DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - Karen Read and her defense team walked into Dedham Superior Court Wednesday morning ahead of another day of testimony in her murder retrial.
Accident reconstruction expert Dr. Judson Welcher returned to the witness stand after giving the jury a graphic demonstration of what may have happened to Boston police officer John O’Keefe the night he died in Canton.
Read is accused of killing O’Keefe, her boyfriend, by hitting him with her SUV in January 2022. Prosecutors say she left him to die in the snow outside a home in Canton. Her lawyers argue she is being framed in a police coverup.
The first trial ended in a hung jury.
On Wednesday, Welcher said he carried out a series of experiments, many of which were shown to the jury on Tuesday, using a Lexus SUV nearly identical to Read’s. The commonwealth is betting that his calculations can convince the jury that Read hit O’Keefe.
Judge Beverly Cannone set some guidelines for what Welcher could and could not say on the witness stand. She ruled that he can testify that O’Keefe’s injuries were consistent with being hit by a Lexus that is virtually identical to Read’s, but he cannot say point-blank that Read’s car collided with O’Keefe.
Welcher testified Wednesday that if Read had hit O’Keefe any faster than 8 mph, it would have likely broken her passenger side tail light.
Read’s defense team questioned Welcher on a statement he made during Tuesday’s testimony — that he “has no dog in the fight.” They pointed out that his company has received nearly $400,000 in payments from the commonwealth for his work in this case.
“You know that Aperture is getting paid for its work in this case, correct?” Alessi asked.
“We are billing for our analysis work,” Welcher said.
“Well you’re not just billing, you’re billing and getting paid, correct?” Alessi asked.
“So I have not seen any of the payments, I would assume that we’re getting paid,” Welcher said.
On cross-examination, the defense grilled Welcher about why he made several changes to his report for this case mid-trial. Alessi also questioned his calculations.
“You didn’t present any Newton’s Second Law analysis regarding the front of Mr. O’Keefe’s head with respect to whether his head was contacted by that spoiler, did you,” said Alessi.
“Correct. Again, it was a glancing hit. We wouldn’t be able to do that,” Welcher responded.
“Oh, so now it’s a glancing hit to the front of the head, is your hypothesis?” Alessi asked.
“This whole pedestrian impact is a glancing hit,” Welcher said.
Welcher is expected to be the prosecution’s final witness before they rest their case.
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