Karen Read scores major win as judge allows crash reconstruction testimony

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Judge rules against prosecutors in Karen Read case over crash reconstruction testimony

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan suffered a setback Tuesday after the judge agreed to let defense experts testify in Karen Read’s retrial despite what he called "subterfuge" and missed discovery deadlines.

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Judge Beverly Cannone denied a motion Tuesday to block key defense experts from testifying in defense of Karen Read at her retrial on murder charges in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe.

With dozens of text messages between experts at the ARCCA crash reconstruction firm and defense counsel unaccounted for, and missed discovery deadlines, Cannone said she understood the prosecution’s complaints but ruled against them anyway.

“I understand completely the commonwealth’s argument, the ambush that has been set upon here,” she said. “However, a defendant’s right to a fair trial is paramount to everything. So I’m going to allow the ARCCA witnesses to testify. I’m going to allow what I expect will be a very robust cross-examination.”

Tuesday marked a week since opening statements, but the experts’ report is not expected to be finalized until May 7, more than two weeks after the start of the trial. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan called that unfair to the state, but Cannone denied his motion to block the experts from testifying.

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Karen Read listens to testimony during her murder retrial at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., on April 29, 2025. (Libby O’Neill/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

The ARCCA experts are expected to bolster the defense claims that Read’s SUV never collided with O’Keefe.

Read is charged with murder, manslaughter and fleeing the scene for allegedly plowing into him with her Lexus and taking off, leaving him for dead in a snowstorm. She has pleaded not guilty.

Her first trial ended with a deadlocked jury last year.

Karen Read and John O’Keefe (Karen Read)

Earlier in the day, Jennifer McCabe, a friend of O’Keefe’s who was with him the night before he died and was with Read when she found him at 6 a.m. in the snow during a nor’easter, testified about her friendship with O’Keefe and the night before his death. She is expected to return to the stand Wednesday. 

Tuesday also saw continued testimony from Ian Whiffin, a digital forensics expert who examined the phones of both O’Keefe and McCabe.

Based on location data, O’Keefe could’ve been inside 34 Fairview Road during the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022, testified Ian Whiffin, a digital forensics expert, under cross-examination by defense attorney Robert Alessi.

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Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert with Cellebrite, testifies under cross-examination by the defense during Karen Read’s murder retrial at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., on April 29, 2025. (Libby O’Neill/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

But considering a number of other factors, including Apple Health data, phone battery temperature and a feature called “Doppler” related to Face ID activity, his expert opinion is that O’Keefe came to a stop near the flagpole on the front lawn and did not move between roughly 12:30 a.m. and 6 a.m.

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In one key exchange, Alessi asked Whiffin about a graphic that he included in his report on location data that had not been shown to jurors as part of a timeline the prosecution went through Monday.

A potential location radius showed O’Keefe’s phone could have been inside the house at 34 Fairview Road on the night he died.

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Defense attorney Robert Alessi cross-examines Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert with Cellebrite, during Karen Read’s murder retrial on April 29, 2025. (Libby O’Neill/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

“Therefore, over the next few hours, according to your report, the phone of John O’Keefe could be in the house, correct?” Alessi asked.

“Based on the low accuracy information, yes,” Whiffin said.

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The fuller picture allowed him to narrow that down, he said separately. 

Alessi also took issue with tests Whiffin conducted by putting a phone in a freezer and outside in December, which showed steeper temperature drops than those recorded on O’Keefe’s phone on Jan. 29, 2022. However, Brennan pointed out that O’Keefe’s body was believed to be on top of the phone when he was outside in the cold.

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan questions Ian Wiffin, a digital intelligence expert with Cellebrite, on April 28, 2025. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Whiffin also testified that McCabe’s search for the phrase, “hos (sic) long to die in cold,” happened at 6:23 a.m. – after O’Keefe had been found – and not at 2:27 a.m., as the defense has argued.

He did a demonstration in the courtroom showing how a phone’s database files could give the wrong timestamp alongside a Google search.

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Whiffin testified that the 2:27 timestamp is related to the time when McCabe opened a new tab in her phone’s internet browser. But no search was made at that time. Instead, the search came hours later in the same tab. His testimony supported the prosecution’s timeline.

The trial was expected to take six to eight weeks. Tuesday marked the first full week since opening statements began on April 22. 

Whiffin defended his timestamp findings and the change in Cellebrite software, noting that if he were wrong, other forensic scientists would have spotted it and publicized their findings.

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He also pointed to a similar case in Europe that he said involved the same browser tab timestamp discrepancy and was resolved the same way.