The Girlfriends S3/E7: Going Underground

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Hey girlfriends, it's Anna, here to let you know what to expect in this episode.

Like with the last episode, this one takes place inside prison.

There'll be mentions of murder as well as domestic and sexual abuse, plus some distressing scenes.

But you'll also hear how Kelly makes a real difference for some of the women of Bedford Hills in true jailhouse lawyer style.

And there's going to be some bad language.

Enjoy.

Kelly Harnett's life changed forever on July 7th, 2010, with the death of one man, Reuben Angel Vargas.

But his wouldn't be the last death connected to her case.

The amount of people that have passed away within my case,

it's just, it's very eerie.

First, my trial attorney, who was in his 50s, passed away.

David Epstein, he died in 2017.

My co-defendant's ex-girlfriend, who used to start fist fights with me every single day in Rikers, passed away.

There was a man who was going to write an affidavit for me.

He actually physically saw Tommy beating me up the time.

I called one night.

He passed away.

You can't make these things up.

It's eerie.

Yeah, it is eerie.

It's 2017.

Kelly's been in Bedford Hills maximum security prison for over two years.

She has 10 years left of her sentence.

It's a normal day.

Kelly's in the law library.

She's going through the legal mail when she sees something addressed to her.

It's from a guy called Dan, another jailhouse lawyer, who Kelly refers to as the male version of her.

The two of them talk on the phone sometimes, bounce ideas around for motions, test their legal arguments on each other, that kind of thing.

Kelly's curious about what Dan sent her.

She rips open the envelope.

Something pull the ground from under me.

It's about her co-defendant, an ex-boyfriend, Tommy Donovan.

He died.

Tommy's died from an overdose in prison.

He was 38 years old.

Kelly doesn't know how to feel.

Part of her is relieved.

The man who terrorized and abused her is dead and can't hurt her anymore.

But she's also pretty fucking furious.

Tommy killed someone in front of her and then helped make sure she got dragged down for it too.

And now he's dead, never able to give evidence and take back what he said.

While she still has 10 more years to rot behind bars.

He got the easy way out.

I did all the suffering.

One good thing that Tommy did for Kelly, and there aren't a lot of those to choose from, was when he wrote that letter, the one he sent to Kelly's trial lawyer, David Epstein, that said he alone killed Angel, and that he had only incriminated Kelly out of anger and jealousy.

But now that Tommy's dead, that letter is worth less than the paper it's written on.

Because now that Tommy's dead, there's nobody else alive who was there on the night of the murder, who can attest to Kelly's story in open court.

Why are people dying?

Why are people dying?

I'm Anna Sinfield, and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts, this is The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.

Episode 7 Going Underground.

People are particular about their birthdays.

Some of my friends are determined to let theirs pass without so much as a hint of fuss.

And then I've got other friends who claim the entire month for celebrations.

I'd probably put myself somewhere in the middle of those two.

However you spend yours, I think it's fair to say that it's unlikely you'll be doing it behind bars.

It's the 12th of August 2019, Kelly's birthday.

This is the 10th she's had while locked up.

Kelly's 38 today,

about the same age Tommy Donovan was when he died two years earlier.

There's only so much you can do to celebrate whilst you're in prison.

It's not like you can quickly nip out to Costco for a big cake.

And even if you could, the guards would probably end up tearing it apart, looking for rogue nail files.

But Kelly's Bedford family does try and make things special for her.

One year, one of Kelly's friends goes around the prison and gets loads of women to write down some nice things about Kelly.

Then they put all the notes into a hot pink sparkly folder and give it to Kelly as a present.

They bake her a cake and throw her a party.

Kelly says it's the best birthday she's ever had, in or out of prison.

But there's something special about this birthday, her 38th.

For years, Kelly's been fighting for her clients with one arm tied behind her back.

Two arms, sometimes.

Getting verdicts overturned, cases reopened and women out of prison, even for an established lawyer on the outside, is extremely hard and very rare.

For the women of Bedford, the law just isn't always on their side.

