The Girlfriends S3/E4: The Shawties

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I found relief.

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Get checked for TB before starting.

Speaker 21 Increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like TB or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Some were fatal.

Speaker 21 Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough, had a vaccine or planned to, or if IBD symptoms develop or worsen.

Speaker 21 Serious Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or COSENTIX.com.

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Speaker 25 Hey girlfriends, it's me, Anna.

Speaker 26 I wanted to give you a heads up.

Speaker 25 This episode takes place within Rikers Island Jail, so we'll obviously be speaking a lot about the prison system.

Speaker 25 Plus, there's going to be talk about addiction, and there's lots of references to violence, including domestic abuse.

Speaker 2 But I'll also get to introduce you to some incredible women who formed a sisterhood while locked up and who helped Kelly become the woman she is today.

Speaker 2 If you're affected by any of the themes around domestic and gendered violence in this show, reach out to our charity partner, Know More.

Speaker 31 They're a domestic violence charity with a lot of great resources to help you or your loved ones.

Speaker 28 You can search knowmore.org and we've put a link to their website in the episode description. There's also going to be some bad language, so let's go.

Speaker 26 It's a swelteringly hot day in early July 2010.

Speaker 26 Kelly Harnett has just arrived at the infamous Rikers Island jail.

Speaker 35 She's been taken into a unit called, pretty uninspiringly, new admissions.

Speaker 26 This is where you wait around while you and a busload of other detainees are processed.

Speaker 2 It's not a comfortable place to be, even at the best of times.

Speaker 40 And this month, temperatures are reaching as high as 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

Speaker 34 For the non-Americans in the room, that's nearly 40 degrees Celsius.

Speaker 37 At the time, Rikers also doesn't have any air conditioning.

Speaker 41 So you're just cattle in a hot tin can.

Speaker 44 I couldn't take it and this one-piece paper suit covered my footing and I had no shoes on.

Speaker 26 Remember that bloodstained suit Kelly was wearing?

Speaker 38 She still got that on.

Speaker 44 It was so hot, I ripped the shoe part and rolled it up.

Speaker 45 Now I'm barefoot in Rikers Island in Intake, which is the filthiest place that I know of in the world.

Speaker 40 From Intake, where all new arrivals go, Kelly is taken through a series of invasive medical tests, blood tests, mental health assessments, drug checks.

Speaker 26 Then, she's issued with a kind of jail starter pack.

Speaker 30 Some clothes, two towels, two sheets, toothpaste and a toothbrush.

Speaker 12 A single green cup, plus something called state soap, whatever the fuck that means.

Speaker 2 After getting her supplies, Kelly's spat out into the general population. a 60-person unit.

Speaker 40 As she walks through a communal area lined by cells, she can tell that everyone's looking her up and down.

Speaker 6 All eyes stayed on me for two reasons.

Speaker 46 I was white

Speaker 52 and the paper suit. Now, I know that African Americans are treated very unfairly in the justice system.

Speaker 46 So it made sense when I went in there and there are 60 cells and 59 of them are African American. And then there was me.

Speaker 6 So people started talking to me like, yo, blondie, yo, white girl.

Speaker 47 And I said, nah, nah, we're not doing that.

Speaker 53 I have a name. I'm not a punk.

Speaker 44 You're not going to push me around in here.

Speaker 32 Other than rejecting some new unwanted nicknames, Kelly keeps her head down for the first couple of weeks.

Speaker 26 She's got a plan.

Speaker 56 Just watch and watch and watch.

Speaker 57 Get a feel for absolutely everybody.

Speaker 46 But while I was watching, I was deathly sick.

Speaker 41 Kelly's been an opioid addict for a decade and has been on and off methadone for most of that time. Right now, she's going through something called administrative detox.

Speaker 31 It's the fastest detox that you can put a person through legally.

Speaker 53 When they called methadone, a few times, I had to crawl on my hands and knees.

Speaker 52 And one captain, when he saw me, he said, you see,

Speaker 56 I hope you remember this for the rest of your life. This is what drugs do to you.

Speaker 31 During this time, Kelly's barely able to speak, throwing up and worse.

Speaker 38 Kelly's very religious, a Catholic girl through and through, and a dedicated disciple of Saint Therese, whose signature token is a rose.

Speaker 26 Kelly's been praying to her since she was four years old, and I imagine she spent these early weeks of detox doing the same. She's always relied on St.

