Expert witness in Karen Read murder trial caught with 'errors' inflating his credentials
Massachusetts murder suspect Karen Read returned to court Monday for her trial in the death of her former boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, as DNA experts and a digital forensic scientist testified for the prosecution, linking the victim to a lone hair sample found on Read's SUV and tightening up a timeline surrounding the final moments of his life.
But under cross-examination, a witness with key new evidence for the state revealed what appears to be an exaggerated resume.
O'Keefe, 46, was found dead on Jan. 29, 2022. His then-girlfriend, the now-45-year-old Read, is accused of slamming into him with her 2021 Lexus SUV and leaving him to die on the ground in a blizzard in Canton, a suburb about 20 miles south of Boston.
Karl Miyasako, a DNA analyst with Bode Technologies in Virginia, testified that mitochondrial DNA testing connected a hair found on the back of Read's vehicle to O'Keefe. However, he testified, the hair is a match to anyone connected to Read's mother's matriarchal line, meaning his niece and nephew could have also been the source.
The sample was too small to be tested for autosomal DNA, which could have provided a link to a specific individual with certainty, he said.
But the case took an unexpected turn when Shanon Burgess, a Texas-based expert on digital forensics for smartphones and vehicles, admitted that his credentials don't line up with those on his resume.
He was on the stand to explain the process and analysis of "black box" data extracted from Read's car. Key information had been missed during the first case, he said, and he found it on a micro SD card and was able to extract it, answering questions left unanswered by an earlier analysis from another expert.
On cross-examination, however, defense attorney Robert Alessi questioned Burgess' "mendacity," or untrustworthiness, after revealing inconsistencies in the expert's resume.
Several versions of it and his official Aperture bio pages describe him as having obtained a bachelor's degree from the University of Alabama, Birmingham, in various years. None of them were correct, he admitted. He does not have a bachelor's degree.
"I have represented I do not have a bachelor's degree," Burgess told Alessi.
"But in here," Alessi said, pointing to one of at least three resumes with conflicting dates he introduced as evidence, "you represented that you do, correct?"
"Yes," Burgess said. "It is in there."
Experts say his expertise likely doesn't require one, but it's the appearance of a lie that damages his credibility.
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"He doesn't need a bachelor of science for this field of technology," said Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts defense attorney who is closely following the case. However, she said, a mix-up could turn off the jury and lead to members completely disregarding his findings, as well as potentially haunt other cases that have already been completed.
"How many courts has he testified in with a 'padded' CV?" she asked, using an acronym for curriculum vitae, his academic resume.
Burgess' testimony regarding the clocks in Read's Lexus and O'Keefe's iPhone could be crucial to the prosecution's case. He said they have a variance of between 21 and 29 seconds, and the victim's last recorded interaction with his phone, pressing the lock button, happened at 12:32:09 a.m.
Read took her car out of reverse between 12:32:04 and 12:32:12, Burgess testified, based on computer logs recovered from her Lexus.
Burgess is expected to return to the stand on Tuesday. Read could face up to life in prison if convicted of the top charge, second-degree murder. She is also charged with drunken driving, manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a deadly accident.
She has pleaded not guilty, and her defense denies her vehicle collided with O'Keefe at all.
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