WEBVTT - The Girlfriends S3/E7: Going Underground 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:02.520 Hey, girlfriends, it's Anna here to let you know what 0:00:02.560 --> 0:00:05.880 to expect in this episode. Like with the last episode, 0:00:05.920 --> 0:00:08.920 this one takes place inside prison. That'll be mentions of 0:00:09.039 --> 0:00:12.280 murder as well as domestic and sexual abuse, plus some 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.760 distressing scenes. But you'll also hear how Kelly makes a 0:00:15.760 --> 0:00:18.160 real difference for some of the women of Bedford Hills 0:00:18.560 --> 0:00:22.079 in true Gailhouse lawyer style, and there's going to be 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:28.240 some bad language. Enjoy. Kelly Harnett's life changed forever on 0:00:28.320 --> 0:00:31.480 July seventh, twenty ten, with the death of one man, 0:00:31.960 --> 0:00:36.280 Reuben Angel Vargas, but his wouldn't be the last death 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:37.520 connected to her case. 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:44.839 The amount of people they have pairsd away within my case, 0:00:46.800 --> 0:00:51.199 it's just it's very eerie. First, my trial attorney, who 0:00:51.240 --> 0:00:53.600 was in his fifties, pairs to away. 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:56.840 David Epstein. He died in twenty seventeen. 0:00:57.960 --> 0:01:01.600 My call Defennin's ex girlfriend who used to start fistfightsing 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:07.240 me every single day in Rikers passed away. There was 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:10.040 a man who was going to write an affid David 0:01:10.120 --> 0:01:15.200 for me. He actually physically saw Tommy beating me up 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:16.040 all the time. 0:01:16.920 --> 0:01:17.479 I called. 0:01:17.520 --> 0:01:22.840 One night he passed away. 0:01:23.040 --> 0:01:41.440 You can't make these things up. It's eerie, Yeah, it is. Arie. 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.920 It's twenty seventeen. Kelly's been in Bedford Hill's maximum security 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:49.040 prison for over two years. She has ten years left 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.520 of her sentence. It's a normal day. Kelly's in the 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.640 law library. She's going through the legal mail when she 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:59.080 sees something addressed to her. It's from a guy called Dan, 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.480 another house lawyer who Kelly refers to as the male 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:04.960 version of her. The two of them talk on the 0:02:05.000 --> 0:02:09.320 phone sometimes abouts ideas, around formotions, test their legal arguments 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.840 on each other, that kind of thing. Kelly's curious about 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:19.880 what Dan sent her. She rips open the envelope. 0:02:20.320 --> 0:02:22.880 Something pulled the ground from under me. 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:29.200 It's about her co defendant, an ex boyfriend, Tommy Donovan. 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:32.400 He died. 0:02:36.680 --> 0:02:39.799 Tommy's died from an overdose in prison. He was thirty 0:02:39.840 --> 0:02:44.600 eight years old. Kelly doesn't know how to feel. Part 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:47.640 of her is relieved the man who terrorized and abused 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.600 her is dead and can't hurt her anymore. But she's 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.320 also pretty fucking furious. Tommy killed someone in front of 0:02:55.320 --> 0:02:57.919 her and then helped make sure she got dragged down 0:02:57.960 --> 0:03:02.760 for it too, and now he's dead. Never able to 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:06.560 give evidence and take back what he said, while she 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:09.120 still has ten more years to rot behind bars. 0:03:10.880 --> 0:03:14.600 He got the easy way out. I did all the suffering. 0:03:19.480 --> 0:03:21.400 One good thing that Tommy did for Kelly, and there 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:23.519 aren't a lot of those to choose from, was when 0:03:23.520 --> 0:03:25.760 he wrote that letter, the one he sent to Kelly's 0:03:25.800 --> 0:03:29.320 trial lawyer David Epstein, that said he alone killed Angel 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:32.120 and that he had only incriminated Kelly out of anger 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:37.120 and jealousy. But now that Tommy's dead, that letter is 0:03:37.120 --> 0:03:41.160 worth less than the paper it's written on, because now 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:44.520 that Tommy's dead, there's nobody else alive who is there 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:46.640 on the night of the murder who can attest to 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:48.320 Kelly's story in open court. 