The Girlfriends S3/E6: Guilty Schmilty

Transcript

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Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 If you feel impacted by some of the themes in this show, you can reach out to Know More. They're a domestic violence charity with a lot of great resources to help you or your loved ones.

Speaker 1 You can search knowmore.org, and we've also put a link to their website in the episode description. And as you know, we all swear a little bit.

Speaker 1 It's October 2013. Alone in her cramped cell, surrounded by towering piles of legal documents, Kelly Harnett relives her trial over and over.

Speaker 37 I was broken apart, clearly.

Speaker 37 For the first few days, honestly, I laid in that bed.

Speaker 1 Her fellow Rikers Island shorties can't believe the jury's decision.

Speaker 38 She said she had been found guilty. Well, like, Kelly's not playing, because Kelly's a jokester, too.

Speaker 1 That's Angelica, who you heard from in episode four. Kelly's friend with all the makeup tips.

Speaker 38 She was like, no, they found me guilty.

Speaker 1 And she broke down and we were

Speaker 1 shocked.

Speaker 1 And all of us started crying.

Speaker 1 We were like, how? Like, how is that possible?

Speaker 1 Kelly left the courtroom promising herself that she would take down the prosecutor from her trial, Assistant District Attorney Sean Clark.

Speaker 1 But instead, she's barely left her cell for days. She's moping hard, head deep under the covers.

Speaker 1 Eventually, Angelica decides, enough is enough.

Speaker 1 We had a three-day rule. You have three days of feeling sorry for yourself, and then you got to get up and figure it out, right?

Speaker 38 Day number three, I bore into herself. That's all right.

Speaker 37 She says, shawty, that's it.

Speaker 38 Let's go. It's time to get up.

Speaker 37 So I got up. I sat up.
And she said, what are you doing? I mean, what are you doing?

Speaker 37 I said, what do you want me to do? I was found guilty. You know that.

Speaker 37 She goes, oh, guilty, Shmelty.

Speaker 1 She said, look around.

Speaker 37 Paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. All I see here is paperwork, Kelly.

Speaker 37 I said, yeah, I know. And it all went to nothing.
She goes, oh, no, it didn't. No, no, no, you're not going to go there with me.

Speaker 38 Take your butt to that little library and figure something out.

Speaker 1 Laying here is an option.

Speaker 38 You got to get up and you got to go.

Speaker 1 I'm Anna Sinfield. I'm from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts.
This is The Girlfriends, Jailhouse Lawyer.

Speaker 1 got

Speaker 1 you.

Speaker 1 Episode six: Guilty Schmilty.

Speaker 1 By November 2013, inspired by Angelica's tough love, Kelly is back in the Rikers Law Library.

Speaker 37 I started looking through everything, and that's when I found the 330 statute.

Speaker 1 A 330 is a motion to set aside a verdict.

Speaker 37 November 5th, 2013 was my first motion that I put in.

Speaker 39 It was all in

Speaker 39 ink and written, and it was 68 pages.

Speaker 1 Kelly doesn't want to leave anything to chance with this this document.

Speaker 1 She picks up the phone and calls, of all people, prosecutor Sean Clark,

Speaker 1 the man who's just got her sent to prison.

Speaker 37 I wasn't sure if he was going to hang up on me or speak to me, but he did say,

Speaker 37 Yeah, yeah, I received it. I said, So, what would happen when I go back to court? Probably nothing.
It'll probably be adjourned.

Speaker 37 And this was the beginning of a 17-month war of attrition.

Speaker 1 For 17 months, Kelly, a self-taught jailhouse lawyer, holds her sentencing at bay, trying every legal avenue she can find.

Speaker 37 He wrote a motion, I wrote a motion, maybe sometimes to every opposition I wrote for.

Speaker 37 And it came to a point where they stopped answering me.

Speaker 39 So I kept writing motions anyway.

Speaker 1 A lot of Kelly's motions focus on what's called the Brady rule.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And while it hasn't been proven, Kelly alleges that this Brady rule was violated and that some evidence wasn't handed over.

