Northeast
Karen Read murder trial: Prosecutors face challenge with 'undetermined' cause of death
A forensics expert zeroed in on two pieces of evidence ahead of Karen Read’s murder trial — the autopsy and the way the victim’s clothes were handled — and said he believes the medical examiner’s testimony will be pivotal.
Read allegedly hit her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her car and left him to die in the snow, prosecutors said. Read denied the allegations and claimed there was a cover-up to frame her.
O’Keefe’s official cause of death is listed as “undetermined,” which sets up the medical examiner as the “big star” of the trial, forensics expert John Scott Morgan told Fox News Digital.
“I urge everybody that’s following this case to really pay close attention to what the medical examiner says, because they will be asked to explain the logic behind listing this as an undetermined,” Morgan said. “I would expect the defense to particularly focus in on that question, and it will be framed in a manner in which they will say, ‘Well, you know, we’ve got the prosecutor here that is saying that this is, in fact, a murder. What is it, doctor, what is keeping you from ruling this as a homicide?”
KAREN READ MASSACHUSETTS TRIAL: 3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT WOMAN CHARGED WITH OFFICER BOYFRIEND’S MURDER
Karen Read sits in court during jury selection at Norfolk County Superior Court April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. (David McGlynn/New York Post via AP, Pool)
The case goes back to 2022 in the Boston suburb of Canton, Massachusetts, where O’Keefe was found dead. Both O’Keefe and Read were drunk that night, according to court documents.
The trial started with jury selection last week after nearly two years of divisive rhetoric on both sides and an undercurrent of controversy fueled by a federal probe into the defense’s cover-up allegations.
MASSACHUSETTS SHELLS KAREN READ ACTIVIST ‘TURTLEBOY’ BLOGGER WITH CRIMINAL CHARGES IN FIRST AMENDMENT FIGHT
On Wednesday, a full jury was selected among hundreds of prospective jurists, setting the stage for what’s expected to be a lengthy and tense trial. Read’s supporters and adversaries have been clashing outside the courthouse.
On Thursday, several pretrial motions are expected to be resolved, and opening statements are scheduled to start Monday.
Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe (BPD)
Karen Read departs Norfolk Superior Court after a day of jury selection April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
O’Keefe suffered multiple wounds, including skull fractures consistent with blunt-force trauma that led to bleeding in the brain, swollen black eyes and several lacerations and abrasions to his right arm and hands.
The prosecution alleges the injuries were sustained when Read hit him with her car, while the defense says the injuries were suffered during a fight inside the house and a dog attack.
KAREN READ, CHARGED WITH MURDER IN BOSTON COP BOYFRIEND’S DEATH, LEARNS TRIAL START DATE AFTER HEATED HEARING
“That’s very specific information,” said Morgan, who spent over 20 years in the New Orleans coroner’s office and with the Fulton County Medical Examiner in Atlanta before becoming a professor at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama.
The key is when this information about a possible dog bite was relayed to the medical examiner.
If the medical examiner didn’t know about the dog bite defense during the autopsy, the examiner likely wouldn’t have attempted to get evidence, like dog hair or a saliva swab, to test if there was canine DNA, Morgan said.
Karen Read appears in Norfolk County Superior Court for a pretrial hearing. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
WATCH: Morgan previews potential arguments for O’Keefe’s injuries
‘There’s one issue here that has been particularly troubling to me’
Morgan said how O’Keefe’s clothing was removed during life-saving efforts, how they were preserved and the chain of custody “is very important here.”
If reports about clothing being piled up in the corner of a trauma room are accurate, potential evidence is compromised, he said.
MASSACHUSETTS DA SHREDS ‘CONSPIRACY THEORIES’ IN KAREN READ MURDER CASE OVER BOSTON COP BOYFRIEND’S DEATH
“Are we talking about hours? Days? Weeks? Because the longer you wait to submit this, the less secure it is,” Morgan said, “And if you can’t account for it 24/7, you spoil the chain of custody. And, at that point, there’s little or no accountability. You don’t know who’s come in contact with these items.
“It can be very delicate. And once you have that evidence as a forensic investigator, you need to know how it was packaged and who packaged it.”
Karen A. Read, 42, the girlfriend of late Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, was arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court on charges of second-degree murder in his death in Dedham, Mass., June 10, 2022. A photo of the couple together was presented by the defense to the prosecution. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Karen Read and her lawyer Alan Jackson pass through a gauntlet of supporters outside Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., April 16, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger)
He used the example of the O.J. Simpson murder case, which included over 100 exhibits of DNA evidence that his lawyers essentially discredited by arguing investigators botched the removal, collection, handling and processing of evidence, including bloody clothes.
“Reflect back to the O.J. Simpson case, where one of the detectives had been mentioned of riding around with blood samples in their car before they were ever submitted into evidence,” Morgan said. “All kinds of things can happen, particularly with blood evidence like that, because it is fragile.”
Read’s arrest and how a blogger fueled the fire
Read was arrested Feb. 2, 2022, and charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident, causing injury and death. She pleaded not guilty to all charges.
“I did not kill John O’Keefe. I have never harmed a hair on John O’Keefe’s head,” Read told ABC News in August.
MASSACHUSETTS PROFESSOR CHARGED IN COP BOYFRIEND’S KILLING CALLS IT A ‘COVER-UP’
The case split the otherwise quiet suburban town, and a local blogger, Aiden Kearney, who goes by the nickname “Turtleboy,” riled up the “Free Karen” side of the debate.
