Latest news with #Welcher
Yahoo
06-06-2025
- Yahoo
Karen Read trial: Prosecution rests its case after 6 weeks. What's next in the case?
Editor's note: This page summarizes testimony in the Karen Read trial for Thursday, May 29. For the latest updates on the Karen Read retrial, visit USA TODAY's coverage for Friday, May 30. Prosecutors in Karen Read's second murder trial rested their case Thursday after more than six weeks of intensive testimony from witnesses in the trial over whether the Massachusetts woman killed her Boston police officer boyfriend in 2022. Jurors over the past 23 days have heard from witnesses alleging Read said "I hit him" after John O'Keefe's body was discovered outside the home of another cop, forensic scientists who analyzed taillight fragments from Read's Lexus SUV at the crime scene and medical experts who said O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with being hit by a car. Together, prosecutors believe the testimony proves their argument that Read, 45, struck O'Keefe, 46, with her SUV in a drunken rage and left him to die in the snow outside the home of another cop after a night out drinking with friends. Read has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crime. Read's first trial ended in a hung jury in 2024. Judge Beverly Cannone dismissed jurors at noon on Thursday, telling them that Read's second trial is ahead of schedule. Cannone previously said the trial would take between six and eight weeks. Next, Read's defense team will have a chance to lay out their own version of events. They have long said she was framed for the murder in an elaborate conspiracy devised by Massachusetts police officers. At the heart of that theory, are allegations that O'Keefe was beaten by cops inside the home he was found near and then attacked by a Karen Read claims police bungled the investigation. What did they supposedly do wrong? Here are the latest updates from Day 23 of the trial. The prosecution rested its case at about 11:30 a.m. The trial entered its sixth week on Tuesday, May 27. Cannone dismissed the jury at noon on Thursday. She said the trial is ahead of schedule. Prosecutors played a clip for the jury of an interview with Read for an ID Docuseries that aired in April 2024, in which she questions whether she ran O'Keefe over. 'I thought, could I have run him over? Did he try to get me as I was leaving and I didn't know it?' Read said. 'I mean I've always got the music blasting.' 'When I hired David Yannetti, I asked him those questions,' Read continued. '[Yannetti] said, 'Yeah, then you have some element of culpability.' Prosecutor Hank Brennan took only a few minutes to question Welcher upon redirect, asking him whether he had any concerns about his analysis and data being tainted or impacted by confirmation bias. Welcher said he was confident the data was correct. Alessi then pressed Welcher about confirmation bias and the data he used to which Welcher responded: 'I suspect I've bored these people to death already.' Welcher finished his testimony a few minutes before 11:30 a.m. Alessi trained his first line of attack for the day on Welcher's analysis of Ring camera footage captured outside of O'Keefe's home in Canton, Massachusetts, the morning of Jan. 30, 2022. The video showed Read's Lexus SUV hitting O'Keefe's parked Chevrolet Traverse as it backed out of the driveway. Welcher previously testified that he believed "to a high degree of engineering certainty" that the 'impact did not break or crack' Read's taillight. The testimony is significant because pieces of Read's taillight were discovered near O'Keefe's body and are a key piece of evidence the prosecution has used to connect her to the crime. Alessi pointed out that the Ring camera outside O'Keefe's home had been replaced between Jan. 2022 and the time that Welcher conducted his analysis. He grilled Welcher on whether his team of engineers accounted for potential differences in the location and models of the two Ring cameras in their analysis and suggested that a difference of even a few inches could have impacted their analysis. Welcher said his team did not physically measure differences in the two cameras but used computer-assisted processes to adjust their analysis based on the discrepancies. A similar back-and-forth ensued when Alessi asked whether Welcher had the exact suspension measurement for Read's Lexus at different points along the timeline, again arguing that a difference of a few inches could throw off the entire analysis. Welcher said his team based its analysis of the suspension height of the vehicle while it was in police possession and suggested that it would have been roughly the same height it was at the morning of Jan. 30, 2022. But Alessi cast doubt about whether those measurements were, telling Welcher he was missing pertinent data. Before the jury was allowed into the courtroom, Alessi continued arguments from Wednesday, May 28, asking Judge Beverly Cannone to allow him to cross-examine Welcher about pieces of information he received from Massachusetts State Police Trooper Joseph Paul and medical examiner Irini Scordi-Bello. Alessi argued that Welcher relied on the information in his analysis. Cannone rejected the arguments, prohibiting Alessi from using the line of questioning in his cross-examination. CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O'Keefe's body was found outside a Massachusetts home. You can watch CourtTV's live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings began at 10 a.m. ET. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karen Read trial updates: Prosecution rests its case, what's next?