Speaker 1 She also states that much of what's missing relates to the problematic eyewitness, Amando Perez.

Speaker 1 She found evidence in a police officer's notepad that he was known by a different name.

Speaker 37 They made a mistake. They didn't redact one of the portions and it said witness Armando Contreras Perez.

Speaker 1 According to some online sleuthing Kelly's brother Ronnie did, Armando Contreras-Perez, well, he has some skeletons in his closet.

Speaker 37 The sole eyewitness in my trial had an extensive criminal background that was not turned over to me. Basically the biggest Brady violation of all.

Speaker 1 Kelly suspects Amando may have a criminal record and that it could have been wiped in exchange for his testimony against her.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 But that doesn't mean it's all just tinfoil hat nonsense either.

Speaker 1 Prosecutors do strike deals with individuals who have criminal charges or convictions in exchange for their testimony against someone else.

Speaker 1 Then there are the moves Kelly makes that are a little more unorthodox.

Speaker 1 Especially when it comes to Judge Lasag.

Speaker 37 I got a hold of his first grade teacher.

Speaker 1 Kelly says she makes the connection through a chaplain called Sister Eileen, who she met at Rikers.

Speaker 1 And Sister Eileen knew the nun who taught at the judge's school.

Speaker 37 So the first grade teacher called him back. And from my understanding, she was really pushing him and prodding him.
Like, set this girl's verdict aside. Like, listen, I'm your first grade teacher.

Speaker 37 They tried the poor nuns.

Speaker 1 Kelly says she also manages to somehow find the number for Judge Lasak's best friend. She is nothing if not resourceful.

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 1 I'm sure this all went down great with Judge Lasak.

Speaker 1 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 emotions.
No more delays. It's time to go back to court.

Speaker 1 It's March 2015. Kelly Harnett is standing in the same courtroom where she was found guilty 17 months ago.
It's time for her sentencing. She's facing 25 years to life.

Speaker 1 This is Kelly's final opportunity to speak. And in true Kelly style, she's taking full advantage of it.

Speaker 37 I went on and on and on and on.

Speaker 37 I was citing case law and constitutional violations.

Speaker 1 I've seen the transcripts of this. It really does go on for page after page.

Speaker 37 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 open like shock and awe.

Speaker 37 That was one of my proudest moments

Speaker 37 because

Speaker 37 I had the ADA

Speaker 37 sucking his teeth, sighing.

Speaker 37 And what does it feel like? I felt like saying, like, you shut up. It's my time now.

Speaker 1 Kelly also says how sorry she is for Angel and his family, but that she shouldn't be held responsible for his murder.

Speaker 1 She says, I did not contribute to that death in any way, shape or form.

Speaker 1 I was deathly afraid of my co-defendant.

Speaker 1 Kelly also says that had she not done what she did, Tommy would have killed her as well.

Speaker 1 And that instead of prosecuting a case with one victim, it would have been two.

Speaker 1 Kelly ends her monologue by thanking Judge Lasack for his patience. Then, it's time for the judge to deliver his sentence.
And he doesn't hold back.

Speaker 1 I've asked producer Jake to read from the court transcripts.

Speaker 40 We had to delay the sentence to allow you to make every 330 motion that you deemed necessary to make. And it has been delayed for quite a number of months.
This is a very sad case.

Speaker 40 The court takes no pleasure in any sentence, especially a sentence regarding a case like this.

Speaker 40 You are not the victim in this case.

Speaker 40 And you are not a witness.

Speaker 40 We all make choices in life, Miss Harnett.

Speaker 40 On this particular night, July 7th, back in 2010, you were with a person that you made a choice to be with.

Speaker 40 Mr. Donovan.

Speaker 40 You had a choice to take 10 years on manslaughter plea, and you chose not to. Just like you chose to stay with Mr.

Speaker 40 Donovan and you chose not to try and stop him and you chose to give him that sneaker lace and you chose to kick him. Kick Mr.
Vargas when he was down on the ground.

Speaker 40 These are all choices that you made at that time.

