The Girlfriends S3/E6: Guilty Schmilty

Hey, girlfriends, it's Anna. Most of this episode takes place in prison. There's going to be some mentions of murder and some very serious domestic abuse, but you'll also get to meet some more of the women Kelly got to know while she was locked up, many of whom have stories just as incredible and complex as hers. If you feel impacted by some of the themes in this show, you can reach out to No More. There are a domestic violence charity with a lot of great resources to

I was broken apart clearly for the first few d's asley I lead in bed.

Her fellow Ryker's Island shorties can't believe the jury's decision, She.

Says, she had been found guilty. Well, like kill, it is not playing because Kelly is a joke starre too.

That's Angelica who you heard from an episode for Kelly's friend with all the makeup tips.

She will say, Now they found me guilty, and she broke down and we were shot in.

All of us started crying like how like how is that possible?

Kelly left the courtroom, promising herself that she would take down the prosecutor from her trial, Assistant District Attorney Sean Clark. But instead she's barely left herself for days. She's moping hard, head deep under the covers. Eventually, Angelica decides enough is enough.

We had a rule, you have three days.

Of feeling sorry for yourself, and then you gotta get out and figure it out, right D number three.

I borge into herself.

That's all right, she said, shouty, that's it.

It's cool. It's time to get up.

So I got up. I sat up, and she said what are you doing? I mean, what are you doing? I said, what do you want me to do? I was found guilty?

You know that.

She goes, ah, guilty, shmilty. She said, look around, paperwork, paperwork, paper All I see here is paperwork.

Kelly.

I said, yeah, I know, and it all went to nothing. She goes, oh no it didn't. No, No, you're not gonna go there with me.

Take your butt to that little library and figure something out.

Laying here is an option. You gotta get up, and you gotta go.

I'm Anasonfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts, This is the Girlfriend's Gelhouse. Lawyer is episode six, Guilty Schmilty By November twenty thirteen, Inspired by Angelica's Tough Love, Kelly is back in the Riker's law library.

I started looking through everything, and that's when I found a three thirty statue.

At three thirty motion to set aside a verdict.

November fifth, twenty thirteen. It was my first motion that I put in, was all in and written, and it was sixty eight pages.

Kelly doesn't want to leave anything to chance with this document. She picks up the phone and calls, of all people, prosecutor Sean Clark, the man who's just got her sent to prison.

I wasn't sure if he was going to hang up on me or speak to me, but he did say, yeah, yeah, I received it. I said, so, what would happen when I go back to court? Probably nothing, It'll probably be adjourned. And this was the beginning of a seventeen month war of attrition.

For seventeen months. Kelly, a self taughtu our house lawyer, holds her sentencing at bay, trying every legal avenue she can find.

He wrote emotion. I wrote emotion. Maybe sometimes that every opposition I wrote for, and it came to a point where they stopped answering me, so I kept writing motions anyway.

A lot of Kelly's motions focus on what's called the Brady Rule. It states that all evidence from the police and prosecution is meant to be turned over to the other side, especially things that could benefit the defense. And while it hasn't been proven, Kelly alleges that this Brady Rule was violated and that some evidence wasn't handed over. She also states that much of what's missing relates to

They made a mistake, they didn't redact one of the portions and it said witness Armando contreris Perez.

According to some online slew thing, Kelly's brother, rond Amando Contreres Perez, well, he has some skeletons in his closet, so I.

Witnessed my trial had an extensive criminal background that was not turned over to me. Basically the biggest Brady violation of all Kelly suspects.

Armando may have a criminal record, and that it could have been white in exchange for his testimony against her, although this hasn't been proven, and while I've seen a photocopy of the notebook with the Contrera's name in it, I haven't been able to find these criminal records myself. But that doesn't mean it's all just tinfoil hat nonsense either. Prosecutors do strike deals with individuals who have criminal charges or convictions in exchange for their testimony against someone else.

I got a hold of his first grade teacher.

Kelly says. She makes then through a chaplain called Sister Eileen, who she met at Riker's And Sister Eileen knew the nun who taught at the judge's school.

So the first grade teacher called them back, and from my understanding, she was really pushing him and prodding him, like set this girl's verdict, decide, like listen, I'm your first grade teacher. They tried the porn nuns.

Kelly says. She also manages to somehow find the number for Judge lay Sack's best friend. She is nothing if not resourceful.

I left a message on his best friend's voicemail telling the best friend how I'm innocent and they've made a huge mistake.