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Karen Read retrial: Biggest takeaways from week 6 as prosecution rests its case
The prosecution rested this week in the Karen Read retrial after calling their last witness, a crash reconstruction expert who testified about his opinions whether John O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with being struck by an SUV. The prosecution's theory is that Read struck O'Keefe in a fit of rage outside of 34 Fairview Road in Canton in January 2022 and left him incapacitated to die in the snow. Judson Welcher, an accident reconstructionist and biomechanical engineer, spent three days testifying about his analysis of Read's Lexus and injuries to O'Keefe. Welcher testified that his opinion is that the damage to Read's SUV and the evidence in the case was 'consistent with a collision' with O'Keefe. He said that data from her SUV shows she drove in reverse at more than 20 mph outside of the Canton home where his body was found on Jan. 29, 2022. He also said that the car driving faster than 8 mph and hitting an arm in a sideswipe could've cracked the taillight. Then prosecutors used Read's own words to cap off their presentation of their case. Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan has woven interview clips of Read throughout the trial, and he saved one for the end. Here are the biggest takeaways from the week: At the end of Tuesday's testimony, Brennan asked a pointed question about whether Welcher believed, based on his analysis of the evidence, that Read's Lexus collided with O'Keefe around 12:32 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. 'Yes, based on the totality of evidence ... that is what happened,' Welcher said. The defense objected to the question, and the judge ultimately struck the statement from the record. The question then set off a debate between lawyers, but jurors heard Welcher's answer. Welcher had gone through the day explaining how he derived his opinion. 'Red marks' surrounded the broken cocktail glass in the snow at the scene. He had played videos of tests he conducted using an 'exemplar' Lexus, another way of saying he had bought the same Lexus model that Read had driven that night. In one test, the Lexus backed up at 2 mph and struck his right arm, bent and holding a cocktail glass. Blue paint on the taillight transferred onto his arm and left a large mark. When compared side by side with photos of O'Keefe's injuries, they were similar in coverage area. During cross-examination, Welcher said he did not use a crash dummy because he would only have one or two 'shots at it' before they damaged the car. 'Pedestrian impacts are so sensitive to initial angles,' he said. 'I was not going to hit myself with the Lexus at 20 mph.' Welcher also pointed out that there was a bruise on O'Keefe's right knee approximately at the height of the bumper of Read's SUV. He said the cuts on his arm were consistent with the 'geometry and orientation' of the right taillight. Still, he admitted that a lot of information was still unknown about the physics of the crash. 'We don't know the exact point of impact,' Welcher said. 'We don't have absolute information to say exactly where he was.' Based on the car's data, however, Welcher said that Read's SUV went three quarters 'full throttle' in reverse on Jan. 29, 2022, at around 12:30 a.m. and reached about 23 mph and traveled a total of 87 feet in reverse. A large part of Welcher's testimony involved attempting to dispel a theory put forward by the defense last trial. The issue of when Read cracked her taillight is highly contested. Her lawyers have pointed to a Ring video recorded by a security camera above O'Keefe's garage as evidence that she could've cracked it on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, before she found O'Keefe. Neama Rahmani, an attorney and former federal prosecutor based in Los Angeles, said Welcher's testimony was useful for prosecutors in combatting one of the defense's big arguments. 'There was also important testimony about the broken taillight and how the broken taillight was consistent with Read hitting John O'Keefe as a pedestrian, and that it was not consistent with an accident with John O'Keefe's vehicle,' said Rahmani, who's followed both trials. In one video from Jan. 29, 2022, before she found O'Keefe's body, Read backs up and makes contact with O'Keefe's Chevrolet Traverse. Central to the prosecution's theory of the case is that Read backed up her SUV and struck O'Keefe, smashing the taillight on his arm in the process. 