Karen Read trial live updates: Defense expert says scratches on O’Keefe’s arm are consistent with dog attack (2024)

Hearings are underway in the Karen Read trial, a Mansfield woman charged in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe.

MassLive reporters will provide updates below throughout the day.

Voir dire hearings are set for the day where the defense and prosecutors will be questioning three expert witnesses who are expected to be called by the defense.

No jury will be present on Tuesday.

• Read more:Everyone you need to know to understand the Karen Read trial

12 p.m. update: Defense experts found ‘insufficient’ evidence to determine cause of O’Keefe’s head injuries

The next hearing was for Dr. Andrew Rentschler, who is a biomechanical engineer and accident reconstructionist.

He is the vice president and director of biomechanics for Arcca, an engineering consulting company.

They look at crash-worthiness safety of issues and other types of events, Rentschler said. They also do litigation-type work and research for the government and private entities, he said.

Biomechanical engineers want to learn about how injuries occurred, the force applied, and other factors, Rentschler said.

Ultimately, they figure out how the injury occurred and what kinematics happened, Rentschler said.

Rentschler said he’s testified more than 150 times in criminal and civil courts across the country.

Rentschler agreed with Jackson that he was hired to see if he could determine what happened in O’Keefe’s death.

Rentschler said he came to his conclusions with a reasonable degree of scientific certainty but did not disclose his conclusions.

He agreed he was not hired by the defense or the prosecution.

Adam Lally, the prosecutor, asked about confidentiality limitations put on Rentschler. He said he did not discuss the case outside of his coworkers.

Rentschler said the company rendered their report on Feb. 12, 2024.

Rentschler said the report includes an analysis of whether the injuries to the back of O’Keefe’s head could’ve been caused by contact from a vehicle.

Judge Beverly Cannone asked what Rentschler was specifically tasked with. He said he was tasked from a biomechanical standpoint to see if it was possible to determine how O’Keefe received his head and arm injuries.

The judge dismissed Rentschler.

Lally said that what prosecutors were seeking was covered during the voir dire hearing.

Jackson revealed a small portion of the report: “There is currently insufficient evidence to determine the cause of Mr. O’Keefe’s skull and brain injuries or the circ*mstances surrounding the event.”

He read the portion to argue that the experts should be allowed to testify about their conclusions since they fall within the scope of their expertise.

Cannone said she will make a decision on Thursday on whether she will limit part of Rentschler’s testimony.

Court was dismissed at noon. The trial is off on Wednesday for the holiday and will resume on Thursday.

11:15 a.m. update: Defense expert confirms he was hired by the Department of Justice and FBI

Daniel Wolfe, a director of accident reconstruction at a company known as Arcca, next sat for a hearing.

Wolfe explained Arcca as a forensic consulting engineering company, including accident reconstruction.

Arcca typically works for law firms and insurance carriers. They’ve done research for the military and player safety for the NFL, Wolfe said.

Wolfe explained that he works with many different types of accident reconstruction and that he works on them from a scientific standpoint.

Wolfe earned a bachelor’s degree in science and engineering from James Madison in 2012 and minored in mathematics. He earned a doctorate in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Delaware.

Arcca was not hired by the defense or prosecution, Wolfe agreed with Jackson. Arcca was instead hired by a “third-party” agency for accident reconstruction.

Wolfe said he was responsible for investigating the vehicle damage in the O’Keefe case. He worked with a colleague who was responsible for investigating the injuries to O’Keefe.

Lally next questioned Wolfe about his company’s report.

The conclusions in his report were based on the evidence provided to Arcca and Wolfe was responsible for the damage to the car, Wolfe agreed.

Judge Cannone asked Wolfe was his agency was specifically asked to do.

Wolfe said that the agency that retained them gave them a selected quantity of file material related to the case and asked an open-ended question.

“Ultimately, was this evidence consistent with a pedestrian interaction between Mr. John O’Keefe and the Lexus,” Wolfe said.

