Read trial ‘winding down’ as it stretches into week 8

“We are definitely winding down.” That is what Judge Beverly Cannone said at the close of Tuesday’s trial session in the case of Commonwealth of Massachusetts vs. Karen Read. She also noted in a discussion with the attorneys that the case would likely be going to the jury this Friday or next Monday at the latest.

Read is being tried at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham for drunkenly hitting her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her Lexus SUV and leaving him in the snow to die in the early morning of January 29, 2022. Led by Los Angeles attorney Alan Jackson, Read’s defense aims to cultivate doubt in the minds of jury members concerning the three charges against her: second degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Six witnesses testified for the defense on days 27-30 of the trial. The trial, which has been widely publicized, has inevitably involved gruesome details about O’Keefe’s injuries and the manner of his death. Some photographs, particularly those relating to the autopsy, have been projected on the courtroom screen for the jury to see but not included in the televised video of trial proceedings. The presence of O’Keefe’s mother in the courtroom serves as another reminder that though the trial may seem convoluted and legalistic or remote at times, it is ultimately about suffering and death.

Nevertheless, there have been occasional, unintended bits of dark humor that lighten the serious testimony. One such moment happened on Tuesday during prosecutor Hank Brennan’s cross examination of Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a Rhode Island-based forensic pathologist. She had been describing details of brain and head injuries. Presumably with the idea of clearly establishing that the brain is soft, Brennan asked whether she would say the brain is “consistent with the texture of tofu.” “Oh, gross!” she replied. She quickly regrouped and continued answering questions about how she reached her conclusion that Read’s vehicle “did not hit [O’Keefe].”

Laposata said that O’Keefe’s eye laceration was not consistent with the Lexus “spoiler” and must have been caused by some other blunt force. She said that his skull fractures would have caused immediate incapacitation, with death following very shortly afterward and that hypothermia was not a cause. She also noted that the characteristics of the wound at the back of O’Keefe’s head indicated that he had fallen on a hard, ridged, “granular” surface and that the flat lawn at 34 Fairview Road was not consistent with that.

Laposata, whose testimony had begun the previous day, was not allowed to testify about dog bites, with Cannone having so ruled in agreement with Brennan’s claim that she was not sufficiently qualified. Laposata did, however, state that her expertise in wound pattern recognition enabled her to conclude that the injuries on O’Keefe’s right arm were consistent with animal bites. This indirectly supported an idea previously advanced by the defense, namely that the homeowners’ dog, Chloe, may have caused some of O’Keefe’s injuries.

Also on Tuesday, Andrew Rentschler, biomechanist at ARCCA …

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Posted by Candace Paris on Jun 12 2025. Filed under News, Police & Fire. Both comments and pings are currently closed.