Speaker 40 And I'm sure, Miss Harnett, you would wish you could turn back the clock to July 7th, 2010, and act differently. And this never would have happened, and we wouldn't be here, and Mr.

Speaker 40 Vargas would be with his family. But we have to deal with the reality.
And the reality is that you and Mr. Donovan acted in concert and killed him.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 You know, you are not a victim in this case. You are not a witness.

Speaker 41 It is heavy.

Speaker 1 It's really heavy. Yeah.
It's that use of the word choice, like you chose to do this, you chose to do that. There's no nuance in it for the judge.

Speaker 40 It feels like the judge is almost like

Speaker 40 a representation of the brick wall that somebody in Kelly's position hits over and over again as they try to just get understanding.

Speaker 1 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 domestic violence aspect, as she said to me.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 On March 25th, 2015, Kelly Harnett is sentenced to a minimum of 17 years in prison for the murder of Reuben Angel Vargas and one year for the criminal possession of a weapon,

Speaker 1 a shoelace.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, the only maximum security security women's prison in the state of New York.

Speaker 1 When Kelly gets to Bedford, she's immediately dropped into a new world.

Speaker 1 She's out in the sticks of upstate New York, over 40 miles away from her family back in Queens, and away from her Rikers Island shorties.

Speaker 1 After arriving, Kelly's brought to an area known as the Jungle. Why was it called the Jungle?

Speaker 37 Because they're crazy.

Speaker 37 They set their cells on fire on a regular basis. One time there was a fire, but I hadn't been able to use the phone for a week.

Speaker 37 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 fire gets really bad, I'll run.

Speaker 37 Like, this is how crazy it is in there.

Speaker 1 But underneath all the chaos, many of Kelly's fellow inmates are lifeless.

Speaker 37 Bedford, everybody's dead. Everybody's dead inside.
They're walking around, but there's nothing in there.

Speaker 1 Locked up, away from her family, away from the world, surrounded by women so broken they're almost more zombie than human.

Speaker 1 It would be understandable for anyone to throw in the town and join the walking dead.

Speaker 1 But this is Kelly Harnett. She hasn't given up so far, and she sure is shit not going to give up now.

Speaker 1 Every morning, in her green prison uniform, Kelly sits in her cell in front of her mirror and brings herself to life.

Speaker 37 I made sure that under my state greens, 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.

Speaker 37 And I always wore a headband that matched that because that's a sense of individuality.

Speaker 37 I'm Kelly cloaked in a guilty person's uniform,

Speaker 37 but I wanted the individuality to shine through because I'm not guilty.

Speaker 37 I realized that when you're just a detainee, meaning still awaiting your trial, you have life and hope and whatnot. Now these people are walking around with these 25 to life sentences

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 1 Kelly spends the first couple of weeks keeping her head down, getting to know the lay of the land.

Speaker 1 But she can't stay away from the law library for too long.

Speaker 1 And it's in there that Kelly starts to find people who can relate to all the, frankly, fucking crazy experiences she's had had while locked up.

Speaker 37 One day, I started talking to them about how Rikers Einman wanted to cut my leg off one time, and they had the wrong person.

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 1 So he was over.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 37 He actually started laughing. He said, Jesus, I thought it was bad here.

Speaker 37 And then he started speaking to me and clearly I wanted a job there. So I inquired and immediately he asked me, like, do you have any experience?

Speaker 1 And I said, a little bit.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 By August 2015, Kelly becomes a qualified law clerk here in Bedford, making about 24 cents an hour.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 37 I don't know how many motions I wrote. I was doing so much work.

Speaker 1 And rather than embarrass myself by trying to explain the complicated legal tactics being offered to the women of Bedford Hills.

Speaker 37 Now it gets a little complex because for justification,

Speaker 1 I'll leave it to Kelly Harnett, Esquire.

Speaker 37 I wrote her brief and it was due to a justification defense on CPL 33030.

Speaker 37 Like I said, motion to set aside the verdict must subsection one of 33030, which states that it must be pursuing to county law 722 said the weight of the evidence.

Speaker 37 The jury was wrong.

Speaker 37 To date, I could reiterate everything, including all of the cases.

