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Karen Read's lawyers identify exact moment prosecution 'lost the case' in murder trial
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Karen Read’s attorneys revealed over the weekend the turning point at trial that they believe tanked special prosecutor Hank Brennan’s credibility in front of the jury.
“My immediate thought was, I think he just lost the case,” Read attorney David Yannetti told Canadian lawyer and podcaster Ian Runkle over the weekend. “My immediate thought was that was the biggest gift we could’ve been handed in this trial. I wasn’t concerned about, was it intentional? Was it an accident? Who knew about it? Etc. The optics were terrible. It allowed Alan [Jackson], in closing argument to sort of rattle off a litany of stuff that was suspect.”
He was talking about a misstep Brennan made while questioning defense expert Dr. Daniel Wolfe about holes in the victim’s sweatshirt – holes that a Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab technician put there.
BOSTON COP WOULD HAVE ‘TAKEN A BULLET’ FOR KAREN READ’S OFFICER BOYFRIEND FOUND DEAD ON HIS PROPERTY
Karen Read gestures to supporters after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
“It appears that I made a mistake,” Brennan later told the judge.
The implication during questioning was that they might have been caused by a collision and Wolfe overlooked them. Jurors were later instructed that the holes came from forensic analysts.
“The one thing you don’t want to do something as a trial lawyer is to promise something and then not deliver – but more importantly, say something’s true and it turns out it wasn’t,” Yannetti said.
Jurors found Read not guilty of murder, manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a deadly crash following two Massachusetts trials in the death of her former boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. They found her guilty of only a drunken driving charge, for which she will serve a year of probation.
“I was stunned that it occurred,” Robert Alessi, another of Read’s defense attorneys, told Runkle of the hoodie incident. “My heart broke for a moment, but it was a millisecond and I went into overdrive in regard to combating it.”
CLEARED OF MURDER CHARGES, KAREN READ COULD EYE LEGAL PAYBACK AGAINST INVESTIGATORS WHO COST HER
WATCH : Karen Read defense moves for a mistrial again
He demanded a mistrial with prejudice after the gaffe. Judge Beverly Cannone denied his motion, but the defense plowed forward.
VINDICATED KAREN READ THANKS ‘GREATEST’ LEGAL TEAM AS JURORS DELIVER NOT GUILTY VERDICT IN BOYFRIEND’S DEATH
“These charges, they were unjust – they were unwarranted – in my judgment,” Alessi said. “At the start of the retrial, once people were able to assimilate the evidence and understand it, my hope, even my expectation was the top-line charge should’ve been withdrawn.”
Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official portrait. O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Reed, is currently on trial for murder after he was found dead outside a Massachusetts home in January 2022. (Boston Police Department)
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The state went too far on a shaky case, Alessi said, and he called on voters to enact reforms.
“Spoiler alert – there never was a collision,” he told Runkle.
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Karen Read is surrounded by reporters as she and her legal team leave the Dedham, Massachusetts, courthouse after the judge issued instructions to the jury in Read’s trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Friday, June 13, 2025. (Josh Reynolds/AP Photo)
Several jurors have spoken out about how they reached their verdict, including two who were skeptical of the police investigation, which included storing blood samples in red Solo cups, mislabeled evidence bags and a fired lead investigator.
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Another juror, speaking with local WCVB-TV over the weekend, said she had gone into the case with an open mind but was leaning toward a guilty verdict before changing her mind over four days of deliberations.
“We’ve got a great democracy, and I am hopeful that the great people of this country that I love will take action, exercise the right to vote, stand up, be heard, and cause reform to be made,” Alessi added.
“And do it in a constructive way, a peaceful way, but an aggressive way.”
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Break up the Orioles! The O’s continued their winning ways yesterday afternoon with an emphatic 8-2 victory in the rubber game at Fenway. The Birds’ bats blistered Boston’s Brayan Bello for six runs in the top of the first inning and cruised from there, sealing the Orioles’ fourth consecutive series win or split. Check out Andrea SK’s recap of the resounding victory.