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:59.800 Why are people dying? Why are people dying? 0:04:00.520 --> 0:04:04.760 I'm Anisonfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts. 0:04:04.920 --> 0:04:31.800 This is the Girlfriend's Gelhouse Lawyer, Episode seven, Going Underground. 0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.960 People are particular about their birthdays. Some of my friends 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:47.760 are determined to let theirs pass without so much as 0:04:47.800 --> 0:04:50.560 a hint of fuss. And then I've got other friends 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.400 who claim the entire month for celebrations. I'll probably put 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:57.960 myself somewhere in the middle of those two. However, you 0:04:57.960 --> 0:05:00.280 spend yours, I think it's fair to say, but it's 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:08.360 unlikely you'll be doing it behind bars. It's the twelfth 0:05:08.360 --> 0:05:12.400 of August twenty nineteen, Kelly's birthday. This is the tenth 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:16.400 she's had while locked up. Kelly's thirty eight today, about 0:05:16.400 --> 0:05:19.000 the same age Tommy Donovan was when he died two 0:05:19.120 --> 0:05:22.200 years earlier. There's only so much you can do to 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.440 celebrate whilst you're in prison. It's not like you can 0:05:24.520 --> 0:05:27.159 quickly nip out to Costco for a big cake, and 0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:29.200 even if you could, the guards would probably end up 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:33.400 tearing it apart looking for rogue nail files. But Kelly's 0:05:33.400 --> 0:05:36.360 Bedford family does try and make things special for her. 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:40.240 One year, one of Kelly's friends goes around the prison 0:05:40.560 --> 0:05:42.640 and gets loads of women to write down some nice 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:45.599 things about Kelly. Then they put all the notes into 0:05:45.680 --> 0:05:48.360 a hot pink, sparkly folder and give it to Kelly 0:05:48.360 --> 0:05:51.160 as a present. They bake her a cake and throw 0:05:51.200 --> 0:05:54.640 her a party. Kelly says it's the best birthday she's 0:05:54.680 --> 0:06:01.400 ever had in or out of prison. Something special about 0:06:01.440 --> 0:06:06.799 this birthday, her thirty eighth. For years, Kelly's been fighting 0:06:06.880 --> 0:06:09.240 for her clients with one arm tied behind her back, 0:06:09.640 --> 0:06:14.599 two arms. Sometimes getting verdicts overturned, cases reopened, and women 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.279 out of prison, even for an established lawyer on the 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:22.120 outside is extremely hard and very rare. For the women 0:06:22.160 --> 0:06:25.120 of Bedford, the law just isn't always on their side. 0:06:26.200 --> 0:06:29.920 But here's the thing. Laws change and a new one 0:06:30.000 --> 0:06:36.400 has just come into effect. It's called the DVSJA, also 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:37.120 known as. 0:06:37.360 --> 0:06:41.080 The Domestic Violence Survivor is Justice Act. So I had 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:44.960 been studying this bill for ten years since Ryker's Island. 0:06:45.400 --> 0:06:48.360 The DVSJA, or an early version of it, was dreamt 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:51.080 up by the women of Bedford Penitentiary all the way 0:06:51.120 --> 0:06:55.320 back in the eighties and now in twenty nineteen. It's 0:06:55.400 --> 0:07:00.240 law is designed to be applied in resentencing motions. It's 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.240 meant to be used for the people who are already 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.640 in prison. In practice, it gets judges more opportunities to 0:07:06.680 --> 0:07:10.040 consider how domestic abuse might have factored into someone's crime 0:07:10.360 --> 0:07:12.600 in a way that wasn't considered at an earlier trial, 0:07:13.240 --> 0:07:15.840 and then that judge can give out a new sentence. 0:07:16.680 --> 0:07:21.200 In order to submit a DVSJA, you had to be 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:24.480 incarcerated for at least eight years you had to be 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.880 a victim of domestic violence, the domestic violence had to 0:07:28.880 --> 0:07:32.160 have been a significant kinshiputing factor of the crime, and 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:37.400 the third prong is based on the history of the 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.840 character and the condition of the defendant that this sentence 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:42.560 imposed wasn't Julie Harsh. 