Speaker 37 I became a person full of hope for so many people at Bedford.

Speaker 1 But Kelly's not content with just inspiring hope. She wants to do something big.

Speaker 1 Something she says no female jailhouse lawyer in the state of New York has ever done before.

Speaker 1 With this in mind, one day, she asked the officer a question.

Speaker 37 How many people have gotten other incarcerated individuals out of here?

Speaker 37 He goes, like you mean other inmates?

Speaker 39 Nobody's ever done that.

Speaker 37 I said, nobody?

Speaker 1 He said, no.

Speaker 37 I said, I'm going to be the first one to do that. He looked at me.

Speaker 25 He goes, I hope you are.

Speaker 1 I hope you are.

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Speaker 1 If I asked you to picture Kelly in prison, what's the like moment that you're seeing in your head?

Speaker 49 Her yelling at her cell for her door to be opened.

Speaker 1 This is Trinity. She was in prison with Kelly.

Speaker 1 They lived on the same block, but they first met in the law library.

Speaker 49 She's going to laugh when she hears this. I'm telling you, she's going to laugh because she knows what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 Every morning at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility,

Speaker 1 all inmates are woken by the sound of their cell doors opening. They all open at once.
All except Kelly's.

Speaker 49 Every single day,

Speaker 49 she had to yell to get her door open.

Speaker 49 Open three, open three, open, like you can, you can like wait for it. All the doors would open, bam.

Speaker 49 Open three

Speaker 49 every single day. Like it got, oh my god, like I literally lost my mind over it.

Speaker 1 Trinity is 30 years old now, but she went to prison when she was just a teenager.

Speaker 49 Like Kelly, I have a domestic violence case. When I was 17, I was living with my father.
My dad has always been like an alcoholic and pretty abusive towards us growing up.

Speaker 49 My incident was, it happened in July 2012. The short version is that

Speaker 49 my father was drunk and and tried to kill me

Speaker 49 and I ended up killing him and then I

Speaker 1 got arrested.

Speaker 1 Trinity's story is depressingly similar to so many of the women I've spoken to while making this series.

Speaker 1 Women who've experienced a life full of violence and extreme trauma, setting them on a catastrophic path.

Speaker 1 Often, they had to come to prison to finally be free of their abusers

Speaker 1 and to find a real family

Speaker 49 in Bedford. Like, we have nothing to do.
So, it's like we would just talk or laugh or play games or something, watch a movie or whatever.

Speaker 49 One time we were playing this board game, I think it was from my birthday party.

Speaker 49 Something like scategories, where it's like you had to roll the die with the letter, and then you had to like try to write down all the things that began in that letter.

Speaker 49 So, it was like different types of cars, and the letter started with an H. I'm thinking, like, a Honda.

Speaker 1 But Kelly's teammate is doing some more, let's say, lateral thinking. Her partner said, a hearse.

Speaker 48 And it was so funny.

Speaker 49 And Kelly thought it was the funniest thing. I mean, she was laughing for so long.
And it made me laugh too.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Wanting to stop her Bedford family from becoming totally hopeless, like so many of her fellow inmates, Kelly pushes them to re-look into their own cases, like she's doing with hers.

Speaker 49 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.

Speaker 49 If it wasn't for her, I wouldn't have done that more than likely.

Speaker 1 Working alongside Kelly in the law library, Trinity can see how many inmates are relying on her. Kelly sees the benefits, too.

Speaker 37 I had the protection from the law library.

Speaker 37 If somebody tried me, I would 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.

Speaker 37 And then other people would finally say, oh, this one you don't touch. Like, anybody else, I don't care.
But it's true because I was like the only lawyer, you know? Jailhouse lawyer, obviously.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 But then something happens. Something that puts Kelly at risk of losing the law library job she's worked so hard for.

Speaker 1 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 her life.

Speaker 1 But one day, Kelly says their relationship crosses a line from prison guard and prisoner into something else.

Speaker 37 Yeah, he definitely put the moons on me. He started touching me and things of that nature.

