Beyond The Horizon

The Karen Read Trial: Karen Read Rests Her Case (6/25/24)

Karen Read is a Massachusetts resident and the girlfriend of John O'Keefe, a Boston Police Officer. She is on trial for allegedly murdering O'Keefe by striking him with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside his home in Canton in January 2022. Prosecutors argue that Read intentionally hit O'Keefe with her vehicle, which led to his death. The case has seen significant scrutiny, with evidence presented including vehicle data, surveillance footage, and testimonies from multiple witnesses. The trial has captured public attention due to the involvement of a law enforcement officer and the serious nature of the charges.Background of the Case

Incident: John O'Keefe was found dead outside his home in the early hours of January 29, 2022.
Prosecution's Argument: Prosecutors allege that Karen Read struck O'Keefe with her SUV and left the scene without seeking help, resulting in his death from injuries and exposure to cold weather.
Defense's Argument: Read's defense team argues that the incident was an accident and that there is insufficient evidence to prove that Read intentionally caused O'Keefe's death.

Key Points of the Trial

Evidence Presented:
- Vehicle Analysis: Expert testimony has been provided on the damage to Read's SUV, suggesting it is consistent with striking a pedestrian.
- Surveillance Footage: Footage from nearby cameras has been examined to piece together the events of the night.
- Witness Testimonies: Various witnesses, including law enforcement officers and experts, have testified regarding the circumstances of O'Keefe's death.
Significant Developments:
- Juror Issues: The trial has experienced delays and complications, including the dismissal of jurors due to various issues.
- Expert Testimony: Crucial testimonies have come from experts in vehicle data analysis and crash reconstruction, who have detailed the likely scenario of how O'Keefe was struck.

Current Status

The trial is ongoing, with testimony and evidence presentation continuing. The jury is expected to begin deliberations soon, with the outcome remaining highly anticipated due to the high-profile nature of the case. Closing statements are currently underway (as of the time of this upload)

Public and Media Interest

The trial has attracted significant media attention, given the involvement of a Boston police officer and the dramatic nature of the allegations. Public interest remains high, with many following the daily updates and courtroom proceedings closely.

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Karen Read's defense team rests their case in her murder trial - CBS Boston (cbsnews.com)

