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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Karen Read trial: Defense rests its case, prepares for closing arguments
Karen Read's defense team rested its case Wednesday in the Massachusetts woman's second murder trial over the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe, after contentious cross-examination of its final witness. Andrew Rentschler, a biomechanist and accident reconstruction expert, delivered potentially critical testimony about his analysis of O'Keefe's head, brain and body injuries. O'Keefe, he told jurors, didn't appear to have been hit by a car as prosecutors allege. After the defense wrapped up its questioning of Rentschler, Prosecutor Hank Brennan told the judge he did not plan to call any more witnesses, reversing an earlier request to recall a different crash expert. The lawyers agreed to begin their closing arguments at 9 a.m. Friday. They'll then hand the case to the jury. Throughout the eight-week-long trial, jurors have heard from more than 40 witnesses about the days and hours before O'Keefe's body was found lying frozen and unconscious outside the Canton, Massachusetts home of another cop, Brian Albert, on Jan. 29, 2022. More: The dog did it? What to know about the German Shepherd tied to the Karen Read trial Prosecutors have accused Read, 45, of backing into O'Keefe, her boyfriend at the time, with her Lexus SUV while dropping him off at a house party after a night out drinking with friends and then leaving him to die outside in the middle of a historic blizzard. She has been charged with second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Read's defense team has argued she is the victim of an elaborate police conspiracy. They say law enforcement officers at the party beat O'Keefe, let a dog attack him, threw his body on the front lawn and then used their power to plant evidence and frame Read. Here's what you missed from the last day of witness testimony. Prosecutor Hank Brennan wrapped up his cross-examination of Rentschler by questioning the crash expert about a piece of glass found inside O'Keefe's nose. Rentschler said he considered this evidence as part of his analysis, but it was not mentioned in the report. Under questioning by defense attorney Alan Jackson, Rentschler agreed that plastic shards, drinking straw and other debris found near O'Keefe's body weren't important to his analysis. If there was no collision, he said the items couldn't have been a result of the impact. "In your opinion, were any of the injuries that you saw suffered by John O'Keefe consistent with having been struck by the subject Lexus?" Jackson asked. "No, they are not," Rentschler replied. After a few more questions from Brennan about Canton police's search for evidence and the injuries to the right side of O'Keefe's body, Cannone dismissed Rentschler and the jury for the day. Prosecutor Hank Brennan repeatedly told Rentschler 'facts matter' and 'details matter' during an at times combative cross-examination in which he questioned the foundation of the crash expert's analysis. Brennan said Rentschler had 'no idea where the point of impact' occurred in O'Keefe's alleged collision with Read's car, to which Rentschler replied: 'Nobody does.' Rentschler later confirmed he did not know some of the details of the alleged crash, including the speed of the car and O'Keefe's body position. Rentschler appeared to claim that the lack of evidence fed into his conclusions. 'If you don't know something occurred, how can you conclude it actually occurred,' he asked. 'It scientifically makes no sense.' The prosecutor also suggested Rentschler's report didn't account for potential soft-tissue damage O'Keefe sustained, injuries often not often shown in X-rays. Brennan also took aim at Rentschler's reputation. He asked if Rentschler talked with the defense team about presenting himself as unbiased during Read's first trial and noted that Rentschler once went to lunch with Read's lawyers. "I ate, people were talking, I really didn't talk much at all,' Rentschler said. 'How would I remember a conversation from over a year ago?' Defense attorney Alan Jackson asked Rentschler to critique the methods used by the prosecutor's crash reconstruction expert, Judson Welcher, in an attempt to sow doubt into their case against Read. Rentschler questioned Welcher's use of a 1979 study finding head trauma to be the most common type of car crash injury and argued it was misleading. The more than 40-year-old study published before the first modern SUV was manufactured, making it outdated, Rentschler said. Welcher's technique to determine how O'Keefe obtained his head injury was also 'inconsistent' with how a person would have moved after being hit by an SUV, Rentschler argued. The defense finished questioning Rentschler around 11:30 a.m. Rentschler, a senior biomechanist at the Pennsylvania-based firm ARCCA, told jurors O'Keefe did not have the type of injuries he would expect of a pedestrian car crash victim. Pointing to an autopsy photo, Rentschler said the 36 superficial abrasions on O'Keefe's arm did not look like scrapes from a broken taillight. If the injuries came from Read's vehicle, he suggested O'Keefe's arm would have needed to hit the taillight in 36 separate places. He also said the cuts would have appeared in a different orientation, more parallel to the wrist, if they came from the car. Rentschler also spent several minutes discussing the lack of bruising and fractures on O'Keefe's arm, which he said should have occurred if O'Keefe was hit by a car moving faster than 10 mph. Based on car crash simulations he conducted, Rentschler said he expected to see trauma, fractures, lacerations and bruising on O'Keefe's right hand and arm. The absence of those injuries suggested O'Keefe was not hit, Rentschler said. 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 began at 9 a.m. ET. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karen Read trial: Defense rests its case
