The stall tactics by the defense begin again today as Juan is preparing to call Dr. Janeen DeMarte and a Detective Smith from Mesa PD to the stand. Dr. Demarte everything Jodi Arias wishes she was. She tried to mimic her throughout her entire testimony in the first trial. Then she went back to mimicking Willmott. Anyway, Nurmi is pretending like he has reasons to keep these two witnesses from testifying. He doesn’t but we will waste the jury’s time while the court hears the motion.
Stephens says she is not precluding Demarte but the defense can deposition her prior to their cross if they would like. She will wait to rule on Detective Smith. The defense is also arguing not to have the In Chambers hearing about Jodi not being able to continue her testimony unsealed. They claim it would be a danger to Jodi (who is safely locked up) and her family. Whatever. Also, the judge points out the jury has three questions for Jodi from the jury from her previous testimony. Hmmm that is an interesting dilemma.
Finally the jury arrives. Juan goes over DeMarte’s exemplary credentials. After the lengthy resume Juan asked if she has ever been called a hired gun or had her credentials questioned. She has not. DeMarte has been involved in the case since 2011. She’s spent 17 hours over four days interviewing Jodi. She also interviewed lots of other people. She was hired to assess Jodi for psychiatric disorders. Demarte states her testing showed Jodi was of above average intelligence, high intelligence in verbal ability. OBJECTION! #Hissyfit
DeMarte who is polished and has appropriate demeanor, testifies that Geffner’s test were invalid because they were based on the ninja lie. Demarte concluded in her report that Jodi has borderline personality disorder and adjustment disorder with a couple side orders of depression and anxiety.
DeMarte goes on to explain why Geffner’s tests are crap.
Lunch
After lunch, Demarte picks apart inconsistencies about what Jodi told her good buddy Alyce Laviolette. At some point, Nurmi objects and manages to have the jury sent out so he can argue case laws. Demarte comes off the stand and sits in the family row. Nurmi wants Demarte out of the courtroom while he pleads his case. Um, no. But Judge Stephens agrees that she can be sent out. Because, Arizona. The issue at hand is that Arizona law states that irrelevant and prejudicial evidence should be precluded in rebuttal of mitigation phase. Which is all well and good except the state is rebutting the mitigating testimony of their mitigation witness, specifically, Geffner’s bizarre and nonfactual testimony. Nurmi says testimony about to be presented is a scandalous assault on Jodi Arias’ character. Somehow it seems that Nurmi who swore he had not read DeMarte’s notes knows that she spoke to a cousin of Jodi’s who said Jodi was a total bitch at family functions. Juan says he is rebutting the whole defense picture of Jodi as someone who suffers in silence. Judge Stephens overrules! The total bitch comment will be allowed in. The cousin Amy comment is, “At family functions Jodi would be snide. She would say things sarcastically, she could be a total bitch.”
Next DeMarte talked about her interview with Jodi’s grandparents. They say she was always mean to her mother and know one knew why. She would correct everyone’s grammar. She didn’t want anyone “running her life.” DeMarte characterized those behaviors as aggressive and overbearing. Demarte says that a family member told her that Jodi met a guy on a plane on the was home from Travis’ funeral and immediately started contacting him when she got home.
There were numerous objections to DeMarte beginning to testify about the Purple Plum. Jury is sent out. Hissy fits are had. Eventually Juan asks DeMarte if she is aware that Fonseca and Geffner said Jodi lacked self esteem. She said yes. More objection tirades. Um, really? This is what rebuttal is all about. Co-workers from the Purple Plum told her Jodi ignored other woman and always approached men, especially the good looking ones. She was very flirtatious. She used men. She would tell good looking men she was new in town and ask them to show her around.
Demarte reads texts where Jodi said things like, “The reason I was asking you about tomorrow is because I would like to give you a BJ, or you could give me a generous facial” as proof of her assertiveness with men. Lots of similar texts were read. DeMarte says that she found no evidence that Jodi was physically or sexually abused by Travis.
