Five takeaways from week 1 of Karen Read’s retrial

The retrial of Karen Read started with opening statements on Tuesday and there are already big differences from the first trial.

Jurors may not see Read on the witness stand in the coming weeks, but videos of her interviews are being played in between witness testimony by new prosecutor Hank Brennan.

Brennan's order of witnesses is much different than Adam Lally, the Norfolk County prosecutor who led the prosecution team last year. The first trial ended with a hung jury , and this time around, both sides are putting lessons learned into practice.

Ten witnesses have testified so far, ranging from Canton firefighters, paramedics and friends of John O'Keefe. The first expert witness testified on Friday.

Here are some of the biggest takeaways from the first week.

1) New evidence expected

Both sides said during opening statements that data and science will bolster their arguments.

That means jurors can expect to hear vastly different interpretations of the same evidence by expert witnesses called by each side.

In one example, Alan Jackson, a lawyer for Read, said he expects an expert witness for the prosecution to testify that O'Keefe likely suffered from hypothermia.

An expert for the defense, however, is expected to testify to the complete opposite.

"She'll tell you that John O'Keefe did not suffer from hypothermia as the commonwealth will undoubtedly allege," Jackson said. "His body showed no signs of it. No frostbite, no cold-induced injuries to his organs, no damage based on cold or frost."

Jackson argued that O'Keefe must have been injured somewhere else, somewhere warmer, and that his body must have been moved out into the cold.

Last year, the prosecution's expert said there was evidence that "strongly suggested" that O'Keefe suffered from hypothermia.

DNA evidence will also play a big role — some of it new.

"They're going to try to dazzle you with talk of DNA because it sounds so scientific," Jackson said. "DNA was on the taillight, but you'll learn that there was no DNA on the actual shards that they claim came in contact with John's arm. None."

There was no blood, no tissue, no skin, no DNA on a single shard of plastic that prosecutors say cut deep marks into O'Keefe's arm, according to Jackson.

Additionally, more evidence is expected in this trial about O'Keefe's shoe, which Jackson said had the DNA of five unidentified males.

2) Perjury claims

In a dramatic exchange on day 2 of the trial, the judge turned to a key prosecution witness and asked, "Did you lie?"

The witness looked away from the judge, startled by the question, and replied, "I did. Not intentionally."

The admission by Kerry Roberts, a close friend of O'Keefe, came during intense cross-examination by Jackson on Wednesday. It also marked a significant difference from the first trial since the defense decided not to cross-examine Roberts last year.

Roberts admitted to telling a "false statement" to a grand jury in 2022 before Read's indictment. Jackson asked if she realized she made the false statement under oath and penalty of perjury, to which she said, "I did."

The exchange went viral and set social media and YouTube commentators ablaze with questions around whether Roberts admitted to committing perjury during her testimony.

A retired Massachusetts judge isn't so convinced. He said the admission amounted to a prior inconsistent statement, but perjury?

"If they prosecuted this person for a prior inconsistent statement, there would have to be hundreds and hundreds of perjury cases," said Jack Lu, a mediator and adjunct law professor at Boston College who served as a Massachusetts Superior Court judge for 16 years.

3) Read's own words used against her

One of the many unique aspects of the Read case is just how outspoken she is and all the interviews she's done. It's incredibly rare for murder defendants to give such wide-ranging interviews and access to cameras, but she's bucked that trend and reaped both a strong advocacy movement and lots of financial donations.

At trial, however, the prosecution is effectively weaving her interviews in between witnesses, often to drive home a point.

On Monday, after a back-and-forth cross-examination of Canton firefighter Timothy Nuttall, where lawyers argued about whether he really heard Read say, "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him," Brennan rolled the tape.

This time, from Read's interview with ID Docuseries, dated June 15, 2024. In it, she says she did say, "I hit him."

Read: I remember it, but I question do I remember it because it's been relived so much?

I mean, when I see the video of me driving from the Waterfall, like what I just described — tapping the brakes when I crossed the intersection, Washington over Sherman street — do I actually remember that I kind of slowly proceeded through that green light? No, I don't actually remember that, but I've seen the video so many times that you then question, did I remember on my own, or was my memory jogged?

But I also wondered, did I say that I hit him? Or was it told to me that I said I hit him? And I knew I never could have said that, so the closest I must have said was, did I hit him? I know I said I hit him, but did I really say it as many times as law enforcement's claiming I said it?

4) Order of witnesses

After opening statements last year, the first witnesses were O'Keefe's brother, Paul O'Keefe, and his sister-in-law, Erin O'Keefe.

Jurors heard from Erin O'Keefe about a trip to Aruba that Read and O'Keefe took with a group of friends. She described a fiery screaming match after Read accused O'Keefe of kissing another woman.

On the first day of trial last year, jurors were made aware of potential simmering tensions between Read and O'Keefe.

No such story at this trial. Brennan said he wouldn't introduce any testimony about the Aruba trip, and instead, he called Canton firefighter Timothy Nuttall as the first witness.

Nuttall described the "bedlam" of the scene — blizzard conditions, police lights and Read running and screaming hysterically as paramedics attempted to resuscitate O'Keefe.

On cross, Jackson hammered at an inconsistency from the first trial, when Nuttall testified that O'Keefe wore a black, puffy coat — the only witness to say so and by all other accounts O'Keefe never wore.

Then Jackson pointed out Nuttall testified he heard Read say "I hit him" three times at the scene, but last year he said he only heard her say it twice.

Just like the first trial, the defense is scrutinizing the "I hit him" statements some first responders say they heard, since initial police and hospital reports did not contain the damaging statements attributed to Read.

5) Read's intoxication level

Read, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death in connection with O'Keefe's death.

Norfolk County prosecutors say Read struck O'Keefe with her SUV while driving intoxicated and then fled the scene in January 2022.

Read's lawyers contend that her SUV never struck O'Keefe, and on Tuesday, Jackson said, "There was no collision," and repeated it three times to emphasize for the jury.

On Friday, Chief Pathologist of Signature Healthcare Garrey Faller took the stand. He is the former chief pathologist at Good Samaritan Medical Center, where Read and O'Keefe were brought after he was found.

Faller told the jury his hospital's tests found Read's blood alcohol level to be 0.093 — above the legal limit to drive — by 9 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. This was the same number Faller testified to in the last trial.

Read's defense team has again tried to undermine the accuracy of the hospital's testing.

Attorney Elizabeth Little questioned on Friday if Faller was aware of a specific study that showed a multiple sclerosis (MS) diagnosis could lead to elevated levels of the enzyme tested to determine a person's blood alcohol. She also asked if the hospital considered her diagnosis as a factor in her results.

While Faller said neither Read's MS diagnosis nor her anemia were taken into account, he also said the particular MS-related enzyme Little was discussing would not affect the test results.

The trial will resume Monday, April 28 with half a day of witness testimony, then voir dire — a hearing away from the jury — with two accident reconstruction experts testifying for the defense.

MassLive reporter Irene Rotondo contributed to this article.

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