02x112 - Prison Pen Pal Trouble

[bunniefuu]

He had been helping me out for a while.

He became a weirdo.

He wanted to have me do
inappropriate sexual things to him.

You took his money.

She never asked for any of it.

She spent it!

- Yeah.
- You had your sucker.

- No
- No, no.

Sit. Sit.

[announcer] This is Judy Justice.

[theme music playing]

[announcer] Steward Salmond
is suing his former friend

Alayna Smith for an unpaid
car loan given to Alayna

after her release from prison.

[Bailiff] Court come to order. All rise.

Have a seat everyone.

Hello Judge.
Case 2166 Salmond versus Smith.

Thank you.

Mr. Salmond,
the long and short of this case

is you met the Defendant
on some sort of a website.

She was in prison at the time.

You began to see her.
She got out of prison.

You gave her a certain amount of money
that you considered gifts to her

but then she asked you
if she could borrow money to buy a car.

You gave her $2,600
with the expectation of being repaid.

- And this is your lawsuit?
- Mm-hmm.

- [Judge Judy] Correct?
- Yes, Your Honor.

OK. And your answer to him said,

"Well it was never really anticipated
that I would give him back his money

only I said I would give him back
if I got my stimulus money.

I didn't get my stimulus money
so I'm not paying him back."

That's what the case is about. Simple.

So let me get a couple of
pieces of information from you

from when to when were you in prison?

January of 2019

- until June of 2022.
- For what?

Several things, um,

Identity thefts and stolen firearms.

- [Judge Judy] And?
- That was it.

[Judge Judy] Was there one indictment
or more than one indictment?

Um, one Federal indictment
and 23 counts for State.

- [Judge Judy] Which State?
- Washington.

Was it the first time you were in prison?

Yes.

[Judge Judy] Did anybody else go
into prison as a result of the same case?

No.

[Judge Judy] At what point during
your stay in prison

did you begin to communicate
with Mr. Salmond?

Somebody had put me on a prison,
uh, pen pal website

which I wasn't aware of
until I got a message from him.

I took myself off the site.
That site's usually for people

to get things from people, uh, money...
money on their books, packages.

So we started talking but...

When? Give me a month and year.

It was, it was in April of...of 2019.

[Judge Judy] So right away?

- Yeah, about a few months after.
- [Judge Judy] Right away.

And you were in jail so you clearly
stayed in touch with him?

Yeah.

[Judge Judy] How often did you
stay in touch with him?

We corresponded maybe, like, initially,
like, once every couple months.

- And then?
- And then I was taken from prison to, uh,

Spokane in November of 2020
for a Federal indictment.

- I was gone six months.
- To serve time on a Federal indictment?

Uh, not to serve time
but to...to be indicted and sentenced.

[Judge Judy] And were you?

- I was.
- [Judge Judy] To what?

Uh, six months.

In the same prison?

- No.
- [Judge Judy] Different prison?

Yeah. I was supposed to go after
my State to go to my Federal time.

Now the government started to send out
these stimulus checks,

which in my mind and maybe I'm wrong,

were given to people who were suffering
through the pandemic

because they couldn't work,
they couldn't feed themselves.

They needed money to exist.

And that's why the money was given out.

I mean, I recall the letter
that came with the stimulus money.

Seemed to me, Ms. Smith,

as I'm gonna ask you, cause I read
your answer which I found interesting.

And you said that while you were
in prison and communicating with him,

several of your stimulus checks came.

- Where did they come?
- They were going to be sent to his house.

Why were they gonna be sent to his house?

Because inmates were having their
stimulus checks sent to the facility.

The facility takes 75% of it.

[chuckles] Now let's...
so I knew this would get more interesting,

and I have to sort of
put it in my timeline.

So you had to apply
for the stimulus checks?

- Correct.
- [Judge Judy] And all the inmates

filled out a form
for the stimulus checks.

Mm-hmm.

The other inmates filled out forms

which said that they
wanted the stimulus checks

gave them their Social Security number
and an address.

Correct.

And you put his address
on your stimulus check?

Actually he filed it for me.

[Judge Judy] Whoever, he put his address.

Was it at your direction
that he fill it out for you

or did he just do it himself?

- I mean, if it were casual...
- Yeah. He filed online for me.