Speaker 30 Therese to get her through the worst.

Speaker 40 But right now, there's someone else by her side too.

Speaker 36 Kelly's being nursed by a woman, a fellow inmate, someone she's never met before.

Speaker 42 This lady, she was maybe a couple of years older than me, and when I was feeling a little bit better and I could speak, I said, Thank you so much.

Speaker 26 She gives this woman a hug.

Speaker 6 And I said, why do you smell like roses?

Speaker 45 She said, Oh, these are my rosary beads.

Speaker 61 I got these from the Vatican. They're made of rosewood.

Speaker 26 The woman takes the beads off and places them around Kelly's neck.

Speaker 53 I said, What is your name?

Speaker 45 She says, Teresa.

Speaker 58 And I said, Really?

Speaker 58 It's amazing.

Speaker 43 I feel that that was my guardian angel.

Speaker 52 I feel that God sent Saint Therese to tell me that everything was going to be okay.

Speaker 41 It's just as well, because Kelly's going to need all the help she can get, divine or otherwise, if she's going to survive here in Rikers, let alone prove that she's not a murderer.

Speaker 2 I'm Anna Sinfield and from the teams at Novel and iHeart Podcasts.

Speaker 40 This is The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer.

Speaker 34 Episode 4, The Shorties.

Speaker 29 At first, Kelly keeps her distance from the other inmates.

Speaker 33 But pretty soon, it becomes clear that to get by and here, she's going to need some friends.

Speaker 26 Enter Angelica.

Speaker 59 Our sisterhood, we called ourselves the Shodis.

Speaker 41 Angelica isn't actually her real name, but it's what we're going to call her.

Speaker 59 Going to court is the time where men and women are brought back together, right? Because we're in very separate quarters, and so we don't see each other until it's time to go to court.

Speaker 33 The way the guys speak to you, they go, you shorty!

Speaker 45 Yo, shorty with the blonde hair, shodi, shorty with the gray shirt or shorty with the black pants yo shawty give me your numbers

Speaker 45 so we started this joke we started calling ourselves the shaudies

Speaker 59 and this is when i formed a family in rikers we're gonna find lightness and everything i mean i think it's part of the human condition as terrible as an experience is

Speaker 59 in order to survive it you find

Speaker 59 some beauty somewhere you find something amusing somewhere Kelly finds her little pocket of joy the same place she found it before prison on the dance floor.

Speaker 33 Drop the beat, Kel.

Speaker 47 I used to be my walking on and dance, like in the open, in the huge recreational room.

Speaker 53 I wanted to feel happiness, and that's what made me happy.

Speaker 22 So I danced.

Speaker 52 And other people started dancing.

Speaker 45 We started what they call a battle.

Speaker 55 One person will go,

Speaker 55 and then the next person goes.

Speaker 55 And then by whatever you hear, the crowd screamed, like, yo, she got sunned. That's who wins.

Speaker 62 Then the officers were calling other officers to come watch this.

Speaker 53 And

Speaker 45 they said, you gotta see the way this white girl is sunning everybody.

Speaker 22 So,

Speaker 48 yeah, I won the battle.

Speaker 55 They were like, yo, white girl can get down.

Speaker 22 And they took me in as their own.

Speaker 2 Which included sharing their most sacred secret recipes.

Speaker 12 DIY beauty tips.

Speaker 59 How do we straighten hair without a flat iron? Well, we had a nice hot pot. which is kind of like a long tea kettle if you want and we would unplug it and like wrap hair around it and brush it.

Speaker 59 Or in Kelly's case, she liked her hair curly.

Speaker 59 So she would make rollers out of newspapers or tissue. Just kind of like roll her hair, tie a little knot, go to sleep, and there you go, curly soup.

Speaker 59 And for lipstick, for example, we had these little packs of almost like Kool-Aid.

Speaker 59 wet the crystals a little bit, dab your lips, there you go. It's It's amazing.
No smudge lipstick.

Speaker 38 What about foundation or eyeshadow or mascara? Mascara must be hard.

Speaker 59 So mascara was made with toothpaste and the ink from a pen.

Speaker 59 Now, thinking back at it, it's probably not the best thing for your eyes, but

Speaker 59 don't get your eyes wet and you're fine, right?

