Watch Live: Karen Read's defense attorneys begin their case at trial
Testimony in Dedham's Norfolk Superior Court is expected to start at about 9:30 a.m. after Judge Beverly Cannone meets with the attorneys. You can stream the trial live on CBS News Boston or in the video player above.
Read is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow in Canton in January 2022. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. Her first trial in 2024 ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.
Karen Read's defense
Read said outside court on Thursday that the defense expects its case to last one-and-a-half to two weeks. Last year, the defense called all of its witnesses over the course of just two days.
It remains to be seen whether the defense will call key witnesses from the last trial who were not called by the prosecution this time around, including former 34 Fairview Road homeowner Brian Albert, federal agent Brian Higgins or fired Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor.
Read said Matthew DiSorga, a digital forensics expert who specializes in car data, will be the first witness that her side calls to the stand.
A WBZ-TV legal analyst expects that Read's attorney Alan Jackson will handle the majority of the defense's case.
Prosecution rests in Karen Read case
The final witness for the prosecution was crash reconstructionist Judson Welcher, a biomechanical engineer for Aperture LLC who was subject to intense cross-examination by the defense. Welcher's testimony included videos that showed him dressing up like O'Keefe on the night he died and performing tests with an SUV similar to Read's Lexus.
Before resting, special prosecutor Hank Brennan played a documentary interview clip for the jury. In the video, Read remembers a conversation she had with defense attorney David Yannetti shortly after O'Keefe's death.
"Did he come and hit the back of my car, and I hit him in the knee and he's drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something?" Read said in the clip. "You know, what if I ran his foot over, or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out?"
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