Duration:: 22m
Broadcast on:: 25 Jun 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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Void where prohibited by law. 18-plus terms and conditions apply. What's up, everyone, and welcome back to the program. So both sides in the Caron retrial have rested their cases, and now it's going to the jury for a deliberation. And to say that I was not impressed with the case put forward by the Commonwealth is an understatement. That's all the evidence you guys had. That's it. That was the grand total of it. And then yesterday was a dagger in the heart of the prosecution, in my opinion. The final experts who were called up, the federal witnesses, the people who were brought in by the federal government, absolutely mauled the whole entire narrative that the Commonwealth was trying to pitch to us for this whole entire thing. And mind you, they weren't hired by either side. They were completely neutral. And according to them and their analysis, that SUV never hit John O'Keefe. So for me, I've been saying it from the beginning that I need a lot more evidence here. And I have not seen that evidence. And if I was on the jury, it would be a not guilty from me. Now I'm interested to see what both sides have to say during the closing arguments here in about, oh, I don't know a half an hour from the time that I'm recording this episode, but I don't think it's going to change much. And usually when it comes to a case like this, it comes down to a battle of the experts, right? Comes down to who do you believe more? What experts know their shit? And in my opinion, the experts that were brought up by the Commonwealth, they left a lot to be desired. On the flip side of that, the experts that we saw from the defense and especially the final witnesses that were working as an independent group looking at what went on really sealed the deal for me. So I'm curious to see what the jury has to say and how long they end up deliberating. But before we get there, we have an article from CBS News breaking it all down. Headline, Karen reads defense team rest their case in her murder trial. This article was authored by Matt Schooley and Christina Rex. Karen reads defense team rested its case on Monday in the high profile mass murder trial, setting the stage for closing arguments Tuesday and jury deliberations this week. Reed is charged with second degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer, John O'Keefe on January 29th, 2022. Prosecutors say she hit him with her SUV outside a home in Canton and left him for dead in a snowstorm. Reed is pleaded not guilty. Her attorney say she's being framed and that O'Keefe was beaten to death inside the home, bitten by a dog and dragged outside to the yard. And look, to be clear, I haven't seen any evidence of that either, but remember where the burden of proof rests. And that's with the prosecution. They have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt what they say occurred. And I don't think anyone who is being reasonable and who is unbiased when it comes to this and say to themselves, you know what, the Commonwealth made their case because as I've said several times, I came into this cold. I had no idea who Karen Reed was. And as far as I'm concerned, the Commonwealth certainly didn't make their case. Karen Reed's defense rests its case. The trial began on April 16th with jury selection. Dozens of witnesses have been called over the course of nearly two months since testimony began on April 29th. The prosecution rested its case on Friday with the defense now having presented its case, jury deliberations will likely begin this week following closing statements. While a prosecution called 68 witnesses, the defense list was much shorter. Their witnesses included a plow driver who said he did not see anything on the lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton where O'Keefe's body was found. And I found his testimony to be beyond believable. The guy was out there doing his route, has no reason to lie one way or the other. And he says he didn't see anything. The defense has argued the scratches on O'Keefe's arms were caused by a dog during a fight inside the home. They called an expert who testified about those injuries as well as two accident reconstruction experts and the medical examiner. We feel great, Reed's attorney Alan Jackson said outside the court. What a great way to end the case, right? With a little truth and professionalism. It feels you have no idea how good it feels to finally get this thing done. And I have to be honest with you. The experts that were brought up by the Commonwealth left a lot to be desired. And the thing that really clinched it for me were the last three experts that came up and gave testimony. The medical examiner was more than credible and then the dudes that reconstructed the accident for the federal government, forget it. I think that that's the most crucial testimony maybe that we've received throughout this whole thing. And that's because it's impartial. And remember, I'm talking about looking at this from the viewpoint of a juror, not from some Yahoo's sitting on Twitter. When will closing arguments be in the Caronree trial? Jurors were sent home for the day on Monday after the defense rested. Jurors, that is the evidence in this case. After all these weeks, that's the evidence that you will hear in this case. Judge Beverly Canoni said, closing arguments will be