WEBVTT - The Girlfriends S3/E8: No Regrets 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:02.560 Hey, it's Sannah here to give your heads up on 0:00:02.640 --> 0:00:06.240 what to expect in this final episode. There's going to 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:10.239 be mentions of murder, domestic abuse, and addiction phist. There'll 0:00:10.280 --> 0:00:13.360 be some distressing scenes. Oh and you guessed it, some 0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:16.560 bad language. But you'll also get to see what the 0:00:16.600 --> 0:00:19.760 future might hold for Kelly and how she's rebuilding her 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:23.720 life beyond prison. If you're affected by any of the 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:27.280 themes around domestic and gendered violence in this show, reach 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.520 out to our charity partner No More. 0:00:29.840 --> 0:00:30.920 There are a domestic. 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.360 Violence charity with a lot of great resources to help 0:00:33.440 --> 0:00:36.600 you or your loved ones. You can search No More 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:38.559 dot org and we've also put a link to their 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:46.879 website in the episode description. It's the twenty seventh of 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:51.800 April twenty twenty two. Kelly Harnett is in a familiar place, 0:00:53.080 --> 0:00:54.240 a prison transfer van. 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:56.000 She's on her way to court. 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.840 Over the past decade and some change as her case 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:04.400 slowly moved through the justice system, Kelly has made a 0:01:04.440 --> 0:01:09.680 lot of similar journeys, but this time something is different. 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:14.160 I am not kidding. I thought I was getting kidnapped 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:15.039 on the way to court. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:19.680 She's been traveling for two hours She's alone in the van. 0:01:20.200 --> 0:01:22.200 Say for the prison guards up front. 0:01:23.800 --> 0:01:26.759 It was the most surreal feeling. 0:01:26.520 --> 0:01:27.199 In the world. 0:01:27.959 --> 0:01:32.280 I'm in the van with no windows. I'm screaming at them, 0:01:32.440 --> 0:01:34.080 why is this taking someone to get there? 0:01:34.600 --> 0:01:36.600 And they're not answering me at all. 0:01:40.080 --> 0:01:45.520 In the silence, Kelly's mind kicks into overdrive, imagining a 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:51.920 hundred different, equally distressing scenarios. Kelly's particularly anxious right now 0:01:52.240 --> 0:01:55.920 because today isn't just any other day in court. If 0:01:56.000 --> 0:01:59.400 all goes well, it will be her last, because she's 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:10.040 finally getting resentenced. Kelly squints, blinking as the sunlight paws 0:02:10.160 --> 0:02:14.760 into the prison van, her heart beating as she wonders 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:16.080 where the hell she is. 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:18.920 Oh, this is Queen's Court. 0:02:19.840 --> 0:02:22.919 Safely unkidnapped and dropped off at her destination. 0:02:23.760 --> 0:02:25.240 Kelly steadies herself. 0:02:26.360 --> 0:02:32.079 Then she starts walking towards her freedom. 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:33.440 This was so cinematic. 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:37.400 It was like the most beautiful courtate you could ever imagine. 0:02:37.720 --> 0:02:42.600 I had on a white collared shirt, the tan pants 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:43.560 that they make you wear. 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:46.120 I wore my hair down. 0:02:46.040 --> 0:02:50.800 And made sure I did my makeup really nice, and 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:53.600 I was ready to go home. 0:02:56.200 --> 0:03:00.560 Kelly strides into Queen's court flanks by two prison guys. 0:03:00.960 --> 0:03:03.519 They get into the lift and make her face the wall. 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:08.040 Then she's called into the courtroom where she'll be standing 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.040 in front of Judge Brunner dBase. 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:18.480 As soon as I walked out, she said, good morning, 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:21.880 Miss Harnett with this bright smile. 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.320 No judge ever looked at her or smiled at her. 