Karen Read Retrial, Week 6: The Defense Goes on the Offensive

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It's only been a couple of days since the last update on Commonwealth v. Karen Read: The Next Generation. But when we're six weeks, 24 days of testimony, and 38 witnesses into this thing and the prosecution has rested, the next week shouldn't begin until we've gotten up to speed. 

As you might recall, the last witness the prosecution called was data retrieval expert and card-carrying Funny Name Society member Dr. Judson Welcher. Whose already peculiar way of presenting his findings:

… didn't get any less surreal under cross examination. If anything, it got more entertaining as he and lawyer for the defense Robert Alessi quickly got on each other's last nerve. Seriously Alessi and Welcher sounded like an old couple at The 99 bickering because he ordered something that makes him gassy and he forgot to take his Beano:

And then at some point, things took a turn for the erotic, with Welcher talking about spreading his load out on the bed for what I assume were rational, physics-based reasons:

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That's it, Dr. Jud. Talk nerdy to us. Moving on …

The sum and substance of Welcher's testimony seems to have been that he believes Karen Read did, in fact, back her car up and fatally strike John O'Keefe outside 34 Fairview on the night in question. A finding he based largely on evidence as reported by others. DNA on her bumper. Taillight pieces later recovered and so on. Make of that what you will, but it was not lost on the Free Karen Read crowd that so many of the findings he presented were taken from an investigation that was so sketchy the investigators themselves were never called to the stand. State Police crash reconstruction "expert" Trooper Joseph Paul, for example:

Or that Welcher attempted to discredit the one Commonwealth witness who actually did a postmortem on O'Keefe, the Medical Examiner who said she found no evidence of vehicle strike on his body:

But that firsthand account from a scientist highly trained in the field of determining the cause of death in a deceased person didn't phase Welcher in the least:

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Or even deem her opinion worth talking about with her.

Though in perhaps his best rhetorical flourish, the Good Doctor would not rule out the possibility that Read threw her Lexus into Reverse and gunned the engine enough to launch it into space:

… with perfect reply: ‘Let’s get back to reality’ 

At least from an engineering standpoint. Which could've saved SpaceX half its 2018 rocket fuel budget, if true:

Anyway, there was another expert whose conclusions Dr. Welcher took issue with. And that would be Dr. Welcher. When he said there is not, in fact, enough data to tell us when a collision occurred. Which seems to me to the whole point of having him in the courhouse:

And with that, the Commonwealth rested. It's always best to leave on a high note.

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What followed was one of those moments that always gets reported like it's big and dramatic. But is really just a pro forma thing that happens in at least 90% of all trials. And that was when the defense asked the judge to dismiss all the charges. It's called a Motion for a Directed Finding. Essentially the defense arguing the prosecution never presented enough evidence for the jury to find the defendant Guilty, so let's quit wasting everybody's time, get out of here and go home to catch The Price is Right. And 99% of the times it's asked, the motion gets shot down. The rare exceptions I've seen where the motion was allowed was like an OUI case where it was never established the drunkard in question was operating the motor vehicle in question or something. That was never going to happen here. But it didn't cost them anything to rub a nickle across that scratch ticket anyway and see what's under the silver oxide. 

What it did give us was a glimpse into the defense's theory of the case, and maybe a preview of the GPS navigation we can expect now that they're presenting their case:

Boston Herald - “The Commonwealth has simply not proven, even in a light most favorable to them, that there was a collision on Jan. 29, 2022, at 34 Fairview in Canton, Massachusetts,” defense attorney Alan Jackson argued before the jury was brought in. “There was no eyewitness presented, there was no video evidence, no audio evidence, no evidence in the form of physical evidence at the scene by searches that were done by officers on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.” …

He made several points to back that assertion, including that state medical examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, “the only person to have physical access to John O’Keefe’s body” said he didn’t have any injuries consistent with a vehicle strike. Further, he said, expert testimony presented “circumstantial, technical data (that) only sought to prove a backing event” and that the prosecution’s final technical witness, Judson Welcher of Aperture, himself said there was “simply not enough evidence” to have spoken to particulars of a crash.

In contrast, Jackson said, there is evidence that points to a possible third-party killer: homeowner Brian Albert was “sparring” with ATF Agent Brian Higgins inside the home and there was ample evidence that Higgins “was lovestruck, he was jealous” over Read’s affections. Witnesses at the house that night, he said, all testified they didn’t see O’Keefe in the vehicle at the time the prosecution said he should have been and thus “There’s only one place he could be … Inside the house, or inside the garage.”

While circling back to lead investigator Michael Proctor, who was also not called by the Commonwealth:

To make that argument, they've already called their data retrieval expert, who threw some unsubtle shade at the prosecution's experts:

And questioned a civilian witness who was on the notorious "leaky balloon knot that leaks poo" text chain with Proctor, though that was without the jury in the box. So as you're reading this, we'll be finding out where Read's team plans to go with that. 

You can count me among the multitudes who are hoping that Proctor, Higgins, 34 Fairview homeowner Brian Albert and Trooper Paul all take the stand. The prosecution gave them all a good leaving alone, and we all missed out on the fun of watching them testify like before. It was such a letdown, even the poor Court Reporter couldn't hide how bored she was getting:

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So strap in. As surreal and bizarre as most of the first six weeks of the retrial have been, things are about to take off into space like a Lexus SUV to an engineer.