I'd like to introduce you to Zelly. He's been dealing with the police his entire life. This time, this story, might not seem so important. After all, it's about something small, getting property back, a cell phone.
But Zelly, trying to get his phone back from the police, doesn't feel small. It feels like one more interaction with a system designed to make him feel insignificant. We're just gonna hop in the car with Zelly. I'm there too, the reporter.
We're off to the NOPD property room that's New Orleans Police Department. It's a beautiful spring day in New Orleans in 2018. This is Unpresent, I'm E-Babe-Bromes. Here we go.
Here's our quotient, but I carry around with me for a month, waiting to figure out what happened to Tim's case. Here we are. Ha ha. This is Kelly Oriens.
She's a lawyer. Today, she's Zelly's lawyer. Though, for reasons you'll soon understand, she's carrying a motion signed by a judge who oversaw a misdemeanor marijuana case, a case that did not involve Zelly, it involved his friend, Tim Crump. So the judge signed it.
I saw that Tim had played because it's a simple possession case, they're not gonna push it that hard. Yeah, this way. So he pled guilty, but the case was closed, so I went in yesterday. Kelly's white and also a slate.
She has a mess of curly brown hair and a huge smile. Picture a ninja in business attire. She's telling Zelly how she got this motion signed in court the day before. And then the judge starts to sign it and he stops and he says, well, how do I know that this guy owns this cell phone?
I said, well, because he's been paying the bill on it for months. And he said, well, I need proof. I need proof that he owns this cell phone. I said, actually, you're on her and I tried to respectfully correct him.
I said, you actually don't require any proof. The NOPD will verify proof that he actually owns it. We just need you to authorize that the cell phone is no longer needed for legal purposes. And he kind of sat there with a kind of skull in his face.
You did not like that. Zelly is African American, Finn has long dreads and an easy smile. His real name is William Alexander, but nobody calls him that. Everyone calls him Zelly, including Kelly.
And then he said, well, fine. We'll see. And he signed it and handed it back to me. So it was all about giving us a signature to get somebody's property back that's not even supposed to be in your possession.
It had been three months since Zelly's phone was charging in his friend Timothy Crump's car. It was late afternoon and they were in a recording studio with two other friends making a song. They got thirsty and Tim went to buy everybody drinks. Zelly stayed behind in the music studio.
On Tim's way to the store, things did not go as planned. The police report about what happened mentions a suspicious person and that Tim's car matched the description for a suspicious vehicle. We asked the police what made this vehicle and the person driving it suspicious, but they never responded. Anyway, officers searched Tim's car and eventually found a small amount of marijuana in his backpack.
The police handcuffed Tim and took him to jail. They also took Zelly's phone, all the phones in the car, as evidence. Ever since, Zelly's been trying to get his phone back. It's kind of cat and mouse thing with the police.
It's not new for Zelly. It feels like all his life, the police have been on him and his friends. I can think of when I was small. We were just playing basketball, police had just rolled up and stopped us like just for anything.
It's a group of y'all. You could just be walking up the street and anything. So many times I got stopped by the police just riding the bike up the street, put the flashlight on you. Where you coming from?
My friend, I'm riding the bike. Just obvious stuff, but they actually didn't want to get you off the bike, search your internet, let you go like they ain't do nothing. You just violated me for nothing. If you're in a car with two three of your friends, you getting pulled over because they gonna thank you trying to do something.
You can't even ride with two three of your friends in a car. That's crazy. In this latest round with the police over his phone, Zelly eventually asked Kelly for help. Kelly isn't just a lawyer.
She co-directs a re-entry organization for formerly incarcerated people called the First 72+, they provide legal services and small business incubation. Zelly got help starting his business promoting and managing bands at the First 72+, this is how Kelly and Zelly know each other. Kelly's had a lot of experience with a system that isn't straightforward, but trying to get Zelly back his phone has been like blazing a trail in the legal system wilderness. That's what was so confusing too for everyone in the courtroom, the staff and the judges.
