Casey Anthony trial defense witness Dr. Sally Karioth, a licensed “Traumatologist”, gave a bombastic and colorful litany of her training yesterday, from her theater degree to her contribution to “Chicken Soup for the Soul”. Crack Prosecutor Jeff Ashton objected to the pompous and lengthy narrative about her education and accomplishments and Judge Perry had to ask her cut it down, dispensing of all her overly descriptive asides. Ashton objected to Karioth being accepted as an “expert”, pressing her about whether she ever had articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Karioth seemed somewhat confused by the questions, citing “Parent” magazine as a “peer journal” and, when questioned by Ashton as to what peer review group “Parent” magazine fell under, she replied: “Barnes and Noble”.
Trauma’s answer to Erma Bombeck repeatedly bragged how has testified as an expert in civil, criminal and maritime trials. She was gut-bustingly hilarious rattling off an exhaustive list of credentials, from “online journals” (aka blogs), authoring “Healing Adjuncts” (a “book”, reviewed by pediatric nurse practitioners) and “If You Want To Know If You’re Dying, Ask the Cleaning Lady!”, paid lecturing on the “common sense, sometimes humorous, approach to illness and death”, making motivational tapes (“a rollicking ride of funny anecdotes, somber insights and helpful suggestions”), and yes, contributing to “Chicken Soup for the Soul”. Oh and she is a nurse. Judge Perry her to testify as an expert on grief and trauma. Lets just say she is a nurse, probably a very good one, and a grief counselor, also probably a good one. But …technical “expert”?
During an intense and heated and often hilarious cross-examination, including lots of eye-rolling and haughty smirks by the lemon-tressed defense witness, Ms. Karioth went through every possible behavior that could be brought on by grief, to the point at which Jeff Ashton, expertly leading her down the garden path, demanded answer as to if there were any behaviors at all that she considered inconsistent with grieving, since the professor seemed to imply that every behavior from happy to sad was consistent with grief. I was waiting for him to ask her specifically whether or not “hot body contest” was included in her list of grief-related behaviors. Ultimately, the good nurse could not give Ashton any definite behavior that was inconsistent with grief.