The Orioles improved to 9-4 in their last 13 games, breathing new life into their 2026 season. Two weeks ago, the O’s were on the brink of collapse after getting swept in Tampa and falling to a season-worst eight games under .500. Last year’s Orioles, frankly, probably would have continued to spiral. But this group has rallied.
The O’s are playing their best baseball of the year right now, mostly against divisional opponents. The offensive approach has noticeably improved, with hitters up and down the lineup contributing quality at-bats, and previously underperforming hitters like Coby Mayo and Colton Cowser starting to swing the bats better. In the rotation, Kyle Bradish, Shane Baz, and Brandon Young are delivering quality starts more often than not. And we’ve seen signs of a resurgence from Trevor Rogers, who yesterday rattled off his second start in a row of 5+ scoreless innings before fading as he reached the 70-pitch mark. His command looks much better; now he just needs to work sustaining that pace deeper into games.
I’m not sold yet that the Orioles are a legitimately good ball club. The nature of a 162-game season is that a team can play like gangbusters for a while and then fade just as quickly. We could be back here in two weeks after the O’s go, like, 2-8, and reminiscing wistfully about this hot streak that didn’t last. But right now almost everything is clicking for the Orioles, and if they can sustain their solid play, the idea of the O’s being part of the playoff race this summer and fall isn’t so outlandish.
Will Orioles move on from Tyler O’Neill? | MAILBAG – BaltimoreBaseball.com
As the rest of the roster starts to gel, O’Neill’s continued lack of production sticks out like a sore thumb. Maybe the only thing saving him right now is that the O’s don’t currently have any healthy, productive outfielders in the minors ready to replace him. Tommy Pham ain’t it.
For Jackson Holliday, he wants to re-create his late season 2025 walk rate this year – Steve Melewski
Holliday has always struck me as a guy with a keen batting eye, so it’s weird that he wasn’t taking a lot of walks in the majors until late last year. If he can add that to his repertoire, it’ll lengthen the O’s lineup that much more.
Turns Out Adley Rutschman Is OK After All – FanGraphs
In April I was convinced that Adley was so back, but his dismal May had me wondering if he was falling apart again. Michael Baumann (not that one) offers some reasons to be optimistic about Adley’s 2026.
Jon Meoli: How Rico Garcia assembled the pitch mix that’s saving the Orioles’ bullpen – The Baltimore Banner
Rico has been thriving in large part based on his dad’s advice: throw everything hard. I’m starting the “Eddie Garcia for Orioles pitching coach” campaign right now.
Orioles birthdays and history
Is today your birthday? Happy birthday! You share your day with ex-Orioles catcher Robinson Chirinos (42) and right-hander Russ Ortiz (52).
On this date in 1982, Cal Ripken Jr., who had been lifted for a pinch-hitter the previous day, played the full game against the Twins to start a consecutive-inning streak that eventually reached 8,243. It ended in September 1987 when he was taken out for a pinch-runner during a loss to the Blue Jays.
And on this day in 1985, Orioles right-hander Dennis Martínez notched his 100th career victory in grand style, throwing a one-hit shutout against the Angels at Memorial Stadium. A Jerry Narron third-inning single was the only blemish for Martínez, who faced just one batter over the minimum. Even though he didn’t get his 100th win until age 31, the Nicaraguan-born Martínez finished his career with 245 of them, setting the MLB record for wins by a Latin pitcher (later broken by Bartolo Colon).
Random Orioles game of the day
On June 5, 1974, the Orioles won a dramatic walkoff against the Royals, 5-4. The O’s trailed, 4-2, heading to the bottom of the ninth as Kansas City starter Bruce Dal Canton dominated them for eight innings. But the Orioles got to Dal Canton for two walks in the ninth, then jumped on reliever Doug Bird to complete the comeback. Brooks Robinson’s RBI single brought the O’s within one, Elrod Hendricks tied the game with a sac fly, and Mark Belanger doubled to shallow center to bring home pinch-runner Frank Baker with the game-winning run.
PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Pirates have looked for reliable bullpen arms and right-handed pitcher Carmen Mlodzinski displayed exactly what they need this season.
Mlodzinski earned a four-inning save for the Pirates in the 5-1 win over the Houston Astros in the series finale at Daikin Park on June 5, playing a big role in a massive road series win.
He allowed just one run and four hits, while posting three strikeouts, shutting down a strong Astros offense for an important win.
Mlodzinski has a new role with the Pirates, but it’s one they need more performances like this one to help out an area of weakness on their pitching staff.
How Mlodzinski Shut Down the Astros
It wasn’t a great start for Mlodzinski, who gave up a solo home run to Astros third baseman Isaac Paredes to lead off the bottom of the sixth inning.
Mlodzinski threw just his second pitch, a 94.6 mph four-seam fastball that was in the top part of the strike zone, which Paredes sent 101.3 mph off the bat and 356 feet into the left field seats.
The Pirates pitcher then got out of the inning quickly, with two ground outs and a fly out to end it.
Mlodzinski faced some adversity in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving up back-to-back singles with one out and faced Astros designated hitter Yordan Alvarez, who was 7-for-11 and drove in five RBI prior to this at-bat.
He managed to get Alvarez out on a sinker at the top of the zone, that Mlodzinski noted postgame as, “unintentional”, and then got a ground out to strand both runners.
Mlodzinski got a 1-2-3 eighth inning and then after giving up a single in the ninth inning, he got a double play to end the game on a backdoor slider.
it was an outing that Mlodzinski relied less on striking batters out and more on inducing weak contact and relying on his defense to get the job done.
He allowed just five hard hits on 12 batted ball events and saw some nice defensive plays made, including a diving catch from left fielder Jake Mangum and a good stop from third baseman Nick Gonzales and then the pick from first baseman Spencer Horwitz for a big out.
“Yeah it was fun,” Mlodzinski said postgame to DK Pittsburgh Sports. “Not ideal second pitch in. I just felt like trusting my stuff to go right after guys. We had a five-run lead, so the thought was, ‘Let’s be efficient.’ Kind of had an idea going in that I might be able to finish this one, so efficiency was definitely in the back of my head and no walks and the defense made some plays behind me. Just pitching to the game, in a sense.”
Mlodzinski Filling New Role Admirably for Pirates
It wasn’t an easy week prior to this game for Mlodzinski, who lost his spot in the starting rotation after two months, following the return of Jared Jones from inury.
Jones took Mlodzinski’s role and the Pirates placed Mlodzinski on the restricted list for the 9-3 win over the Minnesota Twins in the series finale at PNC Park on May 31.
Mlodzinski came back off the restricted list the following day and eventually resumed his role in the bullpen, where he followed Jones in this game.
Jones had thrown five scoreless innings in his second start back and Mlodzinski came through with a solid outing for himself.
This is a big moment for the Pirates, who now have Jones improving and able to take on a bigger workload each time he comes out, while Mlodzinski is an effective reliever that can fill that bulk role after Jones.
Pittsburgh managed to give the seven other bullpen arms a rest, crucially important as they take on the Atlanta Braves at Truist Park, a weekend road series against the team with the best record in baseball at 42-21.
The Pirates bullpen had just blown a 9-5 lead in the eighth inning the game prior, in a 11-9 loss to the Astros on June 3, which marked their 13th blown save of the season.
Pirates manager Don Kelly now has one of his best arms back in his bullpen and will want to see more outings like this one from Mlodzinski as the season continues, who will help the Pirates maintain leads and give them a chance to make comebacks as well.
“We’re gonna be smart with it,” Kelly said postgame to SportsNet Pittsburgh. “He’s extremely important to us, with the starts he’s made, coming out of the ‘pen, filling four.
“We’re going to smart about the usage with him and it keeps him stretched out. It’s not to say we might not see some shorter, but the ideal length is probably for him to get up there in pitches and to do exactly what he did tonight.”
Make sure to visit Pirates OnSI for the latest news, updates, interviews and insight on the Pittsburgh Pirates!
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