But here's the thing, laws change, and a new one has just come into effect.

It's called the DVSJA, also known as the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act.

So I had been studying this bill for 10 years since Rikers Island.

The DVSJA, or an early version of it, was dreamt up by the women of Bedford Penitentiary all the way back in the 80s.

And now, in 2019, it's law.

It's designed to be applied in re-sentencing motions, meaning it's meant to be used for the people who are already in prison.

In practice, it gives judges more opportunities to consider how domestic abuse might have factored into someone's crime.

in a way that wasn't considered at an earlier trial.

And then that judge can give out a new sentence.

In order to submit a DBSJA, you had to be incarcerated for at least eight years.

You had to be a victim of domestic violence.

The domestic violence had to have been a significant contributing factor of the crime.

And the third prong is based on the history of the character and the condition of the defendant that the sentence imposed was unduly harsh.

Kelly was really lost when she first got removed from her job in the the law library in late 2018.

She saw it as a retaliation from the prison service for reporting the officer she'd been having that secret, inappropriate relationship with.

Kelly does get her job back at one point, but then she's told that she's going to be removed again, this time because of a new rule saying that an inmate can't be in the same job for more than 36 months and that you need to wait a full calendar year before getting that job back again.

Kelly's furious about it and she's not alone.

Her fellow inmates really don't want her to be removed either.

They rally behind her, sending letters of support to the prison.

I have some of the letters myself and some of them are heartbreaking.

I've seen some of these letters.

There's so many.

And you do really get the sense of how much Kelly means to the women she's been helping.

One of them says, I'd lost all hope in the judicial system until Kelly Harnett arrived.

Miss Harnett has given me hope towards the future.

I fully trust Miss Harnett with my life, and her possible removal will, in all likelihood, take any hope that I have left.

As Kelly runs out the clock on her job, she's studying the new Domestic Violence Survivors' Justice Act.

Because this is a brand new law, there's no existing template to follow when it comes to filing motions.

So, Kelly makes one.

When I made this template, I started asking people if they were victims of domestic violence.

It was on my birthday, on the very first day that it passed, there was a girl that came in to pick up mail.

We'll call this girl Jessica.

On Kelly's birthday in August 2019, which of course she's spending in the law library while she still can, she bumps into Jessica.

She was like, hi, Kelly.

And when she was walking out, I said, wait, come here.

Were you a victim of domestic violence?

And she was like, yeah.

And then I said, listen, this new law just passed.

Kelly breaks down the workings of the DVSJA.

Next, she works up a motion for Jessica and instructs her on how to submit it.

Now, before you know it, the girl has a court date.

Kelly!

She's screaming,

I'm going to court!

I was so happy

because you never really saw people go to court in Bedford.

Like, when someone went to court, the whole place would know about it because it's such big news.

And

she went to court, she came back for like a day, and she was gone.

She went home.

When Kelly first came to Bedford, she promised herself that she would be the first jailhouse lawyer to get someone out of prison.

And now, finally,

after years and years of graft,

she's done it.

But why stop at just one?

In addition to Jessica, Kelly says that she helps at least two more women get out.

One we'll call Stacey and the other we'll call Michaela.

Another of the many women that Kelly helps is an old friend from Rikers, Tasha.

It's not her real name, but it's what we're calling her.

You first met her back in episode four.

Like Kelly, Tasha had witnessed her then-boyfriend commit a murder, but she ended up in prison for it as well.

She came to Bedford from Rikers in 2018 without much hope for her future.

So I just so happened I seen her one day in the walkway and I seen, I was like, oh my god, Kitty.

Tasha had just received some bad news about her case.

They said, I can't appeal it.

She said, yes, you can.

She told me what to do.

She wrote it down.

I did it.

Boom.

I submitted it

and it was accepted.

And these people told me I couldn't do an appeal.

That letter got me the legal aid lawyer.

Now I'm excited.

I got a lawyer.

My first time sitting with him.

