It’s been said that dynamite comes in small packages and that’s certainly true in the case of InSession’s (formerly CourtTV) Beth Karas.

The 5’2” blond hair, blue eyed Karas has been with the legal network since 1994 and has covered the high profile trials of Phil Spector, Robert Blake, and Martha Stewart as well as Scott Peterson and Kennedy cousin Michael Skakel.

 

Karas also criss-crosses the country covering lesser known but no less intriguing trials such as the recent trial of Raynella Dossett-Leath, a retired nurse accused of killing her second husband and making it look like a suicide.

Dossett-Leath is also charged with killing her first husband, Knox County D. A. Eddie Dossett back in the early 1990’s. 

ILoveTelevision.com caught up with Karas in Knoxville, TN while she was covering the Dossett-Leath trial for InSession to find out more about the life of an on-air, on the go legal correspondent. 

When asked to name the most interesting case she’s ever covered, Karas doesn’t waste any time answering.

 

“I’ve been doing this for 15 years so it’s hard to say any one case is the most interesting, but I like a case that is circumstantial and there’s a lot of forensic evidence, so one of the most interesting was Scott Peterson. I was in Redwood City, CA for six months covering that. It started June 1 and ended in mid-December. And there was no camera in it and it was still interesting!”

 

Because there was no camera, Karas who lives by her Blackberry, was getting regular transmissions from her producers out of the courtroom for the trial.

 

“I was getting almost verbatim transcripts…cross has just begun, Mark Geragos just asked this question of the witness, well listen to this…but it was fascinating because it was circumstantial.”

 

Another common question viewers have is whether or not she has any opinion about the guilt or innocence of the defendant.

 

“Certainly on the air I am down the middle, but I am only human so I have opinions! But a lot of times I flip-flop during the trial. When the prosecution is putting on their case I sort of see things from their point of view but then when we get to the defense case, if there is a defense case, I start saying, ‘Well wait a second.’ So I definitely flip-flop. I’ll say, ‘Well the person might have done it but I think there is reasonable doubt so I think it should be a not guilty verdict.’”

 

Karas is quick to point out that she’s all over the map in terms of whether she’s right or not in her assessment of any particular trial, and that the system doesn’t set out to put innocent people on trial.

 

“Let’s hope that when somebody is arrested and brought to trial that the prosecutor has enough evidence beyond a reasonable doubt or at least in his or her heart believes a person is guilty.”

 

Karas acknowledges that mistakes do happen and add’s, “One innocent person in prison is too many.”

 

When Karas covers a trial, she is there from gavel-to-gavel, which means spending a lot of time away from her apartment in Manhattan.

 

“The Peterson trial lasted six months, the Spector trial lasted five and the (David) Westerfield trial in San Diego was four months. So yes, I cover some long trials, but Scott Peterson was the longest.”

 

And all this travel begs the question: How do you have a personal life? 

“That is a question I get asked a lot and I don’t have a pat answer, but I will tell you, it’s difficult. When you travel the way I do and for as long as I have it’s difficult. Sometimes I go through stretches where I’m in New York for a while, but I have a wonderful network of people across the country; defense lawyers, prosecutors, police officers, etc.”

 

Karas does admit that she looks forward to going to some cities because it gives her a chance to catch up with some people. However, this nomadic life does come with a price.

 

“I don’t have a family, I don’t have children, and it’s not going to happen. I don’t see it on the horizon so I’ve learned to fulfill myself in other ways.”

 

One of the ways Karas fulfills herself is through her work with the National MPS Society located in Raleigh-Durham, NC. Mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS) and related diseases are genetic lysosomal storage diseases (LSD) caused by the body's inability to produce specific enzymes.

 

Karas lost two brothers to a form of the disease known as ML III in adulthood. Her younger brother died of the disease in 1993 while she was still a prosecutor with the Manhattan D. A.’s office. It was after his death that she resigned from the D. A.’s office and went to work for what was then CourtTV (now InSession).

 

“I had a very hard time dealing with my brother’s death and knew I needed to make a change in my life. I had a very maternal relationship with him even though we weren’t very far apart in age. He used to tell me I needed to be on TV because I like to talk. That wasn’t even on my radar. I was a lawyer. I ended up at CourtTV when the man who started the network, Steve Brill asked me to do it.”

 

Karas gave her letter of resignation on the 6 month anniversary of her brother’s death.

 

“I do believe he had something to do with it.”

 

Her other brother passed away a week after the events of 9/11. Karas was reporting from Ground Zero when she got a call from her brother’s doctor telling her she needed to come home to be with her brother.

 

Karas arrived in Massachusetts the next day and her brother passed away as she was reading him the Lord’s Prayer.

 

It was after his death that she was able to devote the time to becoming active with the National MPS Society.

 

On a lighter note, Karas is an avid knitter, which she says helps her unwind.

 

“During the Scott Peterson trial, not in court, but weekends on airplanes I made like 2 sweaters, 6 ponchos, and other gifts. I was making my own designs and different textures. I was knitting up a storm, making gifts and all sorts of things. However, my right hand has some carpal tunnel so it’s slowed me down. I’ve had to lay off knitting for the time being.”

 

Karas even admits the at one time she wanted to be a fashion designer and often made her own clothes while in the D. A.’s office.

 

She is also an avid reader and hopes to one day pen her own books; True crime of course.

 

As for the Dossett-Leath trial, it ended in mistrial after the jury hung. However, the book hasn’t closed on this case for Karas.

 

“Quite frankly, there’s a lot of twists and turns and a boat load of information in this case that I don’t usually encounter. There’s no doubt this is a case I am going to follow because there’s more to the case.”

Fun Facts about Beth Karas:

Worked with both former New York Governor Elliot Spitzer and John Kennedy Jr. in the Manhattan D. A.’s office

 

Attended Mount Holyoke College in South-Hadley, Massachusetts, the nation's oldest women's college.

 

Counts Vanity Fair crime reporter Dominick Dunne as a close friend

 

 

 

 

By Missy Lee

Missy Lee is the publisher, editor and chief reporter for ILoveTelevision.com. Prior to starting ILoveTelevision.com she worked for TV-Now.com and the late Tony Bray. After living in LA and covering all things entertainmentfor a number of years, she moved back to her home state of Tennessee.

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