Speaker 37 I'm not going to lie, when we kissed for the first time,

Speaker 37 that felt nice.

Speaker 37 I wanted to feel love.

Speaker 37 And when you're taken away from human contact for so long,

Speaker 37 just this feels good.

Speaker 37 I always just wanted a kiss and like a hug.

Speaker 37 I felt a lot when I kissed him and he said that he felt a lot too. And then I was starting to get excited.

Speaker 1 Like, I have a boyfriend.

Speaker 1 Deep down, Kelly knows what the officer is doing isn't right.

Speaker 37 It was weird. It was kind of maybe like they call it grooming.
I felt felt violated.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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 imbalances involved are just too great.

Speaker 37 I felt, but I couldn't tell him no.

Speaker 1 Kelly's worried. What if this could jeopardize her access to the law library?

Speaker 37 The law library is my life. And without the law library, I'll probably never get home.

Speaker 1 Kelly also knows how many of her fellow inmates are depending on her.

Speaker 37 I'm going to 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?

Speaker 37 So I felt that I had to... let him do these things to me.

Speaker 1 Eventually, Kelly says the officer reveals a different side of himself.

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 37 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?

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 37 This went on for two and a half years.

Speaker 1 One day,

Speaker 1 it all comes to a head.

Speaker 37 On my birthday, he wrote a note to me that stated something about,

Speaker 37 I can't wait to give the birthday girl a kiss in Playland.

Speaker 1 Playland, and honestly, I'm so fucking grossed out that I have to repeat that word in this context. It's code for the bathroom that the officer would allegedly sneak Kelly into.

Speaker 37 Somebody found the note

Speaker 37 so they know that we're having a relationship.

Speaker 1 The person who finds the note is Trinity.

Speaker 49 Something told me to keep it and then I told

Speaker 49 another one of my friends.

Speaker 49 not knowing that that other friend also had a relationship with him.

Speaker 1 Another inmate that the officer is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with.

Speaker 37 Yeah, this bastard, I guess, was

Speaker 37 screwing around somehow with both of us at the same time.

Speaker 37 I came in like a raging bull, and I went ballistic on him.

Speaker 37 And I called him like every name in the book. I said, you

Speaker 37 little bastard.

Speaker 37 What? You can't get a girl on the outside, so you come to prison to prey on the weak and vulnerable?

Speaker 37 You're sick.

Speaker 37 And I said, I'm telling you right now, I'm going to take this little library and use it to convict you.

Speaker 1 And then he was like, Harnette, stop, please.

Speaker 37 I said, you're going to jail and you're going to be somebody's bitch.

Speaker 37 He started crying. And then he tells me, please don't do this.
I'm going to kill myself.

Speaker 37 I told him that Tommy used to say that to me. And he said to me, you know what you should have said? Do what you got to do.
So when he said, I'm going to kill myself, I said, do what you got to do.

Speaker 1 Kelly tells the prisoner 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.

Speaker 37 They didn't take it seriously at all. As a matter of fact, I told them that Trinity has the letter.

Speaker 37 They went out of their way to not call Trinity so that they wouldn't get evidence.

Speaker 1 There is one person who comes to Kelly's aid.

Speaker 1 Someone unexpected.

Speaker 1 The man who helped send her to prison in the first place.

Speaker 1 Assistant District Attorney Sean Clark.

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Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 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,

Speaker 1 I'm going to tell you about the curious case of Kelly Harnett and prosecutor Sean Clark.

Speaker 1 Their unusual relationship first began in the months between Kelly's verdict and her sentencing, when she started calling Sean on the phone.

Speaker 53 Hi Sean, it's Kelly.

Speaker 37 He was usually like, hi, Kelly.

Speaker 53 What is it this time?

Speaker 1 Often, Kelly would be calling to contest some part of her case or laying out what kind of motions she thought should be filed. I can't stress enough how unusual this all is.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 37 I'm not a number.

Speaker 37 I'm not a case. I was trying to show him the level of humanity that they never see.

Speaker 37 And I think he was starting to see it.

Speaker 1 Kelly wasn't just calling him up. She was sending him some special deliveries.