They said, well, your client isn't Timothy Crump. And I said, I know my client wasn't a party to this case ever. His cell phone just happened to be in the car and it was taken into evidence. And they just didn't have anything to say about that.
The assistant district attorney prosecuting Tim Crump had said he needed Zelly's phone as evidence, which is why Kelly had to wait until after Tim's case was closed. Also, why he needed Tim's judge to sign that motion Kelly's been carrying around for a month because it's an official way of saying we don't need Zelly's phone anymore. But what's been so striking to me through this whole process is not the judge, not the clerk, not the district attorney, not the overall clerk of the Orleans Parish Courthouse. They don't have any idea how this process works.
Nobody, like this section, they say, oh no, you gotta go to this department. Then you go to that department. Oh, you have to go here and then send your back and throw it out there. Nobody knows what's going on.
When I actually asked the clerk about where I go from here, they're just like, you tell me, I have no idea. And it was very interesting too that no one that I've encountered was even familiar with this motion. When your property is taken by police, it's up to you to get it back by filling out this motion for return of property. But most people never bother or they give up, says Ellie.
Nobody never get this phone back. Nobody. I'm talking nobody. You never get nothing back to take.
Because who would stay on it for this long? I would have been gay but I've been right here with all my contacts and stuff in there. There's my life in there phone. I need that.
For over three months, Zelly's been without his phone, which is also his only computer. It has all his contacts, all his passwords. Each month he's been making payments on it, even though he can't use it. And it's not just business he's missed out on.
Here's Ellie the week before. My cousin's who just passed. She was sick in the hospital with cancer and her number was in that phone. I couldn't get in touch with her.
My cousin's answer was she just passed on me too. And out there she said, can't get in touch with her because that number on the phone. I can't do nothing. I really can't do nothing without their phone.
I got everything saved to it. That's your computer. That's my computer for real. Yeah.
I didn't think about that. You know. Kelly's not the only one who didn't think about that. When I was in court last week, the district attorney, my approach to him said if he's gone this long without a phone, he doesn't really need a back.
Zelly had gone without his phone for months, but that whole time he'd been trying to get it back. He was forced all in his own. Every time he's just the run around, the run around, you got to worry about the judge talking to you with an attitude. You can't really tell him too much because he put you in jail.
Then the lady who at the front desk, like some of you walking in the courthouse, you got to worry about her with an attitude. If you're trying to walk up and go get a paper to the judge. So I had to really come and kill it. You know what I'm saying?
I really needed to because no, I was going everywhere, man. I was going everywhere just trying to get my phone back. And it wasn't just Zelly's phone. Three other phones were seized as evidence.
It was full phone in Stodham. Aside from Tim's? Yeah. Aside from Tim's.
They didn't even take his phone. It is pretty crazy. When Tim was arrested on that misdemeanor marijuana charge, his phone was in his pocket. And when the NOPD booked him into jail, they took his phone along with his other property.
When Tim made bail, he got his property back, including his phone. But Zelly, who was never charged, who had nothing to do with Tim's case, still doesn't have his phone back. So Kelly, how come you're coming along? Because I have a feeling that much like any process that a client of mine engages in, that he would get treated completely different if I wasn't with him.
Just like how for absolutely no reason whatsoever, they had to have a lawyer file this motion. When you can be sentenced to the death penalty without an attorney and you can choose to represent yourself. Lawyers are not a necessity of this process. I think for most part they just thought I wasn't going to come back with no lawyer or nothing.
Right. But the first two times when he told me come back with a lawyer, I was like, I'm a child. Then I go talk to somebody else. But then when I say anyone going away, I'm going to go.
I'm like, I need to call Kelly. Can you imagine what it would have cost? I'm not charging Kelly anything. But I was thinking today, if I, let's say I put about three hours in the first day to research the process and then go to match a straight court.
Kelly lists every step she's had to take. And now this. It probably would have been about 10 hours roughly of work. Wait, where are we?
