Contentious Second Week of Karen Read Retrial Centers on Cell Phone Data and Defense Witness Disputes

Hadisur Rahman, JadeTimes Staff

H. Rahman is a Jadetimes news reporter covering the USA

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Image Source: Karissa Waddick

The retrial of Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, entered its second week with critical expert testimony and mounting tensions over defense witnesses.

Read’s second trial follows a hung jury in July 2024 that was unable to reach a unanimous verdict. Prosecutors allege that Read, 45, struck O’Keefe with her SUV in a drunken rage and left him to die in the snow outside a Canton home in January 2022. The defense maintains that O’Keefe was beaten to death by a group of Boston police officers and that Read is being framed.

Digital Evidence and Expert Testimony

On Monday, prosecutors called Ian Whiffin, a digital intelligence expert from Cellebrite, who presented detailed cell phone data analysis. Whiffin testified that O’Keefe’s phone data showed no evidence that he entered the house at 34 Fairview Road, as Read’s defense team has suggested. Instead, data indicated O’Keefe’s phone remained near a flagpole across the lawn, consistent with where his body was later found.

Whiffin also analyzed O'Keefe’s phone battery temperature and Apple Health data, concluding that O’Keefe’s phone and likely O’Keefe himself remained outside throughout the night. Health data also showed "flight climbing events," which Whiffin said were likely due to the car moving uphill rather than O’Keefe climbing actual stairs.

Additionally, Whiffin testified about the internet search history from the phone of Jennifer McCabe, a friend of O’Keefe and a key figure in the case. McCabe’s phone recorded an early morning search regarding survival in cold temperatures, which the defense claims was made hours before O’Keefe’s body was foundpotentially undermining the prosecution’s timeline.

Disputes Over Defense Witnesses

Tensions escalated when court resumed without the jury to address disputes surrounding two defense expert witnesses: Daniel Wolfe and Andrew Rentschler, crash reconstruction specialists from ARCCA. Both previously testified during the first trial that O’Keefe’s injuries were inconsistent with being struck by an SUV.

Prosecutors argued that Read’s defense team failed to provide critical communications with the experts during the discovery process.

Wolfe admitted during cross-examination to deleting approximately 100 text messages related to the case and said he often communicated via the encrypted app Signal. He insisted that the deletions were routine and related to switching phone carriers.

Judge Beverly Cannone ultimately dismissed the jury early to resolve the ongoing disputes. She ruled that the defense had indeed withheld materials and criticized their handling of discovery obligations.

Supreme Court Declines Read’s Appeal

Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal from Read’s defense team, who had sought to dismiss two charges second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a crash causing injury or death arguing that a retrial would violate double jeopardy protections. The high court denied certiorari on April 28, allowing the retrial on all charges to continue.

Review of First Week Testimony

During the first week of testimony, six witnesses took the stand, including O’Keefe’s mother, two friends, a firefighter first on the scene, a pathologist, and a restaurant manager who provided surveillance footage. Much of the testimony focused on Read’s behavior and communications leading up to O’Keefe’s death, including evidence of a heated dispute between the couple.

The trial, expected to last up to eight weeks, continues this week with further cross-examination of digital evidence and debates over the admissibility of expert testimony.