Karen Read‘s second trial in connection with the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, continues on Thursday in Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court before Judge Beverly Cannone.
Read more: Recap of trial day 14Read more: Recap of trial day 15
On Wednesday, the jury heard from several witnesses, including O’Keefe’s niece and a state police forensic scientist.
People to know:
Robert Alessi, defense attorney Hank Brennan, special prosecutor for the Norfolk district attorney’s officeMaureen Hartnett, state police forensic scientistDr. Irini Scordi-Bello, medical examiner
Follow along with live updates from Thursday’s testimony below:
10:26 a.m. – Jury sees photos of O’Keefe’s injuries
The next witness called to the stand was Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a medical examiner with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. She said her role is to determine a person’s cause and manner of death.
Cause of death is “a disease or injury that initiates a sequence of events that leads to a person’s death,” she explained. Manner of death has to do with the circumstances of a person’s death.
Scordi-Bello autopsied O’Keefe on Jan. 31, 2022. She said she observed a laceration on his right upper eyelid and abrasions on the left side of his nose. She noted bleeding and swelling in both of his eyes.
During Scordi-Bello’s testimony, the jury saw photographs of O’Keefe’s face. One photo showed a cut above a swollen and discolored eye, while another showed the abrasions, or scrapes, on his nose. O’Keefe is in a neck brace in the photos. One photo shows pooling blood beneath his head.
A court officer passed tissues to O’Keefe’s family and friends while Scordi-Bello’s testimony continued. They could be seen dabbing at their eyes. O’Keefe’s mother, usually a constant presence in the courtroom, was absent during Scordi-Bello’s testimony.
With a photo of O’Keefe’s right arm on the screen, Brennan asked Scordi-Bello if she had an “opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty about how those superficial abrasions occurred?”
She did not, and said she could not for many of the other wounds described.
Scordi-Bello also described a scrape she observed on the outside of O’Keefe’s knee, and said she noted rib fractures on the front of his fourth and fifth ribs. Those fractures were likely a result of efforts to revive O’Keefe, she said.
Next, the jury saw a photo of a roughly inch-long laceration on the back of O’Keefe’s head. Some of his hair appeared to have been shaved off to show the cut.
10:03 a.m. — Defense quizzes witness on chain of custody of evidence
With Judge Beverly Cannone, left, looking on, Mass. State Police forensic scientist Maureen Hartnett testifies about evidence gathered in the Karen Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, May 14, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Chavous/Enterprise News via AP, Pool)AP
Alessi ran through several items of evidence, such as swabs from the Red solo cups with red droplets, drinking glass, O’Keefe’s clothing, and his fingernail clippings.
Hartnett said she did not know of the chain of custody for items before they arrived at her lab, such as O’Keefe’s fingernail clippings and clothing items.
“I had no knowledge of where they were stored or anything like that,” Hartnett said.
On re-direct, Brennan asked Hartnett about the red Solo cups with the “red spots” inside of them.
Hartnett said she did not have first-hand knowledge of the collection.
Hartnett said she studied all sides of Read’s SUV except for the roof. She said she did not examine the interior of the car.
She did a “microscopic examination” of the hair found on the SUV but added that another unit could perform more testing.
Brennan showed a video of the SUV inside the Canton police garage.
Karen Read’s SUV shown while inside the Canton police department in 2022. A prosecutor showed the photo on Thursday, May 15, 2025, during Read’s retrial.Court TV
Brennan asked several questions about whether rags from the scene could’ve contaminated the taillight, the defense objected, and the judge sustained, meaning Hartnett was not allowed to answer.
Hartnett eventually confirmed that she was looking for all the evidence contained within the taillight.
During more questioning from Alessi, Hartnett confirmed that she did not do any analysis on what could’ve caused the hole found in O’Keefe’s hoodie.
A picture of John O’Keefe hoodie shown on Thursday, May 15, 2025, during the Karen Read retrial.Court TV
At the end of Hartnett’s testimony, she said she wanted to correct some of her previous day’s testimony during questioning from Alessi.
After a brief sidebar, the judge asked Hartnett to step down since questioning from both sides was completed.
9:34 a.m. – SUV taillight shown
A photo of a taillight taken from Karen Read’s SUV shown during her retrial on Thursday, May 15, 2025.Court TV
After the jurors were brought in, defense attorney Robert Alessi resumed cross-examination of Maureen Hartnett, a state police crime lab analyst.
Alessi used a projector to show a photograph of the broken taillight from Read’s SUV.
He asked if any sand, salt, or any other debris had been found within the taillight, and Hartnett said there was none found.
Asked if there was any testing in the taillight for “biological material,” and Hartnett said, “No, there was not.”
She clarified that biological material included blood, semen, saliva, or a skin cell collection.
After Alessi showed photographs of a T-shirt and hoodie that O’Keefe wore when he was found, she said that debris was found on each of them, and she took scrapings.
Alessi showed a photograph of the evidence bag signed by former Trooper Michael Proctor, who dated the collection on Jan. 29, 2022.
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.