The evidence building on what is the airport? We're in the Home Depot parking lot. Yeah, because they don't have no parking spots by them. Even the police park over here.
Oh, yeah, I was wondering whether all these police cars. Yeah. All right, I'm going to bring my lawyer folder. I forgot my laser.
Let's do it, baby. Is that it right there? Yeah, it's a brick building. Yes, that's my fourth time coming back to this building.
Yeah. How you doing? Good. Good.
We record this morning to get a release of property and we got the judges signature. We're in a small spare room. There's some chairs against the wall. Another wall has a huge plexiglass window.
And behind it is a woman, a police officer. Kelly passes the sign to motion to her through a sliding tray. I don't know. An item number?
Yeah. An item number would be something that would be on the police report. But we wouldn't have had access to that because we're not married to the case when I was a tens attorney. It's always a new one.
Now we got to find an item number. Kelly, ever determined, gets on her phone. Ma'am, I just was able to pull up an item number. K165.
You guys have to do a little bit of it. Okay, thank you. Five minutes go by and then the officer returns. Can I run everything with a criminal district court property room?
It's a criminal district court property room. So where do we take it to get it from there? Is there a tooling board? I don't know exactly where it is.
It's at the criminal district courthouse? Yes. Everything with a criminal district court property room. Sorry about that.
Okay. But you don't know where in the building you got? I'm pretty sure you guys get in there and use eggs on one way. Probably when it's not here.
Okay, thank you. Thank you. You can't get it, but I'll be saying nobody knows nothing about it. It's just always be like, I don't know exactly what you have to do.
What you have to do, but come on, man, just the whole new office like this. Your job is to have property. How can you help know the process like the back of your hand? We get back in the car and drive back to Tulan in Broad, where the courthouse is.
Also a few blocks from where we started out at the first 72 plus where Kelly works. The first 72 plus was started by formerly incarcerated people. Their motto is us helping us. We park across from the courthouse.
Oh, that is the best thing. I was feeling good, but now he got me a doll's again. They got me a doll's again. Straight down now.
That's the property room. Okay, cool. You work here? Hi.
Do you know where the property room is? Three back. I don't know what that door is. Okay, thank you.
Pound on the door. Much louder than I thought. Okay. We're looking for the property room.
We have a judge's order to release the property. Have you talked to anyone in the property room? No, no. We were originally the NOPD property room and they said that the property had been transferred to the courthouse property room.
You should probably check one for it to know. Okay, thank you. And again. No one knows where to go.
I'll go to the door. And here. I got 12. 14.
No. I want a little one. It's still 14. The headline is that's going to be quarterly.
There we go. Hi. Yes, we're looking for the property room. We have a judge on her to release the property back.
The property room is off limits. Is that not expecting you? I have no way. She's not.
She's not. She's going to call the property. Thank you. Was that what smells so good that gumbo?
Yeah. From Broadway. It smells so good. It smells so good.
The person in charge is not around. You can keep your paper if you choose. Call them back and see if you can come and get it. Are they on shift today?
Yes, they are. Okay. But do you know when they'll be back? No.
They're proud. They're lunch. Okay. So who do we call?
Property and evidence. What's the number? Exciting. Mine.
What's their name? Mr. Brown. Mr.
Brown. He's the head of property and evidence. He's presently in charge. He's the head of property and evidence.
He's presently in charge today. Today. Yes. Okay.
Property and evidence. So we simply call that until we can get a hold of someone. Mr. Brown.
Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown.
Mr. Brown. But just today, he's only in charge today. Yeah.
It comes to the last night of the year. Okay. What about this woman over here was mentioning that it moved to Graveyard Street. Is there a chance our staff is over at Graveyard Street?
That's where they are. But you can't go that way and say, oh, you're check with Mr. Okay. What's the address on Graveyard Street again?
What's the address on Graveyard Street again? Okay. So you wanted to call them and see what they say? Sure.