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:28.480 One smile made such an impression on her. 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:31.919 You've probably already guessed, but this is Judge dBase. 0:03:32.680 --> 0:03:36.520 I do make a conscious effort to interact with the 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.840 individuals in my court. Many of the litigants. I often 0:03:39.880 --> 0:03:41.560 think that when they come in and they see me 0:03:42.360 --> 0:03:46.040 and probably think, what does she understand about my pain? 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:47.480 But I do. 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.840 Judge Dbs's son Eric died of a drug overdose about 0:03:55.880 --> 0:04:00.960 thirteen years ago. Then in twenty nineteen, her daughter Lisa, 0:04:01.440 --> 0:04:05.880 who also struggled with addiction, hit a cyclist named John 0:04:06.000 --> 0:04:10.240 James Uzma Quintero with her car. She was drunk and 0:04:10.320 --> 0:04:14.720 high at the time. John died and Lisa went to 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:19.599 prison after pleading guilty to multiple charges. By the time 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.120 Kelly walks into Judge Dbiassi's courtroom in twenty twenty two, 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.080 Lisa is behind bars. 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:31.479 Having had an incrocerted daughter has informed my decisions now 0:04:31.520 --> 0:04:35.480 about the length of a sentence individual should receive. I 0:04:35.600 --> 0:04:38.279 was so not versed in all of that at the 0:04:38.320 --> 0:04:42.600 time of my son's active addiction. That was me. 0:04:44.440 --> 0:04:47.880 But you know, there's only so much you. 0:04:47.720 --> 0:04:51.120 Can dwell in the past, and so what I've decided 0:04:51.200 --> 0:04:53.719 to do is to take the knowledge that I have 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:56.279 now and to move forward and to help other people 0:04:56.320 --> 0:04:56.680 with it. 0:05:02.800 --> 0:05:04.800 Kelly has stood in front of more than a few 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:08.680 judges in her time. It's normally been a fight well 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:11.360 that Kelly is prepared to have again if needed. 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:14.200 Luckily it isn't. 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.320 What she said to me next was as close to 0:05:17.400 --> 0:05:21.600 indication as I'll ever get. She said to me, Miss Harnett, 0:05:21.640 --> 0:05:24.039 I just want to let you know that I have 0:05:24.240 --> 0:05:28.760 read every single page of every motion that you have 0:05:28.839 --> 0:05:33.600 ever written. She's talking about the things I was starting 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.919 to write from Rikers throughout all those years, and I 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:40.880 always thought they're throwing them in the garbage. But she 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:45.279 read them and that meant the world to me, and 0:05:46.279 --> 0:05:50.640 she said, I know how much you went through. You 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:54.279 stand here before me today as a true survivor. 0:05:55.760 --> 0:06:01.640 Finally, Judge debiasse Leans forward, smile still on her face, 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.560 and then she says the words Kelly's been waiting to 0:06:05.640 --> 0:06:11.719 hear all this time, resentenced, time served. 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:18.839 I said, your honor is giving me my second chance 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:24.120 at life. I walked out the court room and when 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:26.960 I went back into the elevator, I faced the war. 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:28.480 They said, you don't have to face the war. 0:06:32.160 --> 0:06:35.840 No longer able to contain herself, tears start rolling down 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:40.839 Kelly's face. Before long, her lawyer, Kate Morgalascu is by 0:06:40.880 --> 0:06:41.400 her side. 0:06:42.000 --> 0:06:43.119 I was like, it's over. 0:06:43.680 --> 0:06:46.000 It's really, it's over. It's over. 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:46.719 Is it over. 0:06:47.480 --> 0:06:49.960 She's like, yes, Kelly, it's over. It's over. 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.640 But here's the thing. Kate is wrong. 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.200 Because Kelly might be getting out of prison, but this 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:11.000 story isn't for her, not by a long shot. I'm 0:07:11.040 --> 0:07:15.280 Anison Field and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts, 0:07:15.680 --> 0:07:18.560 this is the Girlfriends Gelhouse Lawyer. 