story by Cathi Douglas '80 / images courtesy Jerianne Hayslett
The Menendez brothers murder trial. The Reginald Denny and Rodney King beating trials. The Heidi Fleiss solicitation trial. None of these highly publicized court cases prepared Jerrianne Hayslett for the onslaught of the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
“It was like being hit by a tsunami,” Hayslett ’82 (B.A. communications) recalls.
Hayslett, who is retired and lives in South Milwaukee, Wisconisin, was spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Superior Court for 12 tumultuous years. During her tenure there, the 1995 O.J. Simpson case drew unprecedented international media interest and required her to provide information to upwards of 200 greedy outlets on a daily basis.
The Simpson trial, for the first time, allowed viewers into the courtroom via an extensive array of television cameras. Fascinated viewers and readers worldwide tracked gavel-to-gavel coverage. And following the not-guilty verdict, the Simpson trial continues to have a profound nationwide impact on judicial decisions regarding media access.
So much so that Hayslett has written a book, “Anatomy of a Trial: Public Loss, Lessons Learned from the People vs. O.J. Simpson,” to be published in November by the University of Missouri Press. She calls the book a labor of necessity.
“I thought it was important to set the record straight,” Hayslett says. “I wanted to show what happened and why things happened the way they did.”
The Simpson case, combined with her other experiences, has made Hayslett an expert on media and the courts. Today she is in demand as an international consultant, traveling to such far-flung courtrooms as those in Serbia and Indonesia, advising judges and officials on the importance of public access to the courts.
As part of a team for the National Center for State Courts, Hayslett traveled to Belgrade to advise Serbian officials on the communications aspects of their organized crime and war crimes departments. At present, she is working with the Indonesian Supreme Court on its technology, education and communications systems.
She enjoys the work, spending several weeks on location, and then working from home as needed on her international projects. As for her spare time in retirement, Hayslett says, “I try not to have any.” 