- [Judge Judy] Because you asked him to?
- Yes.

[Judge Judy]
And because he used his address

while the government was taking 75%
of those stimulus checks

and taking it for your upkeep in prison

because there's
a certain amount of upkeep.

You have meals, you have doctor services,
whatever you have,

they took 75 leaving you 25% I suppose
to put on your account in the canteen

or to do whatever you want.

- Is that close?
- Yes.

[Judge Judy] How many checks did you see?

None.

[Judge Judy] Because according to you,
they went to his house

and since he couldn't find you

because you had been transferred
to one prison or another,

what did you do with the checks
and how many did you get?

I believe I got wo checks
and then they just all expired.

No, I never... I never
deposited them or anything.

- Do you have them?
- No, Ma'am.

[Judge Judy] Where are they?

- One of them I sent back.
- [Judge Judy] And where's the other one?

Just threw it away.

When did they send it in 2020 or 2021?

- I believe it was 2021.
- Your Honor, it's 2020.

OK. But you never cashed any of them?

- No, Ma'am.
- [Judge Judy] Good thing.

Very good thing.

For no rhyme or reason
to giving out stimulus money

to people who were already
being taken care of by the State.

But the federal government I know was
printing money like it was Mardi Gras

and sending money to prisoners
is a dubious thing.

Sarah, you looked up
some figures for me on...

[Sarah] Mm-hmm.

...because I was curious about this case.

How much money, Kevin and I spent

on sending money to prisoners,

especially those who were
in long term like, lifers or whatever.

She wasn't, but she got stimulus checks.

Two of them sent to him.

So there were over $1.1 million
Covid stimulus checks

totaling over $1.3 billion
sent out to incarcerated people

across the United States throughout Covid.

And out of those numbers,
according to the letter from the IRS,

some 163,000 recipients
were serving life sentences

who received the stimulus checks.

But that's throughout the US,
not just in Washington.

Not just the state of Washington.
I got it. OK.

I don't know one guy,
that cold Turkey

goes on a prison website
to get a pen pal.

But the people that do that
are sort of the same people

that have themselves shot out of a cannon.

A little bit crazy, a little bit.

[all laugh]

[theme music playing]

[announcer] Steward Salmond
claims his former friend, Alayna Smith,

owes for a car loan he gave her
after she was released from prison.

Then, Ms. Smith, there comes a time
when you get out of jail.

Correct.

During the time that you were in jail
once you reconnected with him,

- did he send you any money?
- That's when he started.

He never had before.
I never asked, but when I got...

[Judge Judy] When you reconnected?

Yes, because I had lost my job
being gone for court.

Oh, so you got out?

No, no, I was...I was...
I had a job in the prison.

- [Judge Judy] OK.
- But I was gone for six months for court.

So when I got back I lost that job.

So that was the first time
I asked him for help.

But again, my stimulus checks
were supposed to be at his house, so...

- [Judge Judy] But they were there...
- I didn't know that yet.

- [Judge Judy] OK.
- So...

Well you asked him to fill out the form.

Why did you agree to fill out the form
with your address on the stimulus checks?

She said she had no one else
to send them to.

- OK. Mr. Salmond, do you work?
- Yes, Ma'am.

[Judge Judy] Who do you work for?

- I work at the hospital in Tyler.
- [Judge Judy] What do you do?

- I'm a nurse.
- [Judge Judy] Now, Mr. Salmond,

why wouldn't you ask Ms. Smith,

"Hey, why do you want them at my house?
I can't cash them."

Why not just send them to the prison?

- Did she tell you?
- No, Ma'am.

[Judge Judy] Did you ask her?

- No, Ma'am.
- [Judge Judy] All right.

So he's not asking for
any of that money back.

He's asking for the $2,600
for the car that you wanted

when you came out of prison.

When you came out of prison,
you lived independently?

I was in a transitional housing.

[Judge Judy] Mm-hmm.

And tell me how it came about
that you asked him for money for a car.

He came and picked me up from prison,
bought me a phone.

[Judge Judy] OK. He picked you up.
That was nice.

- Yeah.
- Anybody else pick you up?

- [Alayna] No.
- [Judge Judy] Who's that?

[Alayna] This is my
best friend of 18 years.

[Judge Judy] OK. Did she pick you up?

