Through No Fault of Their Own, Karen Read's Defense Went 0-for-3 on Crucial Pre-Trial Issues This Week

MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images. Getty Images.

As we're now less than a month away from the Commonwealth vs. Karen Read murder re-trial, it's hard for any lazy blogger not to beat the obvious, halfhearted sports metaphor into the ground. This is Spring Training, and both sides are getting ready for Opening Day on April 1st. The schedule just lines up too perfectly to not milk that perfunctory cliche for all its worth. If you're looking for clever, original content, you've come to the wrong place, Hoss. 

So just to lean into the comparison, the month of March is all about filling out the roster, establishing a batting order, setting up the rotation, and defining the bullpen roles. The major difference being that the wins and losses in court will count later on. And in that respect, Read's defense team just lost three straight. How those losses affect the actual trial, only time will tell. But I'll try to sort them out as clearly and directly as possible. 

1. The Battle of Dog Bite Experts

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

One of the crucial elements of this case is the marks on Officer John O'Keefe's arm. Some people look at these and see injuries from a drunk lady backing her SUV into her boyfriend with the intent to kill him. Personally, I look at them and see dog bites and scratches. The former would be bad for the defense, since that's exactly the prosecution's theory of the case. The latter would be bad for the Alberts, since Read was dropping O'Keefe off at their house, he was found dead on their lawn, and they happened to have a German Shepherd named Chloe who hasn't been seen nor heard from since the incident. Make of that what you will. 

At trial, the defense produced an expert on the subject of dog bites, a Dr. Marie Russell. In 30 years as a police officer, emergency physician and forensic pathologist, Russell has examined over a thousand such wounds in her career. And testified that in her opinion, the marks on O'Keefe's body were consistent with a dog attack. (Not to cast aspersions on Chloe Albert, mind you. Every dog is innocent until proven guilty.) Yet earlier this year, the Commonwealth tried to exclude Russell from the retrial, but failed.

The prosecution has since countered with their own expert, a Jim Crosby. Who does not have Russell's curriculum vitae. Or her experience. Or her honorific "Doctor." What he does have, is that rarest of all things in 2025: A YouTube channel. With 64 subscribers:

So the defense, in a "Two of us can play that game" counterstrike, tried to get Crosby excluded. They also failed. But it's hard not to notice the difference in how Judge Beverly Cannone ruled on identical motions. This Florida attorney, who posted daily about the trial and tried to stay as neutral as possible, certainly noticed:

As he references, the judge's ruling on the forensic scientist with three decades of examining dog attacks was three pages long. She said her decision was a close call. And that only a medical doctor can make such determinations in front of the jury. While the ruling on allowing the YouTuber was one paragraph declaring she sees no issue with letting Crosby take the stand:

I haven't lapsed into the "Cannone is compromised" school of thought. (I repeat by way of full disclosure I worked in her courtroom a bunch of times but never had any sort of relationship with her to speak of.) But you can sort of understand where that crowd is coming from when she agonizes over allowing expert testimony from a card-carrying expert, but rubber stamps a YouTube dog trainer with fewer followers than your teenage nephew's garage band. At least we'll get to see both of them take the stand. May the best expert win. I just know that if Russell and Crosby went head-to-head in the Jeopardy! category "Dog Bites," who my money would be on.

2. The Sally Port Video War

Even though the original court case ended in a mistrial on July 1st, we're still not done sorting out the business of the Canton Police Station sally port video. The one that was presented to the jury. With all sorts of missing footage. And an image that was reversed. Making it so the SUV's right taillight that supposed shattered as it struck and killed O'Keefe looked like it was on the left side of the vehicle, and vice versa:

The image was reversed, but that was never mentioned to the jury. In fact, every time an exhibit is presented, a witness is asked if it's "a fair an accurate representation." And no one said it wasn't. The public actually figured it out after seeing that signs on the back wall read backwards. Plus the image was reversed, but the timestamp wasn't. Suggesting it was a two-step process: Flip the image, then add the timestamp. Which would take a pretty miraculous accident. 

Here's where this gets complicated and you have to keep track of the names. The two sides were in front of Cannone this week discussing the defense's Motion to Dismiss, involving the video and a MA State Police Lieutenant:

CBS News - The hearing started with a heated exchange in which Judge Beverly Cannone scolded defense attorney Alan Jackson before he started his argument.

