DEDHAM, Mass. — Jurors returned to Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court on Monday morning to kick off the second week of witness testimony in Karen Read’s retrial.
Read is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert following a night of drinking.
Ian Whiffin, a product manager at digital forensics firm Cellbrite, faced more than three hours of questioning about data that he analyzed on John O’Keefe’s phone, most notably testifying that his Waze app placed him “very close” to the flagpole outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, where his body was found.
The court broke for lunch just before 1 p.m. Boston 25 News will stream a voir dire of ARCCA experts when court resumes.
LIVE COURT UPDATES:
12:52 p.m. -- Witness testimony ends for the day. ARCCA witnesses are coming back for a voir dire after lunch.
12:40 p.m. -- Whiffin admits he didn’t check if there was a second user set up on O’Keefe’s iPhone as he faces questioning from Karen Read’s attorney, Robert Alessi.
“I’m sorry. I never look to see if a secondary user was set up,” Whiffin told the court.
12:30 p.m. -- Defense begins its cross-examination of Whiffin.
12:15 p.m. -- Whiffin testifies that at 12:32:09 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, O’Keefe’s was locked and not used again.
11:50 a.m. -- Whiffin says there was no movement of O’Keefe’s phone until 6:04 a.m.
11:45 a.m. -- Whiffin, still speaking about O’Keefe’s phone data, says that “there were no more steps or flight climbs or any other half activity recorded” after 12:32:16 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
11:40 a.m. -- Court returns from morning break with Ian Whiffin still on the stand.
11:15 a.m. -- The court takes its morning break.
11:05 a.m. -- Special prosecutor Hank Brennan asks Whiffin: “Are all these dots and all these readings of the high frequency data that you compiled for that night, are they all consistent with Mr. O’Keefe’s phone being near the flagpole and not moving that night?”
Whiffin responds: "I think that’s a reasonable assumption."
10:55 a.m. -- Whiffin says Waze location data on O’Keefe’s phone shows a car stop “very close” to the flagpole outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, the home of Brian Albert.
10:50 a.m. -- Whiffin discusses location data that shows circles around the area of the Waterfall Bar and Grille in Canton, where O’Keefe, Read, and other witnesses in the case visited.
10:40 a.m. -- Whiffin pulls up a slideshow of data he compiled to determine where, how, and when John O’Keefe moved on the morning of his death.
10:30 a.m. -- Whiffin says he also looked at John O’Keefe’s phone data, telling the court, “I was more interested in location and health and anything else that could be useful."
10:20 a.m. -- Whiffin testifies that “thousands” of records were deleted from Jennifer McCabe’s phone, not just the “hos long to die in the cold” search.
10 a.m. -- The United States Supreme Court has denied Karen Read’s appeal to wipe away charges in connection with the death of John O’Keefe.
9:45 a.m. -- Whiffin is presenting a PowerPoint showing how he performed data analysis on Jennifer McCabe’s phone for her “hos long to die in ckld” Google search.
9:20 a.m. -- Ian Whiffin, a product manager at digital forensics firm Cellbrite, is called to the stand by the prosecution.
8:45 a.m. -- Karen Read and her attorneys arrive at court.
ARCCA EXPERTS UP NEXT
The jurors will only hear a half day of testimony because ARCCA accident reconstruction experts are also set to be questioned without the jury present.
Judge Beverly Cannone wants to hear from Dr. Daniel Wolfe, an accident reconstruction specialist, and Dr. Andrew Rentschler, a biomechanical engineering specialist, both of whom were originally hired by the feds and testified on behalf of Read in June 2024.
Wolfe and Rentschler claimed during Read’s first trial that her SUV didn’t have damage consistent with any type of pedestrian interaction, but confined to the taillight.
Going into the retrial, there were questions about whether the defense properly disclosed paying the ARCCA witnesses. Read’s team later clarified that they did pay $24,000 for their travel, time for testifying, and coordinating their attendance.
On Friday, all 18 jurors in Karen Read’s retrial toured the scene of John O’Keefe’s death and got an up-close look at the murder defendant’s Lexus SUV during a field trip to Canton on Friday morning.
Read’s SUV was towed to the scene, where crews positioned the vehicle near a flagpole where O’Keefe’s body was found in the snow on the morning of January 29, 2022.
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Read, her attorneys, members of the prosecution, and Cannone joined the jurors on the tour.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan and defense attorney David Yannetti asked jurors to carefully examine Albert’s former home, the flagpole on the lawn, a fire hydrant out front, and the location of Read’s SUV.
“Your eyes are the best computer that you can bring to the view,” Yannetti told the jury.
Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense has claimed that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.
A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.
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.
RELATED:
‘Stop calling’: Trooper reads text messages Karen Read, John O’Keefe exchanged before his death
‘That’s my son’: John O’Keefe’s mom gives emotional testimony for the first time in Karen Read case
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