Speaker 59 And it worked just like mascara. And it got to the point where officers were like, you guys have makeup in your cells.
We're like, no.

Speaker 59 They're like, oh, here go these building eight girls, you know, because we were always tip top.

Speaker 38 As the shorties bond over time, Kelly tells them about her case.

Speaker 33 And everyone kind of shrugs it off.

Speaker 59 All of us were like, why are you here?

Speaker 33 Kelly's innocent.

Speaker 41 They can all tell.

Speaker 26 And it's just a matter of time before a jury will see that too.

Speaker 59 We just knew, well, you're going to go home. You know, this is is just unfortunate it's taking this long.

Speaker 41 At one point, early in Kelly's detention, her brother Ronnie comes to pay her a visit.

Speaker 35 The visitors area is one depressing room split into two by a row of booths that go down the middle.

Speaker 2 Glass separates the prisoners and the visitors.

Speaker 2 Over the two-way telephones, Kelly and Ronnie are having a heated exchange. Kelly's been offered a plea deal, 10 years in prison.

Speaker 26 Her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend Tommy Donovan, the man Kelly says is solely responsible for Angel Vargas's murder, has already taken the deal he was offered.

Speaker 70 He'll take a plea for manslaughter for 15 years

Speaker 2 and the deal was as long as he states that I helped him.

Speaker 66 Those were the conditions.

Speaker 26 But Kelly's not budging.

Speaker 70 I'm not guilty. I'm not taking a plea.
I plan on taking this to trial.

Speaker 71 Don't go to trial, please. Don't go to trial.

Speaker 70 Ronnie, I can't say the words that I did something I didn't do.

Speaker 71 I was getting so frustrated.

Speaker 62 Ronnie was so scared to lose me that he was telling me to take the plea.

Speaker 71 I screamed it out. Do you think that everybody that's here, do you think they all did it?

Speaker 71 And everybody that was there, they were shaking their heads like he's right.

Speaker 35 Kelly's in a unit of 60, but Rikers Island houses around 600 women in total.

Speaker 29 Their charges range from things like simple drug possession all the way up to murder.

Speaker 41 They come from different places, but there's one thing so many of them seem to have in common.

Speaker 59 Very few people wake up one morning and say, I'm gonna hurt somebody today, right?

Speaker 59 There's a whole

Speaker 59 story before you get to that moment.

Speaker 37 One after another,

Speaker 2 those stories eventually blend in together.

Speaker 72 These are the women who're in here for domestic violence.

Speaker 59 I have a domestic violence case.

Speaker 51 Domestic violence survivor.

Speaker 59 Fighting off their attacker and things like that.

Speaker 50 He came up behind me and put me in an awful chokehold.

Speaker 59 And tried to kill me.

Speaker 72 The first time I fought back.

Speaker 59 Where I ended up killing him.

Speaker 72 Next thing thing I know, I was being arrested for murder in the first degree.

Speaker 26 This isn't unique to Rikers.

Speaker 35 Studies show that more than 70% of incarcerated women say they've been victims of domestic abuse.

Speaker 2 And obviously, this is in addition to the poverty and racial abuse many have experienced.

Speaker 38 When Kelly looked around the visiting room that day, and looked around the jailhouse in the days after, she wouldn't have just seen a room full of potential criminals, but a room full of women like her.

Speaker 38 All Kelly can hope is that the next chapter of her life includes a not guilty verdict.

Speaker 12 But it's an uphill battle and the odds are seriously stacked against her.

Speaker 2 Because that plea deal that her ex-boyfriend Tommy took, the one where he agreed to testify against her, it means that now she's facing even greater charges than him.

Speaker 2 And if Kelly can't convince a jury that she's a victim too, she could spend the rest of her life in prison.

Speaker 8 Then the space hamster flew his hot air balloon all the way to the bottom of the ocean.

Speaker 10 Where did that story come from?

Speaker 9 Book?

Speaker 11 Dream?

Speaker 13 Nope, it came from a conversation. Meet Miko Mini Plus, the AI companion that co-creates personalized story adventures with your child in real time.

Speaker 8 What color was the hamster's cape? And what did he pack for lunch?

Speaker 13 Unlock your child's imagination.

Speaker 18 Discover Miko Mini Plus and the magic of AI exclusively at Costco.

