Karen Read returned to court Thursday for a motions hearing that handed a victory to the defense.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, with her SUV in January 2022 and leaving him to die in a snowstorm. She faces second-degree murder and other charges. Read has maintained her innocence and claims she is the victim of a police coverup. Her first trial, which captured attention across the country, ended in a mistrial last summer.
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The first topic addressed at the hearing was a motion by the Commonwealth to exclude testimony by defense expert Richard Green.
Green provided analysis on a key point of contention in the case — a search made for "hos long to die in cold" made by Jennifer McCabe, a friend of O'Keefe's. The prosecution maintains that the search was made at 6:23 a.m., shortly after she and Read arrived at the house on Fairview Road outside of which O'Keefe was lying stricken in the snow. However Green contends that the digital evidence shows McCabe made the search at about 2:30 a.m., and that McCabe has helped cover up who really killed O'Keefe at the Fairview Road home, where she and others attended a small party earlier in the evening.
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Judge Beverly Cannone said she would not exclude the testimony.
"To me, it's rather a difference of opinions that need to be resolved by the jury, so I'm denying your motion," Cannone told the prosecution in court Thursday.
Read also asked the judge for $12,000 from the state for a witness she paid to retrieve video from a DVR the Canton Police Department. She says the video wasn't available as promised, yet she's stuck with the bill.
Prosecutors say they shouldn't have to pick up the tab.
"You should deny their motion. Nobody was misled in this case," special prosecutor Hank Brennan said. "They've taken a professional courtesy, in an effort to help, and they've distorted it to some type of injustice."
The video, showing Read's SUV in the Canton Police sallyport, has been a source of contention since the first trial, when the defense raised questions about it being inverted.
Defense attorneys argue the video been manipulated and given to them piecemeal, pointing to new video that it says shows ATF Agent Brian Higgins outside the Canton PD on his phone the night O'Keefe died.
"This entire situation surrounding this DVR, and the commonwealth's maintenance of that DVR and the footage on it, is a complete dumpster fire," defense attorney Alan Jackson said Thursday.
Prosecutors said they would download a copy of the video and send to the defense. After being asked by Cannone if the defense needed to have someone present for the transfer, Jackson said he needed to consider it, but would talk to Brennan about it.
Cannone asked the defense for more information about its requests for the video, and she told both sides to have the evidence shared within the next week.
"Let's get moving with that," she said. "We've got to get this case moving, and you want it, so it's got to be provided."
The defense team has said they intend to fight for a dismissal of the charges against her before the trial begins.
Her second trial is set to begin in April.
