.
Speaker 1: Kelly slides a folder full of paperwork under her last
Speaker 1: client cell door.
Speaker 4: So so hard leaving everyone. I have so much survivor's skilled.
Speaker 1: Just before she goes, Kelly divvys up all her precious
Speaker 1: prison belongings amongst her closest friends. She gives the coat
Speaker 1: to a girl called Lacey, a sweater to her friend Manny,
Speaker 1: and a pair of shoes to her friend Trinity, and
Speaker 1: then it's time to say goodbye.
Speaker 4: When it came out of the yeats, I remember screaming
Speaker 4: and going who.
Speaker 3: And putting my arms in the air.
Speaker 1: Kelly's being released alongside three other inmates. As she watches
Speaker 1: each of them embrace their families, sees them hugging so
Speaker 1: tight it's bound to leave bruises, she stands alone.
Speaker 4: I felt bad because the other people had their family
Speaker 4: there and I didn't. I didn't have anybody, and everybody
Speaker 4: whose family was hugging them.
Speaker 3: They just wanted to be with my mother.
Speaker 1: Kelly's mother, Kathleen, has been taken to Mount Sinai Hospital,
Speaker 1: about forty miles away. Kelly's brother, Ronnie is by her bedside.
Speaker 1: As a condition of her parole, Kelly has to go
Speaker 1: straight to her approved accommodation. She's saying, in a specialist
Speaker 1: facility that helps women released from prison.
Speaker 4: But I told them, you know, I have to get
Speaker 4: to the hospital immediately, and thank god, they said, okay.
Speaker 1: As soon as she's able. Kelly's at the hospital.
Speaker 4: The lady asked, what's your name? Who are you here for?
Speaker 4: I said, Kelly Harnett. I'm here for Kathleen Harnett. I
Speaker 4: didn't know her room number or anything. So she takes
Speaker 4: visitors pass. She writes, Kathleen Harnett, Room three thirty three.
Speaker 3: She looks at a watch. It was three oh three.
Speaker 4: She goes, Oh my god, I said what She goes,
Speaker 4: something amazing is about to happen.
Speaker 3: They look at the threes. She said, father's son in
Speaker 3: the Holy Spirit. My mouth dropped. I said, how did
Speaker 3: you know that something amazing is going to happen. I'm
Speaker 3: going to see my mother for the first time in
Speaker 3: thirteen years.
Speaker 1: Kelly practically runs down the hospital corridor until she finds room.
Speaker 2: Three three three.
Speaker 1: Stepping in, she can see four women in beds. She
Speaker 1: frantically scans the room, searching for her mother. She doesn't
Speaker 1: recognize any of them.
Speaker 3: I said, do I have the right room?
Speaker 4: And then I looked in front of me, and then
Speaker 4: when I looked at her eyes, I said, that's my mother.
Speaker 3: That's my mother. I couldn't believe what I was seeing.
Speaker 3: It looked like you could break her. Like I was
Speaker 3: afraid to touch her.
Speaker 4: I wanted to run and go break down, but I said,
Speaker 4: you can't cry.
Speaker 3: You have to be as strong as possible for mommy.
Speaker 4: And then I walked in and I tried to act
Speaker 4: like I had seen her yesterday.
Speaker 3: I said, ma, hi, and she.
Speaker 6: Goes, Kelly, Oh my god, Kelly, is it really you?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: And she started to cry and smile at the same time.
Speaker 4: She couldn't lift her arms to hold out, so I
Speaker 4: leaned over and I hugged her, and she was like,
Speaker 4: you look so beautiful. I can't believe that you're out.
Speaker 4: When the time came that I had to leave and
Speaker 4: go to this new house, she started crying, and honestly
Speaker 4: I was cheering up too, because I didn't want to
Speaker 4: leave her.
Speaker 7: I wish I could have just stayed there with her
Speaker 7: all day because I was afraid.