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Speaker 23 Hey, I'm Frank and I have hydrodonitis superativa, HS. Before starting Cosentix, I was so uncomfortable with my symptoms.
Like not being able to sleep on white sheets or wear white clothes.

Speaker 23 Now I can appreciate the little things.

Speaker 21 Cosentix secukinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe hydrodonitis superativa, HS. Don't use if allergic to Cosentix.
Get checked for TB before starting.

Speaker 21 Increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like TB or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Some were fatal.

Speaker 21 Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough, had a vaccine or planned to, or if IBD symptoms develop or worsen.

Speaker 21 Serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur. Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or COSENTIX.com.

Speaker 23 You're stronger than H is. Ask your dermatologist about COSENTIX.

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Speaker 2 About three weeks after arriving at Rikers, Kelly is still getting her daily dose of methadone.

Speaker 30 One day, she gets talking to the woman in charge of the detox program, Miss Cruz.

Speaker 66 She goes, Harnette, you need to stop it with this methadone shit.

Speaker 45 You need to get the hell off of it, And you need to get your ass to that law library.

Speaker 67 And that's what you need to do.

Speaker 55 You need to get your head in those books.

Speaker 6 Seriously, Kelly.

Speaker 43 And when she called me Kelly, it was like humanizing me.

Speaker 53 She said, you gotta start fighting your case.

Speaker 43 So I said to myself, all right, just go to the law library, see what happens.

Speaker 40 The next day, At 12.30 p.m.

Speaker 2 sharp, Kelly's outside the law library. She's waiting at the locked blue blue door, peering in through the window.

Speaker 46 The officer opens the door, he checks the list.

Speaker 43 They're very used to nobody showing up.

Speaker 56 They're so used to getting those hours free, and they could just go and hang out with their friends.

Speaker 47 So I was cramping their style.

Speaker 2 The law library is divided into two main sections, separated by a big divider with windows.

Speaker 31 As you walk through, you'll see a load of computers and then row after row of bookcases.

Speaker 38 But to get to that part, you first have to pass the officer's desk, which sits directly across from a bunch of old typewriters and some of the dustiest, oldest law books in the library.

Speaker 46 He was really pissed off, the guard, that somebody was coming in.

Speaker 57 He said to me, Anytime you want to leave, you can leave early.

Speaker 54 And I was like, there's no way I'm leaving early.

Speaker 43 What am I going back to?

Speaker 19 Really?

Speaker 43 What am I going back to?

Speaker 2 There is one person happy to see Kelly in the law library.

Speaker 47 The paralegal that was there, an older man.

Speaker 52 His name was Fernando Contreras.

Speaker 43 What an amazing man.

Speaker 52 I mean, he was so great with me.

Speaker 6 He gave me so much hope.

Speaker 36 Kelly picks up her first book:

Speaker 43 McKinney's Consolidated Law.

Speaker 46 That's the binding authority for New York State.

Speaker 52 I started reading it and nothing made sense to me.

Speaker 57 Literally at first, they looked like hieroglyphics.

Speaker 57 It was like a complete foreign language.

Speaker 77 And I didn't understand how people could possibly go in there and understand anything.

Speaker 77 And I said, okay, Kelly.

Speaker 33 The only way that you could learn to love this is if you're good at it.

Speaker 62 Everyone loves something that they're good at.

Speaker 77 So

Speaker 77 start reading things over and over and over until you practically memorize them.

Speaker 62 When you practically memorize them, you're going to become good at it.

Speaker 77 When you're good at it and you master it,

Speaker 77 you're going to love it.

Speaker 62 I was studying for 16 hours a day.

Speaker 46 I was reading CPL 71020, 730, 740, and so forth.

Speaker 45 Brady violations, Rosario violations.

Speaker 41 One day, during one of Kelly's hieroglyphic translations, another inmate comes to join her.

Speaker 31 Her name is Peaches.

Speaker 44 Peaches became a really good friend of mine.

Speaker 52 She had such an amazing personality.

Speaker 45 She was such a good person.

Speaker 52 She was just so genuine.

Speaker 19 And

Speaker 19 I would help her

Speaker 56 a little bit with her reading.

Speaker 53 And

Speaker 63 then it became like a potential assistance for legal work because I'm just getting started.

Speaker 44 So I didn't know if I would ever have the capabilities to help myself or anyone else.

