Is Alyce LaViolette Cashing In On Murder Trial?

As the defense finishes questioning their star witness, domestic abuse expert Alyce LaViolette, many are disillusioned by her choice to take the stand to portray murder defendant Jodi Arias as a battered and abused woman.  Maybe I'm the one who's crazy, but wasn't Travis Alexander the one who had the life stabbed, slashed and shot out of him at the hands of Jodi Arias? Who battered whom here?  Are Travis Alexander's not-so-kind text messages to Jodi Arias PROOF that he was a womanizing batterer and bully who held all the power in the relationship between Arias and Alexander?

Alyce LaViolette seems to think so. Does she have any idea the feelings of outrage she is bringing out in the hearts and minds of the real victims of domestic abuse all over the country? Before LaViolette began testifying, I kept asking myself "why would a woman who is so well respected in her field choose THIS case, defend THIS woman?"  Could it be the money? I suppose $250-$300 an hour could be very tempting. If LaViolette spent 45 hours interviewing Arias at $250 an hour, that alone brought her a fat paycheck of $11,250.00.  She makes $300 an hour for court testimony, and she has spent 6 days on the stand already - let's call it 30 hours, since she was sick on Wednesday, there's another $9,000.00 - and she's still testifying.

Who knows how many hours she spent on "research", and I believe she testified that she is paid $250 an hour for that. Let's be conservative and say she spent another 100 hours "researching" this case, listening to interrogation tapes, 48 Hours and other media interviews and reading the 600+ Arias journal entries. Add on another $25,000.00. That's $45,250.00 so far. What's harder to put a price on is the national exposure LaViolette has received for her role in this trial.  That's free advertising for her private practice, that's free publicity for her book "It Could Happen To Anyone: Why Battered Women Stay" - which by the way, the 3rd edition reprint is coming out on April 23, 2013. Coincidence? Maybe, maybe not.

Alyce LaViolette is also scheduled to speak at a handful of upcoming events in April, where with other guest speakers the registration fees range from $80-$495! She is scheduled to speak on April 26, April 27, and 5/4 in Manhattan California and San Diego California. The topic of one such conference is "Is It Anger Or Abuse: Assessing For Intimate Partner Violence". Do you think she will use the Jodi Arias trial as a case study in any of her future speaking engagements?http://www.alycelaviolette.com/Speaking-Schedule.htm

Whatever her motives were for choosing to get on the witness stand and defend a woman who borrowed 2 gas cans and bought another, staged a robbery at her grandparents home and stole a handgun, rented an inconspicuous white car and flipped the license plate, told everyone she was going to Utah and told nobody she was going to Mesa - why she chose to give any credibility to THIS woman's tales, I'll never know and never understand.  This wasn't the "fight for her life" that Arias sold to her defense attorney Jennifer Willmott. This was a carefully planned out and calculated murder. She lured Travis Alexander into a false sense of security by engaging in sex with him, talked him into posing for pictures in the shower- carefully posing him to get him in a vulnerable position before HER ATTACK began. Travis Alexander likely never saw it coming. And when she was finished, Arias had the presence of mind to try and clean up the scene and remove all traces of her visit from the home. THANK GOD FOR THE MEMORY CARD! Arias had the forethought to leave voicemails and send text messages to Travis. She knew she had to remove the battery from her cellphone while she was in the state of Arizona. This was planned, down to the smallest detail. She carried on as if nothing ever happened. It's so clear to me.

Had he seen this coming, he surely would've been better able to fight her off and inflict injury on Arias in the struggle. Evidence in that bathroom and at the crime scene shows the only struggle that was going on was Travis struggling to get out of the shower and away from his attacker. She followed him, she continued to attack and attack until he was no longer able to even protect himself. He had deep stab wounds on his hands, defensive wounds - he had a cluster of stab wounds on HIS BACK, again - not indicative of Arias's self defense claims. He was shot in the head, just for good measure. Make no mistake, Arias was in a blind rage and all of her anger was released onto Travis Alexander in that bathroom on June 4, 2008. All of her anger, jealousy and personal frustrations spilled out and Travis Alexander was executed.

So how could LaViolette attempt to justify this kind of brutal killing? This wasn't a woman who endured beatings on a regular basis, she was a woman who didn't get what she wanted or thought she deserved. Travis Alexander was happy, he was getting ready to leave on a trip he was very much looking forward to with a woman he was very interested in. Arias believed Travis wanted to spend the rest of his LIFE with Mimi Hall! She told Detective Flores as much during one of their interrogation videos. So as Arias sat in the small bedroom she now called "home" in Yreka, the thoughts of Travis and Mimi most likely were haunting her. Knowing how charming Travis Alexander could be, I'm sure Arias worked herself into a frenzy imagining the two of them in romantic Cancun Mexico, a location listed in the "1000 Places To See Before You Die" book we've heard so much about. That was supposed to be HER trip.

