Speaker 1: Hey, girlfriends, it's Anna here to let you know what
Speaker 1: to expect in this episode. Like with the last episode,
Speaker 1: this one takes place inside prison. That'll be mentions of
Speaker 1: murder as well as domestic and sexual abuse, plus some
Speaker 1: distressing scenes. But you'll also hear how Kelly makes a
Speaker 1: real difference for some of the women of Bedford Hills
Speaker 1: in true Gailhouse lawyer style, and there's going to be
Speaker 1: some bad language. Enjoy. Kelly Harnett's life changed forever on
Speaker 1: July seventh, twenty ten, with the death of one man,
Speaker 1: Reuben Angel Vargas, but his wouldn't be the last death
Speaker 1: connected to her case.
Speaker 2: The amount of people they have pairsd away within my case,
Speaker 2: it's just it's very eerie. First, my trial attorney, who
Speaker 2: was in his fifties, pairs to away.
Speaker 1: David Epstein. He died in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: My call Defennin's ex girlfriend who used to start fistfightsing
Speaker 2: me every single day in Rikers passed away. There was
Speaker 2: a man who was going to write an affid David
Speaker 2: for me. He actually physically saw Tommy beating me up
Speaker 2: all the time.
Speaker 1: I called.
Speaker 2: One night he passed away.
Speaker 3: You can't make these things up. It's eerie, Yeah, it is. Arie.
Speaker 1: It's twenty seventeen. Kelly's been in Bedford Hill's maximum security
Speaker 1: prison for over two years. She has ten years left
Speaker 1: of her sentence. It's a normal day. Kelly's in the
Speaker 1: law library. She's going through the legal mail when she
Speaker 1: sees something addressed to her. It's from a guy called Dan,
Speaker 1: another house lawyer who Kelly refers to as the male
Speaker 1: version of her. The two of them talk on the
Speaker 1: phone sometimes abouts ideas, around formotions, test their legal arguments
Speaker 1: on each other, that kind of thing. Kelly's curious about
Speaker 1: what Dan sent her. She rips open the envelope.
Speaker 2: Something pulled the ground from under me.
Speaker 1: It's about her co defendant, an ex boyfriend, Tommy Donovan.
Speaker 2: He died.
Speaker 1: Tommy's died from an overdose in prison. He was thirty
Speaker 1: eight years old. Kelly doesn't know how to feel. Part
Speaker 1: of her is relieved the man who terrorized and abused
Speaker 1: her is dead and can't hurt her anymore. But she's
Speaker 1: also pretty fucking furious. Tommy killed someone in front of
Speaker 1: her and then helped make sure she got dragged down
Speaker 1: for it too, and now he's dead. Never able to
Speaker 1: give evidence and take back what he said, while she
Speaker 1: still has ten more years to rot behind bars.
Speaker 2: He got the easy way out. I did all the suffering.
Speaker 1: One good thing that Tommy did for Kelly, and there
Speaker 1: aren't a lot of those to choose from, was when
Speaker 1: he wrote that letter, the one he sent to Kelly's
Speaker 1: trial lawyer David Epstein, that said he alone killed Angel
Speaker 1: and that he had only incriminated Kelly out of anger
Speaker 1: and jealousy. But now that Tommy's dead, that letter is
Speaker 1: worth less than the paper it's written on, because now
Speaker 1: that Tommy's dead, there's nobody else alive who is there
Speaker 1: on the night of the murder who can attest to
Speaker 1: Kelly's story in open court.
Speaker 2: Why are people dying? Why are people dying?
Speaker 1: I'm Anisonfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: This is the Girlfriend's Gelhouse Lawyer, Episode seven, Going Underground.
Speaker 1: People are particular about their birthdays. Some of my friends
Speaker 1: are determined to let theirs pass without so much as
Speaker 1: a hint of fuss. And then I've got other friends
Speaker 1: who claim the entire month for celebrations. I'll probably put
Speaker 1: myself somewhere in the middle of those two. However, you
Speaker 1: spend yours, I think it's fair to say, but it's
Speaker 1: unlikely you'll be doing it behind bars. It's the twelfth
Speaker 1: of August twenty nineteen, Kelly's birthday. This is the tenth
Speaker 1: she's had while locked up. Kelly's thirty eight today, about
Speaker 1: the same age Tommy Donovan was when he died two
Speaker 1: years earlier. There's only so much you can do to
Speaker 1: celebrate whilst you're in prison. It's not like you can
Speaker 1: quickly nip out to Costco for a big cake, and
Speaker 1: even if you could, the guards would probably end up
Speaker 1: tearing it apart looking for rogue nail files. But Kelly's
Speaker 1: Bedford family does try and make things special for her.
