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CNN
a day ago
- General
- CNN
Karen Read's defense set to call its first witness in her retrial in the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend
FacebookTweetLink Follow Karen Read's defense is set to call its first witness on Friday, marking a new phase in her retrial in the killing of John O'Keefe, her off-duty Boston police officer boyfriend whose body was found buried in the snow outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts, in January 2022. Read – whose first trial ended with a hung jury – has already promised a 'more robust' case than the one her attorneys put on last year, when they called six witnesses for less than two full days of testimony. Their case this time is 'broader and deeper,' Read told reporters last week, saying it will include 'more witnesses' and last at least a week. Prosecutors have accused Read of putting her Lexus SUV in reverse and striking O'Keefe with her vehicle just after midnight on January 29, 2022, after the couple went out with drinking with friends who were gathering for an after party at a home on Fairview Road. But Read's defense argues she has been framed by other off-duty law enforcement who were inside that home, alleging they killed O'Keefe and conspired to frame her. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. A key question is whether Read will take the stand. She did not testify in the first trial. But jurors in her retrial have already heard from the defendant: Throughout their case, prosecutors – led by special prosecutor Hank Brennan – have played numerous clips taken from interviews Read gave reporters or documentary film crews, working to use her statements against her. 'This is my version of testifying. Doing this film is my testimony,' she said in Investigation Discovery's 'A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read.' (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.) 'I want to say what happened,' she added, 'exactly as it happened.' The last thing played for the jury by the prosecution before it rested its case Thursday was a clip from the documentary showing Read telling the film crew her attorney informed her, she may have 'some element of culpability.' 'I thought could I have run over him? Could he have tried to get me as I was leaving, and I didn't know it? The music was blasting, it was snowing, I had the wipers going, the heater blasting. 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 says in the clip. Read then talks about hiring her attorney, David Yannetti, and asking him those questions. 'I said 'David what if … 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?' and David said, 'Then you have some element of culpability.'' Prosecutors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rested their case in chief on Thursday after calling 38 witnesses over more than 20 days of testimony, including the victim's friends and family; members of state and local law enforcement who played a role in the investigation; and experts who analyzed a raft of digital and physical forensic evidence. Notably absent from the prosecution's case was Michael Proctor, the former Massachusetts State Trooper who led the investigation into O'Keefe's death but was dishonorably discharged from the agency earlier this year for sexist and offensive text messages he sent about the suspect. Proctor apologized for the texts during his testimony in the first trial, but Read's defense attorneys used them to paint a picture of a flawed and biased investigation – a strategy they have so far echoed in the retrial. Proctor is included on the defense's list of prospective witnesses, but whether he will testify again remains to be seen. This is a developing story and will be updated.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Who to watch as Karen Read's defense steps up to plate – and it's not slugger Alan Jackson
Karen Read's defense team of heavy-hitting attorneys is ready to begin tearing down the prosecution's murder case against her after the state rested its case this week. Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, outside an acquaintance's house party just after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. The prosecution alleges that Read struck O'Keefe with her 2021 Lexus SUV in a drunken ragme after an evening of fighting before leaving him to freeze to death in the front yard of 34 Fairview Road. Karen Read Defense Grills Crash Expert Over $400K Price Tag And Experimentation Methods Special prosecutor Hank Brennan rested the state's case on Thursday, nearly two months after jury selection began. Brennan's final witness, Aperture crash reconstructionist Dr. Judson Welcher spent three days on the stand providing testimony on his findings supporting the state's allegations that Read fatally struck O'Keefe with her vehicle. He pointed to his own experimentation using a Lexus taillight and wet paint to illustrate how O'Keefe could have sustained the injuries to his arm, and he said that a "glancing" blow from the vehicle could explain why the victim didn't have typical car-strike injuries. Read On The Fox News App "If you impact the hand with a 1-inch narrow metal bar, that's a lot different than if you have a broad, plastic taillight or rear body panel," Welcher said. "So when you have distributed loads, you can take much more." Read's defense team is set to begin presenting their case on Friday as attorneys Alan Jackson, David Yannetti and Robert Alessi look to sow doubt around the state's allegations, with Yannetti viewed as the strongest member of Read's team by experts. Karen Read's Suv Reached '74% Throttle' Moments Before John O'keefe's Final Movements, Crash Expert Testifies "David Yannetti is the best trial lawyer in the case," retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge and Boston College law professor Jack Lu told Fox News Digital, "with the possible exception of Brennan." Yannetti is a seasoned criminal defense attorney and has been with Read since before her first trial. "He has the range that Mr. Brennan might lack," Lu said. "Brennan, with all his spectacular talent, mostly has one speed, well, two speeds. Yannetti, an award-winning advocate since law school, has seen it all and fights for a position from which the defense can possibly salvage things." Karen Read Judge Blocks Sandra Birchmore Mentions; Expert Says Cases Should Be Wake-up Call