Speaker 2 But the more Kelly reads and then rereads, the more things start to fall into place.

Speaker 57 By the third time I read it, I couldn't believe that I felt like they looked like hieroglyphics because I'm totally understanding this now.

Speaker 44 And I'm picking up the wording.

Speaker 67 Even if a case is unfavorable, I'm learning how to write the way that they write.

Speaker 26 She's not just regurgitating a bunch of jargon.

Speaker 28 Kelly starts crafting legally sound arguments.

Speaker 77 It became the love of my life.

Speaker 62 I started filing dismissals and indictment for people at Rikers Island.

Speaker 30 Kelly's not only helping individuals with their own cases, she's fighting for all of her Rikers Island sisters.

Speaker 62 We took them to court for taking our flip-flops away.

Speaker 62 We took them to court for searches, like they were doing excessive searches on our specific unit because it was so small.

Speaker 43 And we took them to court for that. They stayed away for about eight months after that.

Speaker 26 Kelly's reputation eventually starts spreading around the prison.

Speaker 38 It even reaches a recently arrived inmate, who we'll call Tasha.

Speaker 41 She's been jailed in Rikers following a lifetime of abuse after witnessing her boyfriend murder someone.

Speaker 41 Everyone who meets Tasha tells her the same thing.

Speaker 72 You need to go talk to Kelly.

Speaker 72 Some are like, well, who's Kelly?

Speaker 72 Like she works in a library.

Speaker 41 By this point, Kelly's in high demand. There's a long line of women who want her services.
Tasha comes back again and again.

Speaker 72 Eventually, I asked her one day, I said, Excuse me, is your name, Kelly? She looked at me, she smiled with the most beautifulest smile I've ever gotten. And she said, Yes.

Speaker 72 I said, Can you please help me? And I just started crying. She sat down and she was like, Well, tell me what's going on.
So I told her a little bit about the case.

Speaker 72 And she went and she found this paperwork and that payment. She put it out and she gave it to me.
She was like, I want you to read this and write down whatever you feel fits in your crime.

Speaker 72 Eventually, you know, I would continue to go back.

Speaker 62 I was giving a lot of people hope, and they were telling me that. Like, thank you so much.
You're giving us so much hope. All of a sudden, the law library started getting packed.

Speaker 77 And like, Mr.

Speaker 33 Brown wasn't happy about that. Mr.
Brown was the officer.

Speaker 77 He goes, oh, God, Harnette, jailhouse lawyer.

Speaker 35 Of course, life isn't all roses for Kelly inside, even with St.

Speaker 27 Therese watching over her.

Speaker 32 Kelly spent the last last few months fighting for her fellow inmates, but her trial is coming up.

Speaker 26 She needs to go back to fighting her own corner.

Speaker 26 Unfortunately for Kelly, though, that's not the only fight she needs to be prepared for.

Speaker 30 Because while the Shorties have her back, Kelly's also made some dangerous enemies.

Speaker 73 Shh, you won't believe what my new friend just told me about dinosaurs.

Speaker 13 Is your child having conversations you never imagined?

Speaker 78 Are they learning without realizing it?

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Speaker 1 Meet Lisa, a mom of two who loves the holidays, but not the endless to-do list. So she turned to Airtasker.
Local taskers help decorate, wrap gifts, even build a cardboard sleigh for the school play.

Speaker 1 Download the Airtasker app or go to AirTasker.com. Airtasker.
Get anything done.

Speaker 23 Hey, I'm Frank, and I have Hydrodonitis Superativa, HS. Before starting Cosintics, I was so uncomfortable with my symptoms, like not being able to sleep on white sheets or wear white clothes.

Speaker 23 Now I can appreciate the little things.

Speaker 21 Cosentic secukinumab is prescribed for adults with moderate to severe hydridinitis suprativa, HS. Don't use if allergic to Cosentics.
Get checked for TB before starting.

Speaker 21 Increased risk of infections and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like TB or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. Some were fatal.

Speaker 21 Tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches, or cough, had a vaccine or plan to, or if IBD symptoms develop or worsen, serious allergic reactions and severe eczema-like skin reactions may occur.

Speaker 21 Learn more at 1-844-COSENTIX or COSENTIX.com.

Speaker 23 You're stronger than H is. Ask your dermatologist about COSENTIX.

Speaker 16 We know no one's journey is the same.