Speaker 1: One year, one of Kelly's friends goes around the prison
Speaker 1: and gets loads of women to write down some nice
Speaker 1: things about Kelly. Then they put all the notes into
Speaker 1: a hot pink, sparkly folder and give it to Kelly
Speaker 1: as a present. They bake her a cake and throw
Speaker 1: her a party. Kelly says it's the best birthday she's
Speaker 1: ever had in or out of prison. Something special about
Speaker 1: this birthday, her thirty eighth. For years, Kelly's been fighting
Speaker 1: for her clients with one arm tied behind her back,
Speaker 1: two arms. Sometimes getting verdicts overturned, cases reopened, and women
Speaker 1: out of prison, even for an established lawyer on the
Speaker 1: outside is extremely hard and very rare. For the women
Speaker 1: of Bedford, the law just isn't always on their side.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Laws change and a new one
Speaker 1: has just come into effect. It's called the DVSJA, also
Speaker 1: known as.
Speaker 2: The Domestic Violence Survivor is Justice Act. So I had
Speaker 2: been studying this bill for ten years since Ryker's Island.
Speaker 1: The DVSJA, or an early version of it, was dreamt
Speaker 1: up by the women of Bedford Penitentiary all the way
Speaker 1: back in the eighties and now in twenty nineteen. It's
Speaker 1: law is designed to be applied in resentencing motions. It's
Speaker 1: meant to be used for the people who are already
Speaker 1: in prison. In practice, it gets judges more opportunities to
Speaker 1: consider how domestic abuse might have factored into someone's crime
Speaker 1: in a way that wasn't considered at an earlier trial,
Speaker 1: and then that judge can give out a new sentence.
Speaker 2: In order to submit a DVSJA, you had to be
Speaker 2: incarcerated for at least eight years you had to be
Speaker 2: a victim of domestic violence, the domestic violence had to
Speaker 2: have been a significant kinshiputing factor of the crime, and
Speaker 2: the third prong is based on the history of the
Speaker 2: character and the condition of the defendant that this sentence
Speaker 2: imposed wasn't Julie Harsh.
Speaker 1: Kelly was really lost when she first got removed from
Speaker 1: her job in the law library in late twenty eighteen.
Speaker 1: She saw it as a retaliation from the prison Service
Speaker 1: for reporting the officer she'd been having that secret inappropriate
Speaker 1: relationship with. Kelly does get her job back at one point,
Speaker 1: but then she's told that she's going to be removed again,
Speaker 1: this time because of a new rule saying that an
Speaker 1: inmate can't be in the same job for more than
Speaker 1: thirty six months and that you need to wait a
Speaker 1: full calendar year before getting that job back again. Kelly's
Speaker 1: furious about it, and she's not alone. Her fellow inmates
Speaker 1: really don't want her to be removed either. They rally
Speaker 1: behind her, sending letters of support to the prison.
Speaker 2: I have some of the letters myself, and some of
Speaker 2: them are heartbreaking.
Speaker 1: I've seen some of these letters. There's so many, and
Speaker 1: you do really get the sense of how much Kelly
Speaker 1: means to the women she's been helping. One of them says,
Speaker 1: I'd lost all hope in the judicial system until Kelly
Speaker 1: Harnett arrived. Miss Harnette has given me hope towards the future.
Speaker 1: I fully trust Miss Harnette with my life, and her
Speaker 1: possible removal will, in all likelihood take any hope that
Speaker 1: I have left. As Kelly runs out the clock on
Speaker 1: her job, she's studying the new Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act.
Speaker 1: Because this is a brand new law, there's no existing
Speaker 1: template to follow when it comes to filing motions, so
Speaker 1: Kelly makes one.
