Judge in Karen Read case suddenly suspends hearing after new information causes "grave concern"
The judge overseeing the Karen Read case in Massachusetts suddenly suspended an evidentiary hearing Tuesday afternoon after she said she got new information from prosecutors "that causes me grave concern."
Judge Beverly Cannone immediately called a recess after special prosecutor Hank Brennan moved to prevent two crash reconstruction experts who were part of a federal investigation into the Read case from testifying at her second trial.
"The Commonwealth just provided the court with information that causes me grave concern," Cannone said nearly 20 minutes after calling the recess. "The implications of that information may have profound effects on this defense and defense counsel. So for that reason I'm going to suspend today, so that when we meet again to address these issues, all affected will be appropriately prepared."
Cannone said court will resume on Feb. 25.
Read's second criminal trial is scheduled to begin on April 1. She is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow after a night of heavy drinking in Canton, Massachusetts in January of 2022.
"Getting duped"
Daniel Wolfe and Andrew Rentschler, two experts who work for ARCCA, an expert engineering and crash reconstruction firm, were called by the defense as witnesses in Read's first trial. They testified that O'Keefe's injuries were not consistent with being hit by a car.
Read's lawyers said at the time that the crash experts were not hired by the defense. But before court was suspended Tuesday, Brennan told the court that he had obtained a bill from ARCCA to the defense for $23,925. He also said there are emails between Read's team and the ARCCA experts, with Wolfe telling the defense in one instance "if you don't want me to say this, that's fine."
"That's not trial by ambush, that's getting duped," Brennan said.
WBZ-TV's Kristina Rex asked Read's attorney Alan Jackson outside court if he paid ARCCA experts to testify at the first trial.
"No, of course not," Jackson said.
What happens next?
WBZ-TV legal analyst Katherine Loftus said she believes Cannone is considering revoking Jackson's right to practice on this case in Massachusetts.
Loftus believes that is why Cannone said the revelations could have "profound effects on this defense."
"And she said not only for the defense, but for defense counsel. I took that as, Alan Jackson is going to be on the hot seat next Tuesday," Loftus said.
Karen Read's attorneys seek Sandra Birchmore documents
Before the hearing was suspended, Read's lawyers said they are requesting unredacted documents from the Massachusetts State Police investigation into the death of Sandra Birchmore.
Birchmore was 23 years old and pregnant when police found her dead in her Canton apartment in 2021. Former Stoughton police detective Matthew Farwell has been charged with killing her and staging her death to look like a suicide to keep law enforcement from finding out they had a sexual relationship that started when she was a minor, the U.S Attorney for Massachusetts alleges.
"The investigation into the death of Sandra Birchmore has involved many of the material witnesses in Ms. Read's case," the defense team said in a filing, mentioning Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey, State Police Detective Lt. Brian Tully, Canton police officer Kevin Albert and State Police Trooper Nicholas Guarino, who read aloud text messages between Read and O'Keefe at trial.
Defense attorney Elizabeth Little said Guarino analyzed electronic data in the Birchmore investigation and concluded that "there's nothing to see here" in regard to Farwell's conduct.
"Is it relevant and material to us that the same expert would analyze a fellow officer's electronic devices and make those types of conclusions? Of course it is," Little said.
Dog bite testimony
Read's attorneys are also moving to exclude the prosecution's expert witness James Crosby, who plans to testify that injuries to O'Keefe's arm were not from a dog. The defense has suggested that the Albert family's German Shepherd named Chloe could have attacked O'Keefe and caused his injuries.
Crosby has a doctorate degree in veterinary science, but the defense says he isn't qualified to testify to O'Keefe's injuries because he is not a medical doctor.
Read's attorneys submitted an affidavit from their own dog bite expert, Dr. Marie Russell, who said Crosby's conclusions are "defective scientifically and medically."
The dog bite testimony did not come up before the abrupt end to the hearing Tuesday.
Who is Karen Read?
Read, 44, is a financial analyst who was living in Mansfield at the time of O'Keefe's death. Read says she is the victim of a cover-up by law enforcement and others and has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.
Read's first trial ended in a mistrial with a "starkly divided" hung jury. Last week, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts denied Read's appeal to get two of the three charges against her dismissed, based on statements made by jurors after the first trial.
