Kelsey Pays For Her Crimes Ch. 01

All characters in this story are over eighteen.

I feel like I have been gone from this site for a long time. I've been doing a lot of writing, but not a lot of finishing. I hope that changes soon. This story is really a sequel to Gracie's Three Punishments, so if you like those, you'll probably like this (and future chapters). This also references other stories that I've written like the Sofia and Jordan story, but those are much less important. I also think you needn't read any of my previous stories to know what is going on, anyway.

Thank you to everyone who reads, rates, and comments. You guys are what makes it fun to write and post.

***

"It's not like I didn't know what was going to happen," Kelsey said to the concerned faces of AJ and Gracie.

After a whirlwind of communication with lawyers (that Gracie had paid for) and a quick guilty plea, Kelsey had been convicted of several crimes stemming from a protest she had led against a public Judicial Punishment at her university. Kelsey had founded a club called University Students Surviving Judicial Punishments, or USSJP, which advocated for people that were sentenced to the embarrassing and painful judicial codes that had been brought into force a couple years ago. Seven days ago, a member of the club, Sofia Alonzo, was serving her sentence and the club, without Sofia's knowledge, had organized a march against the Judicial code, and it had gotten more than a little out of hand.

There were clashes with the police and a couple members had actively tried to "save" Sofia from her punishment by trying to cover her body with towels and clothes. Kelsey hadn't actively done anything like that, but when the police started asking questions everybody said that she was the ringleader. Luckily almost all of the club had gotten away with no charges. Three people had serious charges brought against them: Kelsey and the two people who had tried to cover Sofia, Jeremy, a senior, and, Zoe, a Junior.

Then there were a handful of marchers who just got unlucky by being tackled by police even when they weren't doing anything different than the dozens of other people chanting. She felt bad for them, they didn't deserve the disorderly conduct charges that they had gotten.

"I just think you're being a masochist," AJ told her, continuing their argument.

"I don't like what's going to happen!" Kelsey answered heatedly.

"That's not what I meant," AJ started.

"I think what she means is you're acting like a martyr," Gracie interjected.

"Yeah," AJ confirmed.

"You could have let the lawyer actually defend you rather than just pleading guilty to the first thing the prosecutors offered. AJ was there. You didn't incite a riot, there would be a lot of witnesses saying that you didn't incite anything," Gracie said breathlessly.

"There was a riot. I organized the protest that turned into the riot. And all those people saying I didn't plan a riot would have been seen as rioters. They probably would have convicted me anyway!"

"They might have, but you didn't even give them the chance. They knew they didn't have a straightforward case. They would have let you plead down," Gracie said.

"It's ok. I didn't want to go through that," Kelsey answered, putting her hands up defensively. "Can we stop talking about it?"

AJ was red faced, angry and disappointed with her girlfriend, and let her older friend take the lead.

"No," Gracie growled and closed her eyes trying to gather her thoughts. She exhaled and tried to strike a measured tone, "Let us just say what we're thinking. We're worried about you."

"Fine," Kelsey said, resigned. The three of them had been arguing since they got back to Gracie's house from the courthouse and she wished they would just leave her alone. She had already made her decision and was going to live with it.

"There's two things I can figure why you're doing this, and I don't know which one is better," Gracie started.

Kelsey crossed her arms over her chest and sat back in the big easy chair with her knees drawn up to her chest. She stared at Gracie and AJ sitting on the couch across from her.

Gracie leaned forward, "It could be your thing about taking responsibility for your actions, which sounds fine, but really it's just flagellating yourself because you feel guilty. You shouldn't feel bad about what happened. You had good intentions and Sofia forgave you, you can't be responsible for what other people did."

That was true. Before her trial she'd sought out Sofia and apologized in person for everything. The protest had terrified the poor girl and put her back at the mercy of the police who must have threatened her. Kelsey did feel guilty, but that was only one of the reasons she was ready to live with whatever the consequences were.

"Or," Gracie continued, "It's like AJ said and you want to be a martyr and take one for the team for the USSJP so they don't go after everybody else and when it's all over you can act superior. If it's that, then it's not fair to AJ and I and probably your parents and all your other friends. We don't want to see you suffer. Plus, the prosecutors are still going after the USSJP. You're not saving anybody."