0:07:39.800 --> 0:07:42.200 Episode eight, No Regrets. 0:07:51.440 --> 0:07:55.240 After Kelly's triumphant court date, she gets sent back to 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:57.600 prison while they sought out all the admin for her 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.000 release as a bit of a distraction, and Kelly throws 0:08:01.000 --> 0:08:03.400 herself into finishing up all her legal work for her 0:08:03.440 --> 0:08:07.080 jailhouse clients. It's the morning of the fifth of May 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:11.240 twenty twenty two. Kelly's busy putting the final touches together. 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.559 I was actually up all night working on someone's case, 0:08:15.840 --> 0:08:21.080 because leaving also meant leaving people's cases behind. But I 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.040 mean sure, I kind of wrap everything up. 0:08:24.720 --> 0:08:28.120 Kelly slides a folder full of paperwork under her last 0:08:28.120 --> 0:08:29.120 client cell door. 0:08:30.280 --> 0:08:34.680 So so hard leaving everyone. I have so much survivor's skilled. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.600 Just before she goes, Kelly divvys up all her precious 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:43.880 prison belongings amongst her closest friends. She gives the coat 0:08:43.920 --> 0:08:46.840 to a girl called Lacey, a sweater to her friend Manny, 0:08:47.240 --> 0:08:50.800 and a pair of shoes to her friend Trinity, and 0:08:50.840 --> 0:09:00.960 then it's time to say goodbye. 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.800 When it came out of the yeats, I remember screaming 0:09:06.880 --> 0:09:07.920 and going who. 0:09:08.840 --> 0:09:10.520 And putting my arms in the air. 0:09:11.600 --> 0:09:16.480 Kelly's being released alongside three other inmates. As she watches 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:19.920 each of them embrace their families, sees them hugging so 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:24.960 tight it's bound to leave bruises, she stands alone. 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.840 I felt bad because the other people had their family 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:33.120 there and I didn't. I didn't have anybody, and everybody 0:09:33.120 --> 0:09:34.800 whose family was hugging them. 0:09:36.080 --> 0:09:37.360 They just wanted to be with my mother. 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:45.079 Kelly's mother, Kathleen, has been taken to Mount Sinai Hospital, 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:50.439 about forty miles away. Kelly's brother, Ronnie is by her bedside. 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:53.520 As a condition of her parole, Kelly has to go 0:09:53.640 --> 0:09:57.600 straight to her approved accommodation. She's saying, in a specialist 0:09:57.640 --> 0:09:59.960 facility that helps women released from prison. 0:10:00.920 --> 0:10:02.360 But I told them, you know, I have to get 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:10.240 to the hospital immediately, and thank god, they said, okay. 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.920 As soon as she's able. Kelly's at the hospital. 0:10:12.679 --> 0:10:15.560 The lady asked, what's your name? Who are you here for? 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:18.160 I said, Kelly Harnett. I'm here for Kathleen Harnett. I 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.240 didn't know her room number or anything. So she takes 0:10:21.760 --> 0:10:27.160 visitors pass. She writes, Kathleen Harnett, Room three thirty three. 0:10:27.520 --> 0:10:29.960 She looks at a watch. It was three oh three. 0:10:30.920 --> 0:10:34.360 She goes, Oh my god, I said what She goes, 0:10:34.360 --> 0:10:36.200 something amazing is about to happen. 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.959 They look at the threes. She said, father's son in 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:47.520 the Holy Spirit. My mouth dropped. I said, how did 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:50.360 you know that something amazing is going to happen. I'm 0:10:50.400 --> 0:10:52.760 going to see my mother for the first time in 0:10:52.840 --> 0:10:53.680 thirteen years. 0:10:55.840 --> 0:11:00.559 Kelly practically runs down the hospital corridor until she finds room. 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.440 Three three three. 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:08.280 Stepping in, she can see four women in beds. She 0:11:08.320 --> 0:11:14.680 frantically scans the room, searching for her mother. She doesn't 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:15.840 recognize any of them. 0:11:16.800 --> 0:11:18.559 I said, do I have the right room? 0:11:20.000 --> 0:11:24.920 And then I looked in front of me, and then 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:29.520 when I looked at her eyes, I said, that's my mother. 