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Karen Read judge cuts off witness who sends 'happy birthday' wish to 10-year-old from stand
The judge overseeing Karen Read's retrial on murder charges in the death of Boston cop John O'Keefe cut off the defense's final witness Wednesday morning after he told jurors he had three children and wished his 10-year-old a happy birthday. "So I was going to say I have three kids, a 9-year-old who's actually turning 10 today – happy birthday Kai – and I have two older ones," said Dr. Andrew John Rentschler, a biomechanical engineer and accident reconstructionist from a firm called ARCCA. "All right, I'm going to, we're going to stop this – [use] another example," said Judge Beverly Cannone after an objection from special prosecutor Hank Brennan. Brennan has repeatedly tried to have Rentschler's testimony blocked or limited. The ARCCA scientists dispute the state's version of events – and have also been accused of destroying text messages with the defense they were ordered to give to prosecutors as well as slow-walking discovery disclosures. Final Defense Witness In Karen Read Trial Pumps Brakes On Lexus Collision Theory Read is accused of mowing down O'Keefe after a night of drinking and leaving him to die as she went to his house and left him raging voicemails as his niece and nephew slept in the home. He had taken them in after they were orphaned when his sister and brother-in-law died within months of one another. Read On The Fox News App "Was it appropriate? I think it's his personality," said David Gelman, a Philadelphia-area defense attorney and former prosecutor who is following the trial. "It may have missed the mark, but it's a breath of fresh air since experts are usually boring." Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts trial lawyer who is also following the case, said the judge likely cut Rentschler off because narrative answers can distract from the facts of the case. Karen Read Reveals She Will Not Testify In Her Own Defense "The story can lead to a long answer that could be potentially off-topic or the jury could take from it something else that was not intended, like 'Happy Birthday,' and only remember that part," she told Fox News Digital. "The judge wanted the witness refocused to specific questions with focused answers rather than potentially rambling about his three kids." Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X Rentschler insisted that "details matter" repeatedly as he explained the basics of the scientific method and took issue with another expert report from the firm Aperture, retained by the prosecution. Aperture labeled the injuries to O'Keefe's arm "lacerations," he said – a term that he testified contradicts the findings of the official autopsy, which described them as "superficial abrasions." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE True Crime Hub "The superficial abrasions and abrasions occur when there's rubbing or scraping of the skin, and it just rubs away the top layer, the epidermis of the skin," he testified. "Now, a laceration is an actual jagged, ripping or tearing of the skin which gets down through the epidermis into the dermis. So abrasions take much less force. They're less severe than what a laceration actually is." Sign Up To Get The True Crime Newsletter Based on his testing, he said that he ruled out an impact with Read's 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV and O'Keefe's arm as the cause of those injuries. "They're inconsistent with striking the taillight or being produced as a result of contact with the taillight," he testified. The prosecution claims that these minor injuries came from an impact with Read's broken taillight after she allegedly drove into O'Keefe on Jan. 29, 2022 and left him to die on the ground in the snow. The defense denies a collision and has claimed the injuries came from dog teeth and claws. Aperture's Dr. Judson Welcher testified earlier, based on digital forensics of phone and vehicle data, that Read's SUV reversed at 75% throttle right before O'Keefe's last conscious interaction with his article source: Karen Read judge cuts off witness who sends 'happy birthday' wish to 10-year-old from stand
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Yahoo
'Why did everybody drop the ball?' Dog attack leads to tension between township, county