- No.
- [Judge Judy] So he picked you up?

- Yeah.
- OK. And what else did he do?

- He bought you a phone?
- He bought me a phone.

[Judge Judy]
He's not asking for that back.

He brought you a phone as a gift, correct?

- Yes, Ma'am.
- [Judge Judy] Yes. He bought you a phone.

So that you would be
connected to the world.

- [Alayna] Correct.
- What's next?

Then he started cash apping me money
that I didn't ask for.

- [Judge Judy] How much?
- I have it all right here.

The first one was June 13th for $50.

June 14th for $50.

This is prior to the car money.

[Judge Judy] So you said
you needed some cash and he...

I never said I needed it.
He just was doing it.

OK. And he's not asking
for any of that money back.

- Right.
- [Judge Judy] Now, tell me about the car.

So... I got a job offer,

but I didn't have a vehicle
so he had been helping me out for a while.

OK. So he was helping you?

So yeah.
So I asked him for money to get a car.

This first stimulus check
that he sent back I wasn't getting.

But the third one, I had to file
a tax return in order to get that,

which was only $1,400.

[Judge Judy] Just a second.

I don't care about your stimulus money.
I don't wanna buy you a car.

[Alayna] No, that was to pay him back.

I don't wanna buy you a car. [laughs]

- But he bought me a car.
- [Judge Judy] No, no, no.

My stimulus money I was
supposed to give him for only $1,400.

No, no, no, no, no.

You have to understand something.
You have no proof.

And I actually believe him when I say
he didn't cash your stimulus checks.

- Yeah.
- [Judge Judy] He returned them.

- You don't even think that he cashed them
- No.

[Judge Judy] ...'cause that
would've been a Federal offense

- and he would've gone to jail.
- Yeah, he didn't.

And you didn't wanna go to jail. Right?

No, Ma'am.

[Judge Judy] And truth of the
matter is stimulus money is, my view,

not for anything other than
try to keeping everything in balance.

While there was Covid.

And you got out of jail owning
a car is sort of a luxury.

You have to have car,
you have to have insurance,

you have to be able to keep it up.

That's not what stimulus money was for.
So let's go back.

He didn't collect any of your money.

He was nice enough to put in
$50 here, $60 there.

Gave you a phone
so you would be connected.

Now you tell him that
you need money for a car.

On what date did you tell him
you need money for a car?

On June 15th.

- And he gave you $2,600?
- Correct.

- And that was in June of 2022?
- Correct.

Now I'd like to see the emails
following up when he's asking you

for repayment of that $2,600.
Do you have any?

- Yes, Ma'am.
- I'd like to take a look at 'em.

Where is the car now?

It was totaled.
It was in a recent car accident.

- [Judge Judy] When?
- Uh, December 2nd.

- Who was driving it?
- [Alayna] I was driving it.

[Judge Judy]
Did you have insurance on it?

- Yes.
- [Judge Judy] Did you hit another car

or did the other car hit you?

The other car pulled out in front of me
and I hit them. They were at fault.

[Judge Judy]
The insurance payout on the claim?

- Mm-hmm.
- [Judge Judy] To whom?

- To myself.
- [Judge Judy] How much?

Just for the damage of the car.
It was $3,200.

- So what did you do with the money?
- I bought a new vehicle.

- What kind did you get?
- 2008 Pontiac G6.

- How much did you pay for it?
- I paid $2,700.

So if you gave him back his $2,600

you still would've had a down payment
enough for that car?

I paid cash on this vehicle.

I know what you did.

But if you had done the right thing

you would've paid him back his $2,600

and you would've had a down payment,
and you would've been paying off the car.

So there was no agreement
for me to pay the $2,600.

It was to pay him back
with my stimulus of only $14...

[Judge Judy] Well, I've read this here

and you know what I get out
of these text messages back and forth,

something that people
who are takers do all the time

they justify taking because you say,
"You're just so blank petty!

You make more than enough
and I'm making $500 a week.

I have real life problems."

So you're saying that the money
isn't really that important to you

and it's that important to me
and I have a child to take care of.

And you don't, you make $500.
Do you live alone, sir?

Yes, Ma'am.

[Judge Judy] Yes. You live alone.
You were a good sucker for a while.

