Karen Read: Expert testifies about SUV's sudden movements in trial over dead cop boyfriend

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Editor's note: This page summarizes testimony in the Karen Read trial for Tuesday, May 27. For the latest updates on the Karen Read retrial, visit Paste BN's coverage for Wednesday, May 28.

An expert witness for prosecutors at the trial of a Massachusetts woman accused of hitting her cop boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow described his analysis of the crash, further raising the fundamental question guiding the case: whether a collision occurred or if manslaughter or second-degree murder was committed?

Prosecutors at the trial of Karen Read called crash reconstruction expert Judson Welcher to the stand on Tuesday to explain data from Read’s Lexus from the January 2022 night Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe died.

Welcher is the latest in the prosecution’s ongoing attempt to link Read, 45, to the death of O’Keefe, 46. Prosecutors say the former finance professor hit her boyfriend of about two years in a drunken rage.

Read’s lawyers are attempting to sow doubt in the case by highlighting cryptic texts among prosecutors' witnesses that defense attorneys say show collusion and by highlighting issues with the police’s investigation.

At the start of the sixth week of the blockbuster trial, jurors heard Welcher — a key witness for prosecutors — testify about what Read’s car data shows and his opinion on whether the battered state O’Keefe was found in was consistent with a car crash.

Welcher’s testimony came amid a debate on Tuesday about whether the case hinges on whether Read hit O’Keefe deliberately, accidentally or whether she hit him at all.

The issue arose during Welcher’s testimony. Read’s lawyers strongly objected to Welcher saying whether he believed Read hit O'Keefe. Judge Beverly Cannone said she will decide whether Welcher can on Wednesday.

Jurors have so far heard from witnesses about a bombshell admission Read allegedly made the morning O’Keefe’s body was found, damage discovered on her Lexus SUV, phone records that could lay out a timeline of the incident, and the injuries O’Keefe sustained. 

Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury in 2024. The legal saga has fixated true-crime fans across the country, spurring an array of podcasts, movies, and television shows.     

Here's what you missed on Day 21 from the Norfolk County court.  

The question at the heart of the Karen Read trial 

Read’s defense attorney forcefully objected to prosecutor Hank Brennan’s question to Welcher about whether he believed, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, based on the evidence he reviewed, that Read hit O’Keefe with her SUV.  

After a minutes-long sidebar, both parties returned to the courtroom without the jury present to argue their cases to Judge Beverly Cannone about whether the question should be allowed.  

"This witness cannot opine on the ultimate question that is going to the jury," Defense Attorney Robert Alessi pleaded. The defense, he said, "vehemently" denies that a collision between Read’s vehicle and O’Keefe occurred. Alessi said that was the fundamental question in front of the jury.  

Brennan suggested that the ultimate issue in the case was not about a collision, but about whether Read committed manslaughter or second-degree murder. 

"They do not get to define the prosecution’s case," Brennan said of the defense, adding that Welcher was "entitled to an opinion." 

Cannone said she would review the evidence presented and issue her opinion at the beginning of court on Wednesday.  

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O’Keefe injuries match accident, expert says 

In the third part of his crash analysis, Welcher testified whether O’Keefe’s injuries could have resulted from a car accident.  

He bought the exact make and model of Read’s SUV and made sure it was from the same manufacturing plant. Measuring about the same height and weight as O’Keefe, Welcher said he then stood behind the SUV and simulated crash scenarios. He wore replicas of the shirt, sweatshirt, shoes, and baseball cap O’Keefe had on when his body was discovered.  

In a video of the simulation shown to jurors, Welcher hits the rear taillight, which is covered in a bright blue paint, and rolls off, revealing that the blue color has transferred to his arm in a similar location to where lacerations were found on O’Keefe.  

Welcher cautioned that he wasn’t able to exactly model how O’Keefe could have been injured because he did not have the precise location where O’Keefe was standing, or the exact speed at which Read’s car was traveling.  

But he said O’Keefe’s knee and eyelid injuries matched the approximate levels of the SUV’s bumper and back wing. The wing of the Lexus was about 5 feet and 11 inches tall. O’Keefe was about 6 feet, 1 inch tall, Welcher said.  

He then displayed graphic images of the crime scene, taken at about 5 p.m. on Jan. 30, showing a black Nike sneaker buried in snow and wedged up against the curb. Splotches of red marked the snow around the shoe, and red pieces of taillight could be seen nearby.  

Based on scientific studies and crash test dummy simulations, Welcher told jurors he believed O’Keefe’s injuries were consistent with a fall backward.  

When did Read's taillight crack?

Ring camera footage captured outside O'Keefe's home in Canton, Massachusetts, on Jan. 30, 2022, shows Read's black SUV hitting O'Keefe's Chevrolet Traverse as it backs out of the driveway. Read's defense team has questioned whether that collision could have been responsible for the broken taillight on her car, instead of the alleged crash that the prosecution says killed O'Keefe.

After describing in detail his analysis of the collision, Welcher told jurors that he believed "to a high degree of engineering certainty" that the driveway "impact did not break or crack that taillight."

O'Keefe's car showed no signs of damage, and Read's SUV showed a few "scuff marks" near the lower right taillight, which was not broken, he said. Read's vehicle was moving at a speed of roughly .7 mph when it hit O'Keefe's Traverse, which he said would not have caused damage to the headlight. Video footage of Read pulling out of the driveway also did not show any visible pieces of red taillight in the driveway after the crash.

Prosecution begins questioning of crash expert 

Welcher testified about his analysis of the events that led up to O'Keefe's death in the morning hours of Jan. 30, 2022.

Welcher told Brennan that he examined dozens of police reports, photos, videos and data records relevant to the case to create his analysis.

Much of Welcher's early testimony focused on the roughly 20-minute period after midnight on Jan. 30 when Read is believed to have driven from a local bar to the home of Brian Albert at 34 Fairview Road, where O'Keefe's body was later found.

Specifically, he described his analysis of data from Read's SUV showing that she made a reverse maneuver near the home at 34 Fairview, which prosecutors allege marks the moment she hit O'Keefe. During a 10-second "trigger event" at around 12:34 a.m. on Jan. 30 recorded by the vehicle, Read accelerated forward 34 feet and then backed up 53 feet, Welcher said.

At the end of that recorded event, Welcher said the vehicle was "accelerating at 74% throttle." He told Brennan the 10-second recording matched a window of location data from O'Keefe's phone that showed him outside of 34 Fairview Road sometime between 12:32:04 a.m. and 12:32:12 a.m.

Defense team scrutinizes key crash witness

Read's defense attorney questioned Welcher, one of the prosecution's key witnesses, without the jury present to determine his competency to testify and the admissibility of evidence he plans to present. The process is known as voir dire.

The defense pressed Welcher on recent changes he made to his presentation and the people he spoke with at Massachusetts State Police in the last few weeks.

Welcher said he made some changes to his original findings in the case based on data he was given from his colleague, Shanon Burgess, who previously testified in the case about how he reconciled discrepancies between data found in Read's SUV and O'Keefe's iPhone. 

Burgess’ credibility came under fire after he admitted to not having a bachelor’s degree despite listing one as part of his educational background on LinkedIn and elsewhere.  

Read’s lawyers are likely to highlight the connection between Welcher’s report and Burgess’ data during cross-examination in an attempt to discredit his testimony.  

How to watch the Karen Read trial   

CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O'Keefe's body was found outside a Massachusetts home.  

You can watch CourtTV’s live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings began at 9 a.m. ET.  

Contributing: Michael Loria, Paste BN