After two people were attacked by dogs in Colerain Township last week, township officials are saying the nonprofit handling dog warden services for Hamilton County isn't doing enough. Officers responded Friday afternoon to Applevalley Court after receiving reports of an attack involving two dogs and arrived on the scene to find a woman with severe injuries to her arms and a man with a small hand injury, police said. In a letter on Sunday, township officials condemned what they described as Cincinnati Animal CARE's decision to allow the dogs to remain in the community, despite the nonprofit's staff relaying to police that the dogs were 'too vicious' to take in. More: VICIOUS: An investigation into how Ohio laws fail thousands of dog attack victims Police said the woman, Emily Rentschler, was driving down the street to pick up her children and noticed the dogs were loose, but was attacked when she tried to corral the dogs. Her boyfriend arrived as she was being attacked and placed her inside his truck. Police records and 911 calls show the attack caused panic and chaos in the suburban neighborhood. A neighbor told dispatchers Rentschler was screaming while being mauled by two large dogs. He said he was working from home and initially mistook the screams for the sound of kids playing. 'I'm loading a gun right now. If I have to shoot these dogs I'm putting them down,' he said. Another 911 caller said the woman was 'bleeding really bad.' Two people who reported the attack to authorities said the dogs appeared to be Pit Bulls. The attack was even witnessed by Rentschler's children, who also called 911 to report what happened. While the dogs roamed the neighborhood, an officer fired multiple pepperball rounds at the dogs as they approached police, according to an incident report. Another officer held Rentschler's boyfriend at gunpoint after he grew agitated and threatened to kill the dogs himself if police would not shoot them, the report states, adding that the man was holding a gun when police first arrived and the officer was unsure whether he was still armed. Officers eventually corralled one of the dogs inside the owner's backyard and the owners were able to secure the second dog in the backyard after they arrived home, police said. The owners were cited, and the dogs were deemed dangerous, but Cincinnati Animal CARE – the nonprofit contracted by the county for animal control services – refused to take the dogs even after the owner offered to give them up, according to township spokeswoman Helen Tracey-Noren. 'Our residents deserve to feel safe in their homes and to be able to take a walk in their neighborhood without fear of being viciously attacked,' the township's letter reads. Cincinnati Animal CARE has yet to issue a response to the township's claims. The township is urging the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners to review the dog warden's policies, training and resources. 'State law is very clear. It is the responsibility of the county to control dangerous animals in townships,' the letter reads. 'Our residents should not have their safety compromised because the county has ignored a core responsibility.' Officials said Rentschler will need several surgeries and faces a lengthy road to recovery. Dogs bite about 17,000 people a year in Ohio severely enough to require medical attention or to prompt calls to law enforcement. Experts estimate the actual total is double that because so many bites go unreported. An investigation by the USA TODAY Network Ohio bureau found that gruesome dog attacks happen despite warnings, complaints and previous attacks that went unheeded by dog owners and unpunished by the legal system. Under Ohio law, the owner of a dog that disfigures or even kills someone is likely to pay a fine that's little more than a traffic ticket. The law also does not require that a vicious dog be euthanized after such an attack, even if it results in a fatality. The doctor who treated Rentschler at the hospital said that she was lucky to be alive, according to her mom, Carrie Davis, who added that Rentschler will have to miss work as she can't type because of her injuries. Davis said the township is abdicating its responsibility to remove the dogs from the neighborhood by placing blame squarely on the dog warden. She pointed to a decision by police amid budget cutbacks last year to pare down the types of calls they respond to, including non-emergency animal complaints. With the dogs still in the neighborhood, she said she worries for the children, including her grandchildren, who have to wait at the bus stop at the top of the street. 'They don't seem to understand their responsibility, or they're more worried about money than they are the safety of residents,' Davis said of the township. 'We're trying to figure out, why did everybody drop the ball?' However, Colerain Township Police Chief Edwin Cordie said it's not within his department's purview, under state law, to remove the dogs; that job is for the dog warden. Cordie said the dogs' owners have been cooperating with authorities and the department's records showed no prior incidents involving the dogs, although the animals were unregistered. He added that any further investigation would be handled by the dog warden. 'I think what's important here, and especially with the victim, is that we're concerned that the dogs are still there,' Cordie said. 'This was a pretty vicious attack.' Enquirer media partner Fox19 contributed the photo for this report. This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Colerain Township dog attack prompts concerns, questions over response