He is often seen with a cellphone camera and bullhorn leading demonstrations and trumpeting Read’s law enforcement cover-up defense.
Massachusetts blogger “Turtleboy” Aiden Kearney was charged with witness intimidation for allegedly threatening witnesses in a murder case in Massachusetts. (Aidan Kearney(@DoctorTurleboy)/X)
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office alleged he crossed a line by intimidating witnesses, and he was arrested in October, enraging his loyal followers.
The prosecutor alleged Kearney “showed up” at sporting events of witnesses’ children and “made scenes,” harassed and photographed witnesses at their homes and jobs and instructed followers of his blog to do the same.
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Kearney’s lawyer told the judge his client “vehemently denies” the accusations when Kearney pleaded not guilty, saying his client’s opinions are protected by the First Amendment.
Kearney was indicted on over a dozen felonies involving witness intimidation. He also served 60 days in jail for violating a protective order, but he has since been freed and is waiting for his own trial.
“The influence of media, social media, the sidebars with the turtle blogger. All the information that’s been going back and forth from the DA’s office and the defense team. I think it’s going to be a long road to pick an impartial jury,” Suffolk University Law Professor Christopher Dearborn told CBS News.
Fox News Digital’s Mitch Picasso contributed to this report.
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A crash involving several vehicles and a motorcycle has left one person dead in Warminster Township, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, police said.
The crash happened in the area of West County Line Road and Greene Avenue, according to police.
Police are asking people to avoid the area as the investigation into the crash continues.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Warminster Township Police.
Newest clergy sex abuse lawsuit bill gives victims ‘hope,’ Neronha says
A new bill gives clergy sex abuse victims a path to sue the institutions that may have been responsible for their abuse as children.
PROVIDENCE – Victims of clergy sex abuse scored a long-sought victory in the Rhode Island Senate on Wednesday, June 3.
Legislation to allow the victims to sue the Catholic Church – and any other institution that failed to protect them from molestation when they were children – won unanimous Senate approval and now goes to the House for final votes.
The fast action from Senate Judiciary Committee approval – to a full Senate vote – within an hour and a half was not unexpected after the announcement on Monday of a compromise backed by the Senate’s top-tier Democrats, including Senate President Valarie Lawson, Majority Leader Frank Ciccone and Senate Judiciary Chairman Matthew LaMountain.
If passed, as now appears likely, the legislation will allow the victims of sexual abuse by clergy to sue the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence and any other entity that knew, but failed to stop – or concealed – the abuse they suffered as children at the hands of trusted elders.
The legislation would also provide the long-ago victims – many of them now in their 60s and 70s – with a two-year window to revive claims currently barred by expired time limits.
The compromise – after years of pleas and inaction – follows the long-awaited release on March 4 of Attorney General Peter Neronha’s report detailing the systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church of the sexual abuse of more than 300 Rhode Island children.
His report laid bare, for the first time, the scope of more than a half century of alleged child sexual abuse by Rhode Island Catholic clergy and the breadth and depth of the alleged cover-up, which often included destroying key files or shuffling priests from parish to parish, where they would reoffend.
Sen. Mark McKenney, the lead Senate sponsor, told colleagues that the proposed new law not only states “this conduct unacceptable, but from now on, the institutions that have enabled it will be held accountable as well.”
As to whether the law would survive a legal challenge, McKenney said the Rhode Island Constitution “contains a provision that is somewhat unique in the United States: a victims’ rights clause. That provision has been largely overlooked in the debate that’s gone on about the constitutionality of this and … previous versions of this bill,” but retired U.S. District Judge William Smith drew attention to it when he testified.
He said Article 1, Section 23 “of our constitution provides that crime victims, including child sexual abuse victims, not only may receive compensation from perpetrators, but also, and this is a quote from the constitution, ‘Shall receive such other compensation as the state may provide,’ with that power ‘entirely committed to our authority as the General Assembly.’”
Co-sponsor Dawn Euer applauded “the victims and survivors, both the ones that we know of and the ones that we don’t, as well as the ones that we have lost. The strength and courage that it takes to go through what [these] people have gone through … is incredible.
“And then to be able to come up here and advocate …. for passage of this legislation over years [of] legislative turmoil and back again, it’s really incredible the strength and determination that you all have shown,” she said to the group of survivor-advocates in the Senate gallery.
“We get used to it,” she said of the process by which “the proverbial sausage is made. But for issues like this that have real impacts on people’s lives, it can be an additional trauma,” she said of the year after year of public hearings and testimony, followed by inaction.
On Wednesday, she said, the Senate sent the “strong signal that Rhode Island stands with survivors and victims.”
This story has been updated with new information.
MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – The state of Vermont wants more flexibility in how it charges for access to state parks.
Right now, fees are determined by location, size, and type of camping.
However, leaders say parking at state parks and ponds is seeing more foot traffic, and costs of maintaining them have gone up.
The Department of Forest Parks and Recreation wants to be able to price campsites and day-use parks more dynamically.
There’s no proposal to raise fees now, but if approved, some state parks could see increased fees depending on their popularity, the date, and location.
“It is trying to find that balance of covering costs, providing the service parkgoers have come to expect and making sure we aren’t creating unintentional barriers for people who want to enjoy our fabulous state lakes,” said Julie Moore, Vermont Natural Resources Secretary.
She adds that last year’s Vermont ‘Parks Forever’ initiative, which allows for people who receive three squares benefits free entry to parks, meant an additional 30,000 visits last year.
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