He's like, I'm very impressed on, you know, your appeal paperwork.

You stay in your library a lot.

I said, nope, somebody did it for me.

Kelly has an inmate client waiting list as long as her arm.

She's getting through each of them as quick as she can, but she's not prepared to do a rush job.

Firstly, because Kelly is nothing if not a perfectionist.

but also because she knows how high the stakes are.

One of the next inmates Kelly helps is a woman called Lulu.

We started out, Lulu and I, very slowly because I had so many other people that I was assisting.

However, what made me put, like bump her up on the list was

her perseverance.

Lulu came to the law library more often than anyone that I knew.

And she stayed for what they called the whole module because some people go and within an hour, they say movement, and everybody gets up and they can leave if they want.

But she would stay for the entire module.

We were in the process of actually reaching out to her attorney.

But just as Kelly is starting to make progress, and as Lulu must allow herself to imagine the light at the end of the tunnel, there's a dark shadow growing outside the walls of Bedford Hills.

This shadow will morph and swell.

And neither Lulu, Kelly, or even the justice system itself will be powerful enough to stop it.

I didn't even get to finish the letter.

And that was it.

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Before we go any further, there's some things I want to tell you about Lulu.

Her real name is Darlene, but she's Lulu to her friends.

She was born in Buffalo, New York in 1958.

and she was one of 13 children.

Her story's like a really tragic case.

It really is.

Lulu was a victim of childhood sexual abuse.

And then, when she was around just eight years old, her mother was murdered.

I started

getting acquainted first with her story.

It was completely heartbreaking.

She kind of had to play the mother role for many of her siblings.

She had suffered throughout her childhood just to eat a regular meal.

And when she got older, unfortunately, she had gotten into drugs.

However, the person that she was in a relationship with was abusing her.

And

she

felt that she was trapped in this abusive relationship.

According to Lulu, one night a group of men turned up at the house she shared with her partner.

They were after money, owed for drugs.

Lulu said they knocked her out, and when she came to, she saw her partner had been stabbed.

He didn't survive.

Lulu ended up being arrested and charged for his death.

and apparently, just like Kelly, had given police statements while extremely intoxicated.

Terrified at the prospect of serving 25 years, Lulu took a plea deal back in 2012.

She pled guilty to first-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

When I heard that she took a plea bargain, I realized she did not have effective representation of counsel because this was a clear defense.

Kelly believes that Lulu should have had the chance to speak in court about what she'd been through.

I believe that if they heard Lulu's story, that they would have found her her not guilty.

She should not be here.

This is not right.

By the time Kelly starts working on her case, Lulu's been locked up for over seven years.

Kelly's heartbroken by Lulu's story and impressed with her dedication despite all her challenges.

Lulu,

she was struggling as far as her education.

I don't think she went very far in school because she

had

so

many things that she had to do at home for her family.

After bumping Lulu up her list, Kelly wants to file something called a 44010.

It's a motion that challenges the fairness or legality of a conviction.

And if successful, it can overturn a court judgment.

But first, they need to check in with Lulu's original lawyer.

Kelly wants to ask him to sign an affidavit, which is another word for a written statement.

The aim is to find out if and why he advised Lulu to plead out.

I did not want the 440 to be denied, but if I could get an affidavit from him, that's a piece of evidence.

But it all comes too late.

And the entire world is shutting down as a global pandemic is on the rampage.

On the 16th of March, Bedford Hills locks down from COVID-19.

The inmates are kept in their cells for 23 hours a day.

The work Kelly and Lulu are doing comes to an abrupt stop.

On March 20th, Lulu sends a message to her sister.

She thanks her for sending a care package and asks her to make sure her kids are continuously washing their hands and face.

COVID-19 tears through Bedford Hills.

As infection rates surge all around her, Lulu starts to panic.

Lulu has chronic kidney disease and an underlying heart condition.

She's recently had open heart surgery.

On March 28th, Lulu sends another message to her sister, begging her to do all she can to raise the alarm with the higher-ups in the prison.

