The defense team in the high-profile Karen Read case has requested any communications that Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey made from his personal phone and email accounts involving the case, which is headed for a retrial.

It was one of several filings made by the defense Friday, along with a response to the prosecution’s request to have evidence from Read’s SUV re-tested because a new expert said the data previously taken from the Lexus was incomplete, and that more data may be recoverable. The defense now says that the expert misunderstood the data, but is willing to have the data retested anyway.

Morrissey’s office has been embroiled in controversy over the claims that Read was framed in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe. The prosecution has accused Read of hitting him with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow in front of a home in Canton, Massachusetts, in January 2022. The defense argues Read is the victim of an elaborate coverup.

Read is facing charges of second-degree murder, knowingly leaving the scene of an accident, and involuntary manslaughter, though she’s appealed to have two of the charges dropped.

Read’s new trial is currently set to begin on Jan. 27, 2025, though both sides have requested it be pushed back until April.

Karen Read defense’s request for Morrissey emails, texts

The new request for Morrissey’s personal communications, which refers to a claim made by an attorney for Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as Turtleboy, that Morrissey used his personal email account in communications concerning official matters, comes days after the prosecution moved for records from interviews read did last year with Boston Magazine

As prosecutors prepare for Karen Read’s second murder trial, they are asking for records of an interview she did last year with Boston Magazine.

The defense now argues that the district attorney has been using personal accounts to discuss Read’s case in an official capacity, meaning that information should be released to them as part of the discovery process.

They pointed to an email Morrissey allegedly sent a judge in September of last year, a day after a witness in the Read case applied for a harassment prevention order against Kearney — which was denied.

That email, lawyers say, came from Morrissey’s personal iCloud email account instead of his state email address.

Morrissey raised concerns in the email about a Stoughton District Court employee sharing a copy of an affidavit with Kearney, according to the letter from attorney Mark Bederow, who represents the blogger.

A court spokesperson said that court employee was placed on paid administrative leave last October and terminated the following month, but declined to comment on the reason.

Read’s defense is arguing that Morrissey’s contact with Trial Court Justices “is extremely concerning and raises concerns about the integrity of this prosecution.”

Asked for comment on the filings, Morrissey’s office said any response will be made in court, citing the pending case.

Data from Karen Read’s SUV

In the the defense’s response about re-testing information from her Lexus, the alleged murder weapon in the case, they claim that the commonwealth’s expert fundamentally misunderstood the difference between the terms megabit and megabyte — two different sizes of storage capacity of computer chips — from Read’s vehicle.

Hank Brennan, a new special prosecutor for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, signed a filing calling for new testing on the vehicle they allege Karen Read drove into John O’Keefe in 2022.

The misunderstanding of the “basic digital forensics concept” is important, the defense says, because the commonwealth’s expert was arguing that the defense expert’s extraction of data from the chips was incomplete, based on the assumed storage size. The defense expert extracted 8 megabytes of data from the chips, which the commonwealth had argued was not the full amount. But the defense says there is easy math involved – 64 megabits is equal to 8 megabytes. If there was confusion between the two terms, the storage amounts would reconcile.

Moreover, such a mistake calls into question what other mistakes could occur during testing, some of which would be destructive to the evidence, they said. But they agreed that new software could help pull more information from the vehicle.

So the defense requested their forensics expert be present during any future testing, and be given the power to stop any testing if there were concerns about its accuracy or necessity.

Karen Read was in Massachusetts’ highest court Wednesday where her lawyers argued why two of the charges against her should be dropped or at least reexamined following outreach from jurors saying Read would have been acquitted. 

We asked legal expert Michael Coyne how the court might rule, and talked to Read’s father outside of court.

It was that enthusiasm that made International Skating Union and U.S. Figure Skating officials want to bring the championships back to Boston in 2025. At the TD Garden on Thursday, Wagner joined 1984 Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton and current world champion Ilia Malinin to mark the start of single-session ticket sales for the event, which begin Friday at 10 a.m. via Ticketmaster.

“That response at worlds is why I moved to Boston,” said Wagner, who now lives with her family on Nantucket.

While every year’s World Championships are important, the 2025 edition is particularly so. The 300 athletes expected to participate will be seeking to secure their nation’s spots for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina, Italy. In each discipline (men, women, pairs and ice dance), if a nation’s top two skaters or teams placements combined equal 13 or less, the nation receives the maximum three spots in that discipline.

“Boston is truly the first step to Milan,” said US Figure Skating president Sam Auxier.

