The retrial against Karen Read begins with jury selection Tuesday.
The judge in the Karen Read murder trial isn't allowing her legal team to call a former FBI agent to testify about what policies police didn't follow at the scene of John O'Keefe's death in Canton, Massachusetts, in January 2022.
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone on Monday granted the prosecution's motion to exclude former FBI agent Michael Easter as a defense expert witness, finding the jury will be able to figure out whether the police investigation that led to Read being charged with murder followed standard protocol.
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"Through zealous cross-examination of police witnesses the defendant can cast doubt on the reliability of the investigation by demonstrating how it differed from standard practices and procedures and can raise the issue of potential bias by police action or inaction as counsel did effectively during the first trial," Cannone wrote.
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At a hearing this month, the prosecution and defense had argued over whether Easter should be allowed to testify.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan said bringing an outside law enforcement agent to go over the investigation was "Monday morning quarterbacking" and that Easter would be speaking as an expert in a way he's never done before, essentially only summarizing the defense team's arguments.
Brennan also asked whether prosecutors could bring in a state police expert to validate how the investigation was conducted.
"Do it," was defense attorney Alan Jackson's reply to the last point, after he called Easter an expert in the vein of a skilled witness.
Cannone asked the defense to submit a case citation showing precedent for using an expert this way in Massachusetts, if not from Massachusetts than another state.
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Jackson noted that, while his team could find no previous case in Massachusetts where a law enforcement agent had testified in this way, it happens in other states.
In her order, Cannone wrote, "The court cannot find nor has defense counsel cited on Massachusetts case where an expert was permitted to opine on the general competency of a police investigation. The lack of authority suggests that during all the jury trials were the defense has been inadequate police investigation based on [a legal precedent known as] Bowden, expert testimony has not been needed for the jury to be able to evaluate the reliability of the Commonwealth's case and whether any failures in investigatory steps are sufficient to create a reasonable doubt of the defendant's guilt."
The retrial begins April 1, with jury selection.
