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Suspected Mar-a-Lago intruder: Hundreds of jailhouse phone calls, few visitors while awaiting trial

Yujing Zhang's jail phone calls, visitors revealed
Yujing Zhang
Posted at 9:08 AM, Sep 06, 2019
and last updated 2019-09-06 21:14:05-04

"I heard her voice and was like, dang, I know that name."

Michael Harris is a Realtor, art collector, and member of The Breakers Palm Beach. He was shocked when she called.

"I was just dumbfounded," Harris told WPTV.

From July 1- 3, Harris got eight phone calls from the Palm Beach County jail.

They were from Yujing Zhang, the Chinese national accused of sneaking into Mar-a-Lago.

"I don't know how she got my number. Why is she calling me?" Harris said in an interview. He says he didn't accept any of the calls.

Months after being detained by the Secret Service at President Trump's club, Zhang's case will go before a jury on Monday. She's facing charges of trespassing and lying to federal agents.

Zhang plead not guilty and is representing herself, going against the repeated advice of Judge Roy Altman, who will preside over the trial.

Jail records reviewed by WPTV show Zhang made hundreds of phone calls in 15 weeks.

Most went unanswered.

Notably, Zhang called seven times before finally reaching the Chinese Consulate in Houston on Apr. 13, two weeks after being detained.

The conversation lasted less than two minutes, and jail records don't show who at the consulate spoke with Zhang.

VIEW HER CALL RECORDS HERE:

Yujing Zhang Jailhouse Call Logs by Contact 5 on Scribd

"Ma'am, I know you don't have a bond."

Francine Adderly followed the case closely in the news. She was surprised when Zhang called asking for help making bond.

"She kept saying, I need to make arrangements," said Adderly, "I kept telling her, I just can't help you, ma'am."

Despite being denied bond, Zhang continued calling bail bondsman, including Adderly.

Over eighty times.

Records show Zhang called Adderly, the owner of F.C.A Bail Bonds in Belle Glade, five times. After speaking with her once, Adderly ignored her subsequent phone calls.

Like Harris, Zhang called others who had no connection to her case.

"She kept asking for money," said Clay, who declined to provide his last name.

Clay places real-estate ads in local newspapers, including the Miami Herald & Sun-Sentinel. He believes that could be how Zhang got his number.

"She kept saying that she knew me," and that she needed money, said Clay, adding that Zhang claimed she would pay him back.

"How's she going to pay me back from jail?"

RELATED: Democrats ask FBI to investigate Mar-a-Lago vulnerabilities | Trump "not concerned" with security breach at Mar-a-Lago | China providing services to woman arrested at Mar-a-Lago

Zhang called a medical office twice and a local home health care company five times.

She called an auto dealer twice, who also ignored the calls. "I never knew if it was a scam, or what it was," said the auto dealer, who asked not to be named.

Another Realtor told WPTV he also thought it was a scam and ignored several of her calls.

All told, Zhang attempted 280 phone calls while being held in Palm Beach County.

Zhang's phone log is dozens of pages long. The records cover her time at the Belle Glade detention facility in Palm Beach County until July 15. Zhang was transferred to Broward County, where she awaits trial.

Hundreds of calls, but few visitors

Despite hundreds of phone calls, Zhang had few visitors.

Visitor records reviewed by WPTV, covering her time both in Palm Beach County and Broward County, show just 23 visitors on ten different days.

Most were from the public defender's office. However, three days after the news broke of her arrest, records show two local defense attorney's visited Zhang.

Marc Shiner and Heidi Perlet, of Perlet & Shiner P.A., spent a little over an hour at the jail on Apr. 5. Shiner declined a request for comment.

Zhang's last visitor was George Notario with the public defender's office on Friday, Aug. 16.

Zhang's stand-in public defender, Robert Adler, said during a hearing the following week Notario went to explain the difference between having a jury trial or the judge decide her case.

Adler told the judge that she refused to meet with his office to discuss the matter.

VIEW HER VISITOR LOGS HERE:

Yujing Zhang Jail Visitor Logs by Contact 5 on Scribd