Karen Read defense grills phone expert on John O'Keefe's final minutes as prosecution shreds theory
Karen Read pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe and is facing a retrial after a jury was unable to reach a verdict last year.
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Judge in Karen Read case deals blow to prosecution, allowing testimony from crash reconstructionists
Following a brief recess, special prosecutor Hank Brennan asked Judge Beverly Cannone to preclude ARCCA witnesses Dr. Daniel Wolfe and Dr. Andrew Renstchler from testifying on both new and previous testing due to the defense’s witnesses not turning over text messages and reports to the prosecution.
Wolfe and Renstchler are expert crash reconstructionists working within the forensic engineering firm.
“There was a court order for the witnesses to provide your Honor with all of their information, phone records, text messages and communications about this case,” Brennan said. “Instead of providing their information to the court, they instead chose to send it to the defense, and then it was summarized and provided by the defense to the court and to the Commonwealth. It appears to me that it is not in compliance with the court's order.”
Cannone ultimately sided with Karen Read’s defense team with a ruling to allow the ARCAA experts to testify in Read’s second trial.
“I understand completely the Commonwealth's argument, the ambush that has been set upon here,” Cannone said. “However, a defendant's right to a fair trial is paramount to everything. So I'm going to allow the witnesses to testify.”
Jurors in Karen Read trial sent home for the day as attorneys discuss ARCCA motion
Judge Beverly Cannone dismissed the jury for the day, with Jennifer McCabe set to return Wednesday to continue her testimony.
The court will have have a brief hearing about the motion surrounding forensic engineering firm ARCCA before adjourning for the day. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan raised issues with delays in receiving discovery items, such as communications and reports, from the crash reconstructionists.
Key witness provides emotional testimony on finding John O'Keefe at 34 Fairview
Jennifer McCabe continued to testify about the morning she began searching for John O’Keefe alongside Karen Read and Kerry Roberts while being questioned by special prosecutor Hank Brennan.
McCabe told Brennan about Read’s behavior as the three women left O’Keefe’s home and headed to 34 Fairview on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
“She was popping back and forth, back and forth and screaming,” McCabe said.
As their car arrived at 34 Fairview, McCabe described the moment Read discovered O’Keefe’s body in the front yard.
“She screamed, ‘Stop,’ so Kerry [Roberts] stopped pretty quickly,” McCabe said. “‘There he is, there he is,’ she could’ve kicked the door, like, ‘Let me out of here’.”
McCabe became emotional as she recalled finding O’Keefe in the snow.
“It wasn’t until I got very close over to them that I saw Kerry removing the snow from John’s face,” McCabe said.
“When you see Kerry removing the snow from John’s face, what do you do?” Brennan asked.
“I was frozen,” McCabe said. “I was shocked, I could believe that was him just lying there.”
McCabe went on to describe the scene as it unfolded.
“I see Kerry just wiping the snow off,” McCabe said. “Karen had straddled him and lifted her shift and his shirt, and was lying on him. Kerry was screaming at her to get off of him, and I was literally just standing there. There he was.”
Jennifer McCabe recounts Karen Read asking, "Did I hit him?" while searching for John O'Keefe
During her testimony, Jennifer McCabe described the moment she learned something had happened to John O’Keefe following the group’s night of bar hopping when she received an early-morning phone call from O’Keefe’s niece.
“I heard a voice and a lot of screaming,” McCabe said.
McCabe testified that Karen Read then took the phone and began speaking with her.
“She’s screaming that John didn’t come home, she left him at The Waterfall,” McCabe said. “She was hysterical, it was very hard to follow what she was saying.”
McCabe went on to tell special prosecutor Hank Brennan how Read told her about the broken tail light on the Lexus SUV.
“And then when she got on the phone, I had told her, ‘Karen, I saw you guys outside of my sister's house’,” McCabe said.
“She told me she didn't remember being there, and then she went on to say, ‘Could I have hit him? Did I hit him?’ She just was just all over the place, like screaming my name, screaming so many different things. She was hard to follow or understand.”
“When she was saying to you, ‘Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?’ Was that before or after you informed her that you had seen her out front of your sister's house?” Brennan asked.
“It was after I told her that,” McCabe said. “She also informed me that she had cracked her tail light.”
Jennifer McCabe describes the last time she saw John O'Keefe before his death
Jennifer McCabe told prosecutor Hank Brennan that after the group left the bar, they returned to McCabe’s sister’s house at 34 Fairview, but Karen Read and John O’Keefe never arrived.
McCabe testified she saw Read and O’Keefe’s car outside the home, but the pair did not come inside the home. McCabe told Brennan she texted O’Keefe when their car was parked outside, asking if they were parked outside.
“After I saw the car move locations, when I saw it go up to the flagpole, I said ‘pull behind me',” McCabe said.
“Did he ever text you again that night?” Brennan asked.
