Karen Read's defense takes the wheel, vying to convince jury she didn't kill John O'Keefe
The first full week of Karen Read's defense
begins today more than a month after jury selection began in her retrial on murder and other charges in the death of her former boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe.
The 45 -year-old Read's first trial ended with a deadlocked jury last year.She is accused of striking O'Keefe, 46, with a Lexus SUV in a drunken fight, then driving away and leaving him to die in the cold during a blizzard.
Read's lawyers -- partially paid for after she sold her home and tapped into her retirement fund
, deny that she struck him at all, however, over the first five weeks of trial, witnesses for the prosecution testified that O'Keefe suffered a head injury consistent with falling backward after a glancing vehicular strike and that plastic fragments consistent with Read's broken taillight were recovered from his clothes.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan rested the commonwealth's case Thursday.
The first defense witness was an accident reconstruction expert named Matt DiSogra, who said that only three out of nearly 30 possible scenarios based on phone and vehicle data align with the prosecution's timeline.
Twenty-five of them suggest O'Keefe's last interaction with his cellphone was a conscious button-press made after Read took her SUV out of reverse, he said.
However, under cross-examination, he could not rule out a collision.
"Sir, are you trying to offer an opinion suggesting that Miss Read's Lexus never hit John O'Keefe on January 29th, 2022?" Brennan asked. "Is that your opinion?"
"No sir,' DiSogra replied.
Live Coverage begins here
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