0:11:30.760 --> 0:11:40.840 That's my mother. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. 0:11:41.640 --> 0:11:44.120 It looked like you could break her. Like I was 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:45.360 afraid to touch her. 0:11:46.080 --> 0:11:49.679 I wanted to run and go break down, but I said, 0:11:49.840 --> 0:11:51.400 you can't cry. 0:11:51.520 --> 0:11:53.920 You have to be as strong as possible for mommy. 0:11:54.880 --> 0:11:57.480 And then I walked in and I tried to act 0:11:57.520 --> 0:11:58.800 like I had seen her yesterday. 0:11:59.480 --> 0:12:03.600 I said, ma, hi, and she. 0:12:03.480 --> 0:12:07.920 Goes, Kelly, Oh my god, Kelly, is it really you? 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:09.600 Oh? 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.960 And she started to cry and smile at the same time. 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.680 She couldn't lift her arms to hold out, so I 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.880 leaned over and I hugged her, and she was like, 0:12:24.120 --> 0:12:28.960 you look so beautiful. I can't believe that you're out. 0:12:30.400 --> 0:12:33.080 When the time came that I had to leave and 0:12:33.120 --> 0:12:38.560 go to this new house, she started crying, and honestly 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:41.160 I was cheering up too, because I didn't want to 0:12:41.280 --> 0:12:41.880 leave her. 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:44.520 I wish I could have just stayed there with her 0:12:44.559 --> 0:12:46.920 all day because I was afraid. 0:12:47.200 --> 0:12:49.560 I didn't know, like if she was going to be okay. 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.600 The next day, Kathleen is released from hospital and goes 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:56.319 back home to the family apartment. 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:58.480 She's still not well. 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.200 And the worst part of getting out of prison is. 0:13:02.480 --> 0:13:06.240 That the first two weeks are the busiest weeks. 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:06.640 Of your life. 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:10.800 You're running all around, trying to get id, trying to 0:13:10.800 --> 0:13:13.640 get your birth certificate, trying to get to go to 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:18.240 the DMV. But I did make sure that I went 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.760 to see her as much as possible. 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:26.200 Kelly's not just busy running around searching for documents. Her 0:13:26.240 --> 0:13:30.839 movements are also restricted by nightly curfew. On the night 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:34.199 of May thirty first, just a couple of weeks after 0:13:34.280 --> 0:13:38.880 Kelly's release, her brother Ronnie, calls her up in a panic. 0:13:42.800 --> 0:13:46.120 He said, mommy's not doing so good. I said, what 0:13:46.120 --> 0:13:50.600 do you mean, and he said, she's not breathing that well. 0:13:50.600 --> 0:13:51.120 I don't know. 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:55.199 He goes, you have to come home here, and I 0:13:55.240 --> 0:13:57.240 was on pro so I had curfew. 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:04.199 The month's breathing gets shallower. Kelly tells Ronnie to call 0:14:04.200 --> 0:14:08.640 an ambulance and that she'll call him back right away. 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:14.160 I called Ronnie and I said, what's happening. He's like, well, 0:14:14.440 --> 0:14:16.880 the ambulance is here. They don't have a pulse. 0:14:18.880 --> 0:14:21.680 I was steeling the outside. I fell to the ground 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:24.280 and I was like, oh my. 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:29.040 God, please, please guy, please, I need my army. 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:30.960 I need my army, I need my mommy. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:35.800 And then he said, Kelly, I'm a bit of feeling. 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.320 I have a bit of feeling or more ems. Just 0:14:39.400 --> 0:14:41.920 keep me, he said, disciplined nineteen twenty people up there. 