I'm sure this all went down great with Judge lay Sack. Kelly battles on and on and on, but after holding off her sentencing for nearly a year and a half, she's exhausted all her possible motions. No more delays. It's time to go back to court. It's March twenty fifteen. Kelly Hannett is standing in the same courtroom where she was found guilty seventeen months ago. It's time for her sentencing.

I went on and on and on and on. I was citing case law and constitutional violations.

I've seen the transcripts of this. It really does go on for page after page.

All of these people were standing in front of me as I went on and on and on, and I looked at some of their faces and their mouths were up and like shock and awe. That was one of my proudest moments because I had the ada. She means Sean Clark suck in his teeth, sighing, and what does it feel like? I felt like saying, like, you shut up, it's my time now.

Kelly also says how sorry she is for Angel and his family, but that she shouldn't be held responsible for his murder. She says, I did not contribute to that death in any way, shape or form. I was definitely afraid of my co defendant. Kelly also says that had she not done what she did, Tommy would have killed her as well, and that instead of prosecuting a case with one victim, it would have been too Kelly ends

We had to delay the sentence to allow you to make every three point thirty motion that you deemed necessary to make. And it has been delayed for quite a number of months. This is a very sad case. The court takes no pleasure in any sentence, especially a sentence regarding a case like this. You are not the victim

That was like a pretty terrifying transcript from her case, wasn't it. Yeah, you did this and you did that, and this is who you are. You know, you are not a victim in this case. You are not a witness.

It is heavy, it's really heavy.

Yeah, it's that use of the word choice that you chose to do this, you chose to do that.

There's no nuance in it for the judge. It feels like the judge is almost like a representation of the brick wall that like somebody in Kelly's position hits over and over again as they try to just get understanding.

Yeah, and it makes sense that after that experience, she's become so passionate about trying to get people to really see who she is, you know, like to understand that there's the like domestic violence aspect, as she said to me.

Yeah.

On March twenty fifth, twenty fifteen, Kelly Harnett is sentenced to a minimum of seventeen years in prison for the murder of Reuben Angel Vargas and one year for the criminal possession of a weapon a shoelace. In the eyes of the law, Kelly is a murderer, a villain, not a victim as she claims, And now she's finally going where she belongs, Bedford Hill's Correctional Facility, the only maximum

Why was it called the jungle because they're crazy. They set their cells on fire on a regular basis. One time there was the fire, but I hadn't been able to use the phone for a week, so since everyone ran, I ran into the phone room so I could finally make a phone call. And I was like, well, when the fiery gets really bad, I'll run. Like this is how crazy it is in there.

But underneath all the chaos, many of Kelly's fellow inmates are lifeless.

Bad fruit. Everybody's dead. Everybody's dead inside. They're walking around, but there's nothing in there.

Locked up away from her family, away from the world surrounded by women so broken they're almost more zombie than human. It would be understandable for anyone to throw in the towel and join the walking dead. But this is Kelly Harnett. She hasn't given up so far, and she's sure is shit not going to give up now. Every morning, in her green prison uniform, Kelly sits in her cell, in front of her mirror and brings herself to life.

I made sure that under my state greens that I always had a T shirt on that was a different color than green, and that had to match my eyeshadow as well as my lipstick every day and usually my earrings, and I always wore a headband that matched that, because that's a sense of individuality. I'm Kelly cloaked in a guilty person's uniform, but I wanted the individuality to shine through because I'm not guilty. I realized that when you're just a detainee.

Meaning still a ways in your trial, you have.

Life and hope and whatnot. Now these people are walking around with these twenty five to life sentences and they're hopeless. I know so much about the law, so my first thing was Jesus Christ, I have to help these people out.

Kelly's the first couple of weeks keeping her head down getting to know the lay of the land, but she can't stay away from the law library for too long. And it's in there that Kelly starts to find people who can relate to all the frankly fucking crazy experiences she's had while locked up.

One day, I started talking to him about how Riker's iamon wanted to cut my leg off one time and they had the wrong person. They literally wanted to amputate my leg. Then they told me I had a tumor, and I busted out laughing. I said, bring me back to the unit. Me and my tumor would like to leave now. I didn't have a tumor.

So he was overhearing Kelly holding court is one of the prison officers. I'm just going to refer to him as the officer from here on out.

He actually started laughing. He said, Jesus, I thought it was bed here. And then he started speaking to me, and clearly I wanted to jump there, so I inquired, and immediately he asked me, like, do you have any experience? And I said a little bit.