The judge asked who selected the information given to Arcca, and Wolfe said the Department of Justice and the FBI.

10:50 a.m. update: Judge to weigh on whether defense’s witness can testify

Judge Beverly Cannone said she was concerned about Dr. Marie Russell seeing something and she decided to come forward.

Prosecutor Adam Lally said that Russell be excluded from testifying at trial.

Russell, Lally said, reached out through an intermediary, after she had discovered the case weeks into the trial and it’s “concerning” that she had a subscription to The Boston Globe and that the Read trial grabbed her attention in the first week of May.

Jackson argued that the judge should not rule out the doctor’s testimony since he learned about her expertise during the trial and that his client should be allowed to bring an alternate view to the trial.

Cannone said she was not deciding right away whether to allow Russell to testify, but if she does, she will allow prosecutors time to absorb the testimony and find a rebuttal witness.

Lally said it would take a week to get a rebuttal witness. Cannone said she would not decide until Thursday about whether Russell will testify.

10:30 a.m. update: Defense expert witness says she believes O’Keefe’s injuries were caused by large dog

After a short break, Judge Beverly Cannone said she agreed with the prosecutor’s motion that a violation occurred by the defense when they did not fulfill their reciprocal discovery violations for their expert witness.

“I’m not prohibiting the Commonwealth from anything on their examination of the witness,” Cannone said. “They can ask her anything they think they need to ask her.”

Dr. Marie Russell, is a retired emergency physician and forensic pathologist. She started at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she did pre-med courses from 1972 to 1974.

She took time off after a year at MIT after her mother passed. She took courses in law enforcement and became a full-time police officer in Massachusetts. She attended the Boston police academy in 1977.

Russell received training in hit-and-run investigations. She worked for the City of Malden for 7 years.

She took courses with the Massachusetts Criminal Justice Training Council. She got a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Northeastern University.

Russell said she wanted to pursue a medical career and attended the University of Massachusetts medical school and received a doctor of medicine degree in 1987.

She did a residency in Los Angeles for four years. She did a second residency in anatomic pathology and forensic pathology at the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

While at the coroner’s office, she said she saw a “wide assortment” of cases, including victims of gunshots, stabbings, motor vehicle accidents, natural deaths and overdoses.

Jackson asked if some of those cases involved animal attacks and Russell said “Yes.”

While working as an attending physician at a Los Angeles emergency room, Russell said she oversaw the care of all the patients that came in during a particular shift, both medical and trauma patients.

Russell said part of her job was to assess the cause of injuries.

In 1996, Russell co-authored a peer-reviewed article about animal injuries caused by law enforcement dog bites.

Russell estimated she’s treated over 500 patients with animal-related injuries, including dog bites.

She said she was asked to review materials about O’Keefe’s case in order to give her opinions. She reviewed hospital photographs of his autopsy, an autopsy report, and the grand jury testimony from the medical examiner.

She also reviewed a neuropathology report, a toxicology report, the grand jury testimony and the hospital emergency report.

Jackson asked about O’Keefe’s injuries and what her opinion was concerning those injuries.

“Those injuries appear to be consistent with an animal attack,” Russell said. “They are consistent with a large dog attack. There’s a combination of both bite wounds and scratch wounds on the arm.”

There were also puncture holes on the shirt, Russell said.

The patterns of parallel wounds appear to be superficial scratches that could’ve been caused by nails or teeth, Russell said. There are different angles on the arm and different locations, but generally oriented in a specific direction, Russell said.

There is also an area close to the wrist that Russell said she believes shows an arch area of teeth marks. The arch would be the front area of the jaw of the animal, she said, where the teeth tend to be close together and curved.

Jackson handed Russell a photograph of O’Keefe’s arm and his wounds.

Russell said there were several patterns on O’Keefe’s arms, which she pointed out on a large image displayed in the court.

The cuts to O’Keefe’s upper arm were consistent with either teeth or claw marks, Russell said.