0:07:42.840 --> 0:07:45.160 Kelly was really lost when she first got removed from 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:47.720 her job in the law library in late twenty eighteen. 0:07:48.600 --> 0:07:51.200 She saw it as a retaliation from the prison Service 0:07:51.480 --> 0:07:54.960 for reporting the officer she'd been having that secret inappropriate 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:59.160 relationship with. Kelly does get her job back at one point, 0:07:59.520 --> 0:08:01.880 but then she's told that she's going to be removed again, 0:08:02.600 --> 0:08:05.120 this time because of a new rule saying that an 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.560 inmate can't be in the same job for more than 0:08:07.600 --> 0:08:10.360 thirty six months and that you need to wait a 0:08:10.400 --> 0:08:15.080 full calendar year before getting that job back again. Kelly's 0:08:15.240 --> 0:08:19.960 furious about it, and she's not alone. Her fellow inmates 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:23.600 really don't want her to be removed either. They rally 0:08:23.640 --> 0:08:26.960 behind her, sending letters of support to the prison. 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.320 I have some of the letters myself, and some of 0:08:30.320 --> 0:08:31.480 them are heartbreaking. 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:35.160 I've seen some of these letters. There's so many, and 0:08:35.160 --> 0:08:37.120 you do really get the sense of how much Kelly 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.720 means to the women she's been helping. One of them says, 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:43.920 I'd lost all hope in the judicial system until Kelly 0:08:43.960 --> 0:08:48.040 Harnett arrived. Miss Harnette has given me hope towards the future. 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:50.880 I fully trust Miss Harnette with my life, and her 0:08:50.920 --> 0:08:54.480 possible removal will, in all likelihood take any hope that 0:08:54.520 --> 0:09:01.640 I have left. As Kelly runs out the clock on 0:09:01.679 --> 0:09:05.840 her job, she's studying the new Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act. 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:09.520 Because this is a brand new law, there's no existing 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:13.400 template to follow when it comes to filing motions, so 0:09:14.000 --> 0:09:14.800 Kelly makes one. 0:09:15.480 --> 0:09:19.360 When I made this template, I started asking people if 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:23.240 they were victims of domestic violence. It was on my birthday, 0:09:23.280 --> 0:09:25.480 on the very first day that it passed, there was 0:09:25.520 --> 0:09:27.840 a girl that came into pick up meal. 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:32.080 We'll call this girl Jessica. On Kelly's birthday in August 0:09:32.120 --> 0:09:34.680 twenty nineteen, which of course she's spending in the law 0:09:34.720 --> 0:09:37.760 library while she still can. She bumps into Jessica. 0:09:38.200 --> 0:09:40.960 She was like, hi, Kelly, And when she was walking out, 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:44.800 I said, wait, Kim, here, were you a victim of 0:09:44.840 --> 0:09:49.080 domestic violence? And she was like yeah, And then I 0:09:49.160 --> 0:09:51.600 said listen, this new lawg just pissed. 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:59.240 Kelly breaks down the workings of the DVSJA. Next, she 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:01.840 works up a motion for Jessica and it struckt her 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:02.680 on how to submit it. 0:10:04.600 --> 0:10:09.880 Now, before you know it, the girl has a court date. Yeah, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.360 she's screaming, I'm. 0:10:13.120 --> 0:10:15.160 Going a court. 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.800 I was so happy because you never really saw people 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:30.120 go to court in Bedford. Like when someone went to court, 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.560 the whole place would know about it because it's such 0:10:32.720 --> 0:10:37.720 big news. And she went to court. She came back 0:10:37.880 --> 0:10:39.880 for like a day and she was gone. 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:50.440 She went home. When Kelly first came to Bedford, she 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.960 promised herself that she would be the first jailhouse lawyer 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:58.800 to get someone out of prison. And now, finally, after 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:06.680 years and years of graft, she's done it. But why 0:11:06.679 --> 0:11:11.320 stop at just one? In addition to Jessica, Kelly says 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.520 that she helps at least two more women get out. 0:11:13.840 --> 0:11:16.280 One will called Stacy and the other will call Mikayla. