
Watch Live: Karen Read trial continues with testimony from new witness
The Karen Read trial continues Wednesday with a 20th day of testimony inside Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Outside of court a day earlier, Read told reporters she believes the prosecution has about a week left in its case.
You can watch testimony live on CBS News Boston when it begins at 9 a.m. by clicking on the video player above.
Read is accused of hitting and killing Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who she was dating, with her SUV. O'Keefe's body was found in the snow outside Brian Albert's home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton in January 2022. The defense says O'Keefe was actually killed during a fight inside the home, then dragged outside and left in the yard.
Wednesday is the final full day of witness testimony scheduled for the week. A half day is scheduled for Thursday. No court is scheduled for Friday or Monday due to the Memorial Day holiday weekend.
It is not known who the first witness of the day will be on Wednesday.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan has been handling most of direct questioning of witnesses. Defense attorneys Alan Jackson, David Yannetti and Bob Alessi have split cross-examination duties.
Karen Read trial latest
On Tuesday, forensic analyst Shanon Burgess completed his testimony after two days on the stand. He spoke about the movements of Read's Lexus SUV on the night of O'Keefe's death. The defense called into question Burgess' credentials and methodology during a lengthy and at times tense cross-examination.
Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty in the case to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She stood trial in 2024, but it ended with a mistrial due to hung jury.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Our View: As the heat spikes, so do drownings
Triple-digit temperatures are predicted for this weekend. Beyond that, the days are expected to be not much cooler. It is a reminder that the blistering Bakersfield summer has started, and residents and visitors will look to water for relief. But danger lurks in the many local swimming pools and the even bigger attraction, the Kern River. Urging pool safety during a recent press conference, Kern County health officials promoted the department's Water Watcher program, which calls for designating adults to always keep close tabs on children frolicking around backyard pools. They cited federal findings that drowning is the leading cause of unintentional, injury-related death for children ages 1 to 4. On average, 350 children under the age of 5 lose their lives to drowning every year in the United States. Within the past five years, 16 children in Kern County have lost their lives to drowning: two in the Kern River, two in bathtubs and 12 in swimming pools. In advance of the Memorial Day Weekend last month, county officials performed a grisly annual tradition — updating Kern Canyon entry signs to warn of the Kern River's danger. This year, the number of drownings posted on the signs went from 334 to 342. Eight people were taken by the Kern in 2024. Last year's July 4th holiday was particularly deadly. Four people drowned. The count, which began in 1968, doesn't include people who died in the upper Kern River, in Tulare County, which doesn't keep drowning statistics on its section of river. It also doesn't include people who are still missing and presumed dead in the river. 'We tell the public this every year: The Kern River is dangerous,' said Sgt. Rodney Jones, who oversees the Kern County Sheriff's Office's search and rescue division. 'Do not go in it without professional guides or gear.' The water is cold and deceptively fast with numerous hidden hazards — branches, rocks, debris — that can snag you, trap you and pull you under, he said. The division posts additional search and rescue teams on holidays along the river to respond to emergencies and remind people about the dangers. Asked if Kern officials would consider closing off the river, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood responded with a firm NO. 'The river is a public place and there's way too many access points for us to patrol,' he said. 'You can't legislate stupidity. If you need to be told to stay out of that river, there's something wrong with you.' Youngblood is right. It's up to all of us to heed repeated warnings and keep ourselves, families and friends safe. ■ Watch children closely. Never let them into the river unattended. ■ Do not go in the river if you can't swim. ■ Use adequate flotation devices, not drug store floaties. ■ Make sure someone in your party can contact 911. Service in the canyon is sketchy. ■ Alcohol (or other mind-altering substances) do not mix well with the river. Several river rafting companies operate along the Kern. They offer safe and varying trips — depending on people's interests and experience. SJV Water, a local news outlet that covers water issues, reports that with less snowfall this year, the river will be running lower than in recent past years. But even though the water flow is lower, Jones noted that most people are not able to climb out if they are trapped on a rock. As evidence, on Sunday a man was found dead in the river. The man had gone missing after swimming in Isabella Lake without a flotation device. Just a few days later, a teenage girl was rescued from a tree in the river at Hart Park, just 90 minutes after another person was rescued from the same area, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Office. They were brought to shore uninjured. Again, the Kern County Sheriff's Office urged the public to always wear a U.S. Coast Guard-approved lifejacket when in or near the river. 'Despite appearing calm in some areas, the river's cold temperatures, swift currents and hidden hazards can quickly turn deadly,' KCSO once again warned in a news release.