       

Cannone was referring to a part of the motion to dismiss – which was largely redacted – which apparently accused a Massachusetts State Trooper of jury tampering.

The defense alleges that Lieutenant John Fanning was in charge of the jury or oversaw the jury in some capacity. Fanning works for the Norfolk County District Attorney's office and was also in a group chat in which Trooper Michael Proctor said disparaging things about Karen Read.

Note: Those things were "disparaging" only if you have a problem with the lead investigator calling his only suspect in a murder case a "cunt" with "no ass" and "a leaky balloon knot" that "leaks poo." It continues:

"Lt. Fanning was on the text chain where Michael Proctor said he was going through my client's phone looking for nudes," Alan Jackson said.

Judge Cannone emphatically denied the allegations, however. …

Why does this matter? 

       

The defense says that Lt. Fanning was the person who reported to the court alleged misconduct by a "potentially Karen Read friendly" juror, causing her to get dismissed from the case on the last day of trial.

The other major factor in Alan Jackson's argument was that prosecutors slowly released Canton Police sallyport and surveillance video to defense attorneys over the course of years, despite having access to it the day of the alleged crime.

Some of the videos were released to the defense as recently as last week. …

"For the Commonwealth to have this video footage for three years, it makes one question what was going on with this evidence," Alan Jackson said. "That is bad faith."

What is extremely sketchy about this beyond the reverse angle replay of the alleged murder car, is Lt. Fanning's connection to the sally port. Which is another thing the internet has come up with. The person in the Norfolk County District Attorney's office who the court was told handled the video, is named Colleen Crawford. Assuming these documents are accurate, she's the same Colleen Crawford who co-managed an LLC called Expert Data Analysis with that same John Fanning:

This was their "Business Dissolution" filing, dated February 2, 2022. Which, not coincidentally, was four days after O'Keefe's death. So mere days after Read's car was towed into the Canton PD sally port. And who knows how long after the video started getting preserved, edited, flipped, and shared. All we know is after four years in business, the partners of Expert Data Analysis LLC decided it was the perfect time for the for the band to break up. The timing of that business decision is either another wild coincidence, or what the kids would call "sus." Regardless, Cannone doesn't see it that way. So it's another L for Karen Read.

3. Making a Federal Case Out of the Federal Case

Once again we've heard that the FBI investigation into police wrongdoing in this case that everyone in the Free Karen Read army has been pinning their hopes on is dead:

But earlier in the same day they were in Cannone's court, the two sides were in Federal Court in Boston, arguing the defense's motion that it be thrown out:

Same article - [H]er attorney Martin Weinberg asked a federal judge to require the state court to bring back jurors from her first trial to poll them and determine if they had acquitted Read on two charges.

This federal court case seeks habeas relief, which is a legal doctrine that allows people to challenge their unlawful detention. … Read's lawyers make two arguments, that a mistrial declaration was not necessary and that jurors privately voted to acquit Read.

   

Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Caleb Schillinger argued for the state, saying that jury verdicts in Massachusetts aren't final – and can be changed – until the moment they are read out loud in open court. Therefore, he said, there was no final verdict.

Chief District Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV told lawyers the legal question was complicated, comparing it to a forest. He said he would make a decision as quickly as possible so that lawyers will have time to appeal, with Karen Read's upcoming April 1 trial in mind. 

In literally hundreds of trials I watched (OK, half watched. I say again I spent most of my Court Officer career focused on writing Barstool blogs. I was an expert at multi-slacking), I never witnessed a conclusion anywhere near as messy as this. There were mistrials where a jury tried for as long as they could but couldn't reach a verdict. Such is the price you pay for requiring them to be unanimous. Them's the breaks. But never one where the jury said they all agreed on the only charges anyone gives a tinker's damn about. Which they are still saying:

And while you might argue this Federal Court hearing isn't an L because the judge didn't rule against Read, it definitely doesn't go into the Win column. It's a further complication in a criminal case that already cornered the market. Judge Saylor called it "a forest," but I think a better term is one that former CIA counter-intelligence chief James Jesus Angleton coined when he was talking about spycraft. He said it's building a "Wilderness of Mirrors." And beating back the Commie horde in the Cold War era was no more complicated and confusing than getting to the truth of what happened to John O'Keefe on January 29th, 2022. 

And to think, the regular season is still a month away.