Tag Archives: Meili Cady

An unsympathetic autobiography from a Klahowya grad

Screen Shot 2015-04-17 at 6.39.50 PMAbout two-thirds of the way through “Smoke: How a small-town girl accidentally wound up smuggling 7,000 pounds of marijuana with the Pot Princess of Beverly Hills,” 2004 Klahowya High School grad Meili Cady confesses:

“…I’d hung my last hope for happiness on my future with Ben. But I knew that he would leave me. If I’d had the choice, I’d leave me too. I couldn’t stand what I’d become. I was stuck with me and this bizarre, unbearable reality that was suffocating me.”

Having read the previous 186 pages, seeing Cady come to the conclusion, “I’d leave me, too,” might inspire you set the book down for a moment and, if you’re a demonstrative type, yell out, “You think?” Yelling at a book doesn’t count for normal activity in most settings, but page after page Cady gives you reason.

For the uninitiated, Cady moved to Los Angeles after high school to pursue her Hollywood acting dreams. Over the years she landed some screen work, but not a lot. Finding a friend was tough, too. A mutual friend introduced her to Lisette Lee, the “Pot Princess” in question.

The story of what happened over the next few years was first revealed in a 2012 Rolling Stone story, “The Gangster Princess of Beverly Hills.” That was the first time many of us were introduced to Cady, who was Lee’s unlikely friend. When we did our story on Cady I was somewhat sympathetic to her, because in five decades I can count a few times when I’ve done things despite my suspicions because I wanted to believe those suspicions were off base. Wanting to believe can be a real hazard.

Reading Cady’s own written version in “Smoke,” I was less sympathetic, and that might be a compliment to her. Cady tells us what happened, what she did, without much effort to justify it. It’s a gutsy move. It’s also the most accountable way to tell a story.

The book is a fast read, reveals much that you didn’t know from the earlier stories and could be the last we ever hear of this tale, unless Lee starts talking or there is a movie. I don’t know about Lee, but the movie is a real possibility.

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Klahowya grad hits the big time and the big house. Don’t judge yet.

Meili Cady
Meili Cady, a 2004 Klahowya Secondary School honors grad, left Kitsap not long after high school aiming to find a break in Hollywood. In late August she made it into Rolling Stone magazine, but not in a way her friends from here would have predicted.

Cady was a homecoming princess, ASB co-president and honors student. She said she was voted by her classmates “Most likely to be famous.” Seems they got that one right.

She is under house arrest now and did real jail time for her part in a drug trafficking operation.

It isn’t as bad as all that. Start with the Rolling Stone piece and it seems clear that Cady’s path to prison came from trusting a committed manipulator, reportedly an heiress within the Samsung family, for far too long, caring for her friend even they were both arrested in Columbus, Ohio. Seriously, this is a compelling story about a woman, Lisette Lee, who had an amazing ability to turn friends and acquaintances into puppets. Cady, who didn’t want to believe the worst about her friend in the face of all evidence, reflects now on the price she paid by trusting so much.

“It ends up being a fatal flaw to trust someone so blindly,” she said. “It ended up tainting me and hurting the people I love. It was really awful to be so wrong about something I thought was so sacred.”

She told me that Monday during a 90-minute conversation we had by phone.

She has remained in Los Angeles, living the aspiring actress life, which means she’s working as a waitress as she considers her future, all the while wearing an ankle monitor that lets law enforcement know where she is all the time.

Cady blogs about her day-to-day life in an engaging blog titled House Arrest Girl. She tells of the monotony of staying home all the time, of friends who visit and of a creepy neighbor who took too much delight in watching her as she chatted with a friend outside. If you go far enough into the archives, you’ll find this description of her relationship with her ankle bracelet:

“They say that the true nature of a relationship cannot be holistically assessed until it has survived a full year of seasons. I’ve been with my ankle bracelet now for more than seven months. He came to live with me the day we met. Fast, I know, but we were connected. We spent Christmas together, and we were skin-close at the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve. He even comes into my work and insists on grocery shopping with me every week (awww). We don’t go out much. We are homebodies– but we do sleep together every night, even when I’m not happy with him before we get into bed. We are still inseparable, even at this very moment. But, I’ve got to be honest with you… I cannot wait to leave this bastard and never see him again come November.”

At some point later this year I hope to tell her story in greater detail, but I highly recommend you begin your understanding by reading the Rolling Stone piece. In the meantime I can tell you that she has no plans to let this whole affair ruin her life. She does wonder how the ordeal will affect her ability to be in a committed, romantic relationship the next time that opportunity arises. And she feels for how this might have affected her parents, who she calls her heroes. The blog has helped.

“Yes, this happened but this doesn’t define me,” Cady said. “I don’t want to be shamed by this circumstance. I want to grow from it.”

As of Monday she has 58 days left on house arrest.

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