Speaker 37 I would make comic books of what was going on between me, Sean Clark, and Mr.

Speaker 39 Murder.

Speaker 1 When Kelly says Mr. Murder, she means Judge Lasack.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 37 I had people sending me Superman comics all the time, right? And Supergirl. Supergirl had blonde hair.

Speaker 1 You can probably guess who Kelly put in the role of the blonde-haired Supergirl.

Speaker 37 I cut out Clark Kent. And then Supergirl, I cut her out.
And she was walking by a door.

Speaker 1 I wrote on the door at the Law Library. Right.

Speaker 37 And then Supergirl in the comic, I didn't have to touch it or alter it. It actually said, Clark, is that you?

Speaker 37 I can speak your language now.

Speaker 1 No way.

Speaker 1 That's right.

Speaker 1 That was the first one I sent him.

Speaker 37 I waited until I knew he got it.

Speaker 37 Then I called him up. I was like, maybe he's going to be really ticked off about this.

Speaker 53 He was like, hi, Kelly.

Speaker 37 I could hear him smiling through the phone. You know, when you could just, he was almost giggling and like you could just hear his voice went up a few decibels.

Speaker 37 I never wanted to harass him per se, but I think you could suck up a few phone calls.

Speaker 1 Oh, yeah, absolutely. But did you ever worry that you might be jeopardizing your chances more than helping?

Speaker 50 Not at all. No.

Speaker 1 No.

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 37 Yeah, yeah. And nobody ever brought it up.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 You're a very unique person, Kelly.

Speaker 1 Thank you.

Speaker 37 I take that as a compliment.

Speaker 1 It's a compliment. It is a compliment for sure.

Speaker 1 These conversations between Sean and Kelly lasted well beyond her sentencing.

Speaker 37 I've even recorded Sean Clark and then called him up afterwards and said, Hi, Sean.

Speaker 53 I 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 44010.

Speaker 37 He just stopped. He was like, oh.

Speaker 53 Okay, Kelly, thanks for the heads up.

Speaker 37 After that, I said, that's going to be it. He's never going to take a call again.

Speaker 37 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.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 In fact, it seems like during this time, Sean's going out of his way to help Kelly's case.

Speaker 1 Before her sentencing, he even sends her a transcript of the witness's testimony, where he had helpfully marked up and notated certain sections that just happened to include the problematic points in his story.

Speaker 1 I've literally seen a copy of this letter, and I still can't quite believe it's real. A sitting assistant DA sending a cheat sheet to the same woman he's trying to send to prison.

Speaker 1 I've already struggled with unsuccessfully fitting Kelly into a nice, neat, podcast-shaped box. And now here's Sean Clark, also not playing the role I expected him to play.

Speaker 1 It is,

Speaker 1 from his side, a very odd relationship to be keeping up. I can see why you were doing it.

Speaker 37 You know why? I believe. I mean, I can't speak for him.

Speaker 37 I don't know if you've ever read The Telltale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe.

Speaker 37 I think a guy killed somebody, if I'm not mistaken. Somebody was buried under the floorboards.

Speaker 37 And you just kept hearing like beep, beep, beep, louder and louder and louder. And it was the man's conscience the whole time.

Speaker 37 He did ask me one time.

Speaker 1 Kelly, can I ask you a question?

Speaker 53 Why didn't you just take the plea?

Speaker 37 So I said.

Speaker 53 Because I didn't do it, Sean.

Speaker 53 I'm 100% innocent. And to tell you the truth, Sean, if I have to stay in prison for the rest of my life and die here,

Speaker 53 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

Speaker 53 wow you did always maintain your innocence

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 And I got a reply, but not from Sean. It was from the Queen's District Attorney's spokesman, Brendan A.
Brosch.

Speaker 1 And Brendan didn't really respond to anything I asked, like, at all. He just doubled down.

Speaker 1 Here's producer Jake reading from their response.

Speaker 42 On July 7th, 2010, Thomas Donovan and Kelly Harnett murdered 32-year-old victim Reuben Angel Vargas in Astoria Park. Hardett repeatedly kicked the victim while Donovan manually strangled him.

