Juan Martinez cross examines Alyce LaViolette

Morning Session:

1. JM reviews that AL based her opinion of this case on 44 hours of talking to JA and reading numerous documents.
2. JM gets AL to say she did not use the Continuum for this case, then she has to back track as she did use it to describe a ‘range of behavior.’
3. AL misrepresented herself as the Keynote Speaker at a Conference in LA in 2010. JM brought out the conference schedule and nowhere is she indicated as the Keynote Speaker- Katherine S. Connell was the Keynote speaker. AL admits it does not say she is “Keynote” anywhere, but she was involved in keynote breakout sessions.
4. AL admits she never wrote any report for this case!
5. JM points out her method does not require interviews. JM points out: “You’re willing to come into court and give an opinion without talking to Shatanya or Travis.” AL: “I didn’t speak to either one of them.” But she came up with the opinion that Shatanya was ‘vulnerable.’
6. JM brings up her comment that 90% of communication is non-verbal.  Therefore she is 90% wrong on everything she read without doing interviews to confirm her opinions. AL says he is taking that out of context. JM points out that AL has no way to know if Shatanya was just joking as 90% of communication is non-verbal and AL is basing all this on written texts. AL says that Shatanya stopped communicating. JM points out she has no way to know if they stopped communicating as they could have spoken to each other by phone. She admits she does not know if they spoke by phone.
7. Regarding Reagan and Travis’ communication. AL said that Regan was vulnerable, anorexic, and she was asked by Travis to send photos of her in a bikini. JM points out she readily believed everything Regan wrote in these texts but doesn’t believe what Travis wrote about how he had a stalker and that he was ‘extremely afraid.’ AL admits she choose not to believe him, with a qualifier (based on his behavior).

Afternoon Session

1. JM points out that AL made judgment calls on the relationships Travis had with other women based on texts without ever meeting anyone.
2. Back to Snow White- they argue about Snow White being battered. JM points out she also found Snow White to be a victim without ever speaking to anyone (because you couldn’t!)
3. JM says her opinion is subjective. They go back and forth over this, including going into DNA for a bit, but all we have to rely on is her interpretation- nothing can be verified by tests and another person could come up with a completely different conclusion based on the same facts.
4. JM brings up a text where JA told AL one name and apparently told Travis 2 other names. AL points out that Travis may have made a mistake. JM points out that since AL jumps to the conclusion Travis made a mistake and not JA  she is biased. JM also points out that she adopted the story that JA told her about a girl approaching her in the restaurant to tell her about Matt cheating as the truth. (She believes everything that Jodi tells her!) JM brings up that JA told the same story to Travis- that 2 girls came to her in the restaurant and said Travis was cheating. JM asks if that should raise a red flag. AL says she would need clarification. AL admits JA lied after the killing. Still she says Travis is the liar and JA has no ‘pattern’ of lying. (Really??) JM adds that Travis had a right to be angry over her lies.
5. On to the text JA supposedly sent Travis ‘by mistake.’ (Actually to make him jealous). He’s asking for a second text- she stands up to him and doesn’t send it. Then she ‘made up’ another text’ and sent it to him.  AL somehow missed that, then said it wasn’t as important as the way Travis talked on the text. AL implied it didn’t make a difference that she lied as she ‘has no pattern of lying.”

Afternoon Break

1. When AL first met JA she apologized to her! JM says there is no need for a forensic investigator to apologize when they first meet a client and that she felt sorry for her. JM also points out that she bought JA several books. AL says she has done so before.
2. When interviewed by JM, AL told him after meeting with JA she had a ‘good feeling’. JM implies she is biased.
3. Regarding JA’s self esteem…JA was excited to get her IQ tested because she believes she’s as smart as Einstein(!) And she’s signing Manifesto’s because she believes she will be famous. AL says JA’s self esteem wasn’t tested until after she had been in jail for years.