Defense in Karen Read case accuses special prosecutor of misleading jury about damaged hoodie evidence

Karen Read defense attorney Robert Alessi moved for a mistrial again Monday over special prosecutor Hank Brennan's handling of John O'Keefe's hoodie during cross-examination of a defense expert witness.
"Your honor, the defense moves for a mistrial with prejudice Based upon intentional misconduct that just occurred before the court and before the jury," Alessi said.
He said the motion came in response to representations Brennan made while questioning Dr. Daniel Wolfe, a crash reconstructionist from a firm called ARCCA.
Brennan, while cross-examining Wolfe about damage to O'Keefe's hoodie, showed him the actual piece of clothing, which had a series of holes in the back.
Jury Skepticism Of Experts Could Determine Outcome In Karen Read Murder Trial: Former Judge
Alessi contended that the holes were created by a criminologist during lab testing and that they did not exist when police took the sweatshirt.
Read On The Fox News App
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, by clipping him with her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die on the ground in a record-setting blizzard.
Before jurors arrived, Judge Beverly Cannone heard motions regarding rebuttal testimony and to preclude or limit expert witnesses.
WATCH: Karen Read defense moves for a mistrial again
She said she would hold an additional evidentiary hearing to determine what Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a Rhode Island forensic pathologist and professor at Brown University, can testify in front of jurors.
David Yannetti, one of Read's defense lawyers, told the court that her legal team believes O'Keefe was "placed" on the ground near a flagpole outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts. Laposata is expected to discuss O'Keefe's injuries and how and where he could have suffered them.
The home is about 20 miles south of Boston. Read, O'Keefe and others went there for an after-party on Jan. 28, 2022.
Dr. Daniel Wolfe, the reconstructionist from a firm called ARCCA, testified last week that damage to Read's SUV is inconsistent with the type of impact that prosecutors allege left O'Keefe dead early the following morning.
'Cannon' Test Boosts Karen Read's Defense, Showing Taillight Damage Consistent With Thrown Bar Glass
GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE True Crime Hub
But on cross-examination, he conceded that flying fragments of a taillight could have been the source of injuries to O'Keefe's face and nose before he suffered a fractured skull from what prosecution experts testified was a backward fall.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, drunken driving manslaughter and leaving the scene.
Follow The Fox True Crime Team On X
Sign Up To Get The True Crime Newsletter
Her defense maintains that her vehicle never struck O'Keefe and that his injuries were caused in some other manner after she left.
Read could face life in prison if convicted of the top charge. Jurors deadlocked at her first trial last year on the same charges.Original article source: Defense in Karen Read case accuses special prosecutor of misleading jury about damaged hoodie evidence

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Learn with AIFact CheckingText to SpeechAI Summary

Related Articles

Yahoo

30 minutes ago

• Yahoo

Police sound alarm on dangerous 'jugging' robbery trend sweeping across America

As surveillance footage of an increasingly popular violent street crime has surfaced from South Carolina, police are warning Americans of the disturbing trend. The crime is known as "jugging," a type of robbery in which criminals surveil banks and ATMs, watching for victims who withdraw large sums of money. When those victims finish their transactions, the "juggers" will usually follow them to a secondary location, where they will rob the victims, often inside their vehicles. "Jugging rhymes with mugging, it's spread from Texas to South Carolina," Fox News Senior Correspondent Steve Harrigan said on "America Reports" on Friday. "Some police there weren't even sure what the word meant until the crime started happening in their own districts. Law enforcement warns that it could be over in a flash." Bronx Car Owner Dragged In Street During Carjacking Caught On Camera In the footage, captured on April 26, a man can be seen struggling inside the front passenger area of a red truck, before jumping out of that vehicle and into a silver SUV. The SUV then speeds off, and it is captured from different surveillance angles fleeing the parking lot. Cpl. Cecilio Reyes of the Mauldin, South Carolina, Police Department explained how the crime typically plays out. Read On The Fox News App "They are scoping, and they will watch you as you're either coming in or going out of the bank, or watch you do ATM withdrawals, seeing how much you're getting cash wise," Reyes said. Crew Of Armed Gunmen Rob Armored Truck Outside Of Chicago-area Bank In Broad Daylight Harrigan described a wave of jugging arrests in Texas, before the practice began spreading to North and South Carolina. "In one place in South Carolina, a landscaping business owner went in a bank unaware that he was being observed, took out his weekly payroll, stopped at a gas station for a soda, and two juggers – they usually work in teams – pulled up alongside his Chevy, broke through the window and made off with what his entire payroll was, $6,000." Harrigan also reported that the Texas legislature is working to make jugging a specific felony, with harsher penalties than simple article source: Police sound alarm on dangerous 'jugging' robbery trend sweeping across America