'Obviously, the defense is arguing that the taillight was broken in another incident with O'Keefe's car or it was broken when law enforcement impounded the vehicle and towed it in the blizzard,' Rahmani said. Welcher's presentation, using a PowerPoint, explaining how the company he works for, Aperture, created digital 3D models of both vehicles using laser scanners along with videos. From the videos and laser scans, Welcher said they figured out 'the exact position of the vehicles when that Lexus stopped … and the exact contact.' 'The only evidence of contact is nowhere near the upper taillight,' Welcher said. Using a photograph of O'Keefe's Traverse, he showed that only a scuff mark remained from when Read's SUV made contact well below the taillight. He said that Read's SUV drove 1 mph or less during the impact with O'Keefe's car. 'That impact did not break or crack that taillight,' Welcher said. A feature of this retrial is the prosecution's use of video clips of Read's various media interviews in recent years. None of the videos were played in the first trial. Brennan, who was hired specifically to try the Read case, has woven video clips in between witness testimony. 'These videos are really hurtful,' Jack Lu, a retired superior court judge, said in an interview last week. After a collection of videos was played last week, Lu said the videos 'alone might be enough to convict the defendant.' After Welcher, the prosecution's final witness, stepped off the stand on Thursday, Brennan played one final clip. Here is the full quote Read said in the clip: So I thought, 'Could I have run him over?' Did he try to get me as I was leaving and I didn't know it. I mean, I've always got the music blasting. It's snowing. I got the wipers going, the heater blasting. Did he — did he come in the back of my car and I hit him in the knee and he's drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something. And then I hired David Yannetti, I asked him those questions. 'The night of January 29, David, what if, I don't know, what if I ran his foot over, or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out and or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out.' And David [said] 'Yeah, then you have some element of culpability.' As the prosecution wound down its case in chief, Read told reporters she would put on a fuller and deeper defense during the retrial than she did at her first trial. On Friday, that began with Matthew DiSogra taking the stand. DiSogra is the director of engineering for the Event Data Recorder lab at Delta V and is an expert in vehicle data. His primary role for the defense was not to counter Welcher's testimony, but to offer a different interpretation of the data taken from Read's SUV. While DiSogra relied on the testing of Welcher's Aperture colleague, Shanon Burgess, he came to a different conclusion. DiSogra told the jury that all the clock variances identified by Burgess created 30 possibilities for when exactly the techstream event identified as a 'backing maneuver' happened relative to the last time O'Keefe locked his phone. It's critical for the prosecution's case that the phone was locked before the 'backing maneuver' ended, because they claim that maneuver is when Read hit O'Keefe with her car. DiSogra explained that of those 30 possibilities, just three showed the phone lock occurring before the end of the event. Since DiSogra was called by the defense, Brennan got his first chance to cross-examine a witness. Jurors saw a different side of the prosecutor, whose experience as a criminal defense attorney was evident during the questioning. Brennan came out swinging. 'Are you trying to offer an opinion suggesting Ms. Read's Lexus never hit John O'Keefe on Jan. 29, 2022?' he asked. 'Is that your opinion?' The opening question set the stage for what was a thorough cross-examination of DiSogra, during which Breannan sought to undermine the accuracy of some of his conclusions. But Alan Jackson, one of Read's lawyers, noted on redirect that all of DiSogra's conclusions were based on the data from Aperture. The defense will call its next witness when the trial resumes at 9 a.m. Monday. MassLive reporter Charlie McKenna contributed to this story. Karen Read trial recap: 1st defense witness provides alternate theory of SUV data Karen Read trial recap: Prosecution rests its case against Read Karen Read trial recap: Sideswipe at 8 mph could've shattered taillight, expert says Karen Read trial recap: Expert dressed like John O'Keefe and used paint to test car crash scenarios Takeaways from week 5 of Karen Read retrial: Clocks, injuries and broken glass Read the original article on MassLive.
