The verdict is in: It’s a worthy successor to “All My Children,” better than “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” . . .
From metro Atlanta to the far reaches of cyberspace, people are glued to their TVs, computer screens and smartphones, devouring every salacious detail, every hint of duplicity in the Hemy Neuman trial. Or, as it’s shaped up over the first three days, the Andrea Sneiderman trial.
Innocent until proven guilty? Forget it. On Facebook and Twitter, in chat rooms and over cocktails, avid followers are rushing to judgment of a woman who, in the eyes of the law, is a victim and a witness, accused of no crime.
The question is: Why?
Beth Martin sees no mystery there. Neuman is an open book, says the 53-year-old human resources worker from Dacula. After all, his lawyers don’t deny that he fired the shots that killed Rusty Sneiderman, Andrea’s husband. It’s easy to write Neuman off as a killer falsely grasping at an insanity defense.
But Martin, who regularly checks into the minute-by-minute reports on ajc.com and meets with a dozen friends over drinks to discuss the trial, has a boatload of questions about Andrea Sneiderman. She can’t wait to hear more about the relationship between Sneiderman’s widow and Neuman, and she thinks there’s a lot more to come out.
Sneiderman, in her testimony at trial, has denied that she had an illicit relationship with Neuman.
“She tried to downplay it,” Martin said. “But it walks like a duck and talks like a duck.”
A woman in the middle
Stories involving office affairs are scintillating because of how common such relationships are, said Amy Nicole Salvaggio, a psychology professor at the University of New Haven who has studied workplace romance.
Some 30 percent to 40 percent of American workers have a workplace romance at some point, she said, adding that the numbers don’t distinguish between relationships involving single or married people.
“People are attracted to the idea that love happens even when it’s not supposed to,” she said. “That’s part of what draws the excitement and interest because it’s familiar. Most people, if they haven’t met someone at work, know someone who has met someone at work.”
The Neuman trial also plays into a common cultural bias, that women are somehow to blame for others’ actions, said Marian Meyers, an associate professor of communications at Georgia State University.
“I don’t know her [Andrea Sneiderman’s] involvement, and we can’t know at this point, but the stereotype is to blame women for other people’s behaviors — that it’s their fault if a man does something he isn’t supposed to do.”
Meyers, whose research focuses on how women and minorities are represented in news, said Andrea Sneiderman’s demeanor is also feeding negative speculation about her.
“She’s not playing the demure, repentant or grief-stricken wife,” Meyers said. “We expect women whose husbands are killed to be grief-stricken, and if they had anything to do with it, to be repentant. But she’s not playing that role, and because she’s not, she is being attacked.”
Finally, Meyers said, the killing happened in a place and among people not generally associated in the popular imagination with violent crime. “We don’t expect it in upper-middle-class Dunwoody, among white people who are professional class, presumably well-off and educated.”
We just can’t look away
The case has all the elements of a true crime blockbuster, and in fact there’s probably such a book already in development, said Macon author Rick Hutto.
“I can guarantee that there are people even now who are sharpening their pencils in a metaphoric sense,” said Hutto, who wrote “A Peculiar Tribe” the story of a sensational Macon murder trial.
“It’s like Greek tragedy,” agreed Bobby Goldstein, a Dallas attorney who created the gotcha reality show “Cheaters,” which specializes in catching straying spouses in the act.
“We used to go to the town square and watch the lunatics and make fun of them and throw things at them. We’re still showing up electronically and watching them make fools of themselves.”
La’Keitha Daniels of Atlanta happily admits that she’s “totally addicted to this trial.” Daniels, 32, gets together with several female friends every day on a private Facebook page to discuss the proceedings.
They post about 100 entries a day.
Friends debate the facts
The trial has attracted attention from as far away as Japan, where Fuji TV’s morning news program “Tokudane” plans a segment for this morning. Stateside producer Scott Filipski said Japanese audiences are fascinated by the presence of cameras in American courtrooms. In their country, that is not allowed.
For Larry Peck, a 50-year-old clothing entrepreneur in Dunwoody, the intrigue is enhanced by his sense of proximity to the people and places involved. He lives in the same community as the daycare center where Rusty Sneiderman was gunned down, (it’s right next to his bank) and he has seen it in his daily travels.
I know people who have met Andrea and Rusty,” he added. “It’s local. It happened in my community.”
Peck compares notes nightly with friend Bonnie Garber, who also lives in Dunwoody and has been following every detail.
In the beginning, Peck didn’t think Andrea Sneiderman and Neuman had an affair, and Garber did. Now he’s changed his mind, to her delight.
“I’m having a lot of fun ragging him about it,” she said.
But for some of those best acquainted with the players — members of the Atlanta Jewish community — the trial has been devastating, said Marcy Levinson-Brooks, publisher of AtlantaJewishNews.com.
“They’re shell-shocked,” she said. “The community is still very scarred by it. It’s very rare that you see a situation like this.”
-- Staff writers Bo Emerson and Victoria Loe Hicks contributed to this article.
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