I liked AVL at first, I thought she was professional, direct, and competent. But the longer Juan is in action, the more I feel a dislike toward her. Today when she said, "Stalking implies fear," I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin. Some cases of stalking start as benign, seemingly nonthreatening contact, but escalate to violence. Is she saying victims shouldn't act until there's an escalation that causes them to fear for their safety? IMO, that's horrible advice to have floating around when you're supposed to be a champion for victims of DV. It's particularly baffling because if you step out of the Jodi Zone, she's had these behaviors for a long time and it did escalate to the point of murder.
I can totally understand the stress she's under and I have felt Juan was a bit too aggressive here and there, but this is a woman who's a champion for abuse victims. I would expect that her experience with abusers and testifying in court as an expert, that she should be able to handle herself professionally and assertively. I don't feel like she's doing that. She's defensive, snarky, and is constantly looking for signals to help her from the DT. She does not want to give an inch here and an inch there because she knows Juan will eventually have a mile. I know it probably feels personal for her, but it's kind of what she signed up for. Direct is a cakewalk and cross is ten miles uphill both ways in a blizzard.
I get that she wants to focus on the BIG picture, but if those small elements that make up the big picture are one-sided, incomplete, or inaccurate, why doesn't she even pause for consideration? Even when Juan is telling her the hypothetical evidence he wants her to consider, she says she doesn't have evidence of that instead of thinking about how it effects her diagnosis. I just want to shake her and tell her it's okay to be wrong, that she's not the first one taken in by Jodi, but it's not okay to be stubborn when a person with a lifelong problem with lying, manipulating, and stalking with blood on his or her hands to go free and potentially re-offend.
And, lastly, I'm not sure if anyone else feels this way, but I have to get it out, I feel like her testimony is ironically sexist. It's as if she feels only men can be abusers, stalkers, and manipulators. Sure, Jodi did do things on the crazy stalker list, but she's a woman and there wasn't fear in Travis because he's a man and should know as a woman Jodi is inherently weaker and just has a hard time letting go. By minimizing behavior that should be a huge red flag, she's only hurting her cause. I wanted to see her empower women, but instead I feel like I should lock myself in a tower somewhere and wait for a white knight to rescue me when the coast is clear because I'm just too darn delicate.