Karen Read prosecutor wants to block defense from blaming after-party guests, pet dog in opening statement

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Is the ‘dog bite’ the key to everything in Karen Read’s retrial?

As the Karen Read retrial gears up for opening statements, the ‘dog bite’ evidence is still under investigation—and it could play a big role in how this trial ends.

The special prosecutor appointed to spearhead the second murder trial of Karen Read, who is accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe, asked the court in a last-minute filing Friday to block her defense from shifting the blame to his fellow police officers or one of their dogs during opening statements next week.

In a two-sentence motion just days before the retrial kicks off with opening statements, specially appointed assistant district attorney Hank Brennan argued that defense plans to use photos of injuries to O’Keefe’s right arm could violate a prior order prohibiting the defense from trying to blame someone else for Read’s death before establishing the evidence at trial.

“The Commonwealth moves for an order that defense counsel refrain from claiming in their opening statement that any of the victim’s injuries were caused by any person or animal that was inside the home at 34 Fairview Road,” he wrote. “Based on the defense’s request to show the abrasions to the victim’s arm in opening statement, the Commonwealth notes that the Court has ruled the defense is precluded from mentioning any reference to third-party culprit claims prior to establishing a viable basis supported by admissible evidence and any mention of third-party culprit claims relative to the abrasions would be improper.”

KAREN READ JUDGE GRANTS DEFENSE VIDEO ACCESS, ALLOWS DOG BITE EXPERTS – WITH LIMITS

Karen Read pictured in a booking photo after her arrest in connection with her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, in 2022. (Massachusetts State Police)

According to prosecutors, O’Keefe died outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home where some of his law enforcement colleagues and their spouses were attending an after-party following a night out in town on Jan. 28, 2022.

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Read is accused of striking him with her Lexus SUV during a drunken argument and then leaving the scene, where he was found dead on fellow Boston Police Officer Brian Albert’s front lawn on Jan. 29. 

Albert, who had invited a group of people to his home, had a German shepherd named Chloe. 

KAREN READ JUDGE SETS LAST-MINUTE DEADLINE ON CRASH RECONSTRUCTION EXPERTS CENTRAL TO HER DEFENSE

The defense for Karen Read holds up a poster board containing information they claim exonerates their client in the murder of John O’Keefe.  (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

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O’Keefe’s cause of death was determined to be severe head trauma and hypothermia, but he also had injures to his hands and right arm.

The motion comes a day after Judge Beverly Cannone denied a prosecution motion to exclude a defense expert on dog bites and partially granted a defense motion to limit testimony from a prosecution expert on the same topic.

Karen Read appears in Norfolk County Superior Court for a pre-trial hearing. She is charged with the murder of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe.  (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

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Dr. James Crosby will be allowed to testify for the prosecution generally about dog bites but is not allowed to say his analysis excluded Chloe by name.

Authorities discovered John O’Keefe outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home on the morning of Jan. 29, 2021.  (Boston Police Department)

Read pleaded not guilty.

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Her first trial ended with a deadlocked jury last year, and she has a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court arguing that partial, unannounced results should justify dropping two of the three charges she is facing. 

Opening statements for her retrial are scheduled to begin Tuesday.