DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - The defense team resumed questioning the credentials of a forensics expert on the witness stand in Karen Read’s murder retrial Tuesday.
Shanon Burgess used data from Read’s SUV to analyze the car’s movements in the hours surrounding Boston police officer John O’Keefe’s death. The defense says Burgess does not have the academic background he claimed to have to perform that type of analysis.
On Monday, Read’s lawyers picked apart his resume. Burgess admitted he only acquired a two-year degree and has been working on the bachelor’s degree since 2008.
On a redirect, Hank Brennan sought to prop up Burgess, asking him about his LinkedIn account and company web bio.
Both showed he got a bachelor of science degree, which he now admits he doesn’t have.
Brennan displayed a document Burgess sent to the court last fall with his initial protocol, showing he was “currently pursuing that degree.”
“Have you ever testified you have a bachelors degree? Have you inflated qualifications?” Brennan asked.
“No I did not,” Burgess said.
Burgess testified on Monday he’d been pursuing the degree since 2008. He testified he has not been keeping up with his LinkedIn account.
The jury saw dueling expert reports on exactly when Karen Read made a three point turn in her Lexus and when she put the car into reverse outside 34 Fairview.
The seconds count, because data from O’Keefe’s phone shows he locked it for the last time a few seconds after 12:32 a.m.
The defense expert says data shows that was roughly 30 seconds after Read out the car into reverse, so she could not have hit him.
“Were you in agreement with this page?” Brennan asked.
“No I was not,” said Burgess.
Burgess says the other expert failed to properly synchronize the clocks from the Lexus and O’Keefe’s iPhone.
Christina Hanley, a Massachusetts State Police forensic scientist also took the stand late Tuesday afternoon.
She was able to match broken glass found at the crime scene to a broken drinking glass found near O’Keefe’s body.
The jury saw a clip from April of last year that shows Read making statements about when O’Keefe died. They seem to align with the state’s timeline of events.
“We think he died right around 12:25 or 12:30,” Read said in the clip.
After court, Read emerged with her attorneys. At first, she said she didn’t want to comment on the state’s efforts to use her words against her, but then answers about her statement that John died as early as 12:25 a.m.
“I said we believe, that’s what we believe,” said Read. “I said 12:25, 12:30, and that was based on phone data that we have, that everyone has seen now.”
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.
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