Karen Read lawyers oppose prosecution bid to keep expert from testifying about Google searches
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It's 'completely inexplicable how the Commonwealth can now challenge the methodology of Richard Green, whose methodology is the same as, and then more comprehensive than, the proffered experts offered by the Commonwealth,' Read's lawyers wrote Tuesday.
Read's lawyers said prosecutors are inching 'closer to ... the danger zone of legal tyranny' by trying to keep Green from offering his opinions a second time.
Prosecutors allege that she drunkenly backed her SUV into
McCabe, one of the guests at the Canton home that night, testified at the first trial that she entered the terms 'how long ti die in ckld' and 'Hos long to die in cold' shortly after 6:20 a.m. at Read's request, after the women had returned to the residence and Read found O'Keefe lying unconscious in the snow.
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Green, however, testified that he found a search for 'hos [sic] long to die in cold' on McCabe's phone at 2:27 a.m. The search was first stored in a temporary 'wall file' on the device, he said.
Richard Green, an investigator for Karen Read's legal team, discusses cell phone records as he testifies during Read's trial in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 21, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor'easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, Pool)
Josh Reynolds/Associated Press
Records indicated the search was 'in a deleted state,' he said. He said the tab's full internet history could not be recovered.
On cross-examination, Green told prosecutor Adam Lally that in addition to the hypothermia search, he detected searches for a 'raining men' song and for a youth sports program marked around the same time.
McCabe had testified that she was making searches related to youth sports around 2:30 a.m., before she went to bed.
In their motion, prosecutors said that government experts from the digital forensic firm Cellebrite, Ian Whiffin and Jessica Hyde, contradicted Green's assessment on the stand.
Whiffin said he had 'absolute certainty' that the Google searches were performed shortly after 6:20 a.m., while Hyde told jurors the Safari browser on McCabe's phone was initially searching for a youth sports league, and that the same tab was used four hours later for dying in the cold, prosecutors said.
In its motion on Tuesday, Read's lawyers alleged that Cellebrite after the first trial 'completely rid itself of the 2:27:40 a.m. search artifact that is incredibly inconvenient to the case of the Commonwealth.'
Read's lawyers said it appeared that Whiffin, whom they described as a 'law enforcement-centric' consultant, went back to his company 'to have its 'researchers' perform further 'updates' to its Physical Analyzer programs such that the artifact containing the 2:27:40 a.m. timestamp has now suddenly disappeared from ALL Cellebrite programs.'
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A Cellebrite spokesperson said the defense assertions were false.
'We update our code regularly based on new research and updated understanding on how mobile phone data is stored,' Victor Cooper said. 'This case underscores the importance of validation. Ian is world-renowned for his decoding expertise, and we fully support and stand behind his scientific findings. His research and methodology for the testing in this specific case was also verified by third-party certified digital forensic examiners.'
Separately,
It's not clear when the SJC will rule.
Read also faces
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report. This story will be updated when more information is released.
Travis Andersen can be reached at
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