For Police The defense will look to dismantle the state's case, which often pointed to Read's interviews with various news outlets, addressing the public in her own words. "So I thought, 'Could I have run him over?'" Read said in a 2024 interview with Investigation Discovery. "Did he try to get me as I was leaving and I didn't know it?" Read's legal team insists her vehicle never came in contact with O'Keefe while pointing to the possibility that something or someone else was responsible for the police officer's death. Karen Read Defense Floats Theory That 'Jealous' Brian Higgins Fought John O'keefe Before Death "And then when I hired David Yannetti, I asked him those questions," Read said in the same clip. "The night of Jan. 29, David, 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? And David said, 'Yeah, then you have some element of culpability.'" Lu believes the primary goal for the defense team should be to humanize Read in a way that paints her in a favorable light to the jurors while taking aim at an alleged cover-up scheme by the Massachusetts Police Department. Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X "The prosecutor has made her into a self-absorbed caricature," Lu told Fox News Digital, adding, "They must get into the hatred of her by [former investigator] Michael Proctor." Proctor is on the witness list, but it remains unclear whether the defense will put him on the stand. Prosecutors did not call him this time around after his testimony in the first trial saw jurors shaking their heads as they heard his inappropriate texts about Read in court. The case ended in a mistrial, and he lost his job days before the second trial kicked off. Read has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, she faces the possibility of life in prison for the most serious charge of second-degree murder. "Right now Ms. Read's legal case is badly wounded," Lu said. "Mr. Yannetti has the ability to charm the jury, fight the judge as needed, present the defense witnesses – some of whom are hostile – and in closing, inspire the jury."Original article source: Who to watch as Karen Read's defense steps up to plate – and it's not slugger Alan Jackson
Fox News
2 days ago
- General
- Fox News
Who to watch as Karen Read's defense steps up to plate – and it's not slugger Alan Jackson
Karen Read's defense team of heavy-hitting attorneys is ready to begin tearing down the prosecution's murder case against her after the state rested its case this week. Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, outside an acquaintance's house party just after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. The prosecution alleges that Read struck O'Keefe with her 2021 Lexus SUV in a drunken ragme after an evening of fighting before leaving him to freeze to death in the front yard of 34 Fairview Road. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan rested the state's case on Thursday, nearly two months after jury selection began. Brennan's final witness, Aperture crash reconstructionist Dr. Judson Welcher spent three days on the stand providing testimony on his findings supporting the state's allegations that Read fatally struck O'Keefe with her vehicle. He pointed to his own experimentation using a Lexus taillight and wet paint to illustrate how O'Keefe could have sustained the injuries to his arm, and he said that a "glancing" blow from the vehicle could explain why the victim didn't have typical car-strike injuries. "If you impact the hand with a 1-inch narrow metal bar, that's a lot different than if you have a broad, plastic taillight or rear body panel," Welcher said. "So when you have distributed loads, you can take much more." Read's defense team is set to begin presenting their case on Friday as attorneys Alan Jackson, David Yannetti and Robert Alessi look to sow doubt around the state's allegations, with Yannetti viewed as the strongest member of Read's team by experts. "David Yannetti is the best trial lawyer in the case," retired Massachusetts Superior Court Judge and Boston College law professor Jack Lu told Fox News Digital, "with the possible exception of Brennan." Yannetti is a seasoned criminal defense attorney and has been with Read since before her first trial. "He has the range that Mr. Brennan might lack," Lu said. "Brennan, with all his spectacular talent, mostly has one speed, well, two speeds. Yannetti, an award-winning advocate since law school, has seen it all and fights for a position from which the defense can possibly salvage things." The defense will look to dismantle the state's case, which often pointed to Read's interviews with various news outlets, addressing the public in her own words. "So I thought, 'Could I have run him over?'" Read said in a 2024 interview with Investigation Discovery. "Did he try to get me as I was leaving and I didn't know it?" Read's legal team insists her vehicle never came in contact with O'Keefe while pointing to the possibility that something or someone else was responsible for the police officer's death. "And then when I hired David Yannetti, I asked him those questions," Read said in the same clip. "The night of Jan. 29, David, 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? And David said, 'Yeah, then you have some element of culpability.'" Lu believes the primary goal for the defense team should be to humanize Read in a way that paints her in a favorable light to the jurors while taking aim at an alleged cover-up scheme by the Massachusetts Police Department. "The prosecutor has made her into a self-absorbed caricature," Lu told Fox News Digital, adding, "They must get into the hatred of her by [former investigator] Michael Proctor." Proctor is on the witness list, but it remains unclear whether the defense will put him on the stand. Prosecutors did not call him this time around after his testimony in the first trial saw jurors shaking their heads as they heard his inappropriate texts about Read in court. The case ended in a mistrial, and he lost his job days before the second trial kicked off. Read has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, she faces the possibility of life in prison for the most serious charge of second-degree murder. "Right now Ms. Read's legal case is badly wounded," Lu said. "Mr. Yannetti has the ability to charm the jury, fight the judge as needed, present the defense witnesses – some of whom are hostile – and in closing, inspire the jury."