AJ nodded her head in agreement, her jaw clenched.

Kelsey couldn't look her friend in the eye. "Am I that predictable?" She had told people from the club to just put everything on her if they were threatened, and it had crossed her mind that whatever happened to her could end up helping the cause, since it would look like the government punishing a dissident.

"Well, it's too late now. I can't retract the plea now that the trial is over."

"You have to try. We can at least talk to Molly," Gracie suggested, mentioning one of their lawyers.

"I don't want to retract it anyway. I'll be fine and maybe I'm protecting people and I'm guilty anyway!" Kelsey said resolutely, rubbing her fingers through her short hair.

"Ugh, at least you admit what you're doing," Gracie answered, putting her face in her hands.

"What if you go to jail?" AJ said, "This might count as a violent crime."

"No one got hurt. Sofia said she wasn't going to say anything against us, and, besides, we were protesting the Judicial Codes, they're going to use the codes against us."

"Even if that's true why do you want to go through that again? We've all went through it!" AJ yelled.

"And you might be closer to what happened to me," Gracie said.

Kelsey had known that, but it still gave her pause to hear it said aloud. She had met AJ and Gracie five months ago, when they had all been serving their sentence. Her and AJ had been sentenced to public exposure, which was bad but actually a low level punishment. Gracie, though, had the worst of it. She'd been caned in front of a thousand strangers and that was only her first punishment. She'd also been spanked on her vagina and electrocuted on different days.

"Look if that happens, then I'll be ok," she said, "All of them are bad, and I can take it better than others. I've done it before."

"You're not responsible for them!" AJ exclaimed, "I don't want to watch you go through this."

"I know. I'm sorry to make you go through it again," Kelsey paused to think about how she was going to phrase her reasoning, "Once everything went to hell, I did have a responsibility to protect the people who were following me."

"Why?" AJ pleaded.

"I planned the rally. I didn't control it well. What happened was my fault, plus I've gone through it before I can take it better than people who haven't."

"But you're not responsible. They're their own people!" AJ yelled.

"Girls, let's stop," Gracie announced, "We are just going in circles. It's just going to become an even bigger fight."

"I'm ready to be done," Kelsey declared, "What's done is done."

AJ, though, was angry. She got up and spoke, fighting back tears, "They're going to torture you, Kels! You've heard the stories, and not just from Gracie. We go to those meetings twice a week. How could you just walk back into it? I just don't get it." AJ stormed off to Gracie's guest room, which had become their home away from campus.

Kelsey had a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach. She hadn't thought about how much it would hurt AJ and Gracie to put them back through a Punishment Center ordeal. Kelsey and AJ had given Gracie lots of support and now she was making AJ support her again when they could have just put it all behind them.

After a long uncomfortable silence, Kelsey spoke quietly, "Look, I'm sorry. I didn't think it through."

"It's ok. We will help you through it," the older woman answered, "She'll be ok. She's scared for you."

"Yeah," Kelsey sniffed, feeling her eyes watering too.

Gracie got up and came to snuggle next to Kelsey on the chair. Kelsey's tears kept coming as she sobbed into Gracie's shoulder.

***

"Thank you, counsellors, I have taken your statements under advisement," Judge Oldham, an older black woman with curly gray hair said," I am glad that in two of the cases agreements could be made regarding sentencing between the prosecution and the defense, as that makes my job easy. If the defendants will please rise, I will read out the sentences for the record."

A week after Kelsey had plead guilty, Gracie was sitting next to AJ in the back of the courtroom. Kelsey was standing about twenty feet in front of them, on the other side of the thick wooden bannister, next to her co-defendants Jeremy and Zoe. Gracie had convinced Kelsey to dress suitably in a navy business suit with a pencil skirt and modest black tights.

The judge peered down over the three of them and started her speech, "I take absolutely no pleasure in reading off sentences like I'm about to hand down, especially to three young people who have their whole lives in front of them. It should also be said that all of you should feel lucky that your punishments aren't more severe. You can thank the mercy of the state as well as the victim statement from Miss Alonzo that asked for leniency. That goes especially for Mr. Gardner and Miss Mihn who could have been facing assault and battery, which could have meant prison time.