Kelly is intrigued by the officer. There's something different about him. He doesn't treat her like an inmate, like a number. He's attentive. By August twenty fifteen, Kelly becomes a qualified law clerk here in Bedford, making about twenty four cents an hour. Kelly's back where she loves to be, neck deep in a bunch of legal papers with a list of grateful clients as long as her arm.

I don't know how many motions I rolled. I was doing so much work.

And rather than embarrass myself by trying to explain the complicated legal tactics being offered to the women of Bedford.

Hills, now it gets a little complex because for just vacation.

I'll leave it to Kelly Harnett esquire.

I wrote her brief, and it was due to a justification to fancountcy CPL three thirty thirty. Yet, like I said, martians satisided vertict mass up section one of three thirty thirty, which they said it must be two scent. There was the weight of the evidence that behavior's corpus. I could always do an article seventy eight, which would be directing that the jury was wrong to date, I could reiterate everything,

But Kelly's not content with just inspiring hope. She wants to do something big, something she says, no female Geilhouse lawyer in the state of New York has ever done before. With this in mind, one day she asked the officer a question.

How many people have got and other incarcerated individuals out of here? He goes, like, you mean other inmates. Nobody's ever done that? I said nobody. He said no. I said, I'm going to be the first one to do that. He looked at me. He goes, I hope you are.

I hope you are.

If I asked you to picture Kelly in prison, what's the moment that you're seeing in your head.

Her yelling out of her cell or her door to open.

This is Trinity. She was in prison with Kelly. They lived on the same block, but they first met in the law library.

She's gonna laugh when she hears it.

I'm telling you, she's gonna laugh because she knows what I'm talking about.

Every morning at Bedford Hill's correctional facility, all inmates are woken by the sound of their cell doors opening.

They all open at once.

All except Kelly's.

Every single day she had to yell to get her door open, open, three open, three.

Open like you can you can like wait for it.

All the doors would open, bam open three every single day like it got Oh my god, like I literally lost my mind over.

Trinity is thirty years old now, but she went to prison when she was just a teenager.

Like Kelly, I have a domestic violence case. When I was seventeen, I was with my father. My dad has always been like an alcoholic and a pretty abusive towards us growing up. My incident was it happened in July twenty twelve. The short version is that my father was drunk and tried to kill me, and I ended up killing him and then I got arrested.

Trinity's story is depressingly similar to so many of the women I've spoken to while making this series, women who've experienced a life full of violence and extreme trauma, setting them on a catastrophic path. Often they had to come to prison to finally be free of their abuses and to find a real family.

In Bedford, Like we have nothing to do, so it's like we just talk or laugh or play games or something, watch a movie or whatever. One time we were playing this boarding I think it was from my birthday party, something like scategories, where it's like you had to roll the die with the letter and then you had to like try to like write down all the things that began in that letter. So it was like different types of cars, and the letter started with h I'm thinking like a Honda.

Kelly's team mate is doing some more let's say lateral thinking.

Her partner said a hearse and it was so funny, and Kelly thought it was the funniest thing. I mean, she was laughing for so long and it made me laugh too.

Yeah. Wanting to stop her Badford family from becoming totally hopeless. Like so many of her fellow inmates, Kelly pushes them to relook into their own cases, like she's doing with hers.

Kelly taught me that you can get out on a technicality, like an infraction like something like that. So she encouraged me, you know, like read your transcripts, go over it. If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have done that. More than likely.

Working alongside Kelly in the law library, Trinity can see how many inmates are relying on her. Kelly sees the benefits too.

I had the protection from the Law Library. If somebody tried me, I always tell them like, listen, this is something you don't want to do, because I guarantee you you will need me at some point in your bid. And then other people would finally say, oh, this one you don't touch like anybody else. I don't care. But it's just because I was like the only lawyer you know, Jelhouse lawyer. Obviously, Yeah, the.

Law Library offers physical protection from the other inmates, but it's so much more important to Kelly than that. It's her sacred safe space. But then something happens, something that puts Kelly at risk of losing the law library job she's worked so hard for. Kelly begins to spend more time with the officer. He's been so helpful to her throughout her incarceration so far, and as Kelly sees it, he's one of the few good men she's met in

Yeah, he definitely he put the moons on me. He started touching me and things of that nature. I'm not going to lie. When we kissed for the first time, that felt nice. I wanted to feel love, and when you're taken away from human contact for so long, just this feels good. I always just wanted to kiss and like a hub I felt a lot when I kissed him, and he said that he felt a lot too, And then I was to get excited like I have a boyfriend.

Deep down, Kelly knows what the officer is doing isn't right.