Relying on Arias's journal entries and the text messages between the pair, along with her 45 hours spent with Arias at Sherriff Joe's place provided LaViolette with a limited view of what really went on in this dysfunctional relationship. Yet she was able to form a fairly solid opinion on Travis: he was controlling, he had all the power, he was jealous and said cruel things to her, he was a womanizer. As for Arias, she came out smelling like roses. Something is definitely rotten in Denmark. Did LaViolette interview Jodi Arias's parents? They may have given her a better insight on her "family of origin" theories. Instead, she formed an opinion on Travis Alexander's family of origin - using his own words about his difficult childhood against him as a precursor for having difficulties forming relationships as an adult. Shame on you, attacking the character of a dead man. The very least you she could have done is say "while I never had the opportunity to talk to Travis Alexander......" She seemingly ignored all of the positive things that Travis Alexander did DESPITE his "family of origin" issues. Again, shame on you!

I personally don't know what Alyce LaViolette's reasons were for taking on this case, we like to think there are still some people out there who are beyond reproach and that cannot be tempted with money or fame. But I just cannot understand her decision to stand up for a woman who brutally and viciously attacked a defenseless man. Regardless of what she thinks of the way Travis treated Jodi, does she truly feel Arias was justified as a battered woman? Come on Alyce. You made a big mistake.

Juan Martinez Gets His Shot At Alyce LaViolette

As Jodi Arias's defense attorney Jennifer Willmott finished her direct examination of expert witness Alyce LaViolette yesterday afternoon, prosecutor Juan Martinez couldn't get up fast enough to start firing away questions at the domestic abuse expert from Long Beach.

Yesterday afternoon, Willmott and LaViolette discussed the text messages between murder defendant Jodi Arias and her ex boyfriend Travis Alexander, and LaViolette concluded that Travis Alexander had been in fact abusive to Arias.  Other facts came to light yesterday, through discussion of Travis Alexander's text messages with other women, as the defense rattled off a half dozen women that Alexander was in contact with in the months leading up to his death. Some of the text messages were sexual in nature, and the defense described him as somebody who preyed on "vulnerable women", and somebody who pushed these women's sexual boundaries to see how far they would go. Talk about character assassination? Wow. They are shooting dirty pool.

What did the defense really prove through this testimony? To me, they proved little more than Travis Alexander was a 30 year old man who was interested in women.  Is it that highly unusual for a man of his age, who may have been shy growing up but now more confident to seek out the company of multiple women? Friends have referred to Travis as "the biggest flirt west of the Mississippi". Did he deserve to die for being a womanizer? I think not. I'd be interested to know if Jodi Arias knew about all of these other women Travis was in communication with. The defense tactics of trashing a man who was brutally slain may backfire on them, Travis's other women could be seen as further motive for Jodi Arias to have wanted him dead!

Whatever was going on in that relationship, again - if you follow the law, has nothing to do with whether or not Jodi Arias needed to respond in such a vicious manner IF you believe Travis lunged at Jodi. When Arias chose "self defense" as her reason for killing Travis Alexander, those were the parameters she set around her defense. Would any "reasonable person" have felt the need to react in such a manner to a lunging gesture?  This is all going to come down to who the jury believes. IF they believe Arias and think a dropped camera would provoke an angry Travis to threaten to kill Arias, they still need to decide whether or not Arias needed to continue her assault on Travis Alexander once it became clear he was no longer a threat to her. I don't believe any "reasonable" person would think so - IF Jodi Arias showed up in Utah battered and bruised, I might have a slightly different opinion but her complete lack of any serious injuries calls her entire story into question.

Did Arias know Travis Alexander was sending these suggestive text messages to other women?  I think she was happy when she believed that she was the only woman who was willing to be intimate with him. Discovering these text messages likely would've sent her into a rage - we now know from her own parents that even at a young age, Arias was capable of being sweet one minute and rageful and mean the next. That says EVERYTHING when your own parents are afraid of you. By the time Jennifer Willmott was finished with LaViolette I was completely disgusted with this entire defense team.  Kirk Nurmi with his mistrial and sequestration demands, Willmott's pleas with the Judge to allow her to ask certain inappropriate questions and the general shifty tactics of the defense to portray Travis Alexander as a womanizing opportunistic man is as low as it gets.

