MINNEAPOLIS — What made Jade, Jade over the airwaves at 89.3 The Current for 15 years, was her ability to connect.
"When you are on air, you are trying to cultivate a relationship," Jade said, "and oftentimes, I think of one person, just the two of us, having a conversation about music; having a nice hang."
That ability to connect with her listeners is part of what made her so special — and also might be part of the reason that 63-year-old Patrick Kelly began stalking her three years ago this month.
"He sent letters; he's coming by the house every single day,” Jade said, remembering how it all began that winter of 2021.
Flowers, letters — Kelly even sent her a burner phone telling her to use it so no one else would know.
She immediately went to Ramsey County and paid $200 to file a restraining order.
"A few days later, I got word back from the judge: 'Yes, indeed, you are approved for this restraining order', so I felt great and went back to work,” Jade recalled.
She felt protected; she had the order, but for some reason…
"This guy is still coming to my house; stopping over and harassing me,” she said.
She called police for help, "He's still coming," she told them. She told anyone she could get on the phone that she still had a restraining order against him — but that's when she learned, she actually didn’t.
"Something no one tells you when you get that letter from the judge, that 'Yes, you deserve a restraining order and I am signing and approving it,' is it’s like a permit. It’s like you get a provisional license to have a restraining order and that's all you get and no one tells you that,” Jade said of learning that news just weeks after filing it.
Patrick Kelly was never served with the restraining order.
Jade was told Kelly, her stalker, was what is called a "non-serve," meaning a serve was attempted, but for whatever reason, not given to him.
"So, all of these documented times he has been violating a restraining order the judge gave me, none of that was actually a violation because I never had one because no one served it,” Jade reiterated.
All of the letters that arrived grew increasingly scary. The times he came to her door and night, increasing in frequency, none of them were violations.
Next, Jade's lawyers tried a lesser-known tactic: They officially serve him via publication — but it still didn’t stop him.
"It kind of comes to a head where he is on my front porch and I call the cops and say, 'I have him. He's here now, on my porch, two feet away from me. This is an emergency,'” she recalled this time.
Eventually, he left her porch.
She waited two more hours, but no help came.
Her lawyers tried again after that for accountability. This time, the idea was to hold him in contempt for violating his restraining order — the one that said stay away from Jade and the others before her, a reference to his past convictions for stalking someone else.
Jade knows that someone well: her former colleague at 89.3 The Current, DJ Mary Lucia.
"I didn't want to say anything to Mary at first because she had been so harmed by it (Kelly’s stalking), but eventually, I showed her some of the notes and she goes, 'That is the same handwriting,' and she pulled up some of hers, and she said, 'I think it’s the exact same guy.'”
It was the same guy; he was sent to jail months prior for stalking Mary repeatedly.
So now, Jade knew her stalker was Mary Lucia's convicted stalker. It would be six years after stalking Mary that he'd single out Jade.
In Mary's case, Kelly had gone to jail, and yet, just as Jade said, he began stalking her the day he got out. And even after calls for help and her restraining order against him, it went on.
Until that contempt hearing.
“We got a hearing and the judge is like, 'Oh, yes. This man should be in jail,' so she sentences him. He gives himself up and he gets 180 days in jail, plus time served, and he's out," Jade said. "Couple months later, immediately starts stalking me again.”
She added, "I wasn't leaving the house; of course I am frightened," she said. "Someone you don't know is making claims over your body and physical space. That is terrifying.”
By the summer of last year, Jade had a 50-year restraining order in place. Kelly had also gone to jail twice, and yet, the letters kept coming. This time, they took on a sexual tone.
It was too much. The volume had to turn down.
Jade left 89.3 The Current after 15 years on the air.
“It’s sort of that catch-22. I can stay at a job I love and continue this pattern with someone who wants to harass me, or I can take myself out of that and allow myself to live a life that is peaceful... and I choose peace,” Jade said, fighting back tears.
But did she feel like she was chased out of being a DJ, a job she loved to do?
"You know, I am a fighter, but life is full of choices and you make the choice that feels best and safest for yourself.”
Jade left The Current last fall.
Mary Lucia left the year before, after 17 years.
And as for Patrick Kelly? He was civilly committed by reason of mental illness three weeks ago, which means his latest criminal charges for stalking Jade are on pause.
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