Karen Read Retrial, Week 4: A Hot Mic, a Cold Body, and a Defense That's Boiling Mad

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

I've been saying from the beginning, not only of Commonwealth v. Karen Read 2: The Retrialing, but also the first film in this series that came out last year, that one of the aspects that makes it all so compelling and such a national story is that it's the good people of Norfolk County sharing Masshole Culture with the civilized world. The accents. The animosity. The economy that operates on favors and sketchy back room dealings. The (alleged) corruption and (supposed) conflicts of interest. This is us in microcosm. From the "I was drinking Jameson & gingah" to "We cawled ha a babysittah with benefits," it's been a cross between a "Your cousin from Boston" commercial and an SNL "Girlfriend From Every Boxing Movie" sketch. Just grafted onto an actual criminal trial with a real murder victim and a grieving family. 

And there may have been no better example of that Massholery than the fact Judge Beverly Cannone may have been picked up by a hot mic calling one of the defense attorneys "Asshole" under her breath. You decide. Volume up:

I'm going to be honest, if people online hadn't pointed out that's what she said, I'm not sure I'd have picked it up. And I'm still not totally convinced. But then, in my career with the MA Trial Court I probably had so many judges whispering "asshole" toward me, I'm probably immune to hearing it by now. At this point, it's a dog whistle to my ears.

Regardless, if she didn't speak the word, she was no doubt thinking it. Like historians put it when they're not sure a certain quote is real, "If he didn't say it, he should have."

But that's just a side story to the much bigger narrative at play here. I came into the retrial hoping to play this as down the middle as I'm capable of. To see it through the eyes and ears of the jury and shut out everything else we've learned over the past three years and the first trial. And I've failed on a lot of counts. Regardless, to me the big issue is that we're now at the end of Week 4. There have been 17 days of testimony. Of the Commonwealth presenting its case. Every witness so far has been called by the prosecution. And yet I defy anyone to tell me exactly what the narrative of the case they've presented to the jury. 

We've got accounts of Karen Read saying variations of "I hit him!" various times and in various ways. Talk of her relationship with O'Keefe going south. Interviews she did with 20/20 that indicate she had a ton to drink on the night in question. Pieces of her taillight found at the scene after they we're found at the scene. And grainy, hard-to-distinguish photos supposedly depicting white light shining through the corner of one taillight:

And this jury saw the return of that one hair found on the bumper. What I'll call, in the proud tradition of Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Hell) and The Warren Commission, the Magic Follicle:

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… snowy, windy blizzard conditions. Was it gorilla glued on? 

Remarkably, the position of that same lone hair mysteriously and magically changed within less than a 2 hour period during which Hartnett was at the Canton Police Department Sallyport on February 1, 2022, processing Karen Read’s vehicle, as captured in the side-by-side image below—almost as if it were planted. 

The fact that this apparent hair had been improperly referred to and implied as being not only a human hair, but John O’Keefe’s hair, for at least 2 years by the Commonwealth in its pretrial motions and oral arguments, before they’d ever even bothered testing or establishing any forensic significance, almost suggests that the Commonwealth had guilty knowledge.

If you plant a hair that you know is John O’Keefe’s, it tracks that you’d therefore know—before any sort of testing even first confirmed said hair was actually a hair, and a human one at that—that not only is that a human hair, but it’s also the victim John O’Keefe’s hair. Somehow, the Commonwealth had this clairvoyant knowledge.

But we've yet to get any close to them putting it all together to say she threw her car into reverse once she had him in her sights with the intention of ramming him to death, and her plan worked to perfection. No one has shown his injuries were consistent with that theory. "Beyond a reasonable doubt" is the highest bar in our country's entire legal system to clear. And it seems to me Hank Brennan's team hasn't even put their vault pole into the hole in the ground yet. 

In fact, the Medical Examiner herself appeared to blow up the prosecution's entire theory:

… lb vehicle on January 29th 2022..  

Not clipped..  

Not incapacitated..  

Officer O’Keefe’s body has always told the truth ..THERE WAS NO VEHICLE IMPACT 

Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello held the line for justice, against all odds and may have just single handedly Freed Karen Read

Which is consistent with what she's said all along. And for that, Michael Proctor called her a Whack Job:

… information to rule John O'Keefe's death a "homicide", so she ruled it "undetermined", which she said today means the circumstances in the case are not entirely known or clear and the information they have does not support one manner of death over another. 

Proctor didn't like that and called her a "whack job".

More Masshole Culture for you. But Dr. Scordi-Bello got off easy. He's said a lot worse about other people in this case. Possibly so has the judge.

In fact, she put before the jury the argument the Free Karen Read people have been making all along, that O'Keefe went into the house at 34 Fairview:

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… is bias Bev trying to hide this information?  Thank you, Melanie Little

… were consistent with a punch or some sort of strike to the face, (5) could not determine the cause of the pattern of arm wounds, (6) found it possible that if there had been a car accident, John would have been immediately incapacitated and (7) then opined that the manner of death was undetermined. In the context of establishing reasonable doubt, this is devastating to the prosecution.

While the lead prosecutor Brennan threw in an absolutely Bananaland theory to explain how O'Keefe didn't show signs of frostbite or hypothermia:

… and his phone data shows him being out in the cold much later than the time he was supposed to have been dropped off:

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… by suggesting he could've been put into a fridge:

…  inconsistent with being outside. 