By the time Juan Martinez stood to begin his questioning of Alyce LaViolette, he was so fired up that he seemed to have trouble asking the questions! He was angry, and it certainly showed. I can't say I blame him - he's had to endure weeks of testimony from this expert, listening to them rip apart the victim while casting an almost saintly light on a murderer.  Before Willmott handed LaViolette over to Martinez, she sarcastically asked her "have you given any books to Jodi Arias"?, LaViolette answered "yes, I have - I gave her 4 books and a magazine subscription". Willmott then asked "is that because you have FEELINGS for the defendant?" LaViolette chuckled and answered "no". Arias supporters must have gotten a kick out of that.

Martinez didn't have much time to question LaViolette yesterday since the defense took most of the court day, but their exchanges were heated - even more heated than Martinez and Dr. Samuels. At one point, LaViolette asked the prosecutor "are you angry with me Mr. Martinez?" Arias supporters laughed loudly, and were scolded by the judge who asked them to cease with the outbursts. Martinez began by questioning LaViolette's credentials, pointing out that she is not qualified to administer certain psychological tests - he also pointed out that "battered women's syndrome" is not listed in any diagnostic book. He referred to a speaking engagement LaViolette had in which she concluded that Snow White was a battered woman.  He seemed to ridicule her for finding the symptoms of a battered woman in a fairy tale character. Good one Juan! I was thinking the same thing, that by Alyce's standards, most men and many women could be called batterers - including Jodi Arias. Does LaViolette find it conclusive evidence that Arias was not jealous or obsessive with Travis because she didn't READ anything in her journals or text messages to indicate she was?

I'm happy that the defense will have to sit down and shut up for the next few days. They have had the "stage" for 3 months now, and it's time to bring the focus of this trial back to the real victim here - Travis Alexander. No amount of womanizing, insults, rude text messages or even the mild "abuse" justifies what happened to him on June 4, 2008. If that were the case, I'd expect to see thousands of murdered men all over the country because Travis Alexander's behavior doesn't seem to be that different than any other young man.  Did the defense expert convince those jurors that Arias had cause to be in "mortal fear" of Travis Alexander that night? Only if the jury believes those incidents of escalating violence, most importantly the alleged choking incident - if not, her fear was not reasonable.

Or the jury may completely disregard the fear factor altogether.  Remember, none of the alleged incidents of violence were ever reported to law enforcement, never discussed with a close friend, a bishop, a priest, her family, and although she may not have been close to her mom, didn't she call on good old mom for help moving? She was reportedly fairly close with her sister Angela, yet nobody ever saw any signs of physical abuse whatsoever.  I don't want to sound disrespectful to abused women - I understand that the bruises can be hidden and covered, and often times the attacks go unreported. I guess I just don't believe Jodi Arias. I don't believe Travis broke her finger, I don't believe he choked her and I'm not sure he slapped her in the face. Her stories just don't ring true to me, and for somebody who faithfully wrote in that journal, she wrote nothing about abuse. She thought that through with this "Law of Attraction" excuse, but I don't buy it. She had no reason to fear Travis would read her journal - she wasn't even living in the same state for much of their relationship, and I don't see him driving to Yreka and sneaking into her house to read the journals. It's just more BS. I don't think anybody who's watching this trial believes her allegation about the January 21 incident where Arias catches Alexander with a photo of a little boy. Most pedophiles are not also womanizers, so they can't have it both ways. Seems they are trying to cover too many bases and none of it is realistic.

It's been reported that there aren't any questions from the jury for Alyce LaViolette. Does this mean they believe her, or they understand her testimony? Or could it be the jury is feeling the fatigue from a lengthy trial and they are eager to move forward? I can't say I blame them. If they have questions, I have a feeling they will ask. They are taking their jobs very seriously by all accounts. I believe LaViolette is the final defense witness, which the State will finally get their rebuttal case in front of this jury. I, for one cannot wait. It's been excruciating to listen to the defense methodically trashing Travis Alexander, and watching Jodi Arias sit at that defense table and draw her sketches, or whatever she's doing - does she think she has succeeded in pulling the wool over everybody's eyes? You can see her scanning the courtroom and she seems to be trying to gage whether people are believing what her expert witness is saying.

I also noticed yesterday that Arias seemed to be staring at Jennifer Willmott, almost in a loving manner.  Is she going to go into law now, like Casey Anthony wanted to do during her incarceration and trial?  Difference between Jodi Arias and Casey Anthony is this:  I seriously doubt Jodi Arias is going anywhere for a very long time. There's little to no chance of her walking away from what she has done, the only question is whether she lives or dies. Will she spend 20 years to life in prison, or will she join the other women on Arizona's Death Row?  We'll know soon enough.