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:19.520 Another of the many women that Kelly helps is an 0:11:19.559 --> 0:11:22.800 old friend from Rikers, Tasha. It's not her real name, 0:11:22.840 --> 0:11:25.360 but it's what we're calling her. You first met her 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:29.160 back in episode four. Like Kelly, Tasha had witnessed her 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:32.240 then boyfriend commit a murder, but she ended up in 0:11:32.240 --> 0:11:41.240 prison for it as well. She came to Bedford from 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:45.360 Rikers in twenty eighteen without much hope for her future. 0:11:46.320 --> 0:11:48.240 So I just have been I've seen her one day 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:50.120 in a walk week and I've seen I was like, 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:50.480 oh my. 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:53.319 God, Kelly Tasha had just received some bad news about 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:53.880 her case. 0:11:54.440 --> 0:11:56.440 He said, I can appeal it. She said, yes, you can. 0:11:57.240 --> 0:11:59.080 She told me what to do, she wrote it down. 0:11:59.160 --> 0:11:59.679 I did it. 0:12:00.720 --> 0:12:05.480 I submitted it and it was accepted. And these people 0:12:05.520 --> 0:12:09.720 told me I could doing a pill. That letter got 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:11.679 me the legal aid lawyer. 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:14.960 Now I'm excited. I got a lawyer. My first time 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:15.800 sitting with him. 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:20.080 He's going very impressed on you know your pill people 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:23.160 broke you stay in low library alert and said, nope, 0:12:23.200 --> 0:12:24.200 somebody did it for me. 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.120 Kelly has an inmate client waiting list as long as 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.640 her arm. She's getting through each of them as quick 0:12:32.640 --> 0:12:34.880 as she can. But she's not prepared to do a 0:12:34.960 --> 0:12:39.439 rush job. Firstly because Kelly is nothing if not a perfectionist, 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.480 but also because she knows how high the stakes are. 0:12:43.480 --> 0:12:45.840 One of the next thing makes Kelly helps is a 0:12:45.880 --> 0:12:46.880 woman called Lulu. 0:12:47.679 --> 0:12:51.800 We started out Lulu and I very slowly because I 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.119 had so many other people that I was assisting. However, 0:12:56.720 --> 0:12:59.360 what made me put like bump her up on the 0:12:59.440 --> 0:13:06.760 list was her perseverance. Lulu came to the law library 0:13:06.800 --> 0:13:11.000 more often than anyone that I knew, and she stayed 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:14.720 for what they called the whole module, because some people 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.720 go and within an hour they say movement, and everybody 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:21.960 gets up and they can leave if they want. But 0:13:22.160 --> 0:13:26.280 she would stay for the entire module. We were in 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.680 the process of actually reaching out to her attorney. 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:32.080 But just as Kelly is starting to make progress, and 0:13:32.120 --> 0:13:35.080 as Lulu must allow herself to imagine the light at 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:38.720 the end of the tunnel, there's a dark shadow growing 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:44.960 outside the walls of Bedford Hills. This shadow will morph 0:13:45.080 --> 0:13:50.720 and swell, and neither Lulu, Kelly, or even the justice 0:13:50.760 --> 0:13:53.920 system itself will be powerful enough to stop it. 0:13:56.760 --> 0:14:00.760 I didn't even get to finish the latter, and there was. 0:14:00.760 --> 0:14:25.760 It before we go any further. There's some things I 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:31.680 want to tell you about Lulu. Her real name is Darlene, 0:14:32.160 --> 0:14:35.560 but she's Lulu to her friends. She was born in Buffalo, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.400 New York, in nineteen fifty eight and she was one 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:42.560 of thirteen children. Her story is like a really tragic case. 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:47.600 It really is. 0:14:47.920 --> 0:14:52.320 Lulu was a victim of childhood sexual abuse and then 0:14:52.760 --> 0:14:56.120 when she was around just eight years old, her mother 0:14:56.240 --> 0:14:56.800 was murdered. 