It was weird. It was kind of maybe like they call it grooming.

I felt violated in every prison, not only in New York, but across the whole of the USA. Sexual or intimate relationships between prison officers and inmates are forbidden, and it's not just against the rules, it's a crime. Even if both the officer and inmate claim it was consensual, the law wouldn't agree. The power and balances involved are just too great.

I felt that I couldn't tell him no.

Kelly's worried what if this could jeopardize her access to the law library.

The law library is my life, and without the law library, I'll probably never get home.

Kelly also knows how many of her fellow in mates are depending on her.

I'm gonna let the whole facility down if this ever gets out, because I'm taking care of everyone's cases, and what would everyone ever do? So I felt that I had to let him do these things to me.

Eventually, Kelly says, the officer reveals a different side of himself.

He became abusive right along with the rest of them. I would come in one day and he would like slam the book down and be like demanding get these cases. I didn't even do anything to him. He had me going so crazy, roller coaster of emotions. I was like, what did I do wrong?

Kelly says. The officer would win her back on side. He would spin her bullshit about how the two of them would be together once she got out of prison.

This went on for two and a half years.

One day it all comes to a head.

On my birthday. He wrote a note to me that stated something about I can't wait to give the birthday girl a kiss in playland.

Playland and honestly, I'm so fucking grossed out that I have to repeat that word in this context is code for the bathroom that the officer would allegedly sneak Kelly into.

Somebody found the note, so they know that we're having a relationship.

The person who finds the note is Trinity.

Something told me to keep it. And then I told another one of my friends, not knowing that that other friend also had a relationship with him.

Another inmate that the officer is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with.

Yeah, it was bear Stard, I guess was screwing around some with both of us at the same time. I came in like a raging bull and I went ballistic on him and I called him like every name in the book that. I said, you little bastard. What you can't get a girl on the outside, so you come to prison to pray on the weak and vulnerable. You're sick. And I said, I'm telling you right now, I'm going to take this little library and use it to convict you.

Kelly tells the prison about what's happened between her and the officer. I've seen the documents to prove this, but she says she doesn't get much of a response.

They didn't take it seriously at all. As a matter of fact, I told them that Trinity has the letter. They went out of their way to not call Trinity so that they wouldn't get evidence.

There is one person who comes to Kelly's aid, someone unexpected, the man who helped send her to prison in the first place, Assistant District Attorney Sean Clark. Most of the men in Kelly's life have not treated her the way they should have. They've often been controlling, abusive, and at times extremely violent. Seems like the officer was just the latest in that long, unfortunate line. Kelly's brother Ronnie, has really been the only exception, well apart from one other man.

Hi, Sean, it's Kelly, who was usually like, Hi, Kelly, what is it this time?

Often Kelly would be calling to contest some part of her case, or learying out what kind of motions she thought should be filed. I can't stress enough how unusual this all is. Defendants in murder trials do not call up their prosecutors for a chit chat about the finer details of their case. But Kelly says she just wanted Sean to see her as a person, not just some defendant.

I'm not a number, I'm not a case. I was trying to show him the level of humanity that they never see, and I think he was starting to see it.

Kelly wasn't just calling him up. She was sending him some special deliveries.

I would make comic books of what was going on between me, Sean Clark, and mister Murder.

When Kelly says mister murder, she means Judge lasac As for Sean Clark. Do you remember in our last episode where Kelly said he looked kind of like Clark Kent? She was really serious about that.

I had people sending me Superman comics all the time, right, and Supergirl. Supergirl had blonde hair.

You can probably guess who Kelly put in the role of the blonde haired Supergirl.

I cut out Clark Kent, and then Supergirl. I cut her out and she was walking by a door. I roll on the door while library, right, and then Supergirl in the comic. I didn't have to touch it or alter it. It actually said Clark, is that you I can speak your language? Now, no way, that's right. It was the first one I sent him. I waited till I knew he got it. Then I called him up. I was like, maybe he's gonna be really ticked off

Oh yeah, absolutely. But did you ever worry that you might be jeopardizing your chances more than helping? Not at all.

No, no, because what are they going to do put into evidence? A piece of a comic book like That's why I made sure I left it at like these ridiculous things that they would almost feel stupid bringing up, and nobody ever brought it up.

Yeah, you're a very unique person, Kelly. Thank you.

I take that as a compliment.

It's a compliment. It is a compliment for sure. These conversations between Sean and Kelly lasted well beyond her sentencing.

I've even recorded Sean Clark and then called him up afterwards and said, I, Shanna just wanted to let you know that on the last two conversations I recorded you and I'm going to get them transcribed and I'm going to submit them in my.