"Mr. Gardner, I'm going to start with you. You've admitted guilt for one charge of rioting, one charge of disruption of punishment center activities, and one charge of resisting arrest. Your sentence is," she hesitated to read from the sheets of paper in front of her, "a J37. I'm also requiring that the J37 be a public punishment as it seems fitting seeing the nature of your crimes."

Gracie knew that Jeremy had negotiated this penalty with prosecutors in exchange for the guilty plea. He towered over Kelsey, though most guys did, and was dressed in a black suit and black tie and he had shaved his unruly beard which he wore the first time Gracie had been introduced to him as his benefactor. He nodded solemnly as it was confirmed that he would suffer from a public corporal punishment directed at his penis and testicles.

Gracie felt lucky she could support these poor young people. She still had lots of income from her investments even after she had lost her job when she'd been arrested more than six months ago. She loved Kelsey and was always going to help her with legal bills, so she might as well get the group rate and support Jeremy and Zoe.

The judge shuffled papers on her desk and began again, "Now Miss Mihn. Your charges were the same as Mr. Gardner's: one charge of rioting, one charge of disruption of punishment center activities, and one charge of resisting arrest. Thus, your sentence is commensurate. Your sentence is a J31 and will also be completed in public."

Zoe was an Asian girl, a little taller than Kelsey. Like the others she was dressed formally in a black suit, though she had slacks instead of a skirt and she had her black hair pulled up into a severe bun. Gracie watched her hang her head as the judge read her sentence that her breasts would be the target of corporal punishment.

"Now to move on to Miss Ward," the judge started.

Kelsey hadn't negotiated her punishment since she'd plead guilty prematurely, so Gracie didn't know what was about to come. She knew it would be worse. Inciting a riot was a worse charge than what the other two faced, plus she was a reoffender.

"You've plead guilty of four charges, though they differ slightly from your co-defendants, actually they're more serious: one charge of incitement to riot, one charge of rioting, and one charge of disruption of punishment center activities, and one charge of conspiracy since you planned the rally cum riot. Your sentence is thus more severe, especially because this won't be your first encounter with the Punishment Codes," the judge took a deep breath, giving Gracie's heart longer to race. "I'm sentencing you to a J21 and a J31, which will be executed on the same day and in public view. Additionally, I sentence you to a J49, which I'll allow to be a private punishment."

Gracie had a pit in her stomach as she listened. She knew the higher the number, the more severe and often complicated the penalty. Her worst punishment, electroshocks applied to her vulva and legs, had been a J45 and Kelsey just got given a J49! "They're making an example of her," Gracie thought, her and AJ's fear realized.

Gracie had a copy of the punishment codes stuffed in her purse, and she had to resist the urge to search them now. However, the judge wasn't done with her ruling yet, "While I have never ordered this before, this has been done in other jurisdictions. I order that the three of you will serve your public punishment at the same location and on the same day. Furthermore, I order you to each witness each other's punishment, so you will not be removed after your individual punishments are complete. You three showed terrible judgement and got in trouble together, so you will be punished together. The exact location I will leave up to the Punishment Center and their operational needs.

"Court is dismissed," she said, banging her gavel.

When the judge left, Jeremy, Zoe, and Kelsey all looked at each other in resignation. That went just about exactly how they'd imagined, but Gracie still felt terrible for her friend and the two other students. As far as she knew, neither Jeremy nor Zoe had ever been involved with any legal trouble in the past. From what she'd learned from Kelsey, Zoe protested because she disagreed with the codes on ethical and feminist grounds and Jeremy just seemed like he liked a good protest for any good cause.

Gracie and AJ filed out with the rest of the gallery. When they were out, they found a bench set back against the wall and Grace pulled out the Punishment Codes. "Twenty-one, thirty-one, and forty-nine, right?"

"Yeah," AJ answered as she sidled up next to her, trying to read over Gracie's shoulder.

Gracie knew that J31 meant Kelsey's breasts would be assaulted because that was what was going to happen to Zoe as well. "Ok," Gracie read aloud, "J21 is a bare-handed spanking. I guess that could have been worse."

"Yeah, I mean you were caned, right?"

