Karen Read flashed sinister smirk as gory photos of her dead cop boyfriend were shown in court
Karen Read flashed a sinister smirk during her Massachusetts murder retrial Tuesday — the same day jurors were shown gruesome photos of her boyfriend’s battered, lifeless body.Read grinned manically as graphic images of John O’Keefe’s bruised and bloodied body were revealed to the jury as an expert witness testified that the blunt force trauma that killed the Boston cop wasn’t consistent with being struck by the rear of her SUV.Elizabeth Laposata, a forensic pathologist for Read’s defense, said O’Keefe’s body bore no evidence of being hit by a car and challenged the medical examiner’s ruling that hypothermia played a role in the 46-old’s death.“The body did not have any hypothermia,” Loposata testified, noting additional marks on his arm were likely caused by an animal bite or claw before his death.
Daniel Wolfe, an accident reconstructionist who previously testified for the prosecution in Read’s first trial, took the stand in her defense arguing the broken glass from her cars taillight wasn’t caused from hitting a person.Read, 45, is accused of deliberately backing her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe before he died on a drunken night of arguing and partying in January 2022.
His bloodied body was found in the snow outside a friend’s house in Canton the morning after Read drove him there to party with some of his cop buddies during a blizzard.The couple reportedly had a rocky relationship before the fateful night.Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial last summer after jurors couldn’t reach an agreement over her second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
Her defense argued O’Keefe was beaten by his cop friends and dumped in the snow where he was found — and that his pals tried to frame Read, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges levied against her.They also claimed her late officer beau was attacked by his friend’s dog before he died.Tuesday’s latest round of testimony comes as the eight-week trial nears its final stretc...