You can call them and I'll take that original back with me. Yeah. You need to give it to them. What's the privacy?
If they have it. Where else could it be? We have to check with them. At least they call them and turn it in.
We have to check with them. Okay. No. She asked the question.
That's the question. What is clocking it into? Let them know that it was in his office. That's all.
Yes. You want to leave it with you? That's fine too? No.
We don't have any idea the journey we've been on to get this document signed. I'm going to be buried with this. That's fine. You just call Mr.
Brown. Okay. Thank you. How come everybody get your attitude when I'm asking.
Like how can you get your attitude? This is your job. I'm talking about the whole office called an attitude like this. That's crazy, bro.
You're nice. We were curating. I wasn't with Kelly. Imagine how they treat you.
They talk to you like you. Like you're this big. They talk to you like you're small. This isn't new.
Zellie says he spent his lifetime being treated a certain way because of how he looks. My hairstyle, dreads, I'm talk skin. I'm up to something. That's all they think.
And when I'm not like that. But you know that's just people perception of you like you're up to something. They happen all the time really. They're so normal.
They're so normal. They're so much. We leave the courthouse and walk around the corner to the courts property room. When I call Mr.
Brown. There was a lot of wind. Sorry about that. Hi, is Mr.
Brown available? My name is Kelly and I'm an attorney and I have assigned judges. Kelly goes through the whole story again. And then she's saying that the only evidence they have tied to this case is a book sack with a couple of sandwich bags.
Oh, man. They got phones in that book. Say, so, man, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. They can't stay almost like that.
Kelly switches to speakerphone. I think NOPD, most doctors go ahead. NOPD just sent us over to you. They said they don't have it.
Are you showing in your system where it is? NOPD, well, man, well. NOPD's main warehouse, which is located where? I think this is what we have a home depot on Earhart.
Yes, ma'am. We just went there and the clerk at that office, the officer told us that it was at Criminal District Court property room. I have a yellow clear sandwich bag and it got one empty book bag. But you see that four iPhones were seized in conjunction with the arrest along with the book bag.
Yes, and it was a sandwich bag in the empty book bag. So you got the empty book stack in the sandwich bags and the money and the iPhones are missing? We have a receipt of that. That's all I think we over here at the court of the emergency.
And it's your position that NOPD still has them? That doesn't be serious. All right, thank you, ma'am. You're welcome.
I can't believe this, girl. But can't you? It feels like we're the first people to ever pursue this. I'm telling you, I really thank we all because nobody pursuing a phone.
When you lose time from NOPD, you just let it go because you know you ain't getting back. I need it, man, people tripping. It was really like $4,000 worth of phone. Kelly Dial's NOPD property where we started out.
Hi, this is Kelly Orrion's. I was just over with my client trying to get an iPhone 7. And we're over here at the Criminal District Court property room. And we were just informed by them that they are in possession of a backpack and some sandwich bags that were seized in the arrest, but not the money or the iPhones that were also seized.
Oh, no, wait, six seconds. Two minutes, goodbye. Yes. You said that everything was the call but the court died right here for now.
When was that sent? That went over one to 20, uh, uh, in one. And what was transported on the 20th of February? It could be sure.
It just went ten to a backpack. And what it went over six seconds. And the camera was bad. What about the iPhones?
Yeah, the iPhone is going over, also, but I'm pretty sure he needed scanning or something. Is that customary that it wouldn't have been scanned? You know, it's not. So we need to speak to the court guy?
Still, I just need to get a court tax. And what's his name? A one-side game contact with him. All right.
You can come in tomorrow and say that everything went over to the court. Okay. You know what I'm calling? I got a thing.
There are actually four iPhones in the case. Four, how many people are waiting to see that one? Yeah. They're going to be in this phone.
Wait, hold on. Hold on. That is really deep, bro. It wasn't scanned.
Kelly looks down at her phone to see how long she's been on hold. Nine minutes and 17 seconds. Four minutes later. 13 minutes on hold.
