Testimony resumes after off day in Karen Read retrial. Follow live updates.
Testimony resumes Friday — 8:33 a.m.
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By Travis Andersen, Globe Staff
Testimony resumes Friday in Karen Read's sensational murder retrial in Norfolk Superior Court.
Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second degree murder and two other counts for allegedly backing her SUV in a drunken rage into her boyfriend, Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Fairview Road home in Canton following a night of bar hopping.
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Her lawyers say she was framed and that O'Keefe entered the home, owned at the time by a fellow Boston cop, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German Shepherd before his body was planted on the lawn.
Read's first trial ended in a hung jury in July and she remains free on bail.
The defense is currently presenting its case, and among their witnesses who've yet to testify are analysts from the Philadelphia crash reconstruction firm ARCCA, who said in the first trial that O'Keefe's injuries weren't consistent with a vehicle strike. A government expert testified at the retrial that his arm wounds were consistent with getting momentarily caught in a taillight during a sideswipe.
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"Based upon all of the impact testing that we did with the closed ATD arm in the laboratory, as well as the field," Wolfe said, using an acronym that refers to the formal name for crash dummies – Anthropomorphic Test Device. Judge Beverly Cannone called a midday lunch break around 12:40 p.m. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan was expected to kick off cross-examination when court resumes. Friday marks the 28th day of her retrial on murder and other charges in the death of O'Keefe, a 46-year-old Boston police officer. Wolfe is the director of accident reconstruction at a firm called ARCCA. Earlier in his testimony, he said ARCCA designed a specialized "cannon" to simulate throwing a cocktail glass at Read's taillight and determined that similar damage could have been caused if someone threw the glass at around 31 mph and 37 mph. "From the 37 mile per hour test, we are getting damage that's generally consistent, and by that I mentioned we have portions of the outer lens missing, the underlying diffuser," he said. Karen Read Defense Gets Boost As Plow Driver Testifies He Saw No Body In Snow During Boston Cop Death Case "There was also some fracturing on the backside of the assembly. So again we observed damage that was generally consistent with that of the subject taillight." Wolfe said he gave an opinion that the damage Read's SUV was generally consistent with someone throwing that drinking glass at least 37 mph. Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X In another ARCCA test, the reconstructionists wanted to see if an impact between the taillight and the back of O'Keefe's head could've caused his skull fracture. Wolfe said he tested at 15 mph. Damage to the test taillight was significantly more than Read's taillight at that speed – but it didn't generate enough force to cause a skull fracture. ARCCA obtained sweatshirts from the same company and of the same fabric blend as the one O'Keefe was wearing when he died and also simulated strikes to see if the fabric would puncture in the same way. At 10 and 17 mph, the taillight sustained different levels of damage but the fabric remained undamaged. Sign Up To Get The True Crime Newsletter Prosecutors accused Read, 45, of hitting O'Keefe with her 2021 Lexus SUV and driving away as he died on the ground with a skull fracture during a blizzard. Investigators recovered a broken cocktail glass and a black straw from the scene and found additional glass on Read's bumper. However, experts testified earlier at trial that the bar glass was not a match for the fragments found on her car. The defense denies that she struck him and has called witnesses who have attributed his injuries to other causes, including a dog bite and a potential fistfight with a man Read was flirting with behind his back. 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