No two trials are the same — and it appears that’ll be true for the high-profile Karen Read case as well.
Prosecutors have been working to keep several defense witnesses off the stand in the upcoming retrial over the killing of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
“It’s not surprising to me to at all that, with new lawyers on the case and fresh looks at the evidence, that they’re making a determination as to which pieces of evidence they think they have real chance of excluding,” NBC10 Boston legal analyst Michael Coyne said.
The witnesses whom the prosecution moved to exclude from the case are a doctor whose expertise includes dog bites, a forensic expert who challenged the now infamous Google search, “hos long to die in the snow,” as well as two accident reconstruction experts whose testimony under cut the state’s version of how O’Keefe died.
Prosecutors in the Karen Read trial spent the day in court trying to discredit the expertise of the defense’s dog bite expert, Dr. Marie Russell, so she can’t testify in the retrial.
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Judge Beverly Cannone will decide if the witnesses testify. She allowed them at the first trial and Coyne said it could create problems if she says no for the next trial.
“It does put her in a difficult point to be able to now reverse herself, and I don’t think that’s likely to happen,” he said.
Special Assistant District Attorney Hank Brennan is now leading the state’s case, and he plans to cut down the number of witnesses while bringing a different style than the original lead prosecutor, Adam Lally.
“Hank’s approach is like an everyman’s approach,” said Coyne, who knows the experienced defense lawyer. “He’s understated. He’s very quick on his feet. I think he’ll be well received by the jury.”
Read’s team remains intact, but she said Tuesday outside one of the witness hearings that they’re taking a second look, too.
“We’re going to re-tool everything. Maybe something will stay similar but we’re gonna shuffle a lot of things around,” she said.
Much of this preparation could be moot if the state’s Supreme Judicial Court decides to throw out two of the charges against Read.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office says one of Karen Read’s key arguments has been “debunked” in a legal filing seeking to prevent testimony from a defense witness in the upcoming retrial.
