Karen Read murder trial: Judge releases rulings on dog bite expert testimony

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Apr 17, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

DEDHAM, Mass. — The judge in the Karen Read case unleashed a flurry of final motions rulings ahead of the trial’s start on Tuesday.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, 46, her boyfriend of about two years, with her SUV and leaving him to freeze and die in a major snowstorm on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton. She is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death.

The defense has hotly contested the allegations against Read and has instead said during her previous trial, which ended in a mistrial last summer, and ever since that she is a patsy in a police cover-up and conspiracy.

Many of the motions Judge Beverly J. Cannone ruled on Thursday have to do with evidence regarding a potential cover-up and the defense’s idea that O’Keefe was killed by others — and possibly a dog named Chloe — inside the home at 34 Fairview Road.

Cannone will allow a defense expert to take a forensically sound extraction of a video file depicting the sallyport garage of the Canton Police Department on Jan. 29, 2022, the day of O’Keefe’s death and when police took Read’s Lexus SUV as evidence. The defense has suggested a State Police trooper was meddling with the vehicle’s passenger-side taillight and that the video could prove it. The expert cannot, however, download the entire “Canton Police Detective File.”

Cannone will also limit prosecution expert Dr. James Crosby’s testimony from excluding Chloe the dog entirely from being the cause of disputed injuries to O’Keefe’s arm. She will, however, allow him, as a “clearly qualified expert,” to testify “as to the anatomy of a canine mouth or of Chloe in particular including measurements of her mouth.”

The judge will allow defense expert Garrett Wing, who she said “appears to be qualified by experience to provide some help to the jury on some issues in dispute.”

Finally, Cannone orders that the defense turn over to the prosecution all of its evidence regarding two experts from a forensic science firm called ARCCA by 5 p.m. Friday. They will also by that deadline have to disclose whether any payment is expected to be made to the experts for their testimony, which happened at last trial but was not disclosed. They’ll have until Monday to disclose “any testing underway, requested; or contemplated” by their team and the ARCCA witnesses.

_____