Speaker 4: I didn't know, like if she was going to be okay.
Speaker 1: The next day, Kathleen is released from hospital and goes
Speaker 1: back home to the family apartment.
Speaker 2: She's still not well.
Speaker 3: And the worst part of getting out of prison is.
Speaker 6: That the first two weeks are the busiest weeks.
Speaker 3: Of your life.
Speaker 4: You're running all around, trying to get id, trying to
Speaker 4: get your birth certificate, trying to get to go to
Speaker 4: the DMV. But I did make sure that I went
Speaker 4: to see her as much as possible.
Speaker 1: Kelly's not just busy running around searching for documents. Her
Speaker 1: movements are also restricted by nightly curfew. On the night
Speaker 1: of May thirty first, just a couple of weeks after
Speaker 1: Kelly's release, her brother Ronnie, calls her up in a panic.
Speaker 4: He said, mommy's not doing so good. I said, what
Speaker 4: do you mean, and he said, she's not breathing that well.
Speaker 8: I don't know.
Speaker 3: He goes, you have to come home here, and I
Speaker 3: was on pro so I had curfew.
Speaker 1: The month's breathing gets shallower. Kelly tells Ronnie to call
Speaker 1: an ambulance and that she'll call him back right away.
Speaker 6: I called Ronnie and I said, what's happening. He's like, well,
Speaker 6: the ambulance is here. They don't have a pulse.
Speaker 3: I was steeling the outside. I fell to the ground
Speaker 3: and I was like, oh my.
Speaker 8: God, please, please guy, please, I need my army.
Speaker 2: I need my army, I need my mommy.
Speaker 6: And then he said, Kelly, I'm a bit of feeling.
Speaker 6: I have a bit of feeling or more ems. Just
Speaker 6: keep me, he said, disciplined nineteen twenty people up there.
Speaker 1: After an achingly long sixteen minutes, the crowd of EMTs
Speaker 1: managed to find a pulse. Kathleen has taken back to
Speaker 1: hospital and put on a ventilator. She dies the next day,
Speaker 1: on June first, aged seventy two.
Speaker 3: I have so much guilt for not just breaking curfew
Speaker 3: that once I listened to the stupid freaking curfew and
Speaker 3: went home. But he needed me.
Speaker 8: He needed me right, He needed me, and so did
Speaker 8: my mother. And my mother kept asking for me, he said,
Speaker 8: so she knew she was dying.
Speaker 6: Well, nowis asking for me on her deathbed?
Speaker 4: You know we could laugh about it now, but I
Speaker 4: last last of words were.
Speaker 9: Give me a cigarette. My mother loved to smoke, so
Speaker 9: I have two shrines up in the house of her,
Speaker 9: so I.
Speaker 3: Always put cigarettes there for her.
Speaker 6: Because she never got the one, so I always put
Speaker 6: them there for her.
Speaker 1: Kelly, maybe I want to laugh about it now, but
Speaker 1: deep inside, she's still grieving and she's still really angry.
Speaker 10: I was thirteen years of my life with my mother
Speaker 10: because I wasn't here, because I was in prison for
Speaker 10: something I didn't even get him do. It altered the
Speaker 10: whole family when they put me in prison, they put
Speaker 10: everybody in prison.
Speaker 1: After Kathleen dies, Ronnie and Kelly have her cremated, just
Speaker 1: like they did for their father, Danny, when he died
Speaker 1: about twenty years before.
Speaker 2: My mom.
Speaker 4: When she used to get mad at him every once
Speaker 4: in a while after he was deceased, she would be like,
Speaker 4: you know what, throw those ashes out, and I was like, no, no,
Speaker 4: we're not. When I was away, I told Ronnie, I said,
Speaker 4: please put Daddy's ashes as high up as they could
Speaker 4: possibly go so that Mommy can't find them, and he did.