“He never texted me again,” McCabe said.
Key witness Jennifer McCabe recalls being introduced to Karen Read by John O'Keefe
Jennifer McCabe went on to describe initially meeting Karen Read, with John O’Keefe introducing the pair during a pool playdate between their children.
“He told me he was dating a new girl, and he wanted to bring her over,” McCabe said. “He said that she had multiple sclerosis. I also have multiple sclerosis, so he thought that that would be something we would talk and bond over. I said, ‘Yeah, great, bring her over'.”
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan then replayed surveillance footage from inside local bar The Waterfall while asking McCabe to identify herself, along with Read and O’Keefe.
McCabe testified the group decided to move to her sister’s house at 34 Fairview after a night of drinking, with Read and O’Keefe choosing to join as well.
Prosecution calls Jennifer McCabe as the state's next witness in Karen Read trial
On Tuesday afternoon, special prosecutor Hank Brennan called Jennifer McCabe as the state’s next witness.
McCabe was with Karen Read and Kerry Roberts when John O’Keefe’s body was found on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022 and her phone conducted the now-infamous Google search, “Hos long to die in the cold.”
McCabe is also the sister-in-law of Brian Albert, the homeowner of 34 Fairview when O’Keefe’s body was found in the front yard.
Phone expert does live demo on Google search timestamps in front of jury
Digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin provided a live demonstration of how Cellebrite’s software determined Jennifer McCabe’s Google search, “Hos long to die in the cold,” was conducted at 6:23 a.m., and not before John O’Keefe’s body was found outside 34 Fairview.
Whiffin highlighted how the software provided a “last viewed” timestamp of when an internet browser tab was initially opened, but not when it was updated with new online searches.
“The name ‘last view’ time clearly has implications that would make you believe that it was the time that the page was last viewed,” Whiffin said. “It's a very simple test that was just demonstrated to prove that that's not the case.”
Expert highlights inaccuracies in defense team's map of John O'Keefe's final movements
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan continued the state’s redirected examination of Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert, by zeroing in on Whiffin’s location data findings within John O’Keefe’s cell phone.
The state presented a map initially shown by Karen Read’s defense team with the potential location radius of O’Keefe’s phone overlapping with 34 Fairview.
Brennan pointed out the circle overlapping the home was using data points with the “lowest accuracy,” looking to disprove the defense’s argument that the phone pinged from inside 34 Fairview.
“Is this still consistent with your opinion that, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, you opined that the cell phone was in the flagpole area of the entire evening of Jan. 29, 2022?” Brennan asked.
“Yes, it still aligns with my opinion,” Whiffin said.
Karen Read trial resumes following lunch as prosecution continues expert's redirect examination
Following a lunch break, Karen Read’s trial resumed with special prosecutor Hank Brennan continuing the state’s redirect examination of digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin.
Karen Read trial breaks for lunch as expert witness discusses key cell phone data
Court broke for lunch following a morning of testimony from digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin, with Whiffin’s redirect examination set to continue when jurors return.
Cell phone data expert insists infamous Google search was not tampered with
Regarding Jennifer McCabe’s infamous Google search, “Hos long to die in the cold,” digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin testified the hash value - or unique identifier - did not show any signs of being tampered with.
“In this particular case, there were lots of data points that all appeared to work together,” Whiffin said. “You would see one artifact change in one database and an artifact would change somewhere else, and it all just made perfect sense in how it was functioning. That kind of leads you to believe that it's not been tampered with or the person tampering with it did an exceptional job to be able to cover all of these different tracks and make it undetectable.”
Whiffin testified the data company Cellebrite opted to remove the 2:27 a.m. timestamp from the Google search showing when the page was last visited because it was “clearly causing confusion.”
Whiffin previously testified the timestamp reflected when the internet browser tab was initially opened, not when the specific search was performed.
Prosecutor doubles down on expert's temperature testing and location of John O'Keefe's cell phone
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan began the state’s redirect examination of digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin by circling back to Whiffin’s testing of cell phone battery temperature and John O’Keefe’s health data.
“When you developed the graph of the battery temperature and you followed the progress of that temperature, declining through the night, was there any other scope or focus of yours other than to simply track the data?” Brennan asked.
“Just tracking the data,” Whiffin answered.
“Similarly, when you looked at healthcare data, were you asked to try to see if the healthcare data could fit a certain theory or argument?” Brennan said.
"No, I was not,” Whiffin said.
Brennan pointed to location data showing O’Keefe’s phone was traveling in a car at the time Karen Read’s defense attorney said O’Keefe’s step-count would have overshot the flagpole if walking from the front door of 34 Fairview, while also noting the data can be unreliable when pinpointing exact locations.
“Based on location data alone, are you offering an opinion to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty where that phone was?” Brennan asked.
“It's difficult to say with a reasonable degree of certainty based on the randomness of the location data,” Whiffin said.
