“I have no idea why they’ve taken a plea deal,” she said of the other defendants in the case on the season premiere — before saying it would “literally kill me” to be separated from her family.
Jen Shah’s wire fraud drama was front and center on the Season 3 premiere of “The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City” — which started filming around seven weeks before her trial was set to start.
Shah and assistant Stuart Smith were accused of generating and selling “lead lists” of innocent people who could be targeted as part of a telemarketing scam for almost a decade. Many of the victims were elderly and working class.
While both pled not guilty at first, Smith changed his plea to guilty in 2021. Shah, meanwhile, maintained her innocence until she eventually pled guilty in July. Both are still awaiting sentencing.
Inside her new home — which, she noted, is half the size of the one she had in Season 1 — Shah explained that she has also downsized her “Shah Squad” and was “doing my best” as she prepared for her court date. She was planning a birthday party for her husband, Coach Sharrieff Shah, but said that would have to be scaled back too since “every penny is going to literally fighting my case.”
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During the episode, Shah addressed that some of the other defendants in her case had pled guilty as part of plea deals — something she, at least at the time, had zero interest in doing herself.
“I have no idea what’s going on with the other defendants in this case. I have no idea why they’ve taken a plea deal, but I’m not going to take a plea deal when I’m not guilty, I’m innocent,” she exclaimed.
She was, however, nervous.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t scared,” she said in a confessional. “I’m not thinking about myself, I’m thinking about my family. I can’t imagine being away from them, it would literally kill me.”
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At the party itself, Jen also got emotional as she thanked everyone there for all their support during this difficult time for her and her family.
“Because of everything we’ve been going through, it means more to me than ever in my life to have people that I know that really truly love me and love my family,” she said to the crowd, getting choked up. “And to everybody that has been there, thank you for being here to wish Coach a happy birthday, because this birthday I think means more to me than anything because we can still be here together to celebrate.”
In his own confessional, Coach Shah got emotional as well — as he admitted, “The one thing that can bring me to tears almost instantly is thinking of life without my wife by my side. That’s hard to stomach.”
We’ll see why Jen eventually reverses course on her plea as new episodes of RHOSLC air Wednesdays on Bravo.
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