Speaker 1: When Kelly gets back into their family apartment, she has
Speaker 1: right for the closet. Straining on tiptoes, she pushes past
Speaker 1: all the piles of old clothes and forgotten ornaments until
Speaker 1: she sees them, her dad's ashes waiting in their container.
Speaker 1: Kelly gently lifts them out, He sits out.
Speaker 3: I don't know, you've finally happy that you're out of
Speaker 3: the closet.
Speaker 4: Oh God, he would live too, if he was alive
Speaker 4: with herpe you say that he was thro this thing
Speaker 4: from gate, But it was funny.
Speaker 1: They have to borrow money for their mom's cremation. None
Speaker 1: of them had any savings. In fact, it was pretty
Speaker 1: much the opposite. Kathleen had been in debt to the
Speaker 1: hospital pharmacy, but thanks to a gofund me page set
Speaker 1: up for Kelly and help from a prison support group,
Speaker 1: Kelly and Ronnie are able to get some cash together.
Speaker 4: When her ashes were finally delivered, Ronnie and I had
Speaker 4: already discussed going across the street, a live across street
Speaker 4: from the East River and disposing of the ashes together,
Speaker 4: Daddy's ashes and my mother's ashes.
Speaker 1: There's something about the girlfriends and the East River. No
Speaker 1: matter which story we tell, we always seem to get
Speaker 1: called back to these waters. You can find a hundred
Speaker 1: metaphors for life and death amongst the rock waves. Maybe
Speaker 1: we were meant to find ourselves here at the East River,
Speaker 1: drawn in by kismet or fades or whatever you want
Speaker 1: to call it. But then again, maybe there's nothing to it,
Speaker 1: and it's just one of those weird coincidences. Maybe it's
Speaker 1: just a nice place to say goodbye to someone.
Speaker 4: First, we started with my dad, because we figured he
Speaker 4: was first.
Speaker 3: He's been very patient.
Speaker 4: We started throwing his ashes and throwing rose petals, and
Speaker 4: throwing his ashes, throwing rose petals, rose petals. All of
Speaker 4: a sudden, I cannot explain to you the way the
Speaker 4: water had changed. We had been there for at least
Speaker 4: a half an hour already, not one solitary boat had
Speaker 4: passed by, and that's what creates wait.
Speaker 3: It almost looked like a pond.
Speaker 4: As soon as we started throwing my father's ashes in
Speaker 4: the water, it started coming up these waves, waves, But
Speaker 4: I didn't feel that they were violent. I felt that
Speaker 4: it was his energy, and I felt that he was
Speaker 4: happy to be free, and I felt that he knew
Speaker 4: that his wife.
Speaker 3: Was coming finally. And then when we finished with his ashes,
Speaker 3: we went to my mom's.
Speaker 4: My mom's was very calm to the contrary, and I
Speaker 4: just kept throwing out rose petals and rose petals and
Speaker 4: rose petals. Ronnie and I held each other's hands set
Speaker 4: of prayer, and we thanked them for everything, and thanked
Speaker 4: them before making us.
Speaker 3: Into the people who we are today, and.
Speaker 4: Thank them just for being our appearents and that we
Speaker 4: got it from here.
Speaker 1: We'll never know how Kathleen feels about her ashes being
Speaker 1: scattered alongside her husband Danny's.
Speaker 2: She did love him once.
Speaker 1: Kelly still vividly remembers the pair of them kissing in
Speaker 1: that hotel pool in Disneyland. But he's also the same
Speaker 1: man who went awol from his family time and again,
Speaker 1: who attacked his wife, wrapping a phone card around her neck,
Speaker 1: causing her to get a restraining order. Still, I can
Speaker 1: understand why Kelly would want them back together. Ask any
Speaker 1: kid from a broken home, usually, deep down, their most
Speaker 1: heartfelt wish is for their parents to reunite. Maybe Kelly
Speaker 1: thinks that if she can bring her parents back together
Speaker 1: in the river, the effect will somehow ripple out and
Speaker 1: help heal the rest of her life.