Speaker 2: When I made this template, I started asking people if
Speaker 2: they were victims of domestic violence. It was on my birthday,
Speaker 2: on the very first day that it passed, there was
Speaker 2: a girl that came into pick up meal.
Speaker 1: We'll call this girl Jessica. On Kelly's birthday in August
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen, which of course she's spending in the law
Speaker 1: library while she still can. She bumps into Jessica.
Speaker 2: She was like, hi, Kelly, And when she was walking out,
Speaker 2: I said, wait, Kim, here, were you a victim of
Speaker 2: domestic violence? And she was like yeah, And then I
Speaker 2: said listen, this new lawg just pissed.
Speaker 1: Kelly breaks down the workings of the DVSJA. Next, she
Speaker 1: works up a motion for Jessica and it struckt her
Speaker 1: on how to submit it.
Speaker 2: Now, before you know it, the girl has a court date. Yeah,
Speaker 2: she's screaming, I'm.
Speaker 4: Going a court.
Speaker 2: I was so happy because you never really saw people
Speaker 2: go to court in Bedford. Like when someone went to court,
Speaker 2: the whole place would know about it because it's such
Speaker 2: big news. And she went to court. She came back
Speaker 2: for like a day and she was gone.
Speaker 1: She went home. When Kelly first came to Bedford, she
Speaker 1: promised herself that she would be the first jailhouse lawyer
Speaker 1: to get someone out of prison. And now, finally, after
Speaker 1: years and years of graft, she's done it. But why
Speaker 1: stop at just one? In addition to Jessica, Kelly says
Speaker 1: that she helps at least two more women get out.
Speaker 1: One will called Stacy and the other will call Mikayla.
Speaker 1: Another of the many women that Kelly helps is an
Speaker 1: old friend from Rikers, Tasha. It's not her real name,
Speaker 1: but it's what we're calling her. You first met her
Speaker 1: back in episode four. Like Kelly, Tasha had witnessed her
Speaker 1: then boyfriend commit a murder, but she ended up in
Speaker 1: prison for it as well. She came to Bedford from
Speaker 1: Rikers in twenty eighteen without much hope for her future.
Speaker 5: So I just have been I've seen her one day
Speaker 5: in a walk week and I've seen I was like,
Speaker 5: oh my.
Speaker 1: God, Kelly Tasha had just received some bad news about
Speaker 1: her case.
Speaker 4: He said, I can appeal it. She said, yes, you can.
Speaker 4: She told me what to do, she wrote it down.
Speaker 4: I did it.
Speaker 5: I submitted it and it was accepted. And these people
Speaker 5: told me I could doing a pill. That letter got
Speaker 5: me the legal aid lawyer.
Speaker 4: Now I'm excited. I got a lawyer. My first time
Speaker 4: sitting with him.
Speaker 5: He's going very impressed on you know your pill people
Speaker 5: broke you stay in low library alert and said, nope,
Speaker 5: somebody did it for me.
Speaker 1: Kelly has an inmate client waiting list as long as
Speaker 1: her arm. She's getting through each of them as quick
Speaker 1: as she can. But she's not prepared to do a
Speaker 1: rush job. Firstly because Kelly is nothing if not a perfectionist,
Speaker 1: but also because she knows how high the stakes are.
Speaker 1: One of the next thing makes Kelly helps is a
Speaker 1: woman called Lulu.
Speaker 2: We started out Lulu and I very slowly because I
Speaker 2: had so many other people that I was assisting. However,
Speaker 2: what made me put like bump her up on the
Speaker 2: list was her perseverance. Lulu came to the law library
Speaker 2: more often than anyone that I knew, and she stayed
Speaker 2: for what they called the whole module, because some people
Speaker 2: go and within an hour they say movement, and everybody
Speaker 2: gets up and they can leave if they want. But
Speaker 2: she would stay for the entire module. We were in
Speaker 2: the process of actually reaching out to her attorney.
Speaker 1: But just as Kelly is starting to make progress, and
Speaker 1: as Lulu must allow herself to imagine the light at
Speaker 1: the end of the tunnel, there's a dark shadow growing
Speaker 1: outside the walls of Bedford Hills. This shadow will morph
Speaker 1: and swell, and neither Lulu, Kelly, or even the justice
Speaker 1: system itself will be powerful enough to stop it.
