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Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
If They Believe Him… It’s Game Over for Karen Read | Karen Read Trial Day 22
00:11:35
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Ashley Banfield
Foreign. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to Drop Dead Serious. I'm Ashley Banfield. It is day 22 of the Karen Reed murder trial. And if you were hoping that today's testimony would clear anything up, think again, my friends. Dr. Judson Welcher, the prosecution's crash reconstruction expert, was back on the stand today. But the majority of the day it was the defense doing the questioning. And let's just say that it was not easy to follow from the start. This was not your typical back and forth on the witness stand. Dr. Welcher at times could have been seen as, like, snarky, combative. He often refused to give simple yes or no answers. His responses were long, the slides were confusing, and at times it felt like he was lecturing more than he was testifying. Even the judge had to step in more than once just to keep things from going completely off the rails. This was easily one of the most technical and one of the most difficult witnesses we have seen so far. And you could see it wearing on Karen's lawyer. The frustration was building and it showed. So let's start from the top. The day started with a key ruling from Judge Kanoni, and it set the tone pretty much right away. She ruled that Dr. Welcher is allowed to tell the jury that the damage to Karen Reed's Lexus and the injuries on John o' Keefe's body are consistent with someone being hit by a Lexus SUV just like Karen's. But here's what he can't say, that it was Karen Reed's car that hit John o' Keefe. After the judge gave the green light for that, Welcher stayed on the stand, still under direct still with special prosecutor Hank Brennan. And right out of the gate, Brennan teed up the taillight of Karen's SUV. Dr. Welcher told the jury there are two ways that that tail light could have broken. Either somebody chucked a glass at the back of the SUV or John OKeefe's arm hit it. And according to Welcher, it was the arm. He said the damage lines up, especially with that deep gash on John o' Keefe's arm. In his words, this didn't look like broken glass from a party. It looked like impact trauma from a person. Then it was the defense's turn. And Karen's lawyer, Bob Alessi, did not waste a second. He came in hot, zeroing in on Dr. Welcher's methods. How did he come up with his theory? What data did he use? Was he just piggybacking off of the crash reconstruction work that had already been done by the state police, specifically a guy named trooper Joseph Paul. Dr. Welcher said he was familiar with Trooper Paul's work but did not rely on it. And then Karen's lawyer followed the money. He told the jury that Dr. Welcher's company, Aperture, had already been paid $44,000 for their work on this case. But 44 grand, that was just the beginning. He said that the prosecution later signed a second contract with this company, Aperture, and this second contract was worth a whole lot more than 44k. It was worth a whopping $325,000. So all told, that's almost $400,000 for eight months of work. And let me stop there for a second, because this is standard operating procedure for attorneys, both defense attorneys and prosecutors. Whenever there's an expert that's up on the stand, the number one way you cross examine that expert is you say, how much are you being paid, Mr. Smith? Mrs. You know, Mrs. Tyler, they always want to point out to the jury, this is a hired gun. This is somebody, of course, who's going to want to say what the defense brought them in for or. Or what the prosecutors brought them in for. You know, you dance with the guy who brung you. And so it's just a standard operating procedure for any attorney who's litigating. Just try to cast some doubt on the expert by suggesting they were paid to say this. Yeah, but let's go back to this one for a second, because that money that I was talking about, this did not. It wasn't the end of it. The defense didn't stop there by pointing it out. Right. Dr. Welcher admitted that they. They actually bought a Lexus to run their crash tests. A Lexus, exactly like Karen's, right down to the color. And once the trial is over, they say they're going to sell said Lexis and whatever money they don't make back from that sale, he had to admit that the DA's office is going to cover the difference. So put that in your pipe and smoke. It would be what the defense attorneys say to this expert and hopefully with a side eye to the jury. So next up, the PowerPoint. Now, my eyes usually glaze over when the PowerPoints hit. Not always, but a lot of times. And so I think jurors kind of have the same reaction. But Karen's lawyer pointed out that Welch's presentation had been updated more than one time, including a fresh version that was just sent out to jurors, like, two days ago on Memorial Day. And just before he Took