By Michael Kiefer | The Arizona Republic
It was one of countless sidebars in the Jodi Arias trial: Domestic-violence expert Alyce LaViolette was on the witness stand, facing withering cross-examination from prosecutor Juan Martinez, and defense attorney Jennifer Willmott asked to approach the judge to talk out of earshot of the jury.
“If he will just let her answer, he will get an answer,” Willmott said.
“I can get more aggressive with her as need be,” Martinez said.
The conversation was inaudible to spectators and media in the gallery in the Maricopa County Superior Court courtroom, drowned out by the judge’s white-noise machine and then sealed by court order. The Arizona Republic and 12 News recently obtained video of this and many other sidebars during a brief few weeks when they were unsealed, and they show the tense interplay between the opposing sides in one of the year’s most controversial trials.
As a result of her testimony, LaViolette became a national lightning rod and the target of threats and harassment from the trial-viewing public.