Speaker 2: Or maybe all this water's just going to my head.
Speaker 1: Once Kelly's release from prison, she doesn't get to sit
Speaker 1: around pondering the symbolic connection between life and water like
Speaker 1: some artsy British podcaster. She has to get back to
Speaker 1: work fast so she can start rebuilding her life and
Speaker 1: just as importantly, start earning. But that's easier said than done.
Speaker 1: Part of Kelly's release agreement when her charge was changed
Speaker 1: to manslaughter and she was sentenced to time served, was
Speaker 1: that she had to enter a new.
Speaker 2: Plea of guilty.
Speaker 1: This wasn't what she wanted, especially after spending over a
Speaker 1: decade pleading her innocence.
Speaker 3: If you're entering a plea of guilty, you're saying you did.
Speaker 2: It, but needs must.
Speaker 3: I had to get home to my mother.
Speaker 2: You have to do what you had to do.
Speaker 1: Sometimes, Kelly isn't exonerated in the eyes of the justice system.
Speaker 1: She's legally admitted her part in the killing of a
Speaker 1: man and that will stay on her record forever. So
Speaker 1: while she's now free, she has to deal with the
Speaker 1: price of that freedom for the rest of her life.
Speaker 1: Trying to get a job, for example, you can guess
Speaker 1: how many places want to hire someone with a record
Speaker 1: like Kelly's.
Speaker 4: The only jobs that I've gotten thus far have been
Speaker 4: jobs from people that actually know me personally and they
Speaker 4: know what I am capable of, which is why I
Speaker 4: was actually hired straight out of Bedford Hills. Like, while
Speaker 4: I was still within the prison walls, I had a
Speaker 4: job with NYU Law School.
Speaker 1: But Kelly finds out this new job is only temporary.
Speaker 1: Within four months, she's back looking for work.
Speaker 4: I was under the impression that, due to my vast
Speaker 4: legal knowledge, this was going to be a lot easier
Speaker 4: for myself than for the average person. I mean, I've
Speaker 4: gotten many people out of jail. I've gotten so many
Speaker 4: sentence reductions, and the fact that they were not even
Speaker 4: hearing me out because of the fact that they see
Speaker 4: conviction conviction.
Speaker 1: It's October first, twenty twenty four. I'm back with Kelly,
Speaker 1: who's in her apartment that she shares with her brother
Speaker 1: Ronnie and her twenty five stuffed animals. I know that
Speaker 1: jobs have been a big issue over the last kind
Speaker 1: of few months. I just wondered where you're at with
Speaker 1: your trying to get work situation.
Speaker 4: Yes, I'm actually currently trying to get work, and I've
Speaker 4: been trying so hard and there is not a day
Speaker 4: that I don't apply to at least twenty jobs. And
Speaker 4: when I open my emails every day, there are over
Speaker 4: one hundred emails.
Speaker 3: Sometimes there's three hundred without exaggeration. I go through everyone
Speaker 3: would find youth Colm.
Speaker 4: So I have a full time job right now of
Speaker 4: trying to get a full time job.
Speaker 1: Despite helping to get several women out of prison, Kelly's
Speaker 1: not a qualified lawyer in the eyes of the state.
Speaker 1: After her release, she attended and graduated from a Columbia
Speaker 1: Law School paralegal program, but her real dream is to
Speaker 1: become an attorney lawyer, and for that she needs to
Speaker 1: go back to law school, something that would take years
Speaker 1: and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. In
Speaker 1: the meantime, Kelly's applying for any work she can get.
Speaker 4: Actually, speaking of which, I had gone on a job interview.
Speaker 4: I don't want to say the company's name, but it's
Speaker 4: a great, great company, and they were going to make
Speaker 4: me a financial advisor, and everybody really liked me there.