NBC News
30-05-2025
- NBC News
Karen Read murder trial: Three things to know now that the prosecution has rested
After six weeks and dozens of witnesses, Massachusetts prosecutors retrying Karen Read on a murder charge in the widely publicized death of her boyfriend three years ago rested their case Thursday. While the theory put forward by special prosecutor Hank Brennan was the same as that offered by the assistant district attorney who previously tried the case — Read, drunk and angry, struck John O'Keefe with her Lexus SUV and left him for dead on Jan. 29, 2022 — there were some notable changes from Read's first trial, which ended with a hung jury last summer. Absent were two high-profile witnesses who were key to the defense's claims that Read was framed. Also missing was the former Massachusetts state trooper who led the investigation into O'Keefe's death and was fired after revelations of misconduct emerged in the first trial. Another notable change was the role of Read, who has maintained her innocence, herself. In addition to speaking to reporters outside the courtroom, her words have been a regular presence in Brennan's presentation, which has featured a series of interview clips that show what Brennan has described as Read's 'campaign' of public statements. Read's lawyers are expected to begin making their case Friday. A key witness tries to re-create the scene The prosecution's final witness was one of its most important. No cameras captured the events that led to O'Keefe's death, nor have any witnesses claimed to have seen what happened at 34 Fairview Road — the home in Canton, just south of Boston, where O'Keefe, 46, was found unresponsive in the front yard shortly after 6 a.m. on Jan. 29. But Judson Welcher, a biomechanical engineer and accident reconstruction expert, testified that data from Read's 2021 Lexus showed that at 12:32 a.m., outside 34 Fairview, the vehicle drove forward 34 feet, then reversed 53 feet. The SUV was traveling at nearly 24 mph, he said, with a throttle of 74 percent. While there was no vehicle data to support Brennan's allegation of a collision, Welcher testified that lacerations on O'Keefe's right arm were 'consistent' with injuries caused by a broken rear right tail light on the SUV. Welcher testified that his height and weight approximated O'Keefe's — around 6 feet tall and 220 pounds — and he conducted re-enactments showing what such a collision might look like. In one video, Welcher wore similar clothes as O'Keefe from Jan. 29 — jeans, t-shirt, baseball cap — while a Lexus that was the same model and year as Read's backed into him at 2 mph. Welcher also knocked down the defense's claim that the broken tail light came from a different collision on Jan. 29. As Read left her home around 5 a.m. to look for O'Keefe, she was in a panic, she has said, and she backed her Lexus into his Chevrolet Traverse. Ring camera video played in court captured the incident. But Welcher testified that an analysis of the video showed Read was driving less than 1 mph at the time and there was no evidence of any damage to either vehicle. 'That impact did not break or crack that tail light," Welcher said. Who didn't they call to testify? Michael Proctor, the ex-trooper and case agent who managed the investigation into O'Keefe's death, was included on the prosecution's list of possible witnesses. In the first trial, Proctor spent hours on the stand and acknowledged that comments he made to friends, family and supervisors about Read were unprofessional and 'dehumanized' her. But, prosecutors did not call him to testify in the retrial. The Massachusetts State Police dishonorably discharged Proctor in March after an internal investigation found that he violated agency rules by sending derogatory messages and sharing confidential investigative details with non-law enforcement personnel. Proctor testified that his conduct did not harm the investigation. He has not publicly commented on his termination, but his family has criticized his former employer, saying he was unfairly scapegoated. His former supervisor testified this month that Proctor had acted with 'honor and integrity.' 'I believe human beings all have biases,' Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik told the jury. 