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Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Defense Explodes Over Sweatshirt Stunt & Calls for Mistrial | Karen Read Day 29
00:06:34
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Ashley Banfield
Foreign. Hey, everyone, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is Drop Dead serious. It's day 29 of Karen Reed's second degree murder trial and today the defense was back in the driver's seat. We heard from a crash expert, a private investigator and a forensic pathologist whose testimony sparked fierce debate, countless objections, and even a motion for mistrial. Let's rewind back to the beginning of the day. The morning started with more redirect from the defense, crash expert Daniel Wolf, the ARCA engineer who conducted crash tests using a mannequin named Rescue Randy that was to simulate the conditions around John o' Keeffe's death. Photos of the tests were shown in court, including images of the dummy's injuries and damage to its clothing. Wolf used those pictures to walk the jury through how kinetic energy works in accident reconstruction, even joking with the defense attorney at one point when the math got a little too heavy. But then came the recross. Prosecutor Brennan came at Wolf hard, questioning whether Rescue Randy was a legitimate crash test dummy at all. The prosecutor insisted it was really just a training mannequin used by firefighters, but Wolf disagreed. Things escalated quickly from there. At one point, the prosecutor asked whether Wolf had gotten any new information from the defense over the weekend, trying to imply that his testimony had changed since Friday. But Wolf denied that. And then came a sidebar followed by redirect and then more cross and more objections. And it was total chaos. And by mid morning, even the jury seemed kind of rattled. One reporter in the courtroom noted that the jurors looked visibly frustrated by all of the back and forth. And finally Wolf's testimony came to an end. But court was far from over. Next, the defense dropped a bombshell. They accused the prosecution of pulling a, quote, stunt in front of the jury because during redirect, prosecutor Hank Brennan displayed John o' Keefe's sweatshirt with holes in the back during Wolf's testimony without making it clear to the jury that those holes were made after the actual INC incident in which John died. These holes were apparently made during forensic testing, but the jury wasn't told that Karen's attorney, Robert Alessi, was livid. He said prosecutors showed the sweatshirt in a way that implied that the holes were from the night that John died and not from the results of a criminalist doing sampling more than a year later. He called it intentional, he called it misleading, and he said it was grounds for a mistrial with prejudice, which means you can't bring the charges again. He said, quote, your honor, at some point this has to come to an End at some point, Ms. Reed's rights have to be protected, end quote. Prosecutor Brennan admitted that he made a mistake, but he called it unintentional. He offered, quote, a curative instruction to the jury, not a mistrial. And Judge Canoni denied the motion. But she did promise to clarify things for the jury. She told them that the holes were made by a criminalist during evidence collection in May of 2023 and not from any event on the night of January 29, 2022. That settled. The defense moved on, calling a new witness. Private investigator and former federal agent John Tadamon Deniman testified that he went to 34 Fairview Road just last week to take some measurements. He confirmed the distances from the mailbox to the various entrances at the house. It was about 66ft to the main door and 70ft to the side door and 78ft to the garage. And then he was excused. So that was quick. Up next was the marquee witness of the day, Dr. Elizabeth Laposada. She's a forensic pathologist and former medical examiner. But before she was even asked a question, there was another legal fight. Judge Canoni ruled that Dr. La Posada could not testify about dog bite wounds, saying that she lacked the specialized training that Dr. Marie Russell had. And she limited what Dr. La Posada could say about John O' Keeffe's injuries and whether they were consistent with being hit by a car. Dr. La Posada reviewed the police reports, the autopsy files, the hospital records, and she said she believed that John o' Keefe suffered what is called a contrecoup injury. That means the brain is injured on the opposite side of the initial impact, often due to the head moving and hitting something with force. According to her, the tearing on the back of John o' Keefe's scalp showed that he went backwards onto something with a ridge, something irregular, end quote. She said the massive skull fractures on the back underside and front of skull, the plus brain hemorrhaging into the spinal cord, those just don't line up with falling onto a flat surface. She said in her expert opinion, something more traumatic happened. But before the defense could dive deeper, they hit another roadblock. The judge reminded them of her earlier limitations, including a ban on discussing dog bites. And that meant Karen's attorney, Alan Jackson, who could not ask some of his planned questions without violating the order. So with that, the jury was dismissed. Early for the day, the defense estimated they'd need 90 more minutes of testimony from Dr. La Posada, followed by their final witness, a biomechanical engineer named Andrew Renchler. And then a rebuttal witness from the prosecution. As the jury filed out, Judge Canoni sighed and said, quote, we'll use a full day tomorrow, as much of it as we can, end quote. And then she admitted something we don't usually hear from a sitting judge. She said she regrets giving everyone the day off last Thursday because of the heat. So with just two witnesses left, the defense is racing towards the finish line. But between a mistrial motion, testimony limits, and a judge worried about jury patience, the pressure is definitely on. Tomorrow could be pivotal. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.