DEDHAM, Mass. — A motions hearing was held on Wednesday in Karen Read’s retrial ahead of the start of next week’s opening statements.
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Done for today.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Judge rules Aidan Kearney is exempt from the sequestration order and will be allowed in the court room except for people named in his witness intimidation case.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Court came back for a few minutes.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
HB listed Aidan Kearney as a potential witness at the trial and wants him sequestered (kept out) of the courtroom
Aidan Kearney's attorney Tim Bradl says Kearney will take the 5th if he's called in the Read trial.
Bradl agreed Kearney would…
Judge calls 15 minute recess.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
HB: "At some point, the defense has to be held to the same standard of discovery obligation. This isn't late notice. This isn't parachuting in. This is an effort they decided to make..."
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
AJ: "Nobody's been dragging their feet. There is no ambush. This feigned indignation is…
HB: my tolerance about this ongoing development of discovery is a extraordinary problem to me. This is the number one issue I anticipated and that I tried to prevent.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
AJ: the number one issue that Mr. Brennan has anticipated and try to prevent is ARCCA testifying. Let's just…
Now on the ARCCA witnesses (crash experts initially hired by feds). Brennan argues judge should limit what they can testify to based on what Brennan says is a lack of discovery from defense.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
AJ responds that he can't control conduct of experts and if new reports are generated…
Brennan wants an independent reader to come in and read KR texts including her messages with JOK.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Jackson says that "seems to add theatre" and he doesn't want independent people w/ "motives that may not be consistent" with the text messages reading them to jury.
AJ says it should…
Pace is super quick today.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Judge wants to see the video clips from Read's media interviews that Brennan plans to use in openings before he shows them to jury.
Brennan: "we should be able to counter that in rebuttal, not our case in chief, and rebuttal that these molds show to a reasonable degree of certainty that these wounds could not have been caused by Chloe."
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Alessi: "you need a mold in an overlay so there is no basis in science…
Judge says she doesn't believe prosecution expert -who Brennan says took measurements/mold of "Chloe's" (alberts former dog) teeth should be able to testify definitively that JOK's arm wounds did not come from Chloe. Brennan challenging that
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Moving on - Prosecution is challenging defense dog bite expert Garrett Wing. Alessi is now going over Wing's credentials.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Moving on - Brennan says he will not fight defense request to have Karen Read's Lexus brought to 34 Fairview Ave for jury view.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Defense begins by asking Judge to reconsider her decision to deny defense expert for full imaging of Canton Police surveillance system computer.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Brennan says defense is welcome "to come anytime" to Canton Police and download the data but he tells Judge they cant have free reign…
We're underway back in the smaller courtroom where the first trial was held. I expect we will be here for the duration.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
Good morning from the courthouse in Dedham, MA for what will hopefully be the final session before openings in the Commonwealth vs. Karen Read.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) April 16, 2025
I’m hearing this won’t be an all day event but you never know with this case.
A jury has been seated and openings are scheduled for…
A full jury for Read’s second murder trial was seated on Tuesday. The panel is made up of 18 jurors: 9 men and 9 women.
“We’re loaded for bear,” Read said outside the courthouse on Tuesday. “Ready to get this show on the road, and we’re happy with the whole process today,” she added.
It took ten days, and nearly 600 candidates were screened during the jury selection process.
“I’m pleased,” Read said when asked about the jury. “I believe that they’re truthful and they were questioned thoroughly.”
Since her June 2022 indictment for the murder of John O’Keefe in Canton, Karen Read has given lengthy interviews to several national media outlets and one local station — Boston 25 News.
Prosecutors have been reviewing Read’s every word, and a new filing from special prosecutor Hank Brennan reveals the Commonwealth is planning to play “recorded statements of the defendant in its open statement” or right out of the gate.
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Attorney and Boston 25 legal analyst Peter Elikann weighed in on the filing.
“It’s not clear that Karen Reed has said anything that would incriminate her or put her in a bad light, but certainly that’s always the risk, why most of the time you don’t want your client talking to the media before the trial,” he said.
Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of hitting John O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die in the cold after a night of drinking. The defense has sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the Albert family home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton and then dragged outside and left for dead.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.
Opening statements are slated for Tuesday, April 22.
Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury in July 2024.
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