'Especially in this case, they did not affect the outcome of the investigation.' Bukhenik acknowledged that he was disciplined in part for failing to adequately supervise Proctor and lost five vacation days. Proctor is listed as a possible witness for the defense, which has accused him of bias and manipulating evidence. Two other figures who played an outsized role in the first trial — Brian Albert and Brian Higgins — were also included on the prosecution's witness list but were not called to testify. Albert, a retired Boston police sergeant, lived with his family at 34 Fairview at the time of O'Keefe's death and had a gathering at his home on Jan. 29 that O'Keefe planned on attending. Prosecutors — and Albert — have said that O'Keefe never made it to the party and no one who was there that morning saw him inside. But the defense has alleged that O'Keefe entered Albert's home, and was beaten, bitten by the family's German Shepherd and dragged outside, where he died. They've pointed to Higgins, an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who was at the gathering, as a possible conspirator in this alternative theory of the case. In the weeks before O'Keefe's death, a series of text messages introduced as evidence showed Higgins flirting with Read and appearing frustrated when she does not speak more candidly about what she wants from him. This tension likely prompted the fight that led to O'Keefe's death, the lawyers have said. (Through their attorneys, both men have denied involvement.) Albert and Higgins are both included on the defense's list of possible witnesses. What does Karen Read say? Read has been unusually candid with journalists, and Brennan has shown a series of clips from interviews she has given to reinforce the prosecution's theory of O'Keefe's death. In one clip, shown during opening statements on April 22, Read was captured telling 'Dateline' that she could have 'tagged' O'Keefe in the knee 'and incapacitated him. He didn't look mortally wounded as far as I could see. But could I have done something that knocked him out?' In another clip, shown earlier this month, she was captured telling 'Investigation Discovery' about the moment she found O'Keefe in the yard of 34 Fairview. She wondered out loud if she could have run over his foot as she began driving from Albert's home. 'He's roughly where I left him, so yeah when I found him I was thinking, did I like clip him somehow?' she said. In another series of clips introduced as evidence last month, Read was shown talking openly about her drinking. She and O'Keefe had been at two bars before they drove to Albert's house, and in an interview with "20/20," she was asked if she felt fine to drive after four drinks. 'Yup,' she responded. In a separate clip, she told a Boston Magazine reporter that she drank a 'normal amount' — a vodka tonic every 40 minutes. 'No,' she said.
Boston Globe
29-05-2025
- Boston Globe
Prosecutors rest case at Karen Read trial
'So I thought, could I have run him over?' Read told the interviewer. 'Did he try to get [to] me as I was leaving, and I didn't know it?' She said the music and heat were 'blasting' inside the SUV and she had the wipers on. Advertisement 'Did he come and hit the back of my car and I hit him in the knee and he's drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something?' Read said. 'And then when I hired [lawyer] David Yannetti I asked him those questions. ... 'David, what if I ran his foot over'' or struck him in the knee and 'he passed out.' Yannetti told her under that scenario, 'You have some element of culpability,' she said. Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death. Prosecutors allege she backed her Lexus SUV in a drunken rage into O'Keefe, a Boston police officer, after dropping him off outside the Canton home around 12:30 a.m., following a night of bar-hopping. Advertisement Her lawyers say she was framed and that O'Keefe entered the home, owned at the time by a fellow Boston officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German shepherd before his body was planted on the lawn. Read's first trial ended in July with a hung jury, and she remains free on bail. Before jurors viewed the interview clip Thursday, Judson Welcher, a biomechanical engineer and crash reconstructionist, completed his cross-examination by Read attorney Robert Alessi. Alessi spent much of the morning pressing Welcher about laser-scan testing he conducted at O'Keefe's driveway in October. The testing was done in an effort to determine whether Read's right taillight could've been damaged when she lightly backed her SUV into O'Keefe's parked Chevy Traverse around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, as she left to go look for him. Welcher said his testing revealed that while the Lexus and Traverse did make contact, the Lexus's taillight remained about an inch away from the Traverse. Alessi showed a photo from one of Welcher's slides that appears to show Read's taillight by the Traverse, with no daylight between the vehicles. Alessi asked if the photo shows the taillight actually touching the Traverse, and Welcher said it does not. Alessi also asked if the depiction in the slide didn't show Read's taillight 'jutting out,' as a separate photo did. 'It does,' Welcher said of his slide. 