Towards the wrist, Russell said there was an “unusual pattern” of cuts that she believed were caused by teeth towards the front of the teeth.

Jackson asked if Russell took into account the lack of other injuries to O’Keefe.

“Of course, I considered what else could’ve caused these wounds before coming to my conclusion, and so I wanted to rule out other things. There were no significant major bodily injuries outside the head. There were no fractures of long bones, the chest, the pelvis, the arms. So having seen hundreds and hundreds of car accidents, I ruled that out pretty quickly,” Russell said.

Adam Lally, the Norfolk prosecutor, asked what kind of training Russell received while at the police academy.

He asked about her hit-and-run training while at the police academy. She said she learned about determining what vehicles were involved in accidents.

She agreed with Lally that she did not get training on crash reconstruction.

Russell said she never testified in a case involving any of Read’s attorneys to her knowledge.

Russell said she contacted a district attorney who she had worked with in the past and mentioned that there was a case in Massachusetts that might be an issue about a dog bite.

“I’d heard that there was a controversy,” Russell said.

Russell heard about the case around May 17, 2024, she said. On May 18, Russell said she provided Jackson with her opinion orally, but she did not write any of it down.

The judge asked a few questions of Russell, who reiterated that her opinion was that O’Keefe’s injuries were caused by a large dog.

The judge told Russell that she did not know whether she would allow her to testify and excused the doctor.

Cannone told her she would let her know within a few days.

9:50 a.m. update: Judge explains purpose of hearings

The voir dire hearings on Tuesday are based on the prosecution’s motion to exclude the defense’s expert testimonies, Judge Beverly Cannone said at the start of the day.

“That’s what we are here for,” Cannone said.

“There appears to me to be a violation of the reciprocal discovery obligations of defense counsel regarding Dr. (Marie) Russell,” Cannone said. “So let’s hear from her today to see what the appropriate remedy is for this violation.”

Russell is an emergency medicine specialist from Los Angeles who the defense wants to call to the stand.

Alan Jackson, Read’s defense attorney, said he only intends to ask Russell about her qualifications, not about her full opinions and conclusions.

Jackson said they’ve provided everything they need to disclose to the prosecution and that the prosecution has continued to give them discovery throughout the trial.

During the trial, prosecutors interviewed Jennifer McCabe, Jackson said. Lt. Brian Tully of Massachusetts State Police took a report, dated the report and held onto it until after McCabe testified.

“They were all done before her testimony,” Jackson said, and then the report was shared with the defense.

Jackson said they’ve shared everything they have about their expert witness with prosecutors. He argued that prosecutors want “two bites at the apple” with the hearings on Tuesday so they can cross-examine the defense expert without the jury and then cross-examine the expert again in front of the jury after consultation with their own experts.

Cannone said she disagreed with Jackson.

Adam Lally, the prosecutor, denied that Lt. Tully had a “full interview” with McCabe. Lally said that McCabe met with Tully, looked at some video, and he was asked a single question.

Lally said prosecutors first heard of Dr. Russell on May 21, six weeks into the trial.

Jackson said he had learned of Dr. Russell on May 17, and told the court within three days. After meeting her, Jackson said he thought she would be useful to testify about injuries to O’Keefe’s arm.

The judge took a quick break.

9:30 a.m. update: Hearings get underway

Testimony is paused on Tuesday but the trial will proceed with a day of hearings.

Voir dire hearings are set for the day where the defense and prosecutors will be questioning four expert witnesses who are expected to be called by the defense. No jury will be present on Tuesday.

Read, 44, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of O’Keefe, who was found cold to the touch and unresponsive on Jan. 29, 2022, outside of a home in Canton.

Norfolk County prosecutors say Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV while driving intoxicated. Read’s attorney, David Yannetti, said during the trial’s opening statements that her car never struck O’Keefe and that others are to blame for his death.

The trial is taking place in Dedham’s Norfolk County Superior Court.

On Monday, a state trooper read into the record text messages between Read and O’Keefe from the night before his death.