Speaker 74 That's why Delta Sky Miles lets you do it your way.

Speaker 17 From earning miles on reloads for coffee runs, shopping, and things you do every day, to connecting you to new places and experiences, a Miles membership fits into your lifestyle, letting you do more of what makes you, you.

Speaker 15 It's more than travel.

Speaker 74 It's the membership that flies, dines, streams, rides, and arrives with you.

Speaker 69 Every great journey deserves a great story.

Speaker 15 And when you have a membership that's as unique as you are, there's no telling how your story will unfold or where that journey will take you next.

Speaker 76 Sky Miles is the membership that will be here for all your big and small moments.

Speaker 69 The membership that's there for every solo adventure or family trip.

Speaker 15 The membership that comes with the power of partnership from brands you love.

Speaker 76 The membership that moves with you.

Speaker 74 Learn more at delta.com slash skymiles.

Speaker 38 It's always an uncomfortable experience running into your ex's ex.

Speaker 31 Now imagine running into them in jail where neither of you can get away, which is exactly what happens to Kelly.

Speaker 32 She's trapped in Rikers with Tommy Donovan's ex-girlfriend, who Kelly says is inside for selling drugs.

Speaker 38 And the worst part of all of this is that Tommy's ex, she has serious beef with Kelly.

Speaker 48 I asked her why, like, she's like, you stole my men.

Speaker 45 I had a fistfight with her literally every single solitary day every day to the point where one day i said i want to have a peaceful day today so it was 5 30 it was breakfast time i pounded on her door and she's like what who's there and i was like it's kelly get up let's go now so we get it out of the way

Speaker 45 so she comes out like hair all crazy i said come on

Speaker 45 She's like, where are we going? I said, to the staircase where there's no cameras. And listen, my brother told me to fight.

Speaker 42 And, you know, for a white blonde girl, like, people get shocked at my strength. It's not something I'm proud of.
I'm a lady.

Speaker 45 However, if you're going to touch me, you are going to get a receipt. So, yeah, I kind of beat the hell out of her on the staircase, but I didn't start the fight.

Speaker 69 She kept hitting me first every day.

Speaker 45 This went on for 45 to 60 days. So I was like, okay, so it's a once-a-day thing.
So I'm just going to get her first.

Speaker 33 first.

Speaker 26 But I would never be like a dirty person and like hit her when she's not looking like she would to me.

Speaker 41 This isn't the only fight Kelly was getting in.

Speaker 60 They have these girls that we call bubblettes.

Speaker 53 Now, bubblettes are the girls that hang around the officer's bubble and flirt with them all day long.

Speaker 45 And you get really pissed off because you're like, you can't get your door open.

Speaker 63 can't do this you can't do that you need toilet paper and they're just flirting and flirting and flirting i want to just say listen just put the flirting on hold can you just give me some toilet paper please i have to use the bathroom and you have to wait flirting flirting flirting kelly asks if she can get past to use the shower because one of the bubblets is standing in her way she told me i couldn't use the shower And I said, excuse me, the last time I checked, you're an inmate here just like me.

Speaker 36 and she said you can't use it and i said i'm using it kelly breezes past and steps into the shower bad move

Speaker 22 i feel someone grab me and yank me like instant whiplash right now i see people running in one held one arm in back of me when i went to hit her The girl caught my hand and held it back.

Speaker 52 They call it like a crucifixion because it's like one arm here, one arm here, you can't use it.

Speaker 43 And then the girl who was flirting, she just starts punching me in the face.

Speaker 43 Punch, punch, punch, punch, punch.

Speaker 5 Now I'm trying to kick her.

Speaker 46 Somebody else grabs my leg.

Speaker 43 Now each person has a limb.

Speaker 42 I'm up in the air with the girl punching me over and over and over repeatedly, right?

Speaker 53 The girl who was holding my right arm, she said, stop!

Speaker 9 You're gonna kill her!

Speaker 5 That's when I got scared.

Speaker 63 If her co-conspirator is telling her to stop, this must look really bad.

Speaker 43 And then Peaches comes running in.

Speaker 32 In addition to being Kelly's unofficial law library assistant, Peaches is a big, friendly giant of a woman.

Speaker 33 She's also not someone you fuck with.

Speaker 2 She said,

Speaker 58 You effing bitches,

Speaker 56 put hubby F down before I effing kill all of you.