All right. Yes. I have a number four you like that. Sure.
It's 303-575. Okay. I'll call you back again. Thank you.
Thank you. Good. This whole time we've been sitting outside the court property room on Grab Your Street. There was no way to get in.
The door was locked. There was no intercom. No buzzer. But just then the door opens and out steps Mr.
Brown, the man in charge for today. In his hand is the receipt of what the court property room received from an OPD property. One camo backpack, one yellow of clear sandwich bag containing four individually wrapped clear baggies with green vegetable butter. No.
So if you look at anything else, this is an OPD. This is an OPD. This is an OPD property receipt. I'm just going to say it.
You need to hear it. It appears as though these cell phones were stolen. Can explain something to you. Almost 30 years of anything.
And the same thing has been going on over and over. We don't get everything all the time. What's the same thing? We don't get everything all the time.
Where does it go? NOPD gets it first. Okay. When it gets ready to go to court, the ADA will request this data to be brought to court.
ADA, Assistant District Attorney. In this case, the person who appeared in court to prosecute Tim Crump on the misdemeanor marijuana charge. Then we get it. We log it in and it's called the court.
If it's not considered to be evidence, we don't get it. As you can see. See? We don't get it.
This is our cover. We keep these. For situations like this, if anything comes up, we can show you exactly what was brought to us. And this is the officer that brought it.
Kenny Gidry. Kenny Gidry. He's the officer who brought the evidence, minus the cell phones, from an OPD property to hear criminal court property. Kenny Gidry is who the woman on the phone with Kelly was talking about, the court guy.
Zelly gets this all immediately. That's the court man she was talking about. Kenny Gidry. Yeah, that's the one who was supposed to bring it.
That's what he did in the scanner. So Kenny, that's what we need to talk to. She was the last one with the phones. All right.
Okay. Mr. Brown, the man in charge for today, goes back inside. And just then Kelly gets a call.
Hello, this is Kelly. Hi Kenny. This is Louis. It's a police department.
Yeah. He would own his desk. He would speak at the court. So where are the cell phones physically located at this moment?
You think I'm here? I'm back here. He would be. They were on his desk.
We'll be right there. Yeah, it was in his phone. May I have that gentleman's name? That's the dude Kenny.
Why is the phone on your desk on his desk on the court? It's a court witness. Hi, yes, this is Kelly. You hung up before I could ask another question.
Can you please tell me the name of the gentleman whose desk the phones were on? That's okay, when you get here, I'll get your company. Then I ask his name so that I can make sure to ask for the right person. When you come here, I know who the right person is.
You won't tell me his name. Where's his name? Kenneth Gidry? Yes.
Thank you. I already knew that. She really didn't want to tell me his name because he stole it. I'm pressing charge.
They were on his desk. I never respected the police, right? Never. I never stole.
Is the embarrassing feeling when you get caught? I know she feels stupid. That's why I never stole it because you feel crazy when you get caught. In the New Orleans Police Department manual, there's an explicit procedure for how to handle evidence called the chain of custody.
Each time a piece of evidence changes location or is handled by someone else. It's supposed to be recorded, the date, the time, and the name of the individual transporting the evidence to its proper destination. From what we were hearing, Kenny Gidry, the court guy, had broken the chain of custody. We walked back to the car and drove back to the Home Depot parking lot next to NOPD property.
I don't even think she was called nobody when he had us on the whole family for 15 minutes. She was listening. I know what she was looking for. I used to do that.
We walk into NOPD properties, take a seat, and wait. A few minutes passed, and then the door to the back opens. Outwalks, Kenny Gidry, the court guy. I'm also getting on court.
He's on? You have to have a question about phone? Yeah, we are here to get the phone. We have a signed judge, and we're also here to figure out how the cell phone's got to be opened up in the evidence and ended up in your desk.
I'm on the court. He's an officer. We just came back off the money grant. The point, whatever.