'Those are actually more on the side of the vehicle. You can't see them in this image.' Welcher said the security camera in October was positioned slightly more to the right than the January 2022 camera that O'Keefe had installed at the time. He said he and his team accounted for the discrepancies and 'corrected' them in the report. Advertisement Before Welcher returned to the stand, without the jury present, Alessi argued that he should be allowed to ask him about a key 'Techstream' event recorded by Read's Lexus that Welcher said indicates she drove her SUV in reverse on Fairview Road with the accelerator pressed down 74 percent, reaching a speed of nearly 24 miles per hour. Techstream events refer to sudden movements such as abrupt stops or putting a vehicle into a reverse. Alessi told Judge Beverly J. Cannone that a report from State Police Trooper Joseph Paul, a crash reconstructionist, is 'problematic' for the prosecution's narrative. 'If you work backwards from his key cycles [for the Lexus], you end up with' the reversal maneuver 'being not in front of 34 Fairview, but it ends up when the Lexus is in the possession of the state.' Read's SUV was towed from her parents' home in Dighton late on the afternoon of Jan. 29, 2022, and brought to a Canton police garage for processing. Brennan, the prosecutor, countered that the defense was 'trying to pit the inadmissible opinion of a non-testifying witness against a testifying witness.' 'They want the jury to hear their perspective that a past witness had confusion in their analysis, but they don't want to call the witness,' he said, referring to Paul. Cannone ultimately ruled that Alessi couldn't ask Welcher about the issues related to Paul's findings. The defense will begin presenting its case to the jury Friday at 9:30 a.m. Cannone said she would speak with the attorneys outside the jury's presence at 9 a.m.. Advertisement The trial is 'ahead of schedule,' Cannone said. Material from prior Globe stories was used. Travis Andersen can be reached at
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
State Witness in Karen Read Retrial Dressed Like Deceased Boston Cop to Reconstruct Scene
Jurors in the controversial Karen Read retrial underway in Massachusetts in connection with the Jan. 29, 2022 death of her Boston cop boyfriend saw photos of a prosecution witness in similar clothes that were worn by John O'Keefe when he died as part of what he described as an accident reconstruction. Accident deconstructionist Dr. Judson Welcher, who is expected to be the state's last witness in the bombshell case, told jurors he dressed like O'Keefe to see whether the wounds on the officer's right arm were consistent the right taillight of Read's Lexus SUV. Welcher testified that because he's roughly the same height as O'Keefe he wore clothing identical to what O'Keefe was wearing when he was found in a snowbank on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton, down to the same model of sneakers. Welcher works for Aperture, a company based in Texas that received roughly $400,000 in taxpayer funds to testify for the government, according to testimony in the case. "So there's been two potential theories. One is that a glass was thrown at rear of vehicle... the other was impact to the arm," Welcher told the court. He testified about movements made by Read's Lexus before O'Keefe's phone stopped responding, which the government argues shows that she hit her boyfriend after a night of heavy drinking and left him to die during a blinding blizzard. Her defense team insists O'Keefe was beaten inside the house where his body was found on the lawn, and may have been attacked by the homeowner's former dog, a German Shepherd named Chloe. In recent testimony, another Aperture employee was forced to admit on the stand that he misrepresented his credentials before testifying in the Read trial, prompting a fiery exchange between that witness, Shannon Burgess, and Read's attorney Robert Alessi who asked: "Either you have a bachelor of science degree or you don't." Burgess replied that he did not. Read reacted to Welcher's testimony after court ended Tuesday, which came after a five day break. During the break, on May 21, Judge Beverly Cannone, who is overseeing Read's retrial after her first trial ended in a hung jury last year, was honored by the Norfolk County Bar Association as the "Person of the Year." 'So he tried to dress identically to John, but didn't do anything else to mimic what the commonwealth is accusing me of,' Read told reporters at the end of the court day added: 'I think it's important to demonstrate, what is the commonwealth accusing me of? The speed? The positioning? Recreate that for us. … That's what I would want to see if I were you.' When Welcher's testimony concludes, the trial will be put into the hands of Read's defense team. Read is facing second-degree murder charges and the possibility of life in prison. Los Angeles defense attorneys Alan Jackson, a former prosecutor in the city, and Elizabeth Little, are working alongside Massachusetts lawyers David Yanetti and Robert Alessi. The state hired a special prosecutor, Hank Brennan, who had represented notorious Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, who became a fugitive for more than a decade before his capture at a rent-controlled apartment building in Santa Monica.