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:51.080 After an achingly long sixteen minutes, the crowd of EMTs 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.800 managed to find a pulse. Kathleen has taken back to 0:14:54.880 --> 0:15:00.200 hospital and put on a ventilator. She dies the next day, 0:15:00.680 --> 0:15:03.960 on June first, aged seventy two. 0:15:10.480 --> 0:15:13.000 I have so much guilt for not just breaking curfew 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:17.200 that once I listened to the stupid freaking curfew and 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.280 went home. But he needed me. 0:15:20.520 --> 0:15:23.120 He needed me right, He needed me, and so did 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:26.600 my mother. And my mother kept asking for me, he said, 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.680 so she knew she was dying. 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.680 Well, nowis asking for me on her deathbed? 0:15:37.800 --> 0:15:40.800 You know we could laugh about it now, but I 0:15:40.960 --> 0:15:43.760 last last of words were. 0:15:44.400 --> 0:15:49.240 Give me a cigarette. My mother loved to smoke, so 0:15:51.000 --> 0:15:53.560 I have two shrines up in the house of her, 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:54.760 so I. 0:15:54.720 --> 0:15:57.000 Always put cigarettes there for her. 0:15:58.800 --> 0:16:01.720 Because she never got the one, so I always put 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:02.360 them there for her. 0:16:04.880 --> 0:16:07.960 Kelly, maybe I want to laugh about it now, but 0:16:08.080 --> 0:16:13.560 deep inside, she's still grieving and she's still really angry. 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:20.880 I was thirteen years of my life with my mother 0:16:22.360 --> 0:16:26.360 because I wasn't here, because I was in prison for 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:31.280 something I didn't even get him do. It altered the 0:16:31.320 --> 0:16:35.480 whole family when they put me in prison, they put 0:16:35.520 --> 0:16:36.480 everybody in prison. 0:16:55.760 --> 0:17:00.240 After Kathleen dies, Ronnie and Kelly have her cremated, just 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:03.120 like they did for their father, Danny, when he died 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:04.560 about twenty years before. 0:17:05.480 --> 0:17:05.920 My mom. 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:08.200 When she used to get mad at him every once 0:17:08.200 --> 0:17:10.840 in a while after he was deceased, she would be like, 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:14.919 you know what, throw those ashes out, and I was like, no, no, 0:17:15.200 --> 0:17:18.080 we're not. When I was away, I told Ronnie, I said, 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.359 please put Daddy's ashes as high up as they could 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:25.800 possibly go so that Mommy can't find them, and he did. 0:17:26.119 --> 0:17:29.520 When Kelly gets back into their family apartment, she has 0:17:29.600 --> 0:17:34.560 right for the closet. Straining on tiptoes, she pushes past 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:38.600 all the piles of old clothes and forgotten ornaments until 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:43.560 she sees them, her dad's ashes waiting in their container. 0:17:44.600 --> 0:17:47.639 Kelly gently lifts them out, He sits out. 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:49.680 I don't know, you've finally happy that you're out of 0:17:49.720 --> 0:17:50.200 the closet. 0:17:53.800 --> 0:17:56.840 Oh God, he would live too, if he was alive 0:17:56.880 --> 0:17:59.399 with herpe you say that he was thro this thing 0:17:59.480 --> 0:18:01.640 from gate, But it was funny. 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.680 They have to borrow money for their mom's cremation. None 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:10.760 of them had any savings. In fact, it was pretty 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:13.639 much the opposite. Kathleen had been in debt to the 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:18.080 hospital pharmacy, but thanks to a gofund me page set 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.840 up for Kelly and help from a prison support group, 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:23.800 Kelly and Ronnie are able to get some cash together. 0:18:24.680 --> 0:18:28.880 When her ashes were finally delivered, Ronnie and I had 0:18:28.920 --> 0:18:32.680 already discussed going across the street, a live across street 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:37.240 from the East River and disposing of the ashes together, 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:40.240 Daddy's ashes and my mother's ashes. 0:18:45.480 --> 0:18:49.560 There's something about the girlfriends and the East River. No 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:52.280 matter which story we tell, we always seem to get 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:57.280 called back to these waters. You can find a hundred 0:18:57.359 --> 0:19:03.280 metaphors for life and death amongst the rock waves. Maybe 0:19:03.320 --> 0:19:06.480 we were meant to find ourselves here at the East River, 0:19:07.720 --> 0:19:11.880 drawn in by kismet or fades or whatever you want 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:17.200 to call it. But then again, maybe there's nothing to it, 0:19:17.960 --> 0:19:23.000 and it's just one of those weird coincidences. Maybe it's 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:28.040 just a nice place to say goodbye to someone. 