the stand. Karen's lawyer wanted to know, was the prosecution coaching him? Were they helping shape what the jury was going to see from this expert? But before Welcher could really answer, Judge Kanone cut things off with a sidebar. And then things got physical, literally. Karen's lawyer shifted gears and asked about force. Specifically, how much pressure would it take to. To break a human hand? They zeroed in on the back of the Lexus near the license plate, the exhaust pipe, even the spoiler, and asked if any of those spots could deliver 300 to 400 pounds of force, enough to fracture the bone. Dr. Welcher's answer, quote, probably, end quote. But as he kept reminding the jury, it all depends on exactly where. Where the impact happens. And they brought this up because, as you all probably know by now, John o' Keefe did not have any broken bones. And, you know, I guess as a juror, you could wonder, if I got hit by a Lexus suv, would it break one of my bones? Especially if I busted the tail light out from that impact. Right? So it was a really good question to bring up. But then it was back to the injuries on John Okeefe's arm and whether those injuries matched the blue paint test that Welcher ran using a dummy. And may I just say, the dummy was Mr. Welcher himself. He actually decided because he was the same sort of size and build as John o' Keefe, that he would act as the dummy. And he even tried his best to. To dress like John o' Keefe. And, you know, you'll probably remember back to your high school, high school science experiments. It is always best to replicate an experiment down to the most minute detail, because remember that expression, devil's in the details. You don't want a teensy, tiny little detail like, oh, your shirt was a little longer than, you know, o' Keeffe was wearing to throw off your test. So there he is. He's acting as the dummy. And Dr. Welcher offered to show the jury a slide on his PowerPoint to back up what he was saying. But Karen's lawyer didn't bite. Instead, he pulled up a photo of John O' Keefe's actual injuries and kept on pressing. Dr. Welcher tried to demonstrate the arm motion live in court, but things quickly unraveled with the two of them talking over each other until Judge Kanoni jumped in saying, quote, only one at a time. It's a nightmare trying to track this. End quote. And then back into the weeds they went. Karen's lawyer pressed Dr. Welcher on the details of his crash test. How far did the Lexus move? How many feet exactly, and in what direction? And the two went back and forth over the map until, seemingly out of nowhere, Karen's lawyer decided to pivot. And he started asking questions about how many people were at 34 Fairview that night. It might sound like it's random, but it's not exactly a random question. He was actually trying to challenge the assumptions behind Dr. Welcher's calculations, suggesting that without knowing who was outside, where they were standing, or how the SUV was positioned, Welch's entire simulation could be built on guesswork. But before he could press further, Judge Kanoni again called a sidebar. And then right before the jury was dismissed for the day, Karen's lawyer took one last swing. He asked Dr. Welcher if he was at all concerned about confirmation bias, the idea that maybe, just maybe, he was only looking for evidence that supported the prosecution's theory and ignoring everything else. And Dr. Welcher did not hesitate, saying, quote, I try to eliminate all confirmation bias, end quote. But, you know, again, you plant that seed with the jury that this guy was paid, like, half a million bucks almost for his testimony, and, you know, you might consider confirmation bias might exist somewhere. It's just a little bit of doubt. That's all you're trying to do, create a little bit of doubt there. And with that, the jury was excused. But just when you thought the day was over, it was not. When the jury was dismissed, what came next was wadir over Dr. Welcher's sources, specifically that Karen's defense team wanted to question how much of trooper Paul's work Dr. Welcher reviewed as well as the medical examiner's report. So what comes next? The judge is going to hear more legal arguments about Dr. Welcher's testimony tomorrow. But heads up, tomorrow's expected to be a short day because one of the jurors apparently has an appointment, and so that counts. But here's the bigger picture. Will this jury buy what this nearly $400,000 expert is selling? Did John O' Keefe's injuries really match the damage on Karen Reed's Lexus, or is the science just smoke and mirrors? Because make no mistake, this is shaping up to be a battle of the experts. And soon that defense team is going to call in their team of experts from the organization called arca, and you can expect that they're going to push back hard. We'll be there to break it all down for you, as always. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thanks so much for listening and remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.