Speaker 56 And she put me down, all right?

Speaker 5 She actually threw me down into another shower.

Speaker 45 Peaches goes, yo, Kels, get up.

Speaker 48 Now get a few shots in.

Speaker 49 And I did.

Speaker 66 I just started wailing.

Speaker 22 Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.

Speaker 62 This is not something I'm proud of.

Speaker 61 I just want to put on the record.

Speaker 45 However, this was the survival of the fittest.

Speaker 62 And like only the strong survive.

Speaker 48 So if it got out there that I took this, it would never stop.

Speaker 62 So I knew I had to do some type of damage to make it visible to other people.

Speaker 44 I did a lot more than I intended on doing.

Speaker 53 I put her in a wheelchair.

Speaker 60 So.

Speaker 19 Permanently?

Speaker 67 No, no.

Speaker 22 No, no.

Speaker 56 I think she was really trying to milk it, honestly.

Speaker 45 She told everyone, yo, that white bitch is crazy. Stay the fuck away from her.

Speaker 35 Like the other times Kelly's told me she's gotten into scraps, Kelly was quick to add that she's not proud of how this bust up went down.

Speaker 39 But she's also kind of laughing it off.

Speaker 34 And while she might not have started this fight, she sure finished it.

Speaker 65 I know my discomfort is showing me up as a real soft-handed lily-livered journalist.

Speaker 38 And believe me, I am trying my best not to be.

Speaker 60 But here's the thing.

Speaker 38 Firstly, I'm still shaking off my preconceived notions of how I would expect a victim like Kelly to behave.

Speaker 32 And also, because I reckon if I was facing an accusation of murder, I wouldn't be so open about sharing a story where I kick the shit out of someone to the point of them needing a wheelchair, temporarily or not.

Speaker 38 I care about Kelly, and I kind of want to tell her to edit herself in these moments because it doesn't look good.

Speaker 25 But I actually think, in a weird way, Kelly telling me this shows that she's not holding back, or shying away from some of the less sympathetic parts of her story.

Speaker 31 The bottom line is, jail is a rough place.

Speaker 35 And like Kelly says, only the strong survive.

Speaker 65 Whenever she's not fighting her ex's ex in the stairwell or a few pissed off bubblets in the shower, Kelly's in the law library, fighting her case, maybe a few dance battles in between.

Speaker 38 Her life goes on like this for some time, which won't be a surprise to anyone who has experience of the justice system.

Speaker 32 It moves very slowly.

Speaker 2 It's May 2013. Kelly's trial date, after years of delays, is set to begin in the next few months.

Speaker 38 Kelly's been pouring over all the documents from her case, arming herself as best she can for the fight ahead.

Speaker 29 When she gets some news,

Speaker 2 her lawyer has received a letter. A letter that could change everything.

Speaker 40 A letter from her ex-boyfriend, Tommy Donovan.

Speaker 45 Dear Mr. Epstein, as you are already acquainted with me, I will get to the point.

Speaker 42 My memory is is clear and my intentions now true.

Speaker 36 On the next episode of The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer, Kelly's case goes to trial.

Speaker 55 The trial was awful.

Speaker 45 They called Judge Lasack Mr. Murder.

Speaker 24 They got into an altercation with Mr. Vargas.

Speaker 55 Hi, I'm the killer.

Speaker 24 That's the likely motive for what happened. Did I pull that out of the air? No, I pulled that out of the evidence.

Speaker 53 They came back with a unanimous verdict.

Speaker 19 I couldn't believe it.

Speaker 40 The Girlfriend's Jailhouse Lawyer is produced by Novel for iHeart podcasts.

Speaker 50 For more from Novel, visit novel.audio.

Speaker 37 The show 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.

Speaker 2 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.

Speaker 2 Our fact checker is Dania Suleiman.

Speaker 26 Sound design, mixing and scoring by Daniel Kempson and Nicholas Alexander.

Speaker 2 Music supervision by me, Anna Infield, Lee Meyer, and Nicholas Alexander.

Speaker 38 Original music composed by Nicholas Alexander, Daniel Kempson, and Louisa Gerstein.

Speaker 26 Story development by Nell Gray Andrews and Willard Foxton, creative director of Novel.

Speaker 30 Max O'Brien and Craig Strachan are our executive producers for Novel.

Speaker 2 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.

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