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.200 First, we started with my dad, because we figured he 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:34.040 was first. 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:35.360 He's been very patient. 0:19:35.880 --> 0:19:39.119 We started throwing his ashes and throwing rose petals, and 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.800 throwing his ashes, throwing rose petals, rose petals. All of 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:48.280 a sudden, I cannot explain to you the way the 0:19:48.320 --> 0:19:53.440 water had changed. We had been there for at least 0:19:53.480 --> 0:19:57.120 a half an hour already, not one solitary boat had 0:19:57.160 --> 0:19:59.800 passed by, and that's what creates wait. 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:01.840 It almost looked like a pond. 0:20:03.280 --> 0:20:06.320 As soon as we started throwing my father's ashes in 0:20:06.359 --> 0:20:13.639 the water, it started coming up these waves, waves, But 0:20:14.200 --> 0:20:20.040 I didn't feel that they were violent. I felt that 0:20:20.119 --> 0:20:23.600 it was his energy, and I felt that he was 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:26.960 happy to be free, and I felt that he knew 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:27.960 that his wife. 0:20:27.800 --> 0:20:37.560 Was coming finally. And then when we finished with his ashes, 0:20:38.040 --> 0:20:39.240 we went to my mom's. 0:20:41.240 --> 0:20:46.560 My mom's was very calm to the contrary, and I 0:20:46.680 --> 0:20:49.280 just kept throwing out rose petals and rose petals and 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:52.760 rose petals. Ronnie and I held each other's hands set 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:59.159 of prayer, and we thanked them for everything, and thanked 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:01.760 them before making us. 0:21:03.200 --> 0:21:05.760 Into the people who we are today, and. 0:21:07.240 --> 0:21:14.720 Thank them just for being our appearents and that we 0:21:14.840 --> 0:21:15.600 got it from here. 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:28.760 We'll never know how Kathleen feels about her ashes being 0:21:28.800 --> 0:21:31.600 scattered alongside her husband Danny's. 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:33.560 She did love him once. 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:37.280 Kelly still vividly remembers the pair of them kissing in 0:21:37.359 --> 0:21:41.240 that hotel pool in Disneyland. But he's also the same 0:21:41.320 --> 0:21:44.760 man who went awol from his family time and again, 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:49.240 who attacked his wife, wrapping a phone card around her neck, 0:21:49.640 --> 0:21:53.639 causing her to get a restraining order. Still, I can 0:21:53.840 --> 0:21:57.600 understand why Kelly would want them back together. Ask any 0:21:57.680 --> 0:22:02.280 kid from a broken home, usually, deep down, their most 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:08.600 heartfelt wish is for their parents to reunite. Maybe Kelly 0:22:08.680 --> 0:22:11.640 thinks that if she can bring her parents back together 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:15.600 in the river, the effect will somehow ripple out and 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:17.320 help heal the rest of her life. 0:22:18.720 --> 0:22:28.040 Or maybe all this water's just going to my head. 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.160 Once Kelly's release from prison, she doesn't get to sit 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:35.199 around pondering the symbolic connection between life and water like 0:22:35.240 --> 0:22:38.639 some artsy British podcaster. She has to get back to 0:22:38.720 --> 0:22:43.160 work fast so she can start rebuilding her life and 0:22:43.560 --> 0:22:49.240 just as importantly, start earning. But that's easier said than done. 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:56.720 Part of Kelly's release agreement when her charge was changed 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.159 to manslaughter and she was sentenced to time served, was 0:23:00.200 --> 0:23:01.480 that she had to enter a new. 0:23:01.359 --> 0:23:04.119 Plea of guilty. 0:23:04.280 --> 0:23:07.600 This wasn't what she wanted, especially after spending over a 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:09.560 decade pleading her innocence. 