Four forty ten.

He just stopped.

He was like, oh, okay, Kelly, thanks for the heads up.

After that, I said, that's going to be it. He's never going to take a call again. I waited for like two months. I called him back. He didn't hang up on me. He was just a little bit more cautious after that.

It wasn't just Kelly who Sean was in contact with. Kelly says he also made a lot of time for her family too. Her brother started calling him. In fact, it seems like During this time, Sean's going out of his way to help Kelly's case before her sentencing. He even sends her a transcript of the witness's testimony, where he'd healthily marked up and notated certain sections that just happened to include the problematic points in his story. I've literally seen a copy of this. I still can't quite

You know why, I believe. I mean, I can't speak for him. I don't know if you've ever read the telltale heart Egger Owl Poe. I think a guy killed somebody. If I'm not mistaken, somebody was buried under the floorboards, and you just kept hearing like beat beat, beat, louder and louder and louder, And it was the man's conscience the whole time. He did ask me one time, Kelly.

Can I ask you a question, Why didn't you just take the plea? So?

I said, because I didn't do it, Sean, I'm one hundred percent innocent. And to tell you this, she was, Sean, if I have to stay in prison for the rest of my life and die here, I'd rather that than to lie and say that I did something I didn't do. He gave this heavy sigh.

And he goes, Wow, you did always maintain your innocence.

I wrote to Sean Clark asking him to comment on the unusual relationship he had with Kelly, to ask why he kept up those phone calls for so long, to confirm if he spoke to her family, and if he really did send those transcripts. And I got a reply, but not from Sean. It was from the Queen's District Attorney's spokesman, Brendan A. And Brendan didn't really respond to anything I asked, like at all. He just doubled down. Here's producer Jake reading from their response.

On July seventh, twenty ten, Thomas Donovan and Kelly Harnett murdered thirty two year old victim Reuben Angel Vargas an Astoria Park, Harnett repeatedly kicked the victim while Donovan manually strangled him. Hartnett handed a shoelace to Donovan, who then used the lace as a ligature to further strangle and kill the victim. An eyewitness's account was further corroborated by the medical examiner, who found that strangulation was the cause of mister Vargas's death. It took a jury of Harnet's

It feels like neither Brendan nor I can really speak to why Sean Clark kept up this strange back and forth with Kelly. It's possible he felt some doubts about Kelly's conviction. Maybe as he got to know her more, he saw her more as a victim and not the villain he claimed. She was back in twenty thirteen. Maybe he was trying to make up for that, or maybe he's just a good guy who wants to help where he can, including with Kelly's case against the officer.

My brother got in touch with Sean Clark and told him what was happening. Peta Ronnie. I guarantee you we're going to get rid of him.

Kelly says. Sean makes some calls to the department who are handling the investigation.

Now they're taking me seriously, they said, because we're getting phone calls.

Now.

He really did save me, Sewan' Clark.

The officer doesn't face any jail time, despite the fact that Kelly says she and the other inmate the officer was allegedly involved with both gave statements.

Western to the County District Attorney's office decided that there was insufficient evidence to go through and prosecute him under Penal Law one thirty, which is a sex offender.

This is why I can't tell you his real name. Because no charges were brought against him. He still legally has the presumption of innocence.

It was just such a traumatic situation.

It really was.

For it to have gone on for two and a half years too, and then the worst came. They took my job for.

Me working as a clerk in the law library. Being the jail house lawyer, both back in Rikers and here in Bedford, has been Kelly's one continuous source of strength throughout her long incarceration. It gave Kelly suffering some meaning, kept her fighting all these years, not just for her own case, but for all her fellow inmate clients. Without the law library, Kelly can't see how she can help anyone,

That's the worst thing you could have done to me. That's when I just freaked out.

Next time on the Girlfriend's Gelhouse Lawyer.

I think I'm gonna die here. It was a race against time.

Now I'm not thinking of her helping me, I'm thinking of me helping her.

Listen, this new lodge is pissed in.

She took Kelly's keys.

I just started screaming.

I was like.

The Girlfriend's Jaelhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart Podcasts. For more from novel, visit novel dot Audio. The show is hosted by me Anna Sinfield and is written and produced by me and Lee Meyer, with additional production from Jako Taivich and Michael Jinno. Our assistant producer is Madeline pa. The editors are Georgia Moody and me Annasinfield. Production management from Sarie Houston, Joe Savage, and Charlotte Wolfe. Our fact