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:05.200 I started getting acquainted first with her story. It was 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.640 complete heartbreaking. She kind of had to play the mother 0:15:09.840 --> 0:15:15.880 role for many of her siblings. She had suffered throughout 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:21.760 her childhood just to eat a regular meal, and when 0:15:21.800 --> 0:15:27.320 she got older, unfortunately, she had gotten into drugs. However, 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:32.280 the person that she was in a relationship with was abusing. 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:34.160 Her and. 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:40.400 She felt that she was trapped in this abusive relationship. 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.120 According to Lulu, one night, a group of men turned 0:15:49.200 --> 0:15:51.520 up at the house she shared with her partner. They 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.200 were after money owed for drugs. Lulu said they knocked 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.760 her out and when she came to, she saw her 0:15:57.800 --> 0:16:04.000 partner had been stabbed. Lulu ended up being arrested and 0:16:04.160 --> 0:16:07.640 charged for his death, and apparently, just like Kelly, had 0:16:07.640 --> 0:16:12.760 given police statements while extremely intoxicated. Terrified at the prospect 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:15.840 of serving twenty five years, Lulu took a plea deal. 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:19.200 Back in twenty twelve, she pled guilty to first agree 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.720 manslaughter and was sentenced to twelve years in prison. 0:16:23.680 --> 0:16:26.160 When I heard that she took a plea bargain, I 0:16:26.240 --> 0:16:30.920 realized she did not have effective representation of counsel because 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:32.320 this was a clear defense. 0:16:33.200 --> 0:16:35.360 Kelly believes that Lulu should have had the chance to 0:16:35.400 --> 0:16:37.640 speak in court about what she'd been through. 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.680 I believe that if they heard lu story that they 0:16:42.720 --> 0:16:44.640 would have found her not guilty. 0:16:45.280 --> 0:16:46.320 She should not be here. 0:16:46.400 --> 0:16:47.120 This is not right. 0:16:47.960 --> 0:16:51.040 By the time Kelly starts working on her case, Lulu's 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:55.120 being locked up for over seven years. Kelly's heartbroken by 0:16:55.200 --> 0:17:00.120 Lulu's story and impressed with her dedication despite all her challenges. 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:06.320 Lulu she was struggling as far as her education. I 0:17:06.359 --> 0:17:10.119 don't think she went very far in school because she 0:17:11.320 --> 0:17:15.280 had so many things that she had to do at 0:17:15.320 --> 0:17:16.280 home for her family. 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:20.200 After bumping Lulu up her list, Kellyan was to file 0:17:20.280 --> 0:17:23.639 something called a four forty ten. It's a motion that 0:17:23.720 --> 0:17:27.720 challenges the fairness or legality of a conviction, and if successful, 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:31.400 it can overturn a court judgment. But first they need 0:17:31.440 --> 0:17:34.480 to check in with Lulu's original lawyer. Kelly wants to 0:17:34.520 --> 0:17:36.960 ask him to sign an affi david, which is another 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.920 word for a written statement. The aim is to find 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.360 out if and why he advised Lulu to plead out. 0:17:43.600 --> 0:17:46.760 I did not want the four forty to be denied, 0:17:47.359 --> 0:17:49.800 but if I could get an effort David from him, 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:51.400 that's a piece of evidence. 0:17:52.160 --> 0:17:58.359 But it all comes too late, because it's now March 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.560 twenty twenty and the entire world is shutting down as 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:08.960 a global pandemic is on the rampage. On the sixteenth 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:13.479 of March, Bedford Hills locks down from COVID nineteen. The 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:16.320 inmates are kept in their cells for twenty three hours 0:18:16.320 --> 0:18:19.840 a day. The work Kelly and Lulu are doing comes 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:24.040 to an abrupt stop. On March twentieth, Lulu sends a 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.000 message to her sister. She thanks her for sending a 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.600 care package and asks her to make sure her kids 0:18:29.600 --> 0:18:37.840 are continuously washing their hands and face. COVID nineteen tears 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:41.920 through Bedford Hills. As infection rates surge all around her, 0:18:42.520 --> 0:18:47.959 Lulu starts to panic. Lulu has chronic kidney disease and 0:18:48.000 --> 0:18:52.000 an underlying heart condition. She's recently had open heart surgery. 