And now I'm not giving you back the money.
I'm...I'm cutting you off.

Did you change... Yes?

So he continued to Cash App her
after the $2,600.

Sit... up here.

After June 15th when
he sent her the $2,600,

he sends her, unsolicited,

another $700 dating all the way
to August 11th.

Well that's terrific.
Isn't he a nice person?

She's been your best friend for 17 years.

- Eighteen. Yes, Ma'am.
- [Judge Judy] Eighteen years.

- Do you work?
- I do.

- What kind of work do you do?
- I work in healthcare.

- [Judge Judy] You make a living?
- I do.

- [Judge Judy] You have a car?
- I do.

- [Judge Judy] You have a home?
- I do.

Right. Why didn't you give her money?

I was in the middle of a divorce
and we were selling our home.

So the answer is you had other things.

You work, that's two sources of income
of her best friend for 18 years

- and she could have come to you and...
- She did and I gave her money.

OK. Well she seems to be...
now you can sit down.

She seems to be a taker
and if he gave her more money

even after this $2,600,
he's not asking for that money back.

He also told me to keep
the stimulus check to pay the car.

Oh, I'd like to see it.
Not that it's important.

No, it is because I'm...
he told me to keep it.

Just a second, because I'm not...
you didn't get another stimulus check?

No, I didn't get the stimulus check.

- No. You didn't get another...
- That was the only stipulation

to paying him back with that check.

No. No.

Yes.

He was tracking my iPhone.

He was constantly blowing up my phone.

He became a weirdo.

- He sent me an email...
- Madam. I have to tell you something.

It takes a weirdo to know a weirdo.

[theme music playing]

[announcer] Stuart Salmond
has accused his former friend,

Alayna Smith of refusing
to pay back a car loan.

Alayna claims the car was a gift

after she was released from prison.

He was being a really nice guy.

"I sent you money so you and
your daughter can do some stuff.

Like you can get some of
your precious Papa John's."

Seems like a nice guy.

She never asked for any of it.
She even had him blocked...

- Just a second.
- ...during that.

She spent it!

- Yeah.
- [Judge Judy] She... just a second.

She spent it.

Do you know there are times
when I remember both myself

and other family members
erroneously received money.

I don't know if it ever happened to you?

Erroneously a...a deposit comes
into your checking account.

You don't know where it comes from.
Well, somebody put it in there mistakenly.

- Right?
- This wasn't mistakenly.

Just a sec. Same theory, Madam.

Somebody put it in there mistakenly.

Well, you can either report
it to the bank and say,

"I don't want any more of this money.
It feels uncomfortable to me."

Or you can say, "Listen,
I'm gonna hold this in my account

and see if they come after it.

See how long it takes 'em to find it."

Right. Or you can do the honest thing.

You pick up the phone
and you call and say,

"This money doesn't belong to me
and I'm not gonna spend it."

Similarly, even though
the money was unsolicited

your friend was a user.

I disagree.

Your friend was a user.

She started out by saying,

"People use these online websites

for prisoners because they want stuff."

Is that what she said in the beginning?

I also said I took myself off of it.
I didn't put myself on it.

Just a second.
Whether you did or did not,

I don't know,
but you certainly benefited from it.

- How?
- You took his money.

Somebody that you met,
you took, according to now you

who you said...
$50 twice is what he sent.

Now your friend says, "Oh no..."

- This is after.
- [Judge Judy] Just a sec.

I know exactly what you said, Madam.

I know exactly what you said.

You said, "No, that was after the $2,600."

But for somebody who says,
"I wouldn't wanna be in that site

because other people were using that site

to get people to give them things

and I took myself off that site."

Well, there's no further reason
for you to stay on the site.

You had your sucker.

- No.
- No, no.

- Hold on.
- This is after she came out of jail.

It took three, three years
for me to ask him for anything.

So if I was gonna use him,
it would've been the entire time

I stopped having communication with him
because he was tracking my iPhone.

He was constantly blowing up my phone.

He wanted to have me do
inappropriate sexual things to him.

He became a weirdo.

- He sent me an email...
- Madam. Madam,

I have to tell you something.
It takes one to no one.

It takes a weirdo to know a weirdo.

- No.
- [Judge Judy] If you are in prison...

