Karen Read’s attorneys are trying to get a dog bite expert back on the stand for her second trial.
A hearing was held Thursday in the Karen Read case ahead of her second trial next year to discuss whether certain experts will be allowed to testify at Read's second trial.
Initially, the retrial at Norfolk Superior Court was set to take place in January, but last week, Judge Beverly Cannone approved a motion from the defense team and prosecutors to delay the trial until April.
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Read is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow in Canton, Massachusetts, outside the home of Brian Albert — another Boston police officer — in January 2022. Read's team claims she was framed, the victim of a police conspiracy. She faces charges of second-degree murder, knowingly leaving the scene of an accident and involuntary manslaughter.
Read's defense argued that O'Keefe's injuries were caused not by a vehicle, but by Albert's German shepherd.
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Dr. Marie Russell, a defense witness who testified at Read's first trial about the wounds on O'Keefe's arm being consistent with a dog bite, took the stand at Thursday's hearing. The prosecution is questioning her qualifications in an effort to keep her from testifying in the second trial.
She was questioned by attorney Robert Alessi, a new member of the defense team added for the second trial. He went over Russell's resume, qualifications, and previous trial testimony, attempting to make the case that she should be allowed to testify about O'Keefe's injuries during Read's second trial.
She testified for almost four hours about her history as an emergency room physician and forensic pathologist, her past as a police officer, and numerous times during her career that she saw or treated people with dog bite injuries, including one when she was working as an EMT.
Prosecutors pointed to what it said were inconsistencies in her testimony at Read's first trial and grilled her on her credentials.
Read's full legal team from the first trial, including Alan Jackson, David Yannetti and Elizabeth Little, also attended Thursday's hearing, as did Hank Brennan, the newly-appointed special prosecutor for the second trial, and Assistant District Attorneys Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin.
Read's parents were also in court, along with O'Keefe's brother and sister-in-law, and Aidan Kearney, the blogger better known as "Turtleboy."