Speaker 2: I didn't even get to finish the latter, and there was.
Speaker 1: It before we go any further. There's some things I
Speaker 1: want to tell you about Lulu. Her real name is Darlene,
Speaker 1: but she's Lulu to her friends. She was born in Buffalo,
Speaker 1: New York, in nineteen fifty eight and she was one
Speaker 1: of thirteen children. Her story is like a really tragic case.
Speaker 4: It really is.
Speaker 1: Lulu was a victim of childhood sexual abuse and then
Speaker 1: when she was around just eight years old, her mother
Speaker 1: was murdered.
Speaker 2: I started getting acquainted first with her story. It was
Speaker 2: complete heartbreaking. She kind of had to play the mother
Speaker 2: role for many of her siblings. She had suffered throughout
Speaker 2: her childhood just to eat a regular meal, and when
Speaker 2: she got older, unfortunately, she had gotten into drugs. However,
Speaker 2: the person that she was in a relationship with was abusing.
Speaker 1: Her and.
Speaker 2: She felt that she was trapped in this abusive relationship.
Speaker 1: According to Lulu, one night, a group of men turned
Speaker 1: up at the house she shared with her partner. They
Speaker 1: were after money owed for drugs. Lulu said they knocked
Speaker 1: her out and when she came to, she saw her
Speaker 1: partner had been stabbed. Lulu ended up being arrested and
Speaker 1: charged for his death, and apparently, just like Kelly, had
Speaker 1: given police statements while extremely intoxicated. Terrified at the prospect
Speaker 1: of serving twenty five years, Lulu took a plea deal.
Speaker 1: Back in twenty twelve, she pled guilty to first agree
Speaker 1: manslaughter and was sentenced to twelve years in prison.
Speaker 2: When I heard that she took a plea bargain, I
Speaker 2: realized she did not have effective representation of counsel because
Speaker 2: this was a clear defense.
Speaker 1: Kelly believes that Lulu should have had the chance to
Speaker 1: speak in court about what she'd been through.
Speaker 2: I believe that if they heard lu story that they
Speaker 2: would have found her not guilty.
Speaker 1: She should not be here.
Speaker 2: This is not right.
Speaker 1: By the time Kelly starts working on her case, Lulu's
Speaker 1: being locked up for over seven years. Kelly's heartbroken by
Speaker 1: Lulu's story and impressed with her dedication despite all her challenges.
Speaker 2: Lulu she was struggling as far as her education. I
Speaker 2: don't think she went very far in school because she
Speaker 2: had so many things that she had to do at
Speaker 2: home for her family.
Speaker 1: After bumping Lulu up her list, Kellyan was to file
Speaker 1: something called a four forty ten. It's a motion that
Speaker 1: challenges the fairness or legality of a conviction, and if successful,
Speaker 1: it can overturn a court judgment. But first they need
Speaker 1: to check in with Lulu's original lawyer. Kelly wants to
Speaker 1: ask him to sign an affi david, which is another
Speaker 1: word for a written statement. The aim is to find
Speaker 1: out if and why he advised Lulu to plead out.
Speaker 2: I did not want the four forty to be denied,
Speaker 2: but if I could get an effort David from him,
Speaker 2: that's a piece of evidence.
Speaker 1: But it all comes too late, because it's now March
Speaker 1: twenty twenty and the entire world is shutting down as
Speaker 1: a global pandemic is on the rampage. On the sixteenth
Speaker 1: of March, Bedford Hills locks down from COVID nineteen. The
Speaker 1: inmates are kept in their cells for twenty three hours
Speaker 1: a day. The work Kelly and Lulu are doing comes
Speaker 1: to an abrupt stop. On March twentieth, Lulu sends a
Speaker 1: message to her sister. She thanks her for sending a
Speaker 1: care package and asks her to make sure her kids
Speaker 1: are continuously washing their hands and face. COVID nineteen tears
Speaker 1: through Bedford Hills. As infection rates surge all around her,
Speaker 1: Lulu starts to panic. Lulu has chronic kidney disease and
Speaker 1: an underlying heart condition. She's recently had open heart surgery.
