Karen Read‘s second trial in connection with the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, continues on Tuesday in Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court before Judge Beverly Cannone.
The trial has been off since Wednesday. Cannone told the jury that the trial is ahead of schedule.
Tuesday marks the beginning of the sixth week of the trial.
People to know:
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan Judson Welcher, a witness and an accident reconstructionist and biological engineer with the company Aperture
11:33 a.m. – A close inspection of Read’s SUV
Welcher used a PowerPoint presentation to present his analysis of Read’s vehicle and evidence in the case.
In some photographs, he took measurements of Read’s rear back right bumper and under the SUV.
“You want to have as much information as possible … In this case, I was able to look at the scene and the vehicle,” he said.
He said he didn’t want to rely solely on photographs of the vehicle, so he visited Massachusetts to inspect it and the scene first-hand.
He looked at both O’Keefe’s car and Read’s SUV thoroughly, including “climbing” inside the vehicles and looking under the cars, he said.
On Sept. 23, 2024, Welcher inspected Read’s SUV after flying out from California. He created a 3D model of her car as part of his analysis and took 445 photographs of her car.
Brennan asked if Welcher was surprised that the SUV’s event data recorder did not register “information about a collision.”
“No, it was exactly as I expected,” Welcher said, noting that SUV weighs about 6,000 pounds and O’Keefe weighed about 216 pounds.
Welcher showed photographs of the rear of Read’s SUV next to O’Keefe’s Chevrolet. In Ring camera footage shown earlier at trial, her SUV backed up and bumped into O’Keefe’s parked car at his house shortly before he was discovered in the snow on Jan. 29, 2022.
“The lower portion of the Lexus sticks out, the Chevrolet slopes in,” Welcher said. Read’s lawyers have previously stated her taillight could’ve been cracked when she backed into O’Keefe’s car.
11:12 a.m. – Prosecution’s accident reconstructionist witness takes stand
Judson Welcher, an accident reconstructionist and biological engineer, took the stand late Tuesday morning. He works for the company Aperture, which specialises in forensic analysis.
Welcher said he’s written several peer-reviewed articles, including ones about “sideswipe collisions.”
He’s performed between 1,200 and 1,300 “actual crash tests,” ranging from skateboarders to ambulances, to test the impacts of collisions and study the effects on cars and bodies.
Newer Toyotas use two types of equipment to record data of events: the event data recorder, which is “close” to a black-box and a techstream system, which is used mainly for maintenance, according to Welcher.
Welcher said he reviewed several materials in coming up with his analysis for his testimony, including police reports, Ring videos, police cruiser videos, photos and videos from the scene, media interviews with Read, past witness statements, data from O’Keefe’s phone and Read’s SUV, among other records.
He bought the same make and model of Read’s SUV, a Lexus LX 570, to conduct testing on the vehicle, he said.
10:40 a.m. — Voir dire with expert witness
The trial started late this morning with a voir dire hearing — away from jurors — with Judson Welcher, a prosecution expert witness from the company Aperture. He is an accident reconstructionist and biological engineer.
Robert Alessi, a lawyer for Read, raised a series of questions about changes to Welcher’s PowerPoint he intends to present during his testimony this morning.
Welcher said he deleted a slide and “a couple of words.” He said that prosecutor Hank Brennan had requested the changes, and they were made eight to ten days ago.
Welcher said that some of the changes were based on a report made by his Aperture colleague, Shanon Burgess, who testified last week about the movements of Read’s SUV and data from O’Keefe’s phone.
Burgess concluded that Read’s SUV made a backing motion at about the same time that O’Keefe’s phone registered its last interaction.
10:12 a.m. — Trial yet to get underway
Lawyers were meeting with the judge for a second sidebar conversation Tuesday morning after the court took a break.
No testimony yet this morning.
Meanwhile, the defense team filed a new motion this morning about a supplemental list of prospective witnesses.
The names are:
Matthew Coleman, of Quincy Michael P. Arico, of Canton Nicholas David White, of MiltonJonathan Diamandis, of Milton
9:43 a.m. — Lengthy sidebar to start the day
The judge walked into the courtroom at about 9:13 a.m. She said one of Read’s lawyers wanted to have a sidebar discussion, away from the jurors.
The sidebar discussion has continued for 30 minutes and jurors are still waiting for the day’s first witness to be called.
Read, 45, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of O’Keefe, who was found outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer on Jan. 29, 2022.
Norfolk County prosecutors say Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV while driving intoxicated. Read’s attorneys say her car never struck O’Keefe and that others are to blame for his death.
