Karen Read hearing recap: Judge denies request to delay start retrial

The hearing closed with a prosecutor asking for a more elaborate jury questionaire than usual, which Cannone readily agreed to, citing the "extraordinary amount of publicity" on the case.

She asked both sides to submit what questions they'd want to include by Friday.

Cannone also put another pretrial hearing on the calendar, for Tuesday at 11 a.m., so the teams can discuss a pair of motions filed by the prosecution on Thursday, and any other issues that are outstanding.

Cannone moved the lawyers through whether to allow two experts to testify, dog trainer Garrett Wing and former FBI agent Michael Easter.

There was little discussion over Wing, whom Cannone was unfamiliar with, but more of a debate on whether Easter could testify, on how well the investigation was conducted.

Brennan characterized his testimony as "Monday morning quarterbacking" speaking as an expert in a way he's never done before and essentially just summarizing the defense team's arguments. He asked whether prosecutors could bring in a state police expert to validate how the investigation was conducted?

"Do it," was Jackson's reply to the last point, after calling 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.

Saying they were making quick progress, Cannone returned to the third-party culprit argument.

Yannetti initially said he was happy with the arrangement set up in the first trial, but Brennan argued that given how the defense has "liberally, randomly" used names of potential suspects, it isn't fair to the jury and will result in "a mini-trial for each witness."

"Now it's just an empty box where, as in the last trial, the defense can simply get up and blame everybody and anybody," Brennan said, adding, "there's a standard, there's an obligation that hasn't been met."

Yannetti countered that his team doesn't have to narrow their list of third-party suspects to one, and that they have identified three: Brian Albert, Brian Higgins and Colin Albert.

A lengthy sidebar (or private, between the lawyers and judge) discussion followed, and Cannone concluded that, "defense has to make a decision as to what you intend to provide me so I can make a ruling."

The firing of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Read case, was announced on Wednesday, and Cannone noted in court that it may affect a motion made by the prosecution.

Brennan responded by noting that he believes both the prosecution and defense have now been given the Proctor's internal affairs files, and that there may be some argument over what's admissible in court.

After discussion over logistics — Brennan needs about a week to read through the filings — Cannone told Read attorney Elizabeth Little to let her know on April 1, the date of jury empanelment, if there's anything she disagrees with.

Proctor is on the defense's list of prospective witnesses.

After lunch, Judge Cannone asked the lawyers to spend no more than two minutes going over a series of issues.

The first is whether Read should be allowed to argue what's known as a third-party defense — that she didn't do it because someone else did.

Brennan said there were inconsistencies in how the defense has presented its theory that someone else killed O'Keefe, first that it was "common knowledge" who the real killer was, then that it wasn't clear, and now that it's Brian Albert.

"They can't just come in and start accusing people arbitrarily of murder," Brennan said.

Yannetti said he couldn't present his argument in two minutes, and Cannone moved on to brief arguments over phone evidence analyzed by a company called Celebrite, whether the defense intends to bring up bad character evidence (it's inadmissible, Yannetti noted) and an issue over calling a witness.

Thursday's pretrial hearing had been expected to be the last before jury selection begins April 1.

But amid the arguments over the many still-pending motions today, Judge Cannone said that she may call the lawyers back for more discussions on Friday.

After the lead lawyers on both sides accused each other of not knowing the case, Judge Cannone called a lunch break, but urged the attorneys to keep things civil when they returned.

"I suggest we take the personal attacks completely out of this," Cannone said, adding over an objection from the defense's team, "both sides."

She urged the lawyers to stick to arguing their motions. Court will resume at 2 p.m. ET

Brennan and Jackson argued over whether O'Keefe's state of mind about his relationship with Read is relevant to the charges against her, all part of whether to allow in the retrial statements that Read made out of court.

The prosecution obtained documents from, and Brennan said that they show he was planning to break up with Read, but Jackson said the only way his state of mind was relevant was if there were evidence he shared it with Read.

"It's an attempt to inflame the jury, to make them dislike her over something that has nothing to do with the evidence," Jackson said.

But Brennan pointed to statements from Read that she was angry with O'Keefe the night of his death, and that it's "happening in real time moments before John O'Keefe's death."

As they rebutted each other's statements, the lawyers traded accusations each other of misrepresenting the facts of the case.

Attorney Robert Alessi argued for the defense to discredit the testimony of prosecution witness Judson Welcher. Going line by line, Alessi pointed out what he called "egregious" oversteps in Welcher's report, claiming that the witness did not have the expertise to make many of the observations.

"With regard to Dr. Welcher, I have again, genuinely tried to assist the court with regard to blue-penciling his report to make clear based upon the case law what is within in his bounds and what is not within in his bounds based upon his own stated parameters," Alessi said.

Welcher is described as an accident reconstruction specialist. Cannone said the commonwealth would have to submit a redacted version of the report in question so the defense can adequately prepare arguments outlining their concerns, based on what the commonwealth actually intends to use.

While Cannone previously ruled that the defense will be allowed to call its ARCCA accident reconstruction experts as witnesses, their testimony continues to cause conflict.

The defense is pushing to be allowed to disclose that they were witnesses originally hired by the federal government, expressing concerns that the jury could be prejudiced against Read if they believe these witnesses were hired by the defense. The commonwealth argued that if this was disclosed, it would open up the need to explain the details of the federal investigation surrounding the Read case, which was closed without any charges.

Cannone made no final ruling on the issue but said if the defense intends to call their ARCCA witnesses, there will need to be a be voir dire next week.

In a new filing dated Wednesday, the Commonwealth listed three of Read's defense attorneys - Alan Jackson, Elizebath Little and David Yanetti, as potential witnesses.

"The Commonwealth notices that it may be necessary to call defense counsels to authenticate the defendant's numerous public statements," the filing says in a footnote.

The Commonwealth was heard on its request for a buffer zone, which would prohibit demonstrations, signs and clothing in favor of either party or law enforcement. Brennan said the Commonwealth was concerned about the influence gatherings and crowd noise could have on the jury.

There was a buffer zone during the first trial, put in place within 200 feet of the courthouse, which is located in downtown Dedham.

Read's case has drawn significant national attention and crowds of supporters, often listening to the events unfolding in court, were common during the first trial.

Cannone took the request under advisement, noting that she received a request from merchants concerned about potential restrictions.

Judge Beverly Cannone began Thursday's hearing by denying a motion from the defense to delay the start of Read's trial from April 1 to the end of that month.

Attorney Alan Jackson argued that because there is an outstanding federal appeal that could potentially dismiss the murder charge against Read, they would need more time to switch strategies was a decision made in their favor. But Cannone denied the motion for now - setting April 1 as the start of jury selection. She cited concerns about coordinating juror schedules, an effort that is already underway.

Cannone did say they could revisit the motion before the swearing in of the jury, if needed.

Attorneys for both sides of the Karen Read case appeared at a court hearing concerning Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as Turtleboy, Thursday morning as the prosecution pursues a Rule 17 motion concerning evidence related to Kearney's phone.

Arguing in court Thursday morning, Prosecutor Hank Brennan requested information from Kearney's phones regarding communications between Kearney and witnesses and or the family members of witnesses in the Read case.

An attorney for Kearney and Read's defense were both opposed to the Commonwealth's request.

This all comes before Read was due in court in a continuation of the pretrial hearing in her case, before Judge Beverly Cannone.