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:57.199 On March twenty eighth, Lulu sends another message to her sister, 0:18:57.880 --> 0:19:00.200 begging her to do all she can to raise the 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:03.919 alarm with the higher ups in the prison. She says, 0:19:04.640 --> 0:19:07.960 I cannot afford to get this virus. It may kill me. 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:17.320 Please help. Lulu tests positive for COVID in early April 0:19:17.359 --> 0:19:20.920 twenty twenty. Fellow inmates say she's been lying in her 0:19:20.920 --> 0:19:25.840 cell for days, barely able to move. On April seventh, 0:19:26.080 --> 0:19:29.680 she's taken to the Bedford Infirmary and then to the hospital, 0:19:30.000 --> 0:19:35.119 where she's placed on a ventilator. One of Lulu's friends 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:38.040 says her family requests a video call, but that the 0:19:38.080 --> 0:19:42.840 on duty officer guarding Lulu in the hospital refuses. Her 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.639 family eventually convinced the doctor to hold the phone to 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:55.720 her ear so they can say goodbye. Lulu dies alone 0:19:55.960 --> 0:20:00.600 in hospital on April twenty eighth, twenty twenty, sixty one 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:05.480 years old. She's the first incarcerated woman in the state 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:09.000 of New York to die from COVID nineteen and if 0:20:09.000 --> 0:20:11.679 you ask Kelly, she shouldn't have even been there in 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:15.520 the first place. Do you remember the first time you 0:20:15.640 --> 0:20:16.800 learned that she had died. 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:21.320 I don't remember the date, but we cried like babies 0:20:22.240 --> 0:20:28.040 the usual circumstances when somebody passes away. We have like 0:20:28.080 --> 0:20:31.280 a memorial for them in the church, but because of COVID, 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:38.159 we couldn't even have that. I'm not gonna say I 0:20:38.280 --> 0:20:41.600 was her best friend, but I mean that hit home 0:20:42.240 --> 0:20:46.920 because I felt guilty. I felt like the way. 0:20:46.840 --> 0:20:52.879 She died in a hospital, she couldn't even talk to 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:59.080 her family. That it just breaks my heart. If I 0:20:59.200 --> 0:21:00.480 got routes, I don't know. 0:21:02.320 --> 0:21:06.240 What all those times that she came there, like, why 0:21:06.280 --> 0:21:08.000 didn't I take her first? 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:12.520 Maybe she could have been all before COVID, and maybe 0:21:12.600 --> 0:21:25.000 she would have still been alive. You'd think that seeing 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:27.760 Lulu pass away from COVID would have made Kelly a 0:21:27.880 --> 0:21:32.280 hundred times more hyper vigilant about staying safe, but if anything, 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:36.159 it's the opposite. Due to the lockdown, the law library 0:21:36.240 --> 0:21:39.520 is closed. They've also taken away access to the computer 0:21:39.600 --> 0:21:42.600 tablets that the inmates can use to work on their cases. 0:21:43.240 --> 0:21:45.919 The only place where you can still use these tablets 0:21:46.600 --> 0:21:50.080 is in the infirmary. I can only imagine that after 0:21:50.080 --> 0:21:52.879 seeing so many people die, not just those connected to 0:21:52.920 --> 0:21:56.560 her own case but beyond, Kelly just becomes even more 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:00.280 desperate to secure her freedom before her own time runs out, 0:22:00.680 --> 0:22:05.160 no matter the cost. So she does something extremely reckless. 0:22:05.920 --> 0:22:09.440 I said, I have to catch COVID. I was telling 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:13.719 people to cough in my face. I was purposely telling people, 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.200 like after they're drinking something, I said, can you just 0:22:17.280 --> 0:22:20.159 leave me a little sip of the drink out of 0:22:20.160 --> 0:22:25.520 your cup? And finally, I actually really didn't feel well. 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:27.720 She takes a test just to be sure. 0:22:28.160 --> 0:22:29.280 Of course it was positive. 