Speaker 4: I didn't see a reason why I wouldn't get it,
Speaker 4: and I believe they did not either. They congratulated me
Speaker 4: and shook my hand, and then as I was walking away,
Speaker 4: stated we just have to do a quick background check.
Speaker 4: That's when my heart hit my stomach.
Speaker 3: I cried, and I cried, and I.
Speaker 4: Cried for weeks. I still cry. There's never a week
Speaker 4: where I don't cry. There's never a week.
Speaker 3: And I'll tell you the truth.
Speaker 4: It is not even over the conviction at this point,
Speaker 4: or at least I don't think it is. If I
Speaker 4: could just get a chance to be the Kelly that
Speaker 4: I was when I was in there, I think I'll
Speaker 4: be fine.
Speaker 3: But that's what kept me going my work.
Speaker 4: When you take my work from me, now I don't
Speaker 4: have anything.
Speaker 1: It's not just that Kelly's imprisonment and subsequent parole is
Speaker 1: impacting her job. Hunt is that the new life she
Speaker 1: sacrificed so much for seems to be built on sand.
Speaker 1: And I'm about to find out that Kelly's freedom is
Speaker 1: ready to slip away from her.
Speaker 11: At a moment's notice.
Speaker 12: Hime, now you can do good. Thanks to see you again.
Speaker 12: It's such a crazy to say.
Speaker 3: After you guys left yesterday.
Speaker 4: Yeah, out of nowhere first and foremost.
Speaker 1: When Kelly was released from prison in twenty twenty two,
Speaker 1: she was originally sentenced to five years post release supervision
Speaker 1: aka parole. But just like in prison, you're able to
Speaker 1: get time off for good behavior.
Speaker 12: Every thirty days that you abide by all of their rules,
Speaker 12: which is curfew, have a job, be in the programs
Speaker 12: that they expect for you to be in, then they
Speaker 12: give you thirty days back.
Speaker 4: So what it really boils down to is if you're perfect,
Speaker 4: like I was, you want to hear fears that you do.
Speaker 1: Kelly's worked hard to get her parole time down so
Speaker 1: she can live her life on her own terms. Now
Speaker 1: I have to check in with some state sanctioned babysitter
Speaker 1: every couple of months. She's due to finish on November fifth,
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, about a month on from the date
Speaker 1: of this recording, or at least she was. Last night,
Speaker 1: Kelly's parole officers stopped by her Visit was unexpected.
Speaker 4: I was like, is she trying to like catch me
Speaker 4: like before I leave to see if maybe I'm not home.
Speaker 4: Let me see if I can catch her like She
Speaker 4: missed her her few so that was already weird. She
Speaker 4: asked me if I ever took anger management Kelly has.
Speaker 2: It was one of the conditions of her parole.
Speaker 4: Of course, I took anger management, and she's asked me
Speaker 4: that every single time that I've gone to see her,
Speaker 4: and I was in that program for nine months. So
Speaker 4: she proceeds to ask me where my certificated. I was
Speaker 4: never given a certificate. I was told that it was
Speaker 4: to be given to my parole officer by the man
Speaker 4: who was conducting the program. Then she asked me, well,
Speaker 4: what else were you supposed to do?
Speaker 1: Tune a half years later, it feels weird that it's
Speaker 1: her parole officer asking Kelly this, like, shouldn't she know.
Speaker 1: Kelly was also originally supposed to enter a twelve month
Speaker 1: substance abuse program, but given that by the time of
Speaker 1: her release, she had been clean for over a decade,
Speaker 1: it was decided that this program could actually do Kelly
Speaker 1: more harm than good, so she was given an exemption.
Speaker 1: She says that this was outlined in a letter, but
Speaker 1: her parole officer is sounding unconvinced.
Speaker 4: So she said, well, we don't have that letter, so
Speaker 4: I'm freaking out.
Speaker 3: I said, well, where is it? She said, I don't know.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but I need that.