She says, I cannot afford to get this virus.

It may kill me.

Please help.

Lulu tests positive for COVID in early April 2020.

Fellow inmates say she's been lying in her cell for days, barely able to move.

On April 7th, she's taken to the Bedford Infirmary and then to the hospital, where she's placed on a ventilator.

One of Lulu's friends says her family requests a video call.

but that the on-duty officer guarding Lulu in the hospital refuses.

Her family eventually convince a doctor to hold the phone to her ear

so they can say goodbye.

Lulu dies alone in hospital on April 28th, 2020, at just 61 years old.

She's the first incarcerated woman in the state of New York to die from COVID-19.

And if you ask Kelly, she shouldn't have even been there in the first place.

Do you remember the first time you learned that she had died?

I don't remember the date, but we cried like babies.

The usual circumstances when somebody passes away,

we have like a memorial for them in the church.

But because of COVID, we couldn't even have that.

I'm not going to say I was her best friend, but I mean, that hit home because I felt guilty.

I felt like

the way she died

in a hospital when she couldn't even talk to her family.

That shit just breaks my heart.

If I got her out sooner,

all those times that she came there, like, why didn't I take her first?

Maybe she could have been home before COVID and maybe she would have still been alive.

You'd think that seeing Lulu pass away from COVID would have made Kelly a hundred times more hyper-vigilant about staying safe.

But if anything, it's the opposite.

Due to the lockdown, the law library is closed.

They've also taken away access to the computer tablets that the inmates can use to work on their cases.

The only place where you can still use these tablets is in the infirmary.

I can only imagine that after seeing so many people die, not just those connected to her own case, but beyond, Kelly just becomes even more desperate to secure her freedom before her own time runs out, no matter the cost.

So she does something extremely reckless.

I said, I have to catch COVID.

I was telling people to cough in my face.

I was purposely telling people, like after they're drinking something, I said, can you just leave me a little sip of that so I could drink out of your cup?

And finally, I actually really didn't feel well.

She takes a test just to be sure.

Of course, it was positive.

Now that she successfully infected herself, Kelly has her ticket to the infirmary.

But before that, she heads back to her cell to pick up the stuff she wants to take in with her.

I

had two enormous garbage bags worth of paperwork.

Right away, they stopped me and they want to know where the hell I think I'm going with two bags of paperwork.

And I said, I'm going to the infirmary because I tested positive.

And they're trying to say I'm not allowed to bring the paperwork, which is a lie because I clearly have the directive memorized.

You are allowed to bring paperwork.

I threw the paperwork down and I just laid across.

I put one arm on one bag and one arm on the other.

I said, I'm not going into my cell.

I'm pulling my mask off.

You stay the hell away from me.

Anybody comes near me and I'm going to cough all of it, all of you, all of you.

And they were so scared.

They were scared to death.

This went on for eight hours.

So because of the fact that it went on for eight hours, somebody finally said, just just let her take it.

So thank God.

So I took the paperwork eight hours later

and God, it was so heavy.

And I realized, I was like,

I was like, Jesus.

I couldn't breathe.

I couldn't breathe.

Now the infirmary is quite a walk away.

So you always know who has COVID when they're being escorted, especially with their property.

So I have half the yard run up to me, Esquire, Esquire, oh no, Esquire, La Library,

but I couldn't even look at them.

I was watching the cracks in the grounds, and like I was starting to get tunnel vision because it was so heavy and I couldn't breathe.

And I remember looking at the cracks in the grounds and saying, I think I'm going to die here.

And I said, if I die here, you know what?

I died fighting.

Obviously, Kelly did not die from COVID-19.

She makes a full recovery.

And as for the work she's doing, it's paying off.

Her friend Tesha is being re-sentenced.

I was, oh my God, I was...

happy and scared and nervous.

I think I was maybe the third person in Bedford to get re-sentencing.

This re-sentencing means that Tasha is getting out.

She's one of at least four people Kelly says she's helped regain their freedom.