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:33.919 Now that she successfully infected herself, Kelly has her ticket 0:22:33.960 --> 0:22:37.080 to the infirmary, but before that, she heads back to 0:22:37.119 --> 0:22:39.000 herself to pick up the stuff she wants to take 0:22:39.040 --> 0:22:39.520 in with her. 0:22:40.359 --> 0:22:48.119 I had two enormous garbage bags worth of paperwork. Right away, 0:22:48.280 --> 0:22:51.600 they stopped me and they want to know where the 0:22:51.640 --> 0:22:55.040 hell I think I'm going with two bags of paperwork, 0:22:55.760 --> 0:23:00.800 And I said, I'm going to the infirmary because I 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:05.159 tested positive. And they're trying to say I'm not allowed 0:23:05.200 --> 0:23:07.720 to bring the paperwork, which is a lie, because I 0:23:07.880 --> 0:23:11.040 clearly I have the directive memorize you are allowed to 0:23:11.040 --> 0:23:14.920 bring paperwork. I threw the paperwork down and I just 0:23:15.000 --> 0:23:18.800 laid across. I put one arm on one big and 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.800 one arm on the other. I said, I'm not going 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:26.520 into my cell. I'm pulling my mask off. You stay 0:23:26.560 --> 0:23:29.359 the hell away from me. Anybody comes near me and 0:23:29.359 --> 0:23:31.280 I'm going to go off all over all of you, 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:34.760 all of you. And it was so scared. 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:36.399 It was scared to death. 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:40.399 This went on for eight hours. So because of the 0:23:40.400 --> 0:23:43.040 fact that it went on for eight hours, somebody finally 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:47.600 said just let her take it, so thank god. So 0:23:47.840 --> 0:23:52.600 I took the paperwork eight hours later, and god, it 0:23:52.680 --> 0:23:58.480 was so heavy, and I realized I was like, I was. 0:23:58.400 --> 0:24:08.320 Like Jesus, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe. Now, the 0:24:08.359 --> 0:24:11.399 infirmary is quite a walk away, so you always know 0:24:11.520 --> 0:24:14.600 who has COVID when they're being escorted. 0:24:14.359 --> 0:24:16.120 Especially with their property. 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:22.280 So I have half the yard run up to me. Esquire, Esquire, 0:24:22.359 --> 0:24:26.000 oh no, esqt library, all the library. 0:24:25.760 --> 0:24:28.160 But I couldn't even look at them. 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:31.199 I was watching the cracks in the grounds and like 0:24:31.320 --> 0:24:33.320 I was starting to get tunnel vision because it was 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:36.879 so heavy and I couldn't breathe. And I remember looking 0:24:36.880 --> 0:24:39.520 at the cracks in the grounds and saying, I think 0:24:39.520 --> 0:24:42.920 I'm gonna die here. And I said, if I die here, 0:24:43.000 --> 0:24:44.760 you know what. I died fighting. 0:24:52.320 --> 0:24:56.120 Obviously, Kelly did not die from COVID nineteen, she makes 0:24:56.119 --> 0:24:59.399 a full recovery and as for the work she's doing, 0:25:00.160 --> 0:25:04.560 paying off her friend, Tasha is being resentenced. 0:25:04.800 --> 0:25:05.720 I was, oh my god. 0:25:05.760 --> 0:25:12.679 I was happy and scared and nervous. I think I 0:25:12.800 --> 0:25:16.200 was maybe the third person in Bedford to get resentencing. 0:25:19.000 --> 0:25:23.760 This resentencing means that Tasha is getting out. She's one 0:25:23.800 --> 0:25:26.560 of at least four people Kelly says she's helped regain 0:25:26.600 --> 0:25:32.280 their freedom. The night before Tasha's resentencing in July twenty 0:25:32.320 --> 0:25:35.000 twenty one, her and Kelly are hanging out in one 0:25:35.040 --> 0:25:37.280 of the yards. 0:25:37.920 --> 0:25:42.240 She said, Kelly, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't 0:25:42.240 --> 0:25:45.480 be walking out of these doors tomorrow. I said, oh, 0:25:45.520 --> 0:25:48.960 you probably would at some point she said no, no, 0:25:49.800 --> 0:25:53.280 I'm telling you I'd be doing I don't know, twenty 0:25:53.400 --> 0:25:54.159 years or whatever. 0:25:55.400 --> 0:26:00.600 They got old Kelly the most everything with my every being, 0:26:01.480 --> 0:26:04.920 because if it wasn't for her, I probably would never 0:26:05.040 --> 0:26:07.120 have gone back to the lower Library. 0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:08.600 To try to find, you know, fight my way out. 0:26:09.760 --> 0:26:11.320 A lord is say they're supposed to have your faith 0:26:11.359 --> 0:26:14.760 in God, but I had nothing but faith in her. 0:26:16.080 --> 0:26:19.640 The next morning, Kelly watches from her cell as her 0:26:19.640 --> 0:26:21.120 friendly Spadford. 0:26:20.720 --> 0:26:26.119 Behind standing on my window. I looked up and I 0:26:26.200 --> 0:26:30.760 saw her going up the hill. I watched and I 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:38.000 started to cry. I was happy for her, but I 0:26:38.040 --> 0:26:42.639 was like, I wish that was me. I wish that 0:26:42.840 --> 0:26:49.360 was me, And I guess God heard that. 0:27:08.200 --> 0:27:10.960 Kelly Hannett was officially removed from her job in the 0:27:10.960 --> 0:27:15.000 Bedford Hills Law Library in April twenty twenty. She's still 0:27:15.040 --> 0:27:17.200 allowed to go in there, but she's not allowed to 0:27:17.240 --> 0:27:19.080 give legal help with cases anymore. 0:27:19.800 --> 0:27:22.720 The law library was like driven into the ground after 0:27:22.760 --> 0:27:23.200