USA Today

7 hours ago

• USA Today

Brian Albert, Jennifer McCabe, more witnesses speak out after Karen Read verdict

In the hours since Karen Read was found not guilty of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, several key witnesses from both trials have broken their silence on the verdict. Michael Proctor, the former Massachusetts State Police lead investigator on the case, who testified in the first trial and was later fired for misconduct stemming from the case, spoke out in interviews on ABC's "20/20" and NBC's "Dateline" that aired on June 18 and 19, respectively. A group of O'Keefe's friends, including Brian and Nicole Albert and Jennifer and Matt McCabe, also shared their thoughts in an interview with ABC News that aired on June 20. The group earlier called the verdict "a devastating miscarriage of justice" in a statement released to USA TODAY. Both Proctor and the Albert and McCabe families were at the center of the theory presented by Read's defense team about a possible police cover-up in O'Keefe's death. They have consistently denied the allegations. A Massachusetts jury on June 18 found Read not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She was found guilty of operating a vehicle under the influence and sentenced to one year of probation. Karen Read timeline Key dates in John O' Keefe murder case Brian Albert says he 'would have taken a bullet' for John O'Keefe In an interview with ABC News that aired on June 20, Brian Albert, a retired Boston police officer who owned the home where O'Keefe's body was found on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, said he and his family "did the civic duty" in this case. "The criminal justice system has let us down at every turn, and yesterday was the final letdown," he said. Brian Albert also said the theories that he was involved in O'Keefe's death are "preposterous and silly." He responded to lingering questions about why he did not go outside on the morning O'Keefe's body was found, calling it "ridiculous." "I would have taken a bullet for John O'Keefe because he was a fellow cop," Brian Albert said. During the interview, Jennifer McCabe, who was with Read when O'Keefe's body was found, also spoke about the "hos (sic) long to die in cold" Google search she made that became a contentious piece of evidence in both trials. She has maintained that she made the search because Read asked her to after they found O'Keefe's body, while the defense alleged she made the search hours before he was found. "Doesn't matter how much I say about it, people will not believe it," she said. Michael Proctor says crude texts 'don't define me as a person' Proctor's personal text messages, many of which expressed crude comments about Read, came under scrutiny during the first trial. He was later fired for misconduct stemming from the case and broke his silence in a series of interviews after Read's verdict was announced, after he was not invited to take the stand in her second trial. He said in an interview with ABC News that he developed negative feelings toward Read "as the case went on." "When you have a fellow police officer around my age, two kids of his own, it generates emotion," he said. "And I expressed those emotions in a negative way, which I shouldn't've." Proctor added, "They are what they are, they don't define me as a person." In an interview on NBC's "Dateline," Proctor laughed at the theory that he was involved in a possible cover-up. "I laugh because it's such a ridiculous accusation," he said. "There's not one piece of evidence or fact to support that." Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at

Boston Globe

8 hours ago

• Boston Globe

Bill Burr, comedian and Canton native, says he ‘thought everyone was lyin'' in Karen Read case

'Maybe she knew, maybe that's why she was smiling,' Burr said of Read, after being told of the verdict. 'That's amazing, so now what, they keep investigating?' He added, 'I thought everyone was lyin', I don't know what happened.' Advertisement Read, 45, was acquitted of second-degree murder, manslaughter while OUI, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, with the jury convicting her only of drunk driving, a misdemeanor. She received a year of probation. Read hugs her parents Janet and William after the verdict is read in Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool) Greg Derr/Associated Press Prosecutors had said she backed her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend, Read's lawyers said O'Keefe entered the property, owned at the time by a fellow Boston officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by the family German Shepherd before his body was planted on the lawn. Read's first criminal trial had ended with a hung jury in July, and she Advertisement Travis Andersen can be reached at