"Mmm hmm, forty-nine is what's important." Gracie flipped through the thick packet of paper and finally found the entry. "Oh, god, that's terrible."

AJ groaned as she read over Gracie's shoulder, "We have to go find her."

They got up and saw Kelsey, Zoe, Jeremy, and the lawyers coming out of the courtroom and went over to them. "Hey AJ," Gracie whispered as they approached, "I don't want to tell her, let's let the lawyer do it."

"Agreed."

"Guys, I'm still so sorry," Kelsey was saying to her co-defendants as they walked up.

Zoe just shrugged but Jeremy tried to make her feel better. He put his hand on her shoulder, "Don't worry about it. I was always going to get in trouble sometime and this was a good cause."

The defense lawyers each invited one of their clients to speak to them in private and Kelsey invited Gracie and AJ to be part of her meeting with Molly. Molly was a young junior lawyer, with whom they had the best relationship. She had been Gracie's liaison with the law firm during her trial and had provided pro bono legal advice to the USSJP.

"I'm sorry she went hard on you, Kelsey. I guess you want to know what a J49 is?" Molly said as they found a private corner.

"I gotta find out sometime," Kelsey said with resignation.

Molly fished the Punishment Code document out of her briefcase and started to flip through the pages. Gracie waited anxiously for Molly to tell Kelsey what would happen to her. It was terrible and she half expected Kelsey to faint or freak out when she heard.

Molly frowned and her eyebrows knitted together before she spoke, "Well a J49 is, and I'm quoting, 'The offender's urethra, anus, and, if applicable, vagina will be subject to probes and dilated.'" The lawyer trailed off and checked Kelsey's face for understanding.

Gracie rubbed her friends back and AJ was whispering in her girlfriend's ear. Gracie couldn't tell if Kelsey knew what that meant or if she was just in shock.

"Do you understand?" Molly asked.

"Yeah, what else?" Kelsey answered flatly.

"Um, just summarizing now, they don't say how far each, um, orifice will be dilated. It's left up to each Punishment Center to make their own policies and be flexible based on the individual," Molly said.

Kelsey nodded and looked at AJ. "I'll be ok," she said pitifully, but Gracie knew her well enough that she knew her stated confidence was a façade.

Molly frowned too and looked like she didn't want to continue, but surely there was more she had to say.

"Why don't you go sit with AJ?" Gracie suggested, "Molly tell me what you need to tell her."

"Yeah, that's a good idea," Kelsey said quietly.

Gracie had been trying to shield them from the worst of Judicial Punishments basically since she met them. She couldn't save Kelsey, but she would do as much as she could.

"Just tell me everything," Gracie told the lawyer, "And I'll pass it on when she's in a better place."

"Ok," Molly said, "I'm glad they have you."

"Yeah, when I first met them, I just thought they were being nice to me, but they are both just filled with empathy. That's why Kelsey's in this stupid mess. She can't help but help other people."

"Yeah, I like her too. Down to brass tacks, though," Molly said, changing moods, "The law firm can handle scheduling the dates. The ruling the Judge Oldham made at the end probably makes it easier for us. I would expect the public punishment to happen before the J49. She's probably tipped her hand. It wouldn't surprise me if the poor kids who got arrested for lesser charges end up being with them."

"Mmm, yeah, you're probably right," Gracie answered, seeing the logic. The more experience the courts and Punishment Centers got, the more they'd be able to twist the screws on everybody. Getting punished with your peers and friends would definitely make it worse.

"I'll make some inquiries into exactly how the location of the public punishment is going to work and I'll be in touch. Maybe they'll tell us ahead of time unlike usual. Also, I'll ask around about how the J49 works and I can pass that on, if she wants."

"She'll want it," Gracie promised, thinking of Kelsey's habit of practicing her punishments ahead of time.

"Still, I'll have to ask her."

"Of course. You can provide rides for her if she wants them, still?"

"Yeah, same as we did for you," Molly confirmed, "I'll also be in touch about filling out medical forms. She hasn't entered hers on our website yet and she won't want to fill them out the day of."

"Yeah, I'll make her do that. Is there anything else?"

"Um, we have mental health services if she wants them, but really just take her home and ask her when she isn't in shock. I would be after that sentence."