The night before Tasha's re-sentencing, in July 2021, her and Kelly are hanging out in one of the yards.

She said, Kelly, if it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be walking out of these doors tomorrow.

I said, oh, you probably would at some point.

She said, no, no.

I'm telling you, I'd be doing, I don't know, 20 years or whatever.

Like, I owe Kelly the most everything with my every being.

Because if it wasn't for her,

I probably would never have gone back to the law library to try to find, you know, fight my way out.

I know they say you're supposed to have your faith in God, but I had nothing but faith in her.

The next morning, Kelly watches from her cell as her friend leaves Bedford behind.

Standing on my window, I looked up and I saw her going up the hill.

I watched and I started to cry.

I was happy for her,

but I was like, I wish that was me.

I wish that was me.

And

I guess God heard that.

Kelly Harnett was officially removed from her job in the Bedford Hills Law Library in April 2020.

She's still allowed to go in there, but she's not allowed to give legal help with cases anymore.

The Law Library was like driven into the ground after I left.

After losing the battle to keep working in the Law Library, Kelly finally admits defeat.

She stops taking clients and hangs up her jailhouse lawyer boots for good.

Nah, I'm only taking the piss.

The law is the true love of Kelly Harnett's life and she's not going to give it up for anyone.

And so, dear listener, I'm excited to welcome you to Kelly Harnett's Underground Law Library.

I just started helping people on the unit.

I started helping people in the yards.

I helped people, no joke, in snowstorms.

And I'm not even kidding.

It was, it got bad.

One rainy day, Kelly's in the prison yard doing some secret prison rule-breaking law work for one of her inmate clients.

They sold ponchos in the commissary.

We had girls holding two ponchos over us because the girl whose federal habeas I didn't finish, she had like two days left.

So they held it over us so that we could finish it

while it was pouring.

I mean, if I was

an officer and I saw that, I would have thought much worse things were happening underneath.

Oh, that, yeah.

Well, they checked it out, though.

And they said, oh, that's just Harnett.

That's law library.

Then they started searching my cell, ripping it apart, looking for other people's law papers.

But I was never stupid enough to keep anyone's legal papers.

Every time I finished helping them, I gave them right back to them and said, go ahead, I'll meet you on another day.

Kelly's jailhouse lawyer reputation is so secure that even when she's not in the law library anymore, people know she's the person to come to.

And now with the vital tool of the Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act in her back pocket, it seems like she's unstoppable.

One day, Kelly heads into a place called the Day Room.

It's on the honor floor where Kelly stays.

It's a section of the prison you get access to if you have consistent good behavior or if you keep your clandestine law library operation under wraps.

And in there, she finds someone we're calling Tina, who's playing cards with some of the other women on the floor.

Tina has been in prison since 2016.

She's suffered a lifetime of abuse from family members, previous partners, and others.

One terrible night, following a drug relapse, she violently attacked her then-boyfriend.

She was found guilty of attempted murder.

Kelly and Tina get to talking about what Kelly's been up up to in and out of the law library.

She started telling me, you know, how many people she's helped along the way and how many appeals she has put in for individuals and

I'm just listening to her.

Tina is a little different from most of the other women Kelly deals with.

She doesn't need Kelly's help.

She already has a lawyer fighting her corner.

I'm not thinking of her helping me.

I'm thinking of me helping her.

And I'm like, okay, I'm going to reach out to the lawyer that's helping me and, you know, see what she can do or if she's willing to take on this case.

The lawyer's name is Kate Mogulescu.

Kate was more than willing, and she was like, Yeah, sure, I'll, you know, I'll look it up, I'll see what I can do.

And eventually, she did that, and she took on Kelly's case.

I had a phone call with Kate Mogulescu,

and

Kate asked me, Kelly, would you like to write your own motion?

And I thought that was so cool.

And I would love to write my own motion.

And I said, yes, absolutely.

It wasn't until after she asked me that that I realized, wait a minute, I can't just jump on this like every single other statute and motion and case.