held on Tuesday morning. Each side will be given one hour to make its final case to the jury. 17 jurors were originally sworn in and two were excused during the trial, leaving nine women and six men. Canoni will choose the four person before 11 other jurors are chosen at random to deliberate. So that doesn't mean just anyone chosen to be clear. All right, there were a bunch of jurors chosen and then there were alternates, but nobody knows who the alternates were or are until now. And that's just SOP when it comes to trials. Caronree did not testify for the defense. I don't think she needed to. I honestly don't think she needed to. There had been a question if Reed herself would take the stand as a witness for the defense. Reed had previously told reporters that she was open to the idea but would follow the advice of her attorneys. It's always a good idea to follow the advice of your attorneys. There's a reason that they're defending you. Unless of course you're 1,000% innocent and you think you're about to get railroaded hard, then I'd say, yup, get up on the stand. But with the way things went and the way things broke in this case, I don't think Caronree would have done herself any favors getting up. I think that her team did a masterful job. And I know there's people out there that are pissed off and they say that Alan Jackson's this that or the other thing, bro was doing his job. Point blank period. And anybody who doesn't realize that doesn't know how this works. The whole idea of being a good defense attorney, especially when we're talking about murder cases, is towing the line, just seeing how far you can go. And that's why I think that Alan Jackson did a masterful job here. He told that line and he really made his case. He slammed his point home and the narrative that they weaved created an enough reasonable doubt for me to walk away from this saying, there's no way as a juror that I could put Caronree in prison. There's just no way I didn't see that evidence. And I think that that's where we're gonna be at when all is said and done here. I think that's what the jurors, one or two or maybe more, I think that's how they're going to feel. The defense calls its final witness. Just afternoon on Monday, the defense called Dr. Andrew Rensler, a biomechanical engineer for ARCCA. Rensler and Dr. Daniel Wolf, the director of accident reconstruction for ARCA, were hired by the Department of Justice to do a third party reconstruction analysis as part of the investigation into how Reed's case was handled by law enforcement. Red flags, red alert. Everything you could possibly imagine that's bad is in that statement. Why does the federal government have to get involved? Why are they hiring reconstruction experts for this case? This is local. This jurisdiction should be handled by, you know, the Canton Police Department and company. But somehow you have a federal investigation cracking off at the same time. And you think I should just sit back and be like, oh, you know, everything's on the up and up. Sorry, that's not going to happen around here. I have a lot of questions about the prosecution every single time. And the prosecution has to be on their game. How many times do we talk about it? If you're not on your game, I don't want to hear shit. If you lose out, I don't want to hear shit. If you don't get an indictment, that's on you. Be better at your job, present your case correctly. And if you don't have the evidence, don't charge it. Jurors will not know who hired Rensler and Wolf. Alan Jackson handled direct questioning of Rensler and Wolf for the defense team. Rensler testified that O'Keefe's injuries were not consistent with being hit by a vehicle at 24 miles per hour. He said O'Keefe would have had more significant injuries such as broken bones or torn ligaments. Sounds about right. I mean, none of it adds up. And when we went through the court documents previously, before this case got started, it didn't really add up then either. I was thinking that maybe they were holding something back. And once we got to trial, we'd know a little bit more. But the Commonwealth really fumbled the bag here. And the sad part is, we're never gonna know probably what happened to John O'Keefe. If there's enough force to cause a skull fracture, there's enough force to cause injuries to the other part of the body, Rensler said. On cross-examination, prosecutor Adam Lally was asking Rensler about how O'Keefe's arm was positioned if it was tucked in or hanging out. There's no indication in any of that evidence of what he may or may not have been doing, how he may or may not have been positioned. Rensler said, that's the whole issue. There's no evidence to indicate what may have allegedly occurred in this case. And bang, right there is exactly how I feel. There is not enough evidence here. I'm sorry, there's not enough evidence. I know people want a conviction, people want justice for John O'Keefe. I do too. But I'm not willing to sacrifice somebody who might be innocent to get there. Other people might be okay with that and comfortable with that, I am not. What if it was you? What if you found yourself in the position that Karen reads in? Would you be okay if there's a stacked deck against you? I certainly wouldn't be. And imagine if Karen Reed didn't have any money and she couldn't go out and get a guy like Alan Jackson, she'd be going to prison for the rest of her life, man. So the stakes are absolutely sky