Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
DEDHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — The prosecution in the Karen Read murder retrial rested its case Thursday morning in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.
Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan ended with a video clip from an interview Read did with ID Docuseries in April of 2024.
"I thought 'Could I have run him over? Did he try to get me as I was leaving and I didn't know it?' I mean, I've always got the music blasting. It's snowing; I've got the wipers going, the heater blasting," Read said in the clip. "Did he come and hit the back of my car and I hit him in the knee and he's drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something? And when I hired [Defense Attorney] David Yannetti, I asked him those questions the night of Jan. 29. Like 'David, what if I ran his foot over? Or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out?' And David said, 'yeah then you have some element of culpability."
Before the clip was played, the prosecution's final witness, Dr. Judson Welcher with Aperture, finished testifying after multiple days on the stand.
Welcher is a crash reconstruction expert and analyzed data from Read's Lexus SUV. He also recreated the alleged crash, and found that Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with a vehicle collision. He bought a Lexus that was the same year, make and model as Read's SUV to conduct the tests.
During a tense cross-examination that began Wednesday, Defense Attorney Robert Alessi argued that Welcer's assessment was tainted by confirmation bias. Before the jury came into the courtroom Thursday morning, Alessi also argued that the defense should be allowed to ask Welcher questions about reports from Mass State Police Trooper Joseph Paul and Medical Examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello. However, Judge Beverly Cannone ruled the defense could not use that line of questioning.
After the jury came into the courtroom, Alessi asked Welcher about a variety of topics, including glass evidence taken from the bumper of Read's SUV.
"You have no basis as you sit here today to conclude that the glass on the bumper came from a drinking glass connected to Mr. O'Keefe, do you?" Alessi asked.
"Well we have a picture of a broken glass at the scene, so I wouldn't say we have no basis. I wouldn't necessarily have enough to conclude it's from it though," Welcher responded.
At one point during testimony, things became heated when Alessi accused Welcher of "distracting the jury."
"Your honor he keeps referencing my hand and saying I'm doing something when I'm not," Alessi said. The judge told him to "let the witness answer the question."
"I am. I'm just holding my hand like this your honor. He keeps saying I'm doing something," Alessi responded.
Friday is expected to be a full day in court, beginning with the lawyers and the judge discussing a matter without the jury present. The jury is set to arrive a half hour later at 9:30 a.m.
Read is accused of hitting O'Keefe, her then-boyfriend, with her SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him for dead in the snow in Canton. The defense argues Read is innocent, and is the victim of a police coverup.