Leave it to Hank to create reasonable doubt by putting John O’Keefe in the refrigerator. 

Dafuq. 

And it's this stuff, the forensics and phones and experts interpreting the data, that I'm going to stick with for the rest of this post. It's extremely technical. And wonky. And confusing. And therefore as dull as when John Farrell used to defend some stupid pitching change he made by droning on about arm angles and release points and landing spots until you swallowed your tongue from boredom. So we don't dive so deep as to get the bends, I promise you. 

MassLive - With the jury out of the room, Cannone heard arguments from Alessi and Brennan about whether she should allow a prosecution expert witness to testify to conclusions he reached in a May 8 report. The expert, Shannon Burgess, analyzed the data on Read’s SUV as part of an effort to determine when, as the prosecution suggests, her car hit O’Keefe. 

Burgess’ initial report indicated the trigger event happened at 12:31 a.m. and 38 seconds. But in his amended report, he suggested the triggering event occurred at 12:32 a.m. and 16 seconds. The difference of roughly 40 seconds is crucial for both sides, as O’Keefe’s cell phone showed activity in that time frame. 

Alessi said the defense has proceeded with its case based on the original time period. He said the only remedy would be to exclude the new report altogether or to delay the trial. …

He accused prosecutors of coordinating the new report to better align with testimony of other experts. Burgess’ report cites the conclusions of another expert, Ian Whiffin, as the reason for the change. 

Alessi described it as “a very very almost impossible challenging situation.” 

But Brennan said …  the prosecution asked Burgess to examine the report of another expert, Matthew DiSogra, who was hired by Read’s defense. It was in doing so, Brennan said, that Burgess concluded the timing was incorrect. 

“Clocks are different,” he said, suggesting that the clock in Read’s Lexus was roughly 20 to 30 seconds slower than the clock in O’Keefe’s phone. 

The seemingly few seconds involved might as well be hours for the affect they have on the whole theory of the case. As this TikTokker points out (at around the 2:00 mark,) O'Keefe's phone shows he got out of her Lexus at between 12:21am and 12:24, and he took 80 steps, covering 287 feet. At 12:32, his phone covered 36 steps, or 83 feet. And then the phone was locked by pressing the side button. 

Why is this significant? Because the phone locked after the Commonwealth alleges he was lying in the snow with mortal injuries. And 83 feet is a good approximation of how far it is between the front door of the house and where he was found.

As the video goes on to point out, Read's phone connected to the wifi at O'Keefe's house at 12:36. It takes a minimum of 6 minutes to get from 34 Fairview to his place, in the best of conditions. In a white out snowstorm, even more. Which all adds up to the fact he could not have been fatally struck at the time the prosecution has claimed he was. Not if he was lying there all alone with everyone inside the house blissfully aware he was fighting for his life in the cold. Here's another way to lay out the timeline and the Commonwealth's conflicting experts:

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… 12:31:56, AFTER the time they claim JOK was hit by KR according to a "triggering event". 

This timeline will DESTORY the CWs case. 

THAT is why they need this changed.

Which is not the first time they've tried to change the time of the actually supposed Murder by Taillight:

Despite all the incongruities and the defense's argument that the prosecution can't change the rules in the middle of the game, their amended report was allowed by the aforementioned judge who may or may not think one of Read's lawyers is an asshole:

As one of the most disinterested Court Officers in the history of Massachusetts, I'm agnostic on whether or not she made the right ruling. But people who are actually qualified to weigh in on such things are screaming from the rooftops of X about what a boneheaded decision that was. Including, not surprisingly, defense lawyers:

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…They admit amending the report to sync to what Whiffin said. The defense relied on the original information, strategized on it and conducted examinations in reliance on it. This changes EVERYTHING and cannot be cured.  The prejudice is off the charts. Karen Read MUST move for an immediate mistrial unless the court immediately reject the amended report.  Unbelievable that the Court doesn't see "grave concerns" here.  This case is a DISGRACE and national embarrassment! 

But also by a former judge:

… accordance with the law if the judge allows in this amended report? 

I agree with Atty. Alessi. This issue makes it a trial by ambush and if allowed I agree the defense should be screaming for a mistrial.  

I will be surprised if she allows it because the potential to be overturned on appeal is so great. The idea that the a defendant has NO time to prepare an adequate defense to an amended report mid trial is in my view, an egregious and indefensible violation of Read's 6th amendment right to a fair trial.  

As always, I take no side on what the verdict should be in this case. That's for the jury. 

I said I'd talk about nothing more than the phone data, but it's worth ending on this. If you remember from the first trial, the prosecution entered video from the Canton PD sallyport where Read's car was towed to. Only to have it be discovered that the video was all reversed, while the timestamp was correct. Meaning someone had to flip the image of the video, making the passenger side taillight look like the driver's side, and vice versa. Then superimpose the timestap onto it. 

Well this jury has now seen another piece of footage. Except this time, internet sleuths have found quick images of people around the car. Popping up in single frames like when Tyler Durden worked in a theater and edited porn into family movies. Except this suggests editing to take people out of the footage, but failing to erase them altogether:

Four weeks in the books, and it's an embarrassment of riches. And we still haven't gotten to Proctor, Brian Higgins, or any of the Alberts. I won't wish a weekend away, ever. But I can't wait for Monday, either.