This is very different.

this is where emotions meet the law

Kelly writes and writes

pouring her heart into each page she's constructing what's called the narrative sharing the abuses and trauma she suffered throughout her life making the court see how it all built up to the one final catastrophic event that put her behind bars.

Once she's done, she hands it over to Kate, who tweaks it and submits it.

And then

they wait.

A few months after their submission, a response comes through.

Kate said to me, they're allowing you to replee.

She said, 15 years, but I was at 13.

I said, no.

I said, it's time serves or nothing.

Kelly's lost too many years already, so she tells Kate to to go back and fight.

I just felt it one day.

Kelly practically leaps out of her cell and starts booking it to the law library.

I ran so that I could be the first one on the kiosk.

I jumped on, I put my numbers in.

She has a message.

And it was from Kate.

She said, Kelly,

they gave you time served.

You got it.

Congratulations.

And I just started screaming.

I was like,

And my best friends knew what was going on.

So they were like, you got it?

I was like, I got it.

I'm going home.

People started pounding on their doors.

Let me out.

Let me out.

So everybody came out from inside.

They all just stood there and clacked for me.

We ran into the phone room and I said, Here's the phone call.

For years, I've been going over this phone call in my head.

The phone call to her brother Ronnie and their mother.

I get to call them up and scream, I'm coming home.

Kelly dials the number, her fingers shaking.

I said, Hi, Ronnie.

And he's like, Hi.

And I said, Ronnie, I'm coming home.

He said, oh my God, Kelly, thank God.

But I'm like, why is he sounding like, you know, normally Ronnie would be screaming, but he's whispering.

So I said, tell mommy.

And he said, no, no, I can't, Kelly.

She's sleeping.

And I said, Ronnie, I'm coming home from prison.

Wake her up.

And he was like, Kelly,

she can't talk.

And I said, What do you mean she can't talk?

I just spoke to her, Ronnie, the day before last.

He said, I know.

I don't know what's wrong with her.

She cannot speak.

I don't know what to do with her.

Every time I tell her I'm going to call 911, she shakes her head.

No, no, no.

So I don't know what to do.

So I told Ronnie, put me on speaker and wake her up.

And he did that.

And I said, Mom, I'm coming home.

I'm coming home.

Kelly's mom doesn't reply.

I said, Ronnie, is she reacting?

What is she doing?

He said, She gave a thumbs up.

And like, that broke my heart.

I said, Oh my god, my mother's dying.

After serving 12 years, helping at least four other women get out of prison, Kelly Harnett has finally, finally won her own freedom.

The day she'll get to walk out of Bedford prison is just around the corner.

But it might have come too late for her mother, Kathleen.

I needed to

get out.

It was a race against time now.

Next time, on the final episode of The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer.

And when I came out of the gates, I remember screaming and going, woo,

and putting my arms in the air.

When I looked at her eyes, I said, that's my mother.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

I'm devastated.

I don't know where I stand with

They put me in prison.

They put everybody in prison.

Really?

It's over?

It's over?

Is it over?

The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart podcasts.

For more from Novel, visit novel.audio.

The The show is hosted by me, Anna Sinfield, and is written and produced by me and Lee Meyer with additional production from Jayco Tayavich and Michael Ginnow.

Our assistant producer is Madeline Parr.

The editors are Georgia Moody and me, Anna Sinfield.

Production management from Cherie Houston, Joe Savage and Charlotte Wolfe.

Our fact checker is Dania Suleiman.

Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander.

Music supervision by me, Alice Infield, Lee Meyer, and Nicholas Alexander.

Original music composed by Nicholas Alexander, Daniel Kempson, and Louisa Gerstein.

Story development by Nell Gray Andrews and Willard Foxton, creative director of Novel.

Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are our executive producers for Novel.

And Katrina Norvell and Nikki Etor are the executive producers for iHeart Podcasts.

And the marketing lead is Alison Cantor.

Thanks also to Carrie Lieberman and the whole team at WME.

This is an iHeart Podcast.