Speaker 41 Harnett handed a shoelace to Donovan, who then used the lace as a ligature to further strangle and kill the victim.

Speaker 42 An eyewitness's account was further corroborated by the medical examiner, who found that strangulation was the cause of Mr. Vargas' death.

Speaker 42 It took a jury of Harnett's peers two hours to unanimously agree on a conviction.

Speaker 40 Ms.

Speaker 41 Harnett repeatedly attempted communications with the prosecuting attorney, unsolicited and uninvited.

Speaker 42 Despite overwhelming evidence of her guilt in numerous court filings, the defendant blamed her attorney, the court, the district attorney's office, the jury, and the eyewitness.

Speaker 42 She blamed everyone but herself for her guilty conduct.

Speaker 1 It feels like neither Brendan nor I can really speak to why Sean Clark kept up this strange back and forth with Kelly.

Speaker 1 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 2013.

Speaker 1 Maybe he was trying to make up for that.

Speaker 1 Or maybe he's just a good guy who wants to help where he can, including with Kelly's case against the officer.

Speaker 37 My brother got in touch with Sean Clark and told him what was happening. He told Ronnie, I guarantee you we're going to get rid of him.

Speaker 1 Kelly says Sean makes some calls to the department who are handling the investigation.

Speaker 37 Now they're taking me seriously. They said, because we're getting phone calls now.

Speaker 37 He really did save me, Sean Clark.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 37 Westchester County District Attorney's Office decided that there was insufficient evidence to go through and prosecute him under Penal Law 130, which is a sex offender.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 37 It was just such a traumatic situation, it really was. For it to have gone on for two and a half years, too.

Speaker 37 And then the worst came.

Speaker 37 They took my job for me.

Speaker 1 Working as a clerk in the law library, being the jailhouse lawyer, both back in Rikers and here in Bedford, has been Kelly's one continuous source of strength throughout her long incarceration.

Speaker 1 It gave Kelly's suffering some meaning, kept her fighting all these years, not just for her own case, but for all her fellow inmate clients.

Speaker 1 Without the law library, Kelly can't see how she can help anyone, let alone prove her own innocence.

Speaker 1 And worst of all, if she's not the jailhouse lawyer, then she's just another prisoner.

Speaker 1 Another villain with a guilty verdict. joining the ranks of the walking dead.

Speaker 37 That's the worst thing you could have done to me

Speaker 37 and that's when i just freaked out

Speaker 1 next time on the girlfriend's jailhouse lawyer

Speaker 29 i think i'm gonna die here

Speaker 37 it was a race against time now

Speaker 37 i'm not thinking of her helping me i'm thinking of me helping her listen this new law just passed and she took on kelly's case i just started screaming i was like,

Speaker 1 oh my God!

Speaker 1 The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart podcasts. For more from Novel, visit novel.audio.

Speaker 1 The show is hosted by me, Anna Sinfield, and is written and produced by me and Lee Meyer, with additional production from Jayco Tayvich and Michael Ginnow. Our assistant producer is Madeline Parr.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander. Music supervision by me, Anna Sinfield, Lee Meyer and Nicholas Alexander.

Speaker 1 Original music composed by Nicholas Alexander, Daniel Kempson, and Louisa Gerstein. Story development by Nell Gray Andrews and Willard Foxton, creative director of Novel.

Speaker 1 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.

Speaker 1 Thanks also to Carrie Lieberman and the whole team at WME.

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Speaker 46 Drew and Sue and Eminem's Minis.

Speaker 46 And baking the surprise birthday cake for Lou.

Speaker 46 And Sue forgetting that her oven doesn't really work.

Speaker 46 And Drew remembering that they don't have flour.

Speaker 46 And Lou getting home early from work, which he never does. And Drew and Sue using the rest of the tubes of Eminem's minis as party poppers instead.

Speaker 43 I think this is one of those moments where people say, it's the thought that counts.

Speaker 46 Eminem's, it's more fun together.

Speaker 1 This is an iHeart podcast.