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Karen Read defense attorney Robert Alessi moved for a mistrial again Monday over special prosecutor Hank Brennan’s handling of John O’Keefe’s hoodie during cross-examination of a defense expert witness.
“Your honor, the defense moves for a mistrial with prejudice based upon intentional misconduct that just occurred before the court and before the jury,” Alessi said.
He said the motion came in response to representations Brennan made while questioning Dr. Daniel Wolfe, a crash reconstructionist from a firm called ARCCA.
Brennan, while cross-examining Wolfe about damage to O’Keefe’s hoodie, showed him the actual piece of clothing, which had a series of holes in the back.
JURY SKEPTICISM OF EXPERTS COULD DETERMINE OUTCOME IN KAREN READ MURDER TRIAL: FORMER JUDGE
Karen Read exits Norfolk County Superior Court, in Dedham, MA, Tuesday, May 20, 2025. (Hans Pennink for Fox News Digital)
Alessi contended that the holes were created by a criminologist during lab testing and that they did not exist when police took the sweatshirt.
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, by clipping him with her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die on the ground in a record-setting blizzard.
Brennan told the court that he was not disputing that a criminologist made the holes and asked the judge to give a jury instruction rather than declare a mistrial.
WATCH: Karen Read defense moves for a mistrial again
“It appears that I made a mistake,” Brennan said.
Judge Beverly Cannone denied the motion but said she is going to put photos illustrating the mix-up into evidence and that she is would instruct jurors that they are not permitted to draw any inference that the holes happened on Jan. 29, 2022.
At the start of the day, Cannone heard motions regarding rebuttal testimony and to preclude or limit expert witnesses.
She said she would hold an additional evidentiary hearing to determine what Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a Rhode Island forensic pathologist and professor at Brown University, can testify in front of jurors.
David Yannetti, one of Read’s defense lawyers, told the court that her legal team believes O’Keefe was “placed” on the ground near a flagpole outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts. Laposata is expected to discuss O’Keefe’s injuries and how and where he could have suffered them.
An image of a “Rescue Randy” mannequin is displayed as expert Daniel Wolfe testifies during the retrial in Norfolk Superior Court, Monday June 9, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)
The home is about 20 miles south of Boston. Read, O’Keefe and others went there for an after-party on Jan. 28, 2022.
Wolfe, the reconstructionist from a firm called ARCCA, testified last week that damage to Read’s SUV is inconsistent with the type of impact that prosecutors allege left O’Keefe dead early the following morning.
‘CANNON’ TEST BOOSTS KAREN READ’S DEFENSE, SHOWING TAILLIGHT DAMAGE CONSISTENT WITH THROWN BAR GLASS
Accident reconstruction specialist Dr. Daniel Wolfe explains the construction of a taillight assembly from a 2021 Lexus SUV during Karen Read’s murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, June 6, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)
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But on cross-examination, he conceded that flying fragments of a taillight could have been the source of injuries to O’Keefe’s face and nose before he suffered a fractured skull from what prosecution experts testified was a backward fall.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, drunken driving manslaughter and leaving the scene.
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Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official headshot. O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Reed, is currently on trial for murder after he was found dead outside of a Massachusetts home in January 2022. (Boston Police Department)
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Her defense maintains that her vehicle never struck O’Keefe and that his injuries were caused in some other manner after she left.
Read could face life in prison if convicted of the top charge. Jurors deadlocked at her first trial last year on the same charges.