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- Yahoo
Jury skepticism of experts could determine outcome in Karen Read murder trial: former judge
Whenever there's a battle of the experts, it's the jurors who hold the winning hand, according to a retired Massachusetts judge. And that's shaping up to be the case in Karen Read's retrial on murder charges in the death of her former boyfriend, 46-year-old Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe. Read, 45, is accused of hitting him with an SUV and leaving outside a house party at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, as he died of a skull fracture and hypothermia during a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022. Cross-examination Exposes Gaps In Defense Expert's Crash Testing For Karen Read Dr. Daniel Wolfe, a director at the ARCCA crash reconstruction firm, testified that the results of numerous tests he conducted to try and reconstruct the alleged crash that killed O'Keefe came back with "inconsistent" results. But special prosecutor Hank Brennan tore into the validity of his methods during cross-examination, noting he used a dummy that was significantly smaller than O'Keefe, alternated between different types of dummy arms without noting that under direct examination and conducted only one test at each speed rather than multiple tests to check for consistent results. Read On The Fox News App A key moment in his testimony came not while discussing his findings, but when Brennan asked him about something Read said in a video clip played earlier in the trial, according to Jack Lu, a retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge and Boston College law professor. Karen Read Denis Noticing Confrontation Between Deceased Boyfriend And Atf Agent "There's Brennan's theory – the taillight 'impaled' [O'Keefe] on the nose," he told Fox News Digital. "Read picked glass out of [his] nose, and [his] nose bled – from her video statement." Brennan played video from one of Wolfe's accident reconstructions that showed plastic fragments flying away from the vehicle after impacting a crash dummy's arm. "When the taillight is shattered and it spreads through the air, does it have the potential to impale a person, for example, on their nose?" Brennan asked. "I think that would be unlikely," Wolfe replied. Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X As part of the prosecution's case, Brennan played a clip of Read telling an interviewer she pulled a "piece of glass" out of O'Keefe's nose and that it started bleeding. Wolfe's task has been to discredit the prosecution's core allegation that Read slammed into O'Keefe in reverse with her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV and left him to die on the ground in a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022. Sign Up To Get The True Crime Newsletter "Juries have great powers of observation, and a fundamental depth of experience seldom seen in American life," Lu told Fox News Digital. "Partially because of how many jurors there are. I predict that the jury will conclude that both accident reconstructionists' conclusions are not worthy of belief in a jury trial." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE True Crime Hub The defense is also aiming to sow reasonable doubt in the prosecution's crash experts, Dr. Judson Welcher and Shanon Burgess from a firm called Aperture. Welcher testified last week that he believes "[O'Keefe's injuries are] consistent with being struck by a Lexus and also contacting a hard surface, such as frozen ground." Wolfe found that the injuries were inconsistent when stacked up against the damage to Read's SUV as well as the damage to O'Keefe's clothing – which prosecutors allege had fragments of taillight plastic embedded in it. Lu said that he expects jury instructions to include a note that the experts don't decide the facts – jurors do. "Juries are not in the least bit cowed by experts," he said. "To the contrary, they view them with skepticism." Especially "hired guns," he added. Jurors will be looking at the case as a whole, but while Lu said he believes Brennan scored a victory on the day, the defense has a significant advantage. "The defense need not prove anything; they merely must establish reasonable doubt," said Mark Bederow, a New York City defense lawyer who is representing Canton blogger and Read ally Aidan Kearney. "But over the course of a few hours, Dr. Wolfe cast serious doubt by methodically dismantling the key premise of the prosecution case – through multiple scientific examinations and effective video he offered support for his opinion that the damage to the taillight was not consistent with the collision alleged by the prosecution." Read's team is expected to rest their case next week. She could face up to life in prison if convicted of the top article source: Jury skepticism of experts could determine outcome in Karen Read murder trial: former judge