high. And unless you have that evidence as a jur, that's going to seal the deal, you can't say to yourself, "All right, she's guilty." At least I couldn't in good conscience. Accident reconstruction expert takes a stand. Earlier a Monday, Wolf took the stand. Wolf said he had not ever heard of the Karen Reed case when he was hired to investigate and followed only the evidence provided to him. He and Rensler developed a theory that perhaps someone threw a cocktail glass at Reed's SUV, breaking the taillight. To test it, they built a pressurized air cannon and shot the glass out of taillight. I've got Dan Morgan here on the pod. Say hi, Dan. Hey, how's it going today? It's going good, man. Tell us who you are and what you do. I'm Dan Morgan. I'm an attorney and a managing partner at Morgan and Morgan, which is America's largest injury law firm. That's pretty awesome. Why do you guys think you win so many cases? The insurance companies and other companies that we go against know that we're going to take it to the end that we believe in the case. So we fight for every dollar and we're not afraid to go about extra mile for our clients. Our insurance companies like actually afraid of you guys? We don't bluff. We take it to trial and we are not strangers of getting very, very, very large verdicts. Awesome. So how does someone get in contact with Morgan and Morgan? What would I do if I got into an accident? Probably the easiest way is dialing pound law. That's pound 529 from your cell phone and our call center is always waiting to take your call. 24/7, 365. Wow. Dan Morgan. From Morgan and Morgan, America's largest injury law firm. Thanks for coming by the show. Thanks for having me. Visit ForThePeople.com for an office near you. It's time for today's Lucky Land Horoscope with Victoria Cash. Life's gotten mundane, so shake up the daily routine and be adventurous with a trip to Lucky Land. You know what they say. Your chance to win starts with a spin. So go to LuckyLandslots.com to play over 100 social casino style games for free for your chance to redeem some serious prizes. Get Lucky today at LuckyLandslots.com. No purchase necessary. VGW Group void were prohibited by law. 18 plus, terms of condition supply. Now that sounds like fun. I miss the boat by not becoming an engineer obviously. So you literally built a cannon, Jackson asked, prompt and wolf to respond. Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Wolf said when the glass was fired, 37 miles per hour at a taillight, it caused similar damage to what was photographed on Reed's SUV. Lally said on cross-examination that wolf had not seen Reed's SUV in person. Are you aware that the defendant's vehicle is still in police custody and available for inspection? Lally asked, no, wolf answered. Were you ever asked to look at the vehicle? Lally followed up. No, wolf responded. Well, he also said that when they do the accident reconstruction, most times he only has pictures. So if he's able to do it with just pictures, I mean, nice try by Lally, but really kind of falls flat. Federal experts as though Keith's injuries were not caused by an SUV. Federal investigators previously said that the experts they hired determined though Keith's injuries were not consistent with the vehicle strike. Jackson questioned wolf on the findings of his investigation. In your expert opinion, based on all your testing, is the damage to the taillight that you saw consistent with striking a human head, Jackson asked, wolf said no. In your expert opinion, is the damage to the taillight consistent with striking a human arm? Jackson asked, wolf said no. And Jackson said he had no further questions. And it was masterful. It was a masterful way to end things. Retired medical examiner says injuries consistent with an animal attack. Dr. Frank Sheridan was the first witness on the stand on Monday. Sheridan is a retired forensic pathologist and was previously the chief medical examiner for San Bernardino, California. Sheridan was asked about scratches on O'Keefe's arm that the defense claims were caused by Brian Albert's German Shepherd Chloe. Albert, a retired Boston police officer on the home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton where O'Keefe's body was found on the lawn. Defense attorney Elizabeth Little as Sheridan if the injuries could have been caused by a motor vehicle. If you mean struck in that part of the body on the arm directly, I would say no. It doesn't look like that at all, he said. Little then asked if the injuries appear to be consistent with an animal attack. I would say they are. I'm not 100% sure, but my initial reaction when I saw this was that it was an animal. Scrape marks with claws and possibly also a bite mark. Sheridan said, "The cross-examination of Dr. Frank Sheridan." On cross-examination, Lally noted that Sheridan has not conducted any autopsies where a victim was sight-swiped by the back of a vehicle. Lally also asked Sheridan if Rosen Ground could have cracked the back of O'Keefe's head. Sheridan said it could have caused that injury. Sheridan said O'Keefe did not have any broken orbital bones or other injuries to his eyes, which Lally said would have been consistent with having been in a fight. Sheridan concluded his testimony after just over 90 minutes. And I don't think Lally understands. It's about reasonable doubt, buddy. And there has been a whole hell of a lot of that heaped into the mix. Whereas there's nothing where I