Speaker 4: You know, if you can't get him WI, you're gonna
Speaker 4: have to do the programs again.
Speaker 3: And acted like it was nothing. Yeah, you're just gonna
Speaker 3: have to do the programs again.
Speaker 4: That would mean that I would still be on parole
Speaker 4: at least nine months past my date. I had the
Speaker 4: biggest nervous breakdown that I've had since my mother passed away.
Speaker 3: I was screaming to the top of my lungs.
Speaker 4: I broke down because being on parole is not actually free.
Speaker 1: Kelly's only hope is to track down her first parole
Speaker 1: officer who can confirm that she's completed all the programs
Speaker 1: she needs to.
Speaker 3: Devastated, I don't know. I don't know where I stand
Speaker 3: with anything.
Speaker 4: They got way too many years out of me already.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry they just caught me on a day like this,
Speaker 4: but that's unfortunately where I'm at today.
Speaker 2: Sorry, but that's really hard. I hope this your first
Speaker 2: officer would be able to help. I hope so too.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she's my only hope.
Speaker 1: Well, look, I think the best solution for today is
Speaker 1: to not do.
Speaker 3: The rest of the And I was gonna ask you
Speaker 3: about that.
Speaker 1: Why don't we move it to another day and if
Speaker 1: you're around on Saturday, we have a free day.
Speaker 3: Then are you doing okay? Because I said, that's Ronnie.
Speaker 1: I said, I've been busy this whole time trying to
Speaker 1: tell you a story, a nice, juicy narrative with a
Speaker 1: satisfying ending. But this isn't just a story for Kelly.
Speaker 1: This is her life and she's living it every single day.
Speaker 1: As far as reality checks go, this one's about as
Speaker 1: subtle as a punch in the face. I actually don't
Speaker 1: see Kelly in person again after this. Her and Ronnie
Speaker 1: got COVID and I went back to London with no
Speaker 1: ending to my story. As soon as I got home,
Speaker 1: I tried and failed to set up a few more
Speaker 1: interviews over zoom, but for some reason or another, Kelly
Speaker 1: would often end up dropping out. I'll admit I laid
Speaker 1: awake at night worried these back to back cancelations may
Speaker 1: actually be because this was all too much for Kelly,
Speaker 1: revisiting her traumatic past when her present is inches away
Speaker 1: from falling apart. So I gave her some space. A
Speaker 1: few weeks later, I give Kelly a call. The first
Speaker 1: question I wanted to ask you about was if you'd
Speaker 1: had any kind of update on the parole officer malarkey.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 4: So after I had that whole nervous breakdown when she
Speaker 4: stated that basically she had nothing on me, which means
Speaker 4: that every.
Speaker 1: Solitary Kelly goes on in a way that I've become
Speaker 1: used to, outlining all the issues with the parole board,
Speaker 1: how she had to track down her former parole officers
Speaker 1: and course leaders, all the pages of evidence she put together.
Speaker 1: If left uninterrupted, I honestly think she could go on indefinitely.
Speaker 4: Really call on to question the integrity of the parole officer.
Speaker 3: How could you not.
Speaker 1: Have She's not just talking, It's like she's testifying, like
Speaker 1: every day is her court day.
Speaker 2: It makes me feel a little sad.
Speaker 1: Honestly, they'll make her a fucking great lawyer one day.
Speaker 1: Eventually I get the answer I'm hoping for.
Speaker 3: Now I speak to you today as a free woman.
Speaker 2: That's amazing. Oh congratulations, Kelly, Thank you so much. You
Speaker 2: must feel so relieved, so relieved.
Speaker 1: Now that the shadow of her parole has finally passed,
Speaker 1: Kelly can start to plan her life and hopefully build
Speaker 1: a future for herself.
Speaker 2: What's like the what's the dream for the next five years?