Speaker 1: On March twenty eighth, Lulu sends another message to her sister,
Speaker 1: begging her to do all she can to raise the
Speaker 1: alarm with the higher ups in the prison. She says,
Speaker 1: I cannot afford to get this virus. It may kill me.
Speaker 1: Please help. Lulu tests positive for COVID in early April
Speaker 1: twenty twenty. Fellow inmates say she's been lying in her
Speaker 1: cell for days, barely able to move. On April seventh,
Speaker 1: she's taken to the Bedford Infirmary and then to the hospital,
Speaker 1: where she's placed on a ventilator. One of Lulu's friends
Speaker 1: says her family requests a video call, but that the
Speaker 1: on duty officer guarding Lulu in the hospital refuses. Her
Speaker 1: family eventually convinced the doctor to hold the phone to
Speaker 1: her ear so they can say goodbye. Lulu dies alone
Speaker 1: in hospital on April twenty eighth, twenty twenty, sixty one
Speaker 1: years old. She's the first incarcerated woman in the state
Speaker 1: of New York to die from COVID nineteen and if
Speaker 1: you ask Kelly, she shouldn't have even been there in
Speaker 1: the first place. Do you remember the first time you
Speaker 1: learned that she had died.
Speaker 2: I don't remember the date, but we cried like babies
Speaker 2: the usual circumstances when somebody passes away. We have like
Speaker 2: a memorial for them in the church, but because of COVID,
Speaker 2: we couldn't even have that. I'm not gonna say I
Speaker 2: was her best friend, but I mean that hit home
Speaker 2: because I felt guilty. I felt like the way.
Speaker 1: She died in a hospital, she couldn't even talk to
Speaker 1: her family. That it just breaks my heart. If I
Speaker 1: got routes, I don't know.
Speaker 2: What all those times that she came there, like, why
Speaker 2: didn't I take her first?
Speaker 1: Maybe she could have been all before COVID, and maybe
Speaker 1: she would have still been alive. You'd think that seeing
Speaker 1: Lulu pass away from COVID would have made Kelly a
Speaker 1: hundred times more hyper vigilant about staying safe, but if anything,
Speaker 1: it's the opposite. Due to the lockdown, the law library
Speaker 1: is closed. They've also taken away access to the computer
Speaker 1: tablets that the inmates can use to work on their cases.
Speaker 1: The only place where you can still use these tablets
Speaker 1: is in the infirmary. I can only imagine that after
Speaker 1: seeing so many people die, not just those connected to
Speaker 1: her own case but beyond, Kelly just becomes even more
Speaker 1: desperate to secure her freedom before her own time runs out,
Speaker 1: no matter the cost. So she does something extremely reckless.
Speaker 2: I said, I have to catch COVID. I was telling
Speaker 2: people to cough in my face. I was purposely telling people,
Speaker 2: like after they're drinking something, I said, can you just
Speaker 2: leave me a little sip of the drink out of
Speaker 2: your cup? And finally, I actually really didn't feel well.
Speaker 1: She takes a test just to be sure.
Speaker 2: Of course it was positive.
Speaker 1: Now that she successfully infected herself, Kelly has her ticket
Speaker 1: to the infirmary, but before that, she heads back to
Speaker 1: herself to pick up the stuff she wants to take
Speaker 1: in with her.
Speaker 2: I had two enormous garbage bags worth of paperwork. Right away,
Speaker 2: they stopped me and they want to know where the
Speaker 2: hell I think I'm going with two bags of paperwork,
Speaker 2: And I said, I'm going to the infirmary because I
Speaker 2: tested positive. And they're trying to say I'm not allowed
Speaker 2: to bring the paperwork, which is a lie, because I
Speaker 2: clearly I have the directive memorize you are allowed to
Speaker 2: bring paperwork. I threw the paperwork down and I just
Speaker 2: laid across. I put one arm on one big and
Speaker 2: one arm on the other. I said, I'm not going
Speaker 2: into my cell. I'm pulling my mask off. You stay
Speaker 2: the hell away from me. Anybody comes near me and
Speaker 2: I'm going to go off all over all of you,
Speaker 2: all of you. And it was so scared.
Speaker 1: It was scared to death.