Karen Read defense challenges digital expert over key timestamp in McCabe’s infamous Google search
Karen Read’s defense attorney Robert Alessi continued his cross-examination of Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert, by bringing up the now-infamous Google search from Jennifer McCabe’s phone, “Hos long to die in the cold.”
“You rendered various conclusions about what is called a timestamp, correct?” Alessi asked.
“Correct,” Whiffin answered.
“And a timestamp that was in question was 2:27 a.m. on January 29 on Jen McCabe’s phone, correct?” Alessi said.
"Correct,” Whiffin said.
Whiffin testified that he was unable to validate the hash value - or unique identifier - of the internet search and therefore was unable to tell if McCabe’s phone had been tampered with.
Alessi noted the digital investigation company Whiffin works for, Cellebrite, removed the timestamp from its program, but still appears in a program created by the company’s competitor, Magnet Forensics.
“So you don't know the chain of custody of her iPhone, you have an unsigned hash value, and you can't guarantee the hash value authentication,” Alessi said.
“Correct,” Whiffin said.
Alessi aimed to discredit Whiffin’s previous testimony by pointing out Whiffin did not mention a second tool used by Cellebrite that found the internet search was made at 2:27 a.m. and had been deleted.
During direct examination on Monday, Whiffin told special prosecutor Hank Brennan that while the browser tab on McCabe's phone was opened at 2:27 a.m., the search was conducted later in the morning at 6:23 a.m., after John O’Keefe’s body was found and was likely not intentionally deleted by an individual.
Cell phone data expert questioned more after morning break
Court has resumed following a brief morning recess, with digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin continuing to provide testimony.
Expert says phone battery lost heat much faster in tests than when John O'Keefe died
During digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin's cross-examination, defense attorney Robert Alessi grilled Whiffin on test data showing the temperature of cell phone batteries placed in a freezer and outside in December showed steeper drops than John O’Keefe’s phone on the morning of his death.
“Do you know what the temperature was in Canton on January 29th, 2022?” Alessi asked.
“I do not know,” Whiffin said.
“Don’t you think that it would be an important piece of information in analyzing where the phone of John O’Keefe was on the morning of January 29th?” Alessi said.
“I didn’t think it was,” Whiffin replied.
Whiffin testified he was looking to see how a cell phone's battery temperature falls with ambient temperature.
Defense gets phone data expert to admit John O'Keefe's phone could have been inside 34 Fairview
Karen Read’s defense attorney Robert Alessi came out of the gate on Tuesday looking to discredit digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin’s testimony regarding John O’Keefe’s cell phone location data during his final movements.
Alessi pointed to a map showing the radius of possible locations O’Keefe’s phone could have been on the night of his death, suggesting the phone could have been inside the house.
“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 replied.
Alessi noted that the map showing the radius’ overlap within the house was not shown by the prosecution during Whiffin’s direct examination on Monday and was not included in Whiffin's own report.
Court returns for the sixth day of Karen Read's retrial
Court has resumed for the sixth day of testimony in Karen Read’s second murder trial with defense attorney Robert Alessi calling Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert, to the stand for cross-examination.
Karen Read arrives to court for the sixth day of testimony in her retrial
Karen Read arrived at Norfolk Superior Court alongside defense attorney Alan Jackson one-minute-shy of the court’s 9 a.m. start time.
Crash expert admits to breaking witness sequestration order in Karen Read's first trial
A crash reconstructionist whose testimony is expected to be key to Karen Read's defense admitted on the stand Monday, without jurors present, that he sent notes to her team during the first trial and received information about prior testimony despite a sequestration order.
Dr. Daniel Wolfe testified during the first trial that damage to Read's SUV – the alleged murder weapon – was inconsistent in regard to a collision with John O'Keefe, the Boston police officer found dead on a colleague's front lawn during a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022.
He took the stand again as part of a contentious evidence hearing as special prosecutor Hank Brennan raised issues with delays in discovery a week into Read's second murder trial; the first ended with a deadlocked jury.
He admitted to sharing talking points with the defense during the first trial, apparently violating a sequestration order by receiving information on prior witness testimony, and later discussing the case with her defense on the encrypted messaging app, Signal.
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Karen Read’s defense to cross-examine cell phone expert over John O’Keefe’s last movements
Testimony in Karen Read’s second murder trial is set to enter its sixth day as the defense team is expected to cross-examine digital intelligence expert Ian Whiffin.
On Monday, prosecutors painted a picture of Boston police officer John O’Keefe’s final movements before he was found frozen to death in a fellow officer’s backyard.
Using O’Keefe’s cell phone, special prosecutor Hank Brennan pointed to the device’s temperature and health data, looking to prove the officer was killed outside the home and left to die in frigid temperatures.
If convicted, Read faces the possibility of life in prison.
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