can look at it and say, "You know what? "That's definitely what happened." There's a bunch of evidence that proves that. We have DNA, blah, blah, blah, no. It's all what you're telling us happened. And based on the shitty investigation that you dudes did, I have a hard time believing it. Free Karen Reed supporters outside the courthouse. Supporters of Reed, many wearing pink as a sign of support, have been present outside the Superior Court and get 'em throughout the trial. They're required to remain outside of a buffer zone set by Judge Beverly Canoni in an effort to maintain an unbiased jury. On Monday, the crowd was the largest it's been during the proceedings. The crowd swarmed Reed and her team and she left court, it's heartwarming, Karen Reed said, outside the court. It'd be difficult to come to court every day with a different reception. So I'm grateful for it. Hey, look, I would be too. And I know there's a lot of people out there that wanna look at Karen Reed as this ultimate villain, but I haven't seen that evidence yet. So until I see that evidence, I'm not getting on that train. And frankly, from what we've seen in the trial, I don't think she's far off saying that she was framed. I mean, what else could it be at this point? Now if it was just a bad investigation, that's one thing, but it's starting to look like something else. WBC TV's Penny Kemet said there were about 200 cheering supporters near the courthouse. Several told her they traveled from out of state to support Reed. Battle of the experts. WBC legal analyst Jennifer Roman says it came down to a battle of the experts. Yes, it did, it always does. All these people out here who think they follow trials and know what they're talking about, a lot of them don't. Because what it really comes down to is the narrative that's going to be spun by the experts. And do they have the receipts to back it up? When the jury looks at all the theories and evidence, they will have to decide which expert they believe. The jury's job is to sort of assess the expert testimony in light of everything else that they have heard and saw during this trial. Roman said, "We can't look at any of those experts "in a vacuum. "After 29 days of testimony and 74 witnesses, "it's anyone's guess how long deliberations will last. "With this much evidence and this many witnesses, "I would think after day two or three, both sides, "are going to start to get a little bit nervous," Roman said. "And I don't know if it's going to last that long. "Honestly, considering what we've seen, "I know as a juror, it wouldn't take much for me." Prosecution rests its case against Karen Reed. After eight weeks of testimony and 68 witnesses, the state rested its case against Reed last Friday in the County Superior Court. Their final witness, the medical examiner could not say definitively that O'Keefe was hit and killed by a car, leaving his cause of death unsolved for the jury. Again, how can anyone sit here and say, Karen Reed should go to jail for the rest of her life if none of these experts can say definitively what happened? It's not like we have DNA evidence here, folks. Oh, there's a hair on the bumper, they live together. And remember, it's not about Karen Reed being not guilty. It's about them not having enough evidence to convict her. That's really what it comes down to. And I have not seen the evidence that the commonwealth said it was going to present. And you add to that, what all of these experts and these different medical examiners are saying that they can't put their finger on what happened, then how as a juror can you sit there and say, "Oh, you know what, she's guilty, let's put her away forever." Karen Reed showed the defense witness list. A plow driver testified for the defense Friday, saying he plowed the street outside the home on Fairview Road in Canton several times between two and six a.m. that night. He said he saw nothing on the lawn. O'Keefe was later found there dead in the snow. So, he didn't see anything. Is that definitive? Of course not, there's a blizzard, a lot of other stuff. But when you add it up to the totality of the evidence, again, I find it very hard to believe the narrative being pitched by the commonwealth. Who is Karen Reed? Reed, 44 of Mansfield, Massachusetts, is charged with second degree murder in O'Keefe's death, along with manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of a personal injury and death. She and O'Keefe were dating at the time he died. Prosecutors say Reed had been drinking for hours with O'Keefe before she hit him with her Lexus SUV, while making a three-point turn after dropping him off at an after party at the Canton home of Boston police officer Brian Albert. Her attorney say O'Keefe actually walked into the home and was killed in a fight there. And all of that stuff, I have no idea. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you one way or the other what happened 'cause I don't know. There's no evidence one way or the other that can be presented. But what I will tell you is this, the narrative that was being pumped by the commonwealth, that shit's DOA as far as I'm concerned, and I'm very, very curious to see which way the jury ends up going. And considering that, we are now on verdict watch. So whenever we get a verdict, whenever we get some more information, we'll get it added to the catalog ASAP. But that's gonna do it for this one. 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