Speaker 2: This went on for eight hours. So because of the
Speaker 2: fact that it went on for eight hours, somebody finally
Speaker 2: said just let her take it, so thank god. So
Speaker 2: I took the paperwork eight hours later, and god, it
Speaker 2: was so heavy, and I realized I was like, I was.
Speaker 6: Like Jesus, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe. Now, the
Speaker 6: infirmary is quite a walk away, so you always know
Speaker 6: who has COVID when they're being escorted.
Speaker 1: Especially with their property.
Speaker 2: So I have half the yard run up to me. Esquire, Esquire,
Speaker 2: oh no, esqt library, all the library.
Speaker 4: But I couldn't even look at them.
Speaker 2: I was watching the cracks in the grounds and like
Speaker 2: I was starting to get tunnel vision because it was
Speaker 2: so heavy and I couldn't breathe. And I remember looking
Speaker 2: at the cracks in the grounds and saying, I think
Speaker 2: I'm gonna die here. And I said, if I die here,
Speaker 2: you know what. I died fighting.
Speaker 1: Obviously, Kelly did not die from COVID nineteen, she makes
Speaker 1: a full recovery and as for the work she's doing,
Speaker 1: paying off her friend, Tasha is being resentenced.
Speaker 4: I was, oh my god.
Speaker 5: I was happy and scared and nervous. I think I
Speaker 5: was maybe the third person in Bedford to get resentencing.
Speaker 1: This resentencing means that Tasha is getting out. She's one
Speaker 1: of at least four people Kelly says she's helped regain
Speaker 1: their freedom. The night before Tasha's resentencing in July twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one, her and Kelly are hanging out in one
Speaker 1: of the yards.
Speaker 2: She said, Kelly, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: be walking out of these doors tomorrow. I said, oh,
Speaker 2: you probably would at some point she said no, no,
Speaker 2: I'm telling you I'd be doing I don't know, twenty
Speaker 2: years or whatever.
Speaker 5: They got old Kelly the most everything with my every being,
Speaker 5: because if it wasn't for her, I probably would never
Speaker 5: have gone back to the lower Library.
Speaker 4: To try to find, you know, fight my way out.
Speaker 5: A lord is say they're supposed to have your faith
Speaker 5: in God, but I had nothing but faith in her.
Speaker 1: The next morning, Kelly watches from her cell as her
Speaker 1: friendly Spadford.
Speaker 2: Behind standing on my window. I looked up and I
Speaker 2: saw her going up the hill. I watched and I
Speaker 2: started to cry. I was happy for her, but I
Speaker 2: was like, I wish that was me. I wish that
Speaker 2: was me, And I guess God heard that.
Speaker 1: Kelly Hannett was officially removed from her job in the
Speaker 1: Bedford Hills Law Library in April twenty twenty. She's still
Speaker 1: allowed to go in there, but she's not allowed to
Speaker 1: give legal help with cases anymore.
Speaker 2: The law library was like driven into the ground after
Speaker 2: I left.
Speaker 1: After losing the battle to keep working in the law library,
Speaker 1: Kelly finally admits defeat. She stops taking clients and hangs
Speaker 1: up her jailhouse lawyer boots for good. Now I'm only
Speaker 1: taking the piss. The law is the true love of
Speaker 1: Kelly Harnett's life, and she's not going to give it
Speaker 1: up for anyone. And so, dear listener, I'm excited to
Speaker 1: welcome you to Kelly Hannett's underground law library.
Speaker 2: I just helping people on the unit. I started helping
Speaker 2: people in the yards. I helped people, no joke, in snowstorms,
Speaker 2: and I'm not even.
Speaker 1: Kidding it was it got bared one rainy day Kelly's
Speaker 1: in the prison yard doing some secrets prison rule breaking
Speaker 1: door work for one of her inmate clients.
Speaker 2: They sold ponchos in the commissary. We had girls holding
Speaker 2: two ponchos over us because the girl whose federal habeist
Speaker 2: I didn't finish, she had like two days left, so
Speaker 2: they held it over us so that we could finish it.
Speaker 1: While I was boring. I mean, if I was an
Speaker 1: officer and I saw that, I would have thought much
Speaker 1: worse things were happening underneath.
Speaker 5: Oh that yeah.