0:23:10.119 --> 0:23:13.400 If you're entering a plea of guilty, you're saying you did. 0:23:13.240 --> 0:23:15.159 It, but needs must. 0:23:15.600 --> 0:23:16.960 I had to get home to my mother. 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:18.159 You have to do what you had to do. 0:23:18.240 --> 0:23:23.560 Sometimes, Kelly isn't exonerated in the eyes of the justice system. 0:23:23.920 --> 0:23:27.480 She's legally admitted her part in the killing of a 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.840 man and that will stay on her record forever. So 0:23:31.920 --> 0:23:34.679 while she's now free, she has to deal with the 0:23:34.720 --> 0:23:37.840 price of that freedom for the rest of her life. 0:23:41.600 --> 0:23:44.760 Trying to get a job, for example, you can guess 0:23:44.800 --> 0:23:47.560 how many places want to hire someone with a record 0:23:47.760 --> 0:23:48.440 like Kelly's. 0:23:49.160 --> 0:23:52.960 The only jobs that I've gotten thus far have been 0:23:53.080 --> 0:23:57.120 jobs from people that actually know me personally and they 0:23:57.200 --> 0:23:59.879 know what I am capable of, which is why I 0:24:00.200 --> 0:24:04.080 was actually hired straight out of Bedford Hills. Like, while 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:08.199 I was still within the prison walls, I had a 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:10.760 job with NYU Law School. 0:24:11.359 --> 0:24:14.399 But Kelly finds out this new job is only temporary. 0:24:15.000 --> 0:24:18.000 Within four months, she's back looking for work. 0:24:18.720 --> 0:24:21.840 I was under the impression that, due to my vast 0:24:21.920 --> 0:24:25.640 legal knowledge, this was going to be a lot easier 0:24:25.680 --> 0:24:29.399 for myself than for the average person. I mean, I've 0:24:29.440 --> 0:24:33.400 gotten many people out of jail. I've gotten so many 0:24:33.840 --> 0:24:37.160 sentence reductions, and the fact that they were not even 0:24:37.480 --> 0:24:41.280 hearing me out because of the fact that they see 0:24:41.480 --> 0:24:42.880 conviction conviction. 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.320 It's October first, twenty twenty four. I'm back with Kelly, 0:24:51.520 --> 0:24:53.720 who's in her apartment that she shares with her brother 0:24:53.800 --> 0:24:58.040 Ronnie and her twenty five stuffed animals. I know that 0:24:58.359 --> 0:25:01.840 jobs have been a big issue over the last kind 0:25:01.880 --> 0:25:04.879 of few months. I just wondered where you're at with 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:07.000 your trying to get work situation. 0:25:07.440 --> 0:25:11.720 Yes, I'm actually currently trying to get work, and I've 0:25:11.760 --> 0:25:16.480 been trying so hard and there is not a day 0:25:16.960 --> 0:25:22.359 that I don't apply to at least twenty jobs. And 0:25:24.320 --> 0:25:27.800 when I open my emails every day, there are over 0:25:28.119 --> 0:25:29.600 one hundred emails. 0:25:29.640 --> 0:25:33.679 Sometimes there's three hundred without exaggeration. I go through everyone 0:25:33.680 --> 0:25:34.600 would find youth Colm. 0:25:35.640 --> 0:25:38.040 So I have a full time job right now of 0:25:38.480 --> 0:25:39.840 trying to get a full time job. 0:25:42.240 --> 0:25:45.920 Despite helping to get several women out of prison, Kelly's 0:25:46.000 --> 0:25:48.560 not a qualified lawyer in the eyes of the state. 0:25:49.760 --> 0:25:53.480 After her release, she attended and graduated from a Columbia 0:25:53.560 --> 0:25:58.439 Law School paralegal program, but her real dream is to 0:25:58.480 --> 0:26:02.399 become an attorney lawyer, and for that she needs to 0:26:02.440 --> 0:26:05.360 go back to law school, something that would take years 0:26:05.640 --> 0:26:10.600 and thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars. In 0:26:10.640 --> 0:26:13.720 the meantime, Kelly's applying for any work she can get. 0:26:14.440 --> 0:26:19.639 Actually, speaking of which, I had gone on a job interview. 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:21.720 I don't want to say the company's name, but it's 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:25.360 a great, great company, and they were going to make 0:26:25.359 --> 0:26:29.240 me a financial advisor, and everybody really liked me there. 0:26:29.359 --> 0:26:31.400 I didn't see a reason why I wouldn't get it, 0:26:31.440 --> 0:26:35.720 and I believe they did not either. They congratulated me 0:26:35.760 --> 0:26:39.439 and shook my hand, and then as I was walking away, 0:26:39.600 --> 0:26:42.639 stated we just have to do a quick background check. 0:26:43.480 --> 0:26:46.360 That's when my heart hit my stomach. 0:26:47.840 --> 0:26:50.120 I cried, and I cried, and I. 0:26:50.119 --> 0:26:54.560 Cried for weeks. I still cry. There's never a week 0:26:54.600 --> 0:26:57.000 where I don't cry. There's never a week. 0:26:57.640 --> 0:26:59.199 And I'll tell you the truth. 0:26:59.600 --> 0:27:02.040 It is not even over the conviction at this point, 0:27:02.480 --> 0:27:06.320