The Independent
2 days ago
- General
- The Independent
Prosecution rests in trial of Karen Read who's charged in death of Boston police officer boyfriend
The prosecution in the second trial of Karen Read rested Thursday after about a month of testimony spotlighting evidence from the scene and witnesses who heard the defendant repeatedly say 'I hit him' in reference to the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend. Read, 45, is accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, and leaving the 46-year-old officer to die on a snowy night in the front yard of another officer's home after she dropped him off at a party there in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police conspiracy and someone in the home that night killed him. A mistrial was declared last year and the second trial has attracted massive media attention and become the subject of a Hulu documentary series. Read's second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene has often looked similar to the first trial. If she is found guilty of the most serious charge of second-degree murder, she could spend the rest of her life in prison. Simplified approach The prosecution, led this time by Hank Brennan, has taken a more streamlined, focused approach. Unlike the first trial where witness after witness undermined the prosecution's case, Brennan did everything to avoid those mistakes. Most significantly, he refrained from putting Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, on the stand. Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude text messages about Read to his family and colleagues. His testimony played a key role in the first trial. Defense attorneys used his text messages to attempt to show Proctor was biased and ignored the possibility of other suspects. Brennan also didn't put Brian Albert, the Boston officer who owned the house where O'Keefe's body was found, on the stand. He also passed on putting on Brian Higgins, a federal agent who had exchanged flirty texts with Read, on the stand. All three testified in the first trial and could be called by the defense as it seeks to show O'Keefe was beaten at the house party hosted by Albert and left outside to die. Read's attorney, Alan Jackson, still managed to raise concerns about Higgins and Proctor. During the cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, he made him read all the flirtatious texts between Higgins and Read. Jackson also brought up a text message chain with Bukhenik in which Proctor said, 'I hate that man, I truly hate him' about David Yannetti, an attorney for Read. Stick to the evidence Broken pieces of Read's taillight. A broken cocktail glass. Read's words the scene. Prosecutors have spent much of the trial building their case through evidence from the scene. Like before, they started by introducing several law enforcement witnesses who were among the first responders and recalled hearing Read repeatedly say 'I hit him' after she found O'Keefe. They also played several clips of interviews Read has done since the first trial, in which she talked about how much she drank and made comments suggesting she knew what she did. She also talked about pulling a piece of glass from O'Keefe's nose. 'Could I have clipped him? Could I have tapped him in the knee and incapacitated him?' she said during an interview for a documentary on the case 'He didn't look mortally wounded, as far as I could see' but 'could I have done something that knocked him out and in his drunkenness and in the cold didn't come to again.' Prosecutors called a neurosurgeon who testified O'Keefe suffered a 'classic blunt trauma injury' associated with falling backward and hitting the back of his head. Prosecutors also showed jurors pieces of the Read's broken taillight, which they say was damaged when she hit O'Keefe. The defense argues the taillight was damaged later when she was backing out of O'Keefe's house and hit O'Keefe's car. Prosecutors also introduced evidence of a broken cocktail glass, found at the scene, which they said O'Keefe was holding when Read backed into him. DNA evidence played a part Andre Porto, a forensic scientist who works in the DNA unit of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, detailed various items he tested, including the broken rear taillight and pieces of a broken cocktail glass found in in the yard. Only O'Keefe was a likely match for both. Porto found three DNA contributors but only O'Keefe was a likely match. He also tested DNA from parts of a broken cocktail glass found in the yard and only O'Keefe was seen as a likely match. Porto also tested a hair found on the taillight. Later in the trial, analyst Karl Miyasako of Bode Technology testified that tests of the hair sample taken from Read's vehicle found a mitochondrial DNA match to O'Keefe. He said that means the DNA could be a match to O'Keefe or any one of his maternal relatives. What's next for defense The trial could easily continue several more weeks as Read's defense team makes its case. Read has said the defense's case will be 'more robust' this time. It listed over 90 witnesses who could testify. 'I'm anxious for everyone to learn what we know,' she said last week. Read's defense has vigorously questioned the prosecution's witnesses and called into question evidence presented about O'Keefe's death. During opening statements in April, Brennan said Read 'admitted what she did that night' and pointed to a television interview in which Read said 'could I have clipped him?' about O'Keefe's death.
