It is the central question in an unusual civil trial that began inside a Boulder courtroom on Monday.

"She got manhandled here and you need to straighten it out," Burdick's attorney, John Pineau, said during his opening statements.

AIMCO owns the apartment complex. On Monday, its attorney told the jury the case had nothing to do with peeps.

"This is a case about a tenant who didn't pay her rent," AIMCO attorney Jon Sands said.

Sands told the jury the landlord only decided to take down the peeps display after Burdick stopped paying rent.

Burdick says she only stopped paying rent after the landlord violated the terms of the lease by ordering her to take down the peeps pyramid.

One of the key witnesses, it turns out, is a self-proclaimed "peeps expert."

Andrew Novick sat outside the courtroom on Monday while waiting to testify during the trial with a small bag filled with all sorts of peeps.

"I think this is odd, yeah," he told 9NEWS. "This is my first time [testifying]."

The trial is expected to last through Tuesday.

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