Speaker 4: The next five years, I would say the dream is
Speaker 4: for me to find a paralegal job, one that is permanent,
Speaker 4: and to climb the ladder within that firm, and I
Speaker 4: know that I would climb the ladder very quickly. I
Speaker 4: also would love a chance to give back to people
Speaker 4: in prison. Honestly, where I would start if it were
Speaker 4: up to me is Rikers Island, because they don't realize
Speaker 4: how important the law Library is, and it was always
Speaker 4: empty when I was there. So I feel that if
Speaker 4: given the chance, I would like to even possibly work
Speaker 4: at Rikers Island at the law Library.
Speaker 3: Really, yeah, wouldn't that be a bit much for you?
Speaker 4: No? No, because I want, especially the women to understand
Speaker 4: their cases.
Speaker 3: I think I have a mission from God.
Speaker 4: I think I was put here to save souls by
Speaker 4: getting people out of prison. That sounds like an insane statement,
Speaker 4: but that is my belief at this point.
Speaker 1: I came to the story thinking I knew what to expect,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't have been more wrong.
Speaker 2: I was searching for.
Speaker 1: A clean, easy truth, and I had all these preconceived
Speaker 1: notions of what it means to be a victim. But
Speaker 1: when Kelly didn't fit into the role I tried to
Speaker 1: assign her, it made me question everything about her and
Speaker 1: a lot about myself too. I've obviously interviewed a lot
Speaker 1: of people in my life who have had amazing experiences
Speaker 1: that are extraordinary, But I've never met anyone.
Speaker 2: Like you who.
Speaker 1: All of your stories, they're often kind of shocking and
Speaker 1: like they're almost sometimes.
Speaker 2: Hard to believe.
Speaker 3: It's hard to believe that.
Speaker 4: Yes, I say that all the time. There's been a
Speaker 4: lot of insane stories.
Speaker 2: I agree.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I'm not going to apologize for what
Speaker 4: it perceives to be miraculous stories.
Speaker 3: What I will tell.
Speaker 4: You if you fail to understand them or even believe them,
Speaker 4: then unfortunately you're the one missing out. And I think
Speaker 4: that you need to pray more and have more faith.
Speaker 2: Yeah, fair enough.
Speaker 1: I can safely say that I have never met anyone
Speaker 1: like Kelly Harnett before. Kelly is loud and disruptive. She's
Speaker 1: a former drug addict who's exercised violence on multiple occasions,
Speaker 1: both in self defense against violent partners and in prison
Speaker 1: as a way of letting other inmates know that she's
Speaker 1: not to be fucked with. Her battle for survival has
Speaker 1: been messy and at times ugly. She's told me so
Speaker 1: many stories that made me want to grab her by
Speaker 1: the shoulders and tell her to stop making herself look
Speaker 1: so bad. So yeah, Kelly Hannett is no perfect victim,
Speaker 1: but you can't call her a villain either.
Speaker 2: She's a loving sister, a loyal friend.
Speaker 1: I can't deny she worked fucking hard, even if you
Speaker 1: don't believe her account of the night Angel Vargas was murdered.
Speaker 1: If you think she did kick him, or that she's
Speaker 1: somehow more culpable than she says, does that discount everything
Speaker 1: she went through at the hands of her brutal boyfriend,
Speaker 1: or everything she's achieved in the years following.
Speaker 2: I don't think it does.
Speaker 1: Kelly, a survivor of the most devastating trauma and abuse,
Speaker 1: taught herself the law inside and out as a jailhouse lawyer,
Speaker 1: first in Rikers and then in Bedford. She brought hope
Speaker 1: to women who had been through helen back, women whose
Speaker 1: entire lives had been an endless cycle of abuse and violence,
Speaker 1: who often ended up trapped in terrible situations they were
Speaker 1: too scared to leave, and who did whatever it took
Speaker 1: to survive. She even helped some of them gain their freedom,
Speaker 1: and ultimately she freed herself.
Speaker 2: But for Kelly.