Speaker 2: Well they checked it out though, and they said, oh,
Speaker 2: that's just Harnett, that's little library. Then they started searching
Speaker 2: my cell, ripping it apart, looking for other people's law papers.
Speaker 2: But I was never stupid enough to keep anyone's legal papers.
Speaker 2: Every time I finished helping them, I get them right
Speaker 2: back to them and say go ahead, I'll meet you
Speaker 2: on another day.
Speaker 1: Kelly's jail house lawyer reputation is so secure that even
Speaker 1: when she's not in the law library anymore, people know
Speaker 1: she's the person to come to. And now with the
Speaker 1: vital tool of the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act in
Speaker 1: her back pocket, it seems like she's unstoppable. One day,
Speaker 1: Kelly heads into a place called the day Room. It's
Speaker 1: on the on a floor where Kelly stays. It's a
Speaker 1: section of the prison you get access to if you
Speaker 1: have consistent good behavior or if you keep your clandesign
Speaker 1: Law Library operation under wraps. And in there she finds
Speaker 1: someone we're calling Tina, who's playing cards with some of
Speaker 1: the other women on the floor. Tina has been in
Speaker 1: prison since twenty sixteen. She suffered a lifetime of abuse
Speaker 1: from family members, previous partner, and others. One terrible night,
Speaker 1: following a drug relapse, she violently attacked her then boyfriend.
Speaker 1: She was found guilty of attempted murder. Kelly and Tina
Speaker 1: get to talking about what Kelly's been up to in
Speaker 1: and out of the law library.
Speaker 7: She started telling me, you know how many people she's
Speaker 7: helped along the way in how many you know appeals
Speaker 7: she has put in for individuals.
Speaker 1: And I'm just listening to her. Tina is a little
Speaker 1: different from most of the other women Kelly deals with.
Speaker 1: She doesn't need Kelly's help. She already has a lawyer
Speaker 1: fighting her corner.
Speaker 7: I'm not thinking of her helping me. I'm thinking of
Speaker 7: me helping her, and I'm like, okay, I'm gonna reach
Speaker 7: out to the lawyer that's helping me, is you know,
Speaker 7: see what she can do or if she's willing to
Speaker 7: take on this case.
Speaker 1: The lawyer's name is Kate Mogolescu.
Speaker 7: Kate was more than willing, and she was like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 7: i'll you know, I'll look it up.
Speaker 4: I'll see what I can do.
Speaker 7: And eventually she did that and she took on Kelly's case.
Speaker 2: I had a phone call with Kate mogula school and
Speaker 2: Kate asked me, Kelly, would you like to write your
Speaker 2: own motion? And I thought that was so cool and
Speaker 2: I would love to write my own motion and I
Speaker 2: said yes, absolutely. It wasn't until after she asked me
Speaker 2: that that I realized, wait a minute, I can't just
Speaker 2: jump on this like every single other statute and motion
Speaker 2: and case. This is very different. This is where emotions
Speaker 2: meet the law.
Speaker 1: Kelly writes and writes, pouring her heart into each page.
Speaker 1: She's constructing what's called the narrative, sharing the abuses and
Speaker 1: trauma she suffered throughout her life, making the court see
Speaker 1: how all built up to the one final catastrophic event
Speaker 1: that put her behind bars. Once she's done, she hands
Speaker 1: it over to Kate, who tweaks it and submits it,
Speaker 1: and then they wait a few months. After their submission,
Speaker 1: a response comes through.
Speaker 2: Keith said to me, they're allowing you to replee. She
Speaker 2: said fifteen years, but I was at thirteen.
Speaker 1: I said no.
Speaker 2: I said, it's time serves or nothing.
Speaker 1: Kelly's lost too many years already, so she tells Kate
Speaker 1: to go back and fight.
Speaker 2: I just felt it.
Speaker 1: One day, Kelly practically leaps out of her cell and
Speaker 1: starts booking it to the law library.
Speaker 2: I ran so that I could be the first one
Speaker 2: in the kiask. I jumped on, I put my numbers in.
Speaker 1: She has a message.
Speaker 2: And I was from Kate. She said, Kelly, they gave
Speaker 2: you time served. You got it, Congratulations And I just
Speaker 2: started screaming.