That's why I've been having sex in my office right now. I'll be just trying to get out. That was just left by actually in my office. Which was the evidence?
What court you remember that day? February 20th. Exactly one week after Marty Graw. February 20th.
Okay. I have a bunch of jokes in my office, and basically I'm just catching up after Marty Graw. I think it was just that the virus did. The rest of the evidence made it to the court.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, sometimes everything is definitely because it's just filed in my office, so it's just that by accident. That's all I thought it's in. That seems to be a huge violation of Chain of Hesse.
No, it's not a budget chain of custody. It doesn't matter what it is, it's not an officer. I have a secure office in the back. Nobody has access to it.
Nobody has access to it. Nobody has a secure office in the police department. Nobody has back there, but us, and we will call it the... They call the officer the secure office in the back office.
Nobody has keys, but the supervisors and so is secure. It's not an officer, it's not an officer. We asked the police for an explanation of Officer Gager's behavior of why Zellie's phone ended up on his desk, but the NOPD never responded. Maybe please get our cell phones.
This one she's working on. Come with us. Good luck. Thank you guys.
I'm ready. I'm working on the phone. I live in for the judge. I mean, you put the seal.
So that's a crime. Because the judge is putting the information on the TV. You've got to be kidding me. You don't have an item on.
Ma'am, I will write the item number on there. That is the judge's signature. You're now telling us you won't give us cell phones because there's no seal. The woman's supervisor walks in.
Sergeant AP Miller picks up the motion, picks at it. He might not be getting any wrong. Two minutes later, the sergeant walks through the same door can he get your head. Okay, company?
Yeah, company? Yeah, it's a security. I'll keep trying to get my car out. While Zellie and I wait, Kelly calls the judge's clerk who assures the sergeant that the judge had signed this motion.
Fifteen minutes go by. And then the door opens and out walks Kelly. In her hand is Zellie's phone. Yeah, baby.
It could hold me down. I tell you. Don't get my phone open. But say brother, I need to come get the phone.
Outside, Zellie gets on the cheap phone he's been using. He tells his friends, his phones, the NOPD still has how to get them back. There's an overwhelming smell of marijuana in that back room which is pretty interesting. As well as like four Christmas trees, a flat-screen TV.
And we couldn't come in to what? Because there's very serious and important evidence. In locked offices, even though every door to every office was open, and people were just sitting around watching TV. They had DVD players in there with DVDs and people were just watching TV.
The sergeant had a television on in his office. He sat there looking over this phone and he said, why did you notarize the judge's signature? signature and I said I didn't I notarized my client signature and I asked him is this the first time you've ever seen a form like this He said no I've been doing this for 30 years And so I asked him why didn't you recognize that I was notarizing my client signature and he just got all happy Yeah, we'll have to file the motion You need to go to the clerk's office in the criminal courthouse at Tulane and Broad and ask them for a motion and order for release of property It's just a form motion and you need all y'all to do that together and then bring that over to my office And we'll get it filled out there and I'll file all three of them at once Okay Not long after Zelly's friends got their phones back Kelly told them what to do and notarized their paperwork But this time they were able to do it on their own after all this time they knew for a fact exactly where the phones were The year after Zellian's friends got their phones back in 2019 the New Orleans police department confiscated 1315 cell phones only 23 of them were returned to their owners That's less than 2% of all phones confiscated This is the final episode of season two of imprisoned if you missed an episode or want to hear one again or share one with a friend Subscribe to the imprisoned podcast if you appreciate this kind of storytelling, please write us a review It helps other people find the show you can also listen at our website on present.org or on N0.org where you can see the beautiful illustration Maria Heinz made for this episode. It is perfect Unprisoned incredibly talented editors Katie rectal and Vicki Merrick our theme music is by great shots Thanks to the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation for supporting the second season of imprisoned Thanks also to Johanna Zorn and Brady Jess Clark Katie for Nilius and the many other ears who help bring this story into existence I'm Eve Abrams.
This is imprisoned