Angel Harrelson wanted to make sure her husband knew how much she loves him.
She stood at the edge of the Congressional Cemetery in Washington on the evening of Oct. 1, holding a handmade sign. The message was simple and heartfelt: “Happy Anniversary to the Love of My Life, My King. 13 Years.”
In a concrete-block building just across from the cemetery, retired U.S. Army Sgt. Ken Harrelson peered out through a slit that serves as his window to the world. There stood his wife, holding her sign, flanked by the couple’s two dogs, Thor and Kyra.
It was an emotional moment. Angel smiled, placed her right hand over her heart, and blew a kiss.
She wore a T-shirt with a photo from their 2009 wedding and the message: “You fought for us. Now I fight for you.”
“We love each other,” Angel told The Epoch Times on Oct. 2. “That’s all I wanted to show him is how much I love him.”
The gesture did a world of good to buoy the spirits of her husband of 13 years, who’s one of the five men on trial in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy case in U.S. District Court.
“It was great,” Ken told The Epoch Times in a phone interview from the D.C. Correctional Treatment Facility. “I got a little emotional from it. First time I'd seen the puppy dogs. The way they did it caught me off guard.”
Angel worked with the aunt of another Jan. 6 pretrial detainee to set up a ruse to get her husband out of his cell and away from the window as she got into position.
“They had set everything up. It took me away for a moment, and I turned around and Tim was standing there behind me, kind of wringing his hands,” Ken said, referring to a fellow Jan. 6 detainee.
“I was like, ‘What are you doing, man?’ [He said,] ‘I was told to watch your reaction and report back.’”
The anniversary surprise was a bright light on a difficult journey, as Ken prepares to face a criminal trial that could stretch into November. He said he knows opening arguments in the case are going to be difficult as prosecutors try to paint him as someone that he says he isn’t.
“It'll add to the memories,” he said of the anniversary gift. “The one thing I won’t try to forget out of this whole thing.”
On Oct. 1, the Harrelsons both had a chance to collect their thoughts and steel themselves for the onslaught of accusations from federal prosecutors ahead of the Oct. 3 start of the trial.
“Brad told me to be prepared,” Angel said, referring to defense attorney Brad Geyer. “‘Hurtful things are going to be said. They’re going to lie a lot.’ He said, ‘Brace yourself.’”
It was the second time in a week that Angel went out of her way to make sure her husband knew of her love and support at a critical time.
During a break in jury selection, she tore a half sheet from a spiral notebook and dashed off a message. She gave the note to Geyer, who handed it to Ken.
“Hey my love! You look so good and that shirt ‘n pants fits you good! I love you my love of my life & my king,” the note reads, using the couple’s practice of referring to each other with royal titles. “Love, your Queen (AKA wife).”
The note was a bright spot on a difficult day. Angel had purchased new clothes for her husband to wear at trial.
“It meant the world to me,” Ken said. “I haven’t had any contact with her in well over a year, so that was the first first day I think, wasn’t it?”
Angel replied, “The first time we’ve seen each other since you got arrested.”
That was on March 10, 2021.
Ken said he folded the note and set it on the defense table in front of him. Ten minutes or more had gone by when a U.S. Marshal saw the note and had a “total freak-out.”
“‘You can’t do this. You’re not allowed to communicate with your wife,’” Ken cited the marshal as saying. “‘Your attorney should know better than this. You’re not supposed to do this. I’m going to have to bring this up to the judge. This is bad. This is a high-profile case, and you can’t do this stuff.’”
After attorneys questioned a couple more potential jurors, the marshal alerted the court clerk about the note, and Judge Amit Mehta was notified. During a break, Mehta summoned Geyer and prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler to the bench.
Geyer took responsibility for passing the note to his client, worried that Mehta might bar Angel from the courtroom for the trial. Mehta reacted as most would, however, seeing the humanity in Angel’s gesture to her husband.
Angel said she was out of the courtroom when the judge held a sidebar on her love note.
“I wasn’t in there, so I didn’t get to hear it,” she said. “But everybody looked pretty embarrassed.”
Angel made the trip with her sister to the Washington area from Florida in a rented camper. She said it’s more affordable for a two-month stay than a hotel or Airbnb rental, and also allowed her to bring her two dogs for emotional support.
Aside from the Oath Keepers’ criminal trial, the District of Columbia has sued Ken and other Oath Keepers to recoup what attorneys claim are expenses related to the Capitol unrest.
Angel said her family’s defense costs for the Oath Keepers trial could easily reach $500,000 or more.
“It’s horrible,” she said. “By the time this is all done, I’m just worried we’re not gonna have anything left, no matter how much money we get in donations.”