Speaker 1: I was like.
Speaker 2: And my best friends knew what was going on, so
Speaker 2: they were like, you got it.
Speaker 4: I was like, I got it. I'm going home.
Speaker 2: People started pounding on their doors.
Speaker 4: Let me out, Let me out, so.
Speaker 2: That everybody came out from inside. They all just stood
Speaker 2: there and clacked for me. We ran into the phone
Speaker 2: room and I said, here's the phone call for years
Speaker 2: I've been going over this phone call in my head.
Speaker 1: The phone called her brother, Ronnie and their mother.
Speaker 2: I get to call them up and scream on coming on.
Speaker 1: Kelly dials the number, her fingers shaking.
Speaker 2: I said Hi, Ronnie, and he's like hi, and I said, right,
Speaker 2: I'm coming on. He said, oh my god, Kelly, thank god.
Speaker 2: But I'm like, why is he sounding like you? Normally
Speaker 2: Ronnie would be screaming, but he's whispering.
Speaker 4: So I said till I.
Speaker 2: And he said, no, Oh, I can't Kelly.
Speaker 4: She's sleeping.
Speaker 2: And I said, Ronnie, I'm coming home from prison.
Speaker 1: Wake her up.
Speaker 2: And he was like, Kelly, she can't talk. And I said,
Speaker 2: what do you mean she can't talk. I just spoke
Speaker 2: to her Ronnie the day before last. He said, I know,
Speaker 2: I don't know what's wrong with her. She cannot speak.
Speaker 2: I don't know what to do with her. Every time
Speaker 2: I tell her I'm gonna call nine one one, she
Speaker 2: shakes it. No, no, no, So I don't know what
Speaker 2: to do. So I told Ronnie put me on speaker
Speaker 2: and wake her up, and he did that, and I said.
Speaker 4: Mom, I'm coming home. I'm coming home.
Speaker 1: Kelly's mom doesn't reply.
Speaker 2: I said, Ronnie, is she reacting? What is she doing?
Speaker 2: He said, she gave a thumbs up and like that
Speaker 2: broke my hell. I said, oh my god, my mother's dying.
Speaker 1: After serving twelve years helping at least four other women
Speaker 1: get out of prison, Kelly Harnett has finally finally won
Speaker 1: her own freedom. The day she'll get to walk out
Speaker 1: of Bedford Prison is just around the corner. But it
Speaker 1: might have come too late for her mother, Kathleen.
Speaker 2: I needed to get out. It was a race against time, now.
Speaker 1: Next time. On the final episode of The Girlfriend's Gel
Speaker 1: House Lawyer.
Speaker 2: And when it came out of the yeats, I remember
Speaker 2: a screaming and going and putting my arms in the air.
Speaker 2: When I looked at her eyes, I said, that's my mother.
Speaker 2: I couldn't believe for our scene and Sam stated, I
Speaker 2: don't know where I stand with anything.
Speaker 4: Will they put me in prison?
Speaker 2: They put everybody in prison. Really, it's over, It's over?
Speaker 1: Is it over? The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by
Speaker 1: Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from Novel, visit novel
Speaker 1: dot Audio. The show is hosted by me Anasinfield and
Speaker 1: is written and produced by me and Lee Meyer, with
Speaker 1: additional production from Jako Taivich and Michael Jinno. Our assistant
Speaker 1: producer is Madeline pa. The editors are Georgia Moody and
Speaker 1: me Annasinfield. Production management from Sarie Houston, Joe Savage and
Speaker 1: Charlotte Wolfe. Our fact checker is Daniel Suleiman. Sound design,
Speaker 1: mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. Music
Speaker 1: supervision by me alis Infield, Lee Meyer and Nicholas Alexander.
Speaker 1: Original music composed by Nicholas Alexander, Daniel Kempson and Louisa Gerstein.
Speaker 1: Story development by Nell Gray Andrews and Willard Foxton. Creative
Speaker 1: director of Novel, Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are executive
Speaker 1: producers for Novel, and Katrina Norvell and Nicki Eatoor are
Speaker 1: the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts, and the marketing lead
Speaker 1: is Alison Cantor. Thanks also to Carrie Lieberman and the
Speaker 1: whole team at WME