A waitress from Purple Plum said Jodi would say about herself that “she was a goddess, smelled like a goddess, looked like a goddess. She was all over the men.” More testimony about her overtly sexual behavior at work.
DeMarte testified that Jodi had called Sky Hughes upset because Travis only called her late at night. He also jokingly called her a “skank.”
Travis’ former girlfriend Lisa told DeMarte that Travis was never abusive. And that Jodi broke into his house when she was there with him one night.
And we end there for the day.
“Nurmi says testimony about to be presented is a scandalous assault on Jodi Arias’ character. ”
So far, the whole mitigation phase of the trial has been to assault the character of Travis Alexander (warranted or not) , but I guess that’s ok. At least JA can try to defend herself because, um, she’s still alive…
Honestly, I think the state has more restrictions according to AZ law than the defense does. Unless the defense “opens the door” they are not allowed to “retry the guilt phase” and or limited to testimony related to mitigation or rebutting mitigation only.
I think. I’m not really a lawyer. I just pretend on the Internets.
On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 8:58 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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I agree TT about the state’s restrictions vs the defense. But, retrying the guilt phase is what the defense seems to be doing. I’ve never seen such a trial (or judge) in my life. SMH I keep telling myself that the jury is able to see thru all of the defense’s BS smoke and mirrors and will be able to come to a decision this time.
Spectators in the court room seem hopeful this group will come to a decision one way or the other.
I’m not nearly as confident.
On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 6:23 AM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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What I meant was, how dare they say that no one can say anything uncomplimentary about Jodi’s character, yet it’s open season regarding Travis Alexander’s? Wasn’t all of the “testimony” against Travis scandalous? But Jodi is to be handled with kid gloves?
Today’s morning session is up.
On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 1:05 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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Ooh good stuff today. Wonder what she was doing when De marte was giving testimony. I wonder if she still draws when testimony is being given and doesn’t like what they are saying. Thanks for keeping us up with all the info.
YES! She was drawing ass off when Demarte testified. It was the first time I recall someone pointing out her drawing in this iteration.
On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 9:14 PM, Tamara Tattles wrote:
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I wonder if Jodi’s obsession with DeMarte is because she sees right through her for what she is? The mimicry was too funny. This has been my sticking point all along. She is too aggressive to be some low self esteem shrinking violet. Sounds like the DT is tearing it up!
Have you not listened to the defense’s experts? Jodi’s not aggressive, she’s just “assertive.” What a mess this whole thing is!
Semantics aren’t gonna fool a jury. 🙂 At least I hope not!
They are trying to show that while JA was aggressive with men/sex, it is because she has low self esteem. That aggressiveness and low self esteem are linked in the way she approached men. That she would be aggressive to cover her low self esteem.
I have two cousins and three niece’s (all the same family) that have all borderline personality disorder with side dishes of low self esteem, depression and high sex drives. They all chase sex, because it reinforces their beliefs, that love and sex are the same thing. In other words, they are all chasing “Mr Goodbar” (great movie btw…)
That makes some sense, thanks Jacque! What about the dumping of all those boyfriends in her testimony? She got cut off before she got too far with it
I loooove this witness. Finally ! Some testimony about the truth.
I wish DeMarte’s testimony was televised. The way she handled the testimony during the trial made me have a little girl crush on her. It could have been that she was the only sane person testifying in that shit show.
I read on one of the JA support sites yesterday and they were going nuts on Dr. DeMarte. It was my entertainment for the day. They call her TotDoc because she’s so young. One of the big things that Juan got into the record yesterday was to ask Dr. DeMarte if she had ever been sanctioned by any court. She hasn’t, but I think that Geffner has. I think his testimony was thrown out of a court in Hawaii because he never interviewed a defendant he was testifying for. They got in the stalking, too. The Jodibots are going crazy.