Being one of the last major events before the 2026 Olympics, the 2025 World Championships also are important for purposes of momentum. Hamilton recalled that while he had won two world titles heading into the 1983 World Championships, it was his title that year that truly made him believe he could win gold at the 1984 Games.

“It was a situation where once I won in 1983, it felt like the Olympic gold medal was mine to lose,” said Hamilton.

Malinin will be looking to repeat after winning his world title in March in Montreal. Having made history in 2022 at Skate America, an international invitational held at The Skating Club of Boston, by landing the first quadruple axel at a major international event, he is looking forward to skating in front of the area’s audiences again.

“Here in Boston, they are really great fans of sports,” said Malinin. “They really get energetic and almost chaotic in a way, and it really helps us to feel that energy and how excited they are to see us skate.”

The World Championships are expected to bring a $40 million boost to the Boston economy, with 12,000 hotel room nights expected to be reserved between fans, skaters, coaches, volunteers, and media. Internationally, Boston is considered one of the sport’s hubs, and skaters were excited to hear of the event’s return to the area after a mere nine years, which is rare for the World Championships.

“It is rare for a city to host twice in such a short amount of time,” said Doug Zeghibe, executive director of The Skating Club of Boston, which is the host of the event. “The audience made 2016 a standout success.”

Kat Cornetta can be reached at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.

BOSTON — It certainly wasn’t pretty at times, but the Bruins pulled off an overtime victory against the Calgary Flames on Thursday night.

The Bruins and Flames traded goals in the opening period, but then Boston scored twice in the second frame to take a 3-1 lead into the final 20 minutes of regulation.

Calgary didn’t fold. They pushed back with two goals of their own in the third period to force overtime. The Black and Gold were determined to not lose the extra point and Brad Marchand scored the game-winning goal with 20 seconds left of three-on-three play.

“We stuck with it,” Bruins defenseman Hampus Lindholm said. “Obviously, we don’t want to give up a 3-1 lead in the third, but we found a way to win a hockey game and that’s hard in this league. So, I’ll try to focus on the positives here.”

Lindholm opened the scoring for the Bruins with a first-period strike from newly reunited Czech mates David Pastrnark and Pavel Zacha.

“I feel really good about my game,” Lindholm said. “It’s nice to get put out there in situations to succeed and it makes it fun for me. Feel that reward and obviously, get a goal, is always a good feeling.”

Bruins head coach Jim Montgomery praised Lindholm not only for the goal but also for his overall performance in the game.

“I thought Hampus was really skating. I thought he was on his toes tonight,” Montgomery said. “The really good thing, when Hampus is playing really well, and that goal is a perfect example, is he’s moving his feet in the neutral zone, he’s moving it north, and he’s jumping into the offensive zone to support the play. That way it’s easier for the defensemen to be uncovered.”

Not only did Pastrnak and Zacha connect on the Lindholm goal, but the duo also helped generate some of the Bruins’ best scoring chances and Zacha scored his first five-on-five goal of the season.

“They played really well,” Montgomery said. “I thought that line was our best offensive line.”

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Here are more notes from Thursday’s Bruins-Flames game:

— Marchand now has 21 overtime goals in his career, which is the most in franchise history and third-most among all NHL players behind Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. The game-winner was the 79th of his career and ranks him third in Bruins history, trailing only Johnny Bucyk (88) and Patrice Bergeron (81).

— Zacha’s second goal of the season was his 300th NHL point. He joined linemate Pastrnak, Tomas Hertl and Ondrej Palat as the fourth active player born in Czechia with 300 points.

— Cole Koepke joined Charlie Coyle and Matt Poitras on the third line and tallied his fourth goal of the season to extend the Bruins lead to 3-1 in the third period. Coyle earned his first assist of the season when he set up Koepke’s tally.

“As long as I’m playing the right way and creating opportunities, getting opportunities, that’s what I worry about. … I’m not really too worried about individual stuff,” Coyle said. “I want to play the right way for my team, make sure I’m on the right side of the puck, and pick my spots when to go and find that balance too.”

— The Bruins will look to build on the overtime win when they host former teammate Linus Ullmark and the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

The matchup could feature Boston’s former formidable goalie tandem — Ullmark and Jeremy Swayman — facing each other for the first time since the former was traded to the Senators in the offseason, or Ullmark could possibly face the goalie the Bruins received in the trade — Korpisalo.

Puck drop from TD Garden is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET and you can watch the game, plus an hour of pre- and postgame coverage on NESN.