Speaker 1: That freedom has come at a high price. And I'm
Speaker 1: not just talking about the years she lost behind bars.
Speaker 1: Her legal admission of guilt leaves a kind of scarlet
Speaker 1: letter hanging permanently around her neck, branded for life as
Speaker 1: a criminal.
Speaker 2: I don't know if that feels like justice to me.
Speaker 1: I can't sum Kelly up in a sentence or even
Speaker 1: in a whole frickin' podcast, But maybe that's the lesson
Speaker 1: I need to take from this, that my job is
Speaker 1: just to tell people stories, not to neatly package them
Speaker 1: into categories, into victims or villains or anything else. So
Speaker 1: who is Callie Hornette really, Well, that's between her and
Speaker 1: the heavens.
Speaker 7: We are currently in immeagular Conception Church, and I've been
Speaker 7: coming here since I was ten years old. We're currently
Speaker 7: standing in front of the sole representation that americular Conception
Speaker 7: has of Saint. There's my Saint that has gotten me
Speaker 7: through literally life, and it's a stainless window of her.
Speaker 5: It's showing her.
Speaker 1: The window shows Saint Therez her hair covered with a
Speaker 1: circular halo around her head. There are beams of heavenly
Speaker 1: light all around her. Her face is pale, and she
Speaker 1: has wide chestnut colored eyes.
Speaker 2: Close to her heart.
Speaker 1: She's holding a crucifix and a bouquet of roses.
Speaker 2: As Kelly gazes up at her, she clasps her hands
Speaker 2: in prayer.
Speaker 5: Sanctuaries.
Speaker 13: I do implore you to please send a shower of
Speaker 13: roses from the heavenly gardens as a message of love
Speaker 13: for the loss of Angel Ruben Bargas, and I'd like
Speaker 13: to pray for not just him and his soul, I'd
Speaker 13: like to pray for his entire family and their souls
Speaker 13: as well. I think of him.
Speaker 3: All the time.
Speaker 13: If he's my angel, thank you for sending me my angel.
Speaker 13: But at the same time, it's very it's very bittersweet
Speaker 13: because I don't want any one's life to be taken
Speaker 13: away because of me. So please also hold that with me,
Speaker 13: for it is too hard and too heavy for me
Speaker 13: to carry alone, and ask God to hold it for me.
Speaker 13: I want to thank you for everything and for giving
Speaker 13: me the strength to go through everything that I've gone
Speaker 13: through and to be able to get those women out.
Speaker 13: Thank you for allowing me to save a few souls
Speaker 13: just like you saved so many.
Speaker 14: Thank you for choosing me for that job. I have
Speaker 14: no Regrets.
Speaker 1: The Girlfriend's Gelhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: For more from Novel, visit novel dot Audio.
Speaker 2: The show is hosted.
Speaker 1: By me Annasinfield and is written and produced by me
Speaker 1: and Lee Meyer, with additional production from Jako Taivich and
Speaker 1: Michael Jinno.
Speaker 2: Our assistant producer is Madeline Parr.
Speaker 1: The editors are Georgia Moody and me Annasinfield. Production management
Speaker 1: from Sarie Houston, Joe Savage, and Charlotte Wolfe.
Speaker 2: Our fact checker is Daniel Suleiman.
Speaker 1: Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander.
Speaker 1: Music supervision by me alis Infield, Lee Meyer and Nicholas Alexander.
Speaker 1: Original music composed by Nicholas alex Under, Daniel Kempson and
Speaker 1: Louisa Gerstein. Story development by Nell Gray Andrews and Willard Foxton.
Speaker 1: Creative director of Novel, Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are
Speaker 1: executive producers for Novel, and Katrina Norvell and Nicki Etor
Speaker 1: are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and the marketing
Speaker 1: lead is Alison Cantor. Thanks also to Carry Lieberman and
Speaker 1: the whole team at WME