← Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Karen Read Trial Day 16: The Autopsy, the Bruises, the Backlash
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Ashley Banfield
Foreign Ashley Banfield here. And this is drop dead serious. And here's your daily recap of the Karen Reed murder trial in Dedham, Massachusetts. Today in court, it was a day that swung from forensic science to courtroom fireworks. We saw graphic autopsy photos, a medical examiner grilled on everything from stomach ulcers to to skull fractures, and a sudden battle over whether a few seconds on a car's dashboard clock can upend an entire case. So let's get right to it, shall we? The day started off with forensic scientist Maureen Hartnett back on the stand for more cross examination. And defense attorney Bob Alessi wasted no time zooming in on what she did, what she didn't do and what she couldn't possibly know. She confirmed that she did scrape debris from both John O. Keeffes T shirt and John Okeeffes hoodie, but that the material was not kept separately. It was all mixed together. And that bag of clothing collected by none other than Trooper Michael Proctor. Yeah, that's the same Proctor at the center of the defense's entire cover up theory. And when Karen's lawyer asked if the forensic scientist knew how those items got from the scene of the incident all the way to her lab, she said she didn't know. And the jurors were watching closely. And then came another round of chain of custody issues. The forensic scientist ticked through the list. Red solo cup swabs, a drinking glass, materials from Karen Reed's suv, all submitted by different people. Fingernail scrapings and a vial of o' Keeffe's blood. Not collected by her either. That's when special prosecutor Hank Brennan stepped up for redirect. He asked this forensic science specialist if she'd ever seen evidence collected in solo cups before. But before she could respond, Karen's lawyer jumped up with an objection. Still, Prosecutor Brennan pushed forward. Did she know what was inside those cups? No, she knew they were from the scene, but that's about it. He pulled up footage of Reed's SUV at the Sally Port in the Canton Police Department. On screen, you could see a strand of hair on the bumper, a tear in Okeefes sweatshirt and a brown stained paper bag that once held those cups. Then he zeroed in on the point he was trying to make. The forensic scientist never claimed that this evidence had been tampered with. Next up, the medical examiner, Dr. Irini Scordi Bello. She took the stand and helped to bring the jury inside the workings of the autopsy suite. She said she performed John O' Keefe's autopsy on January 31, 2022, that she's done over 1200 of them in her career. Her office, she reminded everyone is independent from the police and the prosecutors, even if the officers are allowed to watch. And in this case, two officers were present. She didn't know who they were, but we do. It was Trooper Michael Proctor and Sergeant Yuri Buchanak. She described the injuries to John in clinical, measured detail. A laceration on his eyelid, abrasions on his nose, bruising, swelling, discoloration, scrapes and bruises on his arms, on his knees and on his hands. One particularly jarring photo showed two pin pricks on the back of Okeeffes hand, possibly from an IV but not noted in her report. The medical examiner didn't measure the depth of the scrapes, only their length, and she couldn't say with medical certainty what caused them. The medical examiner also described a laceration on the back of Okeeffes head and said beneath that there were skull fractures. She said John's brain was removed and sent to Boston for further study. Next was the toxicology. No prescription drugs in his system. No illicit substances. But alcohol? There was plenty. John's blood alcohol level was as high as 0.28. That's more than three times the legal limit. Her conclusion? Cause of death was blunt head trauma with hypothermia contributing. But when it came to the manner of death. And there are only five ways you can die Homicide, suicide, accidental, natural and undetermined. This doctor couldn't call it. She could not say what it was that caused John's death. She could not say it was a car that killed him. And then came cross examination. Karen's lawyer, Bob Alessi, asked, do you rely on police reports? She said yes. Did Trooper Proctor give you the working theory? She said yes. Karen's lawyer showed the medical examiner a photo of two men at the morgue. But this doctor didn't recognize them. Then came the challenge. Could sepsis explain the drop in John's body temperature? No, she answered. Could John o' Keefe have died somewhere else and been moved? The medical examiner said she doesn't imagine hypotheticals. She documents what's there, she adds in what she's told, and she makes a determination only if there's enough information. Then more photos came out. Karen's lawyer asked, if John had fallen backward in the grass, wouldn't you expect when grass in the wounds? The medical examiner said she didn't see any. One juror reportedly looked skeptical. Then Karen's lawyer asked about ulcers, classic signs of hypothermia but the medical examiner said sometimes they show up and sometimes they don't. Did John have frostbite? No, she said. Would she amend her opinion? No, she said she still believed the signs pointed to hypothermia. Then the face injuries. Could a fall backwards explain the eye wound? No, she said. The nose abrasion? No. Could it have been a dog bite? And the prosecution objected. Sustained on redirection, Brennan asked, how common is it for clothes to be missing after a person is treated at the hospital? The medical examiner said very common. Then Brennan emphasized the medical examiner wasn't part of the investigative team. She got some police reports the day of the autopsy, others afterwards. Then one more revelation. Could John's stomach ulcers have come from alcohol and not hypothermia? Yes, she said, that was possible. And with that, Karen's lawyer finished circling back to what mattered most, that this medical examiner could not determine John's manner of death. And the jury was dismissed. But the court was not done for the day. What followed was a tug of war over expert witnesses and evidence. Tidelines. Prosecutor Brennan told the court that the state received Arca's crash data from the defense on May 7, but that he wanted his expert from Aperture, another crash expert, to testify after the defense. Karen's lawyer said, no way. That would give prosecutors a rebuttal and throw the rules of trial into chaos. And then came a twist. Karen's lawyer told the judge the defense had just received a newly amended report on May 11from apertures Shannon Burgess. The report revealed a timing discrepancy between Karen's Lexus infotainment system and an iPhone. It was only a few seconds, but it was enough. It was enough to blow up the timeline, according to Karen's lawyer. He called it a discovery violation, an ambush. He asked the court to throw the report out. Prosecutor Brennan said it wasn't a violation at all, just part of doing the job in real time. And that is where court ended for the day. Talk about suspense. We'll be back tomorrow, though, with everything that happens next. And full recap of the Karen Reid trial. I'm Ashley Banfield. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you so much for watching. And remember, the truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.