- No, no.
- ...to me not. Maybe not to you.

- The things that he asked...
- Sit. Sit.

If you are in prison, a woman in prison.

You said the women in prison go on
this line so that people...

"weirdos."

I mean I have a very large family.

Really large, large extended family.

I don't know one guy that cold Turkey

goes on a prison website to get a pen pal.

I don't know. I'm sure that
there are people that do that.

But the people that do that

are sort of the same people in my mind,

and I know it's a old mind

are the same sort of people
that have themselves shot out of a cannon

or will jump off a ninth story building
with a parachute and see if it works.

A little bit crazy.

A little bit, you know?

Right. Even when you marry somebody
who's doing a life term in prison,

I think it's sort of an interesting story.

I wouldn't recommend it
for my granddaughter.

So the fact that you did
a substantial stint in prison

leaving a small daughter
who was taken care of by whom?

Her father.

By her father.
Still taken care of by her father?

- Yes.
- So you have a place in your life

that's sad that she's not with you

but it gives you the ability to create

a life for yourself because you're free
so you can create a life for yourself.

This man says,
"I was a very nice man.

I made you more comfortable
while you were in jail,

a little more comfortable.

And when you got out of jail,
I also sent you money."

Now, if you are telling me,
and your friend is suggesting,

that he wanted some sort
of a quirky quid pro quo,

that's a reason to cut him off.

It's not a reason not to pay him back!

Judgment for the Plaintiff
for the amount of $2,600.

- We are finished.
- [Bailiff] This court is adjourned.

We were just friends.

You know, she just said
a lot of things that weren't true.

Like I never asked anything from her.

I mean I thought he was lonely.

He goes on vacations by himself.
He has no friends.

I didn't keep cash apping
after I was blocked and stuff.

I thought he wanted a friend and he was
trying to buy my friendship, obviously.

No reason, she's just making stuff up.
Character assassination.

[laughs] Right after
my release from prison.

Be careful who you loan money to.

Don't get a pen pal.

No more prison pen pals.

So this is something
they don't teach in law school.

I'm ready.

If something doesn't make sense
to an otherwise sensible person,

you have to know there's
a gimmick attached.

- Mm-hmm.
- [Judge Judy] You know,

if something walks like a duck
quacks like a duck, it's a duck.

- [Sarah] Yep.
- Now it may be a mongoose,

but you'd be pretty safe and say,

"You know, walks like a duck,
talks like a duck.

So it's, it's not a duck,
it's a mongoose."

But if you come from a...
a relatively simple background...

- Mm-hmm.
- ...and you know a lot of people,

and I... you don't know anybody
who's pen pals with a prisoner.

There are a lot of people
because they're lonely people.

People in prison are lonely,
and there are sometimes lonely women,

who start to communicate
even just from a...

a sympathetic good Samaritan...

- Sure.
- ...kind of coming from that direction.

People should know that
if a stranger is giving you money

under those circumstances
there's gotta be a catch there someplace.

I mean, I know my brain stems
from your brain,

so maybe we're just on
the same track here,

but I would never accept money
from someone who's seemingly

just giving it to me because
there's always a string,

there's always an attachment,
even from people that you know.

But definitely with strangers,
there's strings.

Otherwise, why are they giving you
the money in the first place?

- Right. Potentially...
- I think she knew what she was doing,

and even if she didn't sign herself up,
even if we take her at her word on that,

she knew what the people
on that site were about.

Oh well she was very clear.

- [Sarah] Yep.
- She knew that people in prison

were going to be entitled
to get stimulus checks,

but they were to be directed
to the prison

because the prison would
take out 75% of those checks,

which would cover your care.

The government's still taking care of you
but they're not taking care of you twice.

- Yes. So basically the government...
- Twice.

- ...paying twice for you.
- Twice!

And so in order not to do that,
she concocted this scheme...

Found someone who would be OK with...

- [Judge Judy] With sending it to them.
- Mm-hmm.

And I'm sure that didn't come to her
genius head alone.

Somebody in prison said, "This is
what you do in order not to keep the 75%."

- Mm-hmm.
- If somebody else do it,

your girlfriend your sister, your mother,
whoever it is.

If there's a system,
people will find a way around it

- to benefit themselves more.
- Yeah.

[announcer] Want justice?