Karen Read trial live updates: Defense expected to call final witness
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Karen Read's second murder trial begins with new jury
Karen Read is starting her second trial after being prosecuted for the 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, last year.
Karen Read's second murder trial continued Tuesday with testimony from a defense expert who says John O'Keefe likely smashed his skull during a fall backward.
Elizabeth Laposata, a forensic pathologist and former medical examiner, retook the stand to explain what she believes caused O'Keefe's head, brain and face injuries.
Prosecutors say Read, 45, backed into O'Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her Lexus SUV in a fit of jealousy after a night of drinking and then left him to die in the snow outside the home of another cop.
Her defense team has maintained that Read was framed for the crime by people inside the house, who they say beat O'Keefe, let a dog attack him and then dropped his body on the front lawn. They've argued that police purposefully bungled the investigation into O'Keefe's death.
This is Read's second trial, after her first ended in July 2024 in a hung jury.
Lawyer Alan Jackson, one of Read's defense attornies, said Monday he expects to also call biomechanist Andrew Rentschler Tuesday as the eleventh and final defense witness. Questioning Rentschler should take about three hours, Jackson told Judge Beverly Cannone. The prosecution also intends to call several witnesses to rebut the defense's arguments.
Elizabeth Laposata is a clinical associate professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Brown University's Warren Alpert School of Medicine.
Judge Beverly Cannone previously ruled Laposata was unqualified to testify about whether markings found on O'Keefe's arm are consistent with dog bite wounds, but can discuss what she believed caused O'Keefe's injuries. On Tuesday, Cannone said Laposata could testify that O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with animal bites she has seen throughout her career.
Cannone's ruling came after the prosecution tried to prevent Laposata from testifying, arguing she did not have the proper expertise.
Laposata is expected to support the defense's argument that O'Keefe did not die in the cold by explaining how his body did not suffer from hypothermia.
Read's defense team previously presented testimony from Marie Russell, an emergency physician and former forensic pathologist, who told jurors she believed surface-level gashes found on O'Keefe's arm came from canine claws and teeth. They have suggested a German Shepard, which lived at 34 Fairview, attacked O'Keefe.
Jury instructions filed by Read's lawyers suggest the Massachusetts woman may not testify in the retrial. They include a section informing the jury of Read's Fifth Amendment right not to testify, telling them they 'may not hold that against her.'
Christopher Dearborn, a law professor at Suffolk University in Boston who has followed the case closely, said the instructions are likely a 'harbinger' that Read's attorneys are not going to call her to the stand, though he noted they could change their mind.
'Frankly, I don't think it would make a lot of sense to call her at this point,' Dearborn said, noting the number of public statements Read has made that could be used against her.
The court has already heard from Read in the trial through clips prosecutors played of interviews in which she questioned whether she 'clipped' O'Keefe and admitted to driving while inebriated.
Dearborn told USA TODAY there are two schools of thought around whether to include a section on a defendant's right not to testify in jury instructions. Some defense lawyers don't include the section because they don't want to "draw a bull's eye" around the fact the defendant didn't testify and cause jurors to "speculate," Dearborn said.
Other times, he said, it is the "elephant in the room," and the specific instructions telling the jury they can't hold the defendant's lack of testimony against them are necessary.
CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O'Keefe's body was found outside a Massachusetts home.
You can watch CourtTV's live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings begin at 9 a.m. ET.
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