Karen Read’s defense links John O’Keefe head wound to fall, not vehicle impact

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Karen Read’s defense called forensic pathologist Dr. Elizabeth Laposata to the stand in her murder trial Monday, a forensic pathologist who testified that victim John O’Keefe’s brain injuries appeared to have stemmed from a fall backward onto a ridged surface.

Read is on trial for the second time in connection with the alleged murder of her former boyfriend, who was a Boston police officer. Prosecutors accuse her of striking him with her Lexus after a night out drinking, then leaving him to die on the ground during a blizzard in Canton, Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of the city where he worked.

In a hearing without jurors present, Judge Beverly Cannone ruled that Laposata’s credentials did not qualify her to testify about potential dog bites as a source of injuries to O’Keefe’s arm, and the judge limited what she could say about the impacts of motor vehicles on pedestrians in collisions.

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Before Cannone sent jurors home around 4 p.m., Laposata testified that O’Keefe’s skull fracture was consistent with a “coup-contrecoup” type injury, meaning that it appeared as though he struck the back of his head first and then suffered internal brain injuries as the result of internal momentum.

“When the brain slaps forcefully against the base of the skull, the delicate bones above the eye break, and that’s again the coup contra coup,” she said. “The brain slaps forward, and when those delicate bones are broken, there’s bleeding, and that bleeding then goes right down into the upper eyelids. So it kind of looks like you have black eyes, but…there’s not been any punch to the face.”

She said that the injury pattern also indicated that he fell on a ridged surface, not something flat.

That also caused the “raccoon eyes” swelling and bruising in the front of his face. However, she testified, the cut over O’Keefe’s right eye was caused by something else – an application of force involving a small object.

“Is it also consistent with a fist?” asked defense attorney Alan Jackson.

“Sure,” she replied. “A fist is an object.”

Dr. Aizik Wolf, a brain surgeon who testified earlier on behalf of the prosecution, also said that O’Keefe’s skull fracture was consistent with a backward fall onto the frozen ground. But he conceded that cuts to the front of O’Keefe’s face, on his eyelid and nose, were caused by something else.

Laposata will return to the stand Tuesday for additional testimony.

Read’s defense called two other witnesses Monday, including a private investigator hired just last week named John Tedeman. He said he took measurements outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts – the Boston suburb where her O’Keefe was found dead on Jan. 29, 2022.

Read is accused of clipping him with a 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV and leaving him to die during a blizzard. She denies striking him at all, and her defense is attempting to illustrate how O’Keefe could have walked into the home before his death contrary to prosecution claims.

Tedeman said Read’s team hired him on June 3, after their previous investigator suffered a health issue and could not testify.

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Prosecution witnesses have testified that O’Keefe never made it inside and that she allegedly backed into him before she went to his house and left him a series of angry voicemails as he died on the ground from blunt trauma to the head and hypothermia.

While the medical examiner could not rule O’Keefe’s death a homicide, Wolf testified that his skull fractures were consistent with falling backward and striking his head on the ground. Another witness for the commonwealth, Dr. Judson Welcher, testified that scratches on O’Keefe’s arm were consistent with an impact from Read’s taillight, which was broken when police seized it.

But a defense dog bite expert, Dr. Marie Russell, testified that the injuries were consistent with dog bites and scratches, not a vehicular strike, and a crash reconstructionist testified that the damage to her taillight could have come from someone throwing a bar glass like the one found shattered near O’Keefe’s remains.

The defense believes O’Keefe suffered his mortal injuries somewhere else and was “placed” on the lawn where Read and two other women found him about 5 and a half hours after she left the scene. 

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Earlier in the day, Read defense attorney Robert Alessi moved for a mistrial again over special prosecutor Hank Brennan’s handling of O’Keefe’s hoodie during cross-examination of a defense expert witness.

“Your honor, the defense moves for a mistrial with prejudice based upon intentional misconduct that just occurred before the court and before the jury,” Alessi said.

He said the motion came in response to representations Brennan made while questioning Dr. Daniel Wolfe, a crash reconstructionist from a firm called ARCCA.

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Brennan, while cross-examining Wolfe about damage to O’Keefe’s hoodie, showed him the actual piece of clothing, which had a series of holes in the back.

Alessi contended that the holes were created by a criminologist during lab testing and that they did not exist when police took the sweatshirt.

Read is accused of killing her boyfriend O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, by clipping him with her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die on the ground in a record-setting blizzard.

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Brennan told the court that he was not disputing that a criminologist made the holes and asked the judge to give a jury instruction rather than declare a mistrial.

“It appears that I made a mistake,” Brennan said.

Cannone denied the motion but said she is going to put photos illustrating the mix-up into evidence and that she is would instruct jurors that they are not permitted to draw any inference that the holes happened on Jan. 29, 2022.

At the start of the day, Cannone heard motions regarding rebuttal testimony and to preclude or limit expert witnesses.

She said she would hold an additional evidentiary hearing to determine what Laposata, a Rhode Island forensic pathologist and professor at Brown University, can testify in front of jurors.

David Yannetti, one of Read’s defense lawyers, told the court that her legal team believes O’Keefe was “placed” on the ground near a flagpole outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts.

The home is about 20 miles south of Boston. Read, O’Keefe and others went there for an after-party on Jan. 28, 2022.

Wolfe, the reconstructionist from a firm called ARCCA, testified last week that damage to Read’s SUV is inconsistent with the type of impact that prosecutors allege left O’Keefe dead early the following morning.

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But on cross-examination, he conceded that flying fragments of a taillight could have been the source of injuries to O’Keefe’s face and nose before he suffered a fractured skull from what prosecution experts testified was a backward fall.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, drunken driving manslaughter and leaving the scene.

Her defense maintains that her vehicle never struck O’Keefe and that his injuries were caused in some other manner after she left.

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Read could face life in prison if convicted of the top charge. Jurors deadlocked at her first trial last year on the same charges.