Fox News
12 hours ago
- Fox News
Jury skepticism of experts could determine outcome in Karen Read murder trial: former judge
Whenever there's a battle of the experts, it's the jurors who hold the winning hand, according to a retired Massachusetts judge. And that's shaping up to be the case in Karen Read's retrial on murder charges in the death of her former boyfriend, 46-year-old Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe. Read, 45, is accused of hitting him with an SUV and leaving outside a house party at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, as he died of a skull fracture and hypothermia during a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022. Dr. Daniel Wolfe, a director at the ARCCA crash reconstruction firm, testified that the results of numerous tests he conducted to try and reconstruct the alleged crash that killed O'Keefe came back with "inconsistent" results. But special prosecutor Hank Brennan tore into the validity of his methods during cross-examination, noting he used a dummy that was significantly smaller than O'Keefe, alternated between different types of dummy arms without noting that under direct examination and conducted only one test at each speed rather than multiple tests to check for consistent results. A key moment in his testimony came not while discussing his findings, but when Brennan asked him about something Read said in a video clip played earlier in the trial, according to Jack Lu, a retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge and Boston College law professor. "There's Brennan's theory – the taillight 'impaled' [O'Keefe] on the nose," he told Fox News Digital. "Read picked glass out of [his] nose, and [his] nose bled – from her video statement." Brennan played video from one of Wolfe's accident reconstructions that showed plastic fragments flying away from the vehicle after impacting a crash dummy's arm. "When the taillight is shattered and it spreads through the air, does it have the potential to impale a person, for example, on their nose?" Brennan asked. "I think that would be unlikely," Wolfe replied. As part of the prosecution's case, Brennan played a clip of Read telling an interviewer she pulled a "piece of glass" out of O'Keefe's nose and that it started bleeding. Wolfe's task has been to discredit the prosecution's core allegation that Read slammed into O'Keefe in reverse with her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV and left him to die on the ground in a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022. "Juries have great powers of observation, and a fundamental depth of experience seldom seen in American life," Lu told Fox News Digital. "Partially because of how many jurors there are. I predict that the jury will conclude that both accident reconstructionists' conclusions are not worthy of belief in a jury trial." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB The defense is also aiming to sow reasonable doubt in the prosecution's crash experts, Dr. Judson Welcher and Shanon Burgess from a firm called Aperture. Welcher testified last week that he believes "[O'Keefe's injuries are] consistent with being struck by a Lexus and also contacting a hard surface, such as frozen ground." Wolfe found that the injuries were inconsistent when stacked up against the damage to Read's SUV as well as the damage to O'Keefe's clothing – which prosecutors allege had fragments of taillight plastic embedded in it. Lu said that he expects jury instructions to include a note that the experts don't decide the facts – jurors do. "Juries are not in the least bit cowed by experts," he said. "To the contrary, they view them with skepticism." Especially "hired guns," he added. Jurors will be looking at the case as a whole, but while Lu said he believes Brennan scored a victory on the day, the defense has a significant advantage. "The defense need not prove anything; they merely must establish reasonable doubt," said Mark Bederow, a New York City defense lawyer who is representing Canton blogger and Read ally Aidan Kearney. "But over the course of a few hours, Dr. Wolfe cast serious doubt by methodically dismantling the key premise of the prosecution case – through multiple scientific examinations and effective video he offered support for his opinion that the damage to the taillight was not consistent with the collision alleged by the prosecution." Read's team is expected to rest their case next week. She could face up to life in prison if convicted of the top charge.