Associated Press
2 days ago
- General
- Associated Press
Prosecution rests in trial of Karen Read who's charged in death of Boston police officer boyfriend
The prosecution in the second trial of Karen Read rested Thursday after about a month of testimony spotlighting evidence from the scene and witnesses who heard the defendant repeatedly say 'I hit him' in reference to the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend. Read, 45, is accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, and leaving the 46-year-old officer to die on a snowy night in the front yard of another officer's home after she dropped him off at a party there in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police conspiracy and someone in the home that night killed him. A mistrial was declared last year and the second trial has attracted massive media attention and become the subject of a Hulu documentary series. Read's second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene has often looked similar to the first trial. If she is found guilty of the most serious charge of second-degree murder, she could spend the rest of her life in prison. Simplified approach The prosecution, led this time by Hank Brennan, has taken a more streamlined, focused approach. Unlike the first trial where witness after witness undermined the prosecution's case, Brennan did everything to avoid those mistakes. Most significantly, he refrained from putting Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, on the stand. Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude text messages about Read to his family and colleagues. His testimony played a key role in the first trial. Defense attorneys used his text messages to attempt to show Proctor was biased and ignored the possibility of other suspects. Brennan also didn't put Brian Albert, the Boston officer who owned the house where O'Keefe's body was found, on the stand. He also passed on putting on Brian Higgins, a federal agent who had exchanged flirty texts with Read, on the stand. All three testified in the first trial and could be called by the defense as it seeks to show O'Keefe was beaten at the house party hosted by Albert and left outside to die. Read's attorney, Alan Jackson, still managed to raise concerns about Higgins and Proctor. During the cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, he made him read all the flirtatious texts between Higgins and Read. Jackson also brought up a text message chain with Bukhenik in which Proctor said, 'I hate that man, I truly hate him' about David Yannetti, an attorney for Read. Stick to the evidence Broken pieces of Read's taillight. A broken cocktail glass. Read's words the scene. Prosecutors have spent much of the trial building their case through evidence from the scene. Like before, they started by introducing several law enforcement witnesses who were among the first responders and recalled hearing Read repeatedly say 'I hit him' after she found O'Keefe. They also played several clips of interviews Read has done since the first trial, in which she talked about how much she drank and made comments suggesting she knew what she did. She also talked about pulling a piece of glass from O'Keefe's nose. 'Could I have clipped him? Could I have tapped him in the knee and incapacitated him?' she said during an interview for a documentary on the case 'He didn't look mortally wounded, as far as I could see' but 'could I have done something that knocked him out and in his drunkenness and in the cold didn't come to again.' Prosecutors called a neurosurgeon who testified O'Keefe suffered a 'classic blunt trauma injury' associated with falling backward and hitting the back of his head. Prosecutors also showed jurors pieces of the Read's broken taillight, which they say was damaged when she hit O'Keefe. The defense argues the taillight was damaged later when she was backing out of O'Keefe's house and hit O'Keefe's car. Prosecutors also introduced evidence of a broken cocktail glass, found at the scene, which they said O'Keefe was holding when Read backed into him. DNA evidence played a part Andre Porto, a forensic scientist who works in the DNA unit of the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, detailed various items he tested, including the broken rear taillight and pieces of a broken cocktail glass found in in the yard. Only O'Keefe was a likely match for both. Porto found three DNA contributors but only O'Keefe was a likely match. He also tested DNA from parts of a broken cocktail glass found in the yard and only O'Keefe was seen as a likely match. Porto also tested a hair found on the taillight. Later in the trial, analyst Karl Miyasako of Bode Technology testified that tests of the hair sample taken from Read's vehicle found a mitochondrial DNA match to O'Keefe. He said that means the DNA could be a match to O'Keefe or any one of his maternal relatives. What's next for defense The trial could easily continue several more weeks as Read's defense team makes its case. Read has said the defense's case will be 'more robust' this time. It listed over 90 witnesses who could testify. 'I'm anxious for everyone to learn what we know,' she said last week. Read's defense has vigorously questioned the prosecution's witnesses and called into question evidence presented about O'Keefe's death. During opening statements in April, Brennan said Read 'admitted what she did that night' and pointed to a television interview in which Read said 'could I have clipped him?' about O'Keefe's death.
