Karen Read Trial - Take 2 (3 Viewers)

[ASHES]

Brennan plays back the sallyport video showing the snow melting. It also shows what appears to be a person for a frame or two just pop in and out of existence. Trying to frame grab it.

 

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This is how most of the video appears, empty sallyport, snow melting off the SUV.


Then boop, in the middle of the warping and frame jumping and snow melting, for just a moment:



The redirect goes on like they didn't see him. Maybe the defense will bring it up on recross.

He just let's it play out until the snow is all gone exposing the broken taillight.



The video also changes angles or is cropped at different times. Sometimes we can see the taillight, sometimes it is cut off at the bottom and hidden, like while the snow is melting.

 

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He asks her if she knows about the ring videos. She says she doesn't. (Regarding the preexisting condition of the taillight.)

Brennan shows her some photographs.

The tear in the sleeve.

She says that the threads were loose.


She agrees those are the red cups she saw and they have a red/brown liquid in them.

He is asking questions so leading even Bev has to sustain the defense objections. About using the white rag to plant evidence, etc. He sneaks one by and she agrees that she can't tell when an item was deposited or placed somewhere. That's it for the redirect. Defense is going for the recross.

 

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Right away defense prepares an exhibit on the screen.

It's the ripped sleeve closeup showing one of the holes. She remembers being asked about it just now by Brennan. Asked if it's correct she didn't do any analysis on the hole, she says she did damage analysis on all the holes on the sleeve.

Asked if she had done any analysis on what could have caused that hole, she says no she didn't. That's all for the recross.

 

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Whoa!

After the defense says they're done and the Commonwealth say they had nothing further and the judge saying she's all set to go, Hartnett blurts out that she'd like to correct the record on something from yesterday but she wasn't sure when it was appropriate to do that.

The judge: "Oookay do you recall which lawyer asked you the question?"

Hartnett: "Yes, Mr. Alessi asked me the question."

Alessi: "your honor, we want to proceed along (unclear)"

Judge calls a sidebar. After a very short sidebar she's asked to step down because both sides have finished asking their questions.

LOL judge not letting her correct the record, so now we (and the jury) know there's something wrong with her testimony from yesterday. And it could be anything that the defense asked about.

 

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Next witness is Dr. Scordi-Bello the ME. Woohoo! Was worried he wouldn't call her.

 

[gboisjo]

The trial has become a circus with Read in the leading act, can't wait till its over.

So let me get this straight. Read wakes up from an earlier blackout at 4.30 AM in O'Keefe's home. Still drunk and hysterical she rushes off to O'Keefe's Niece's bedroom and shakes her awake. Wailing at the half asleep young lady, Read says "I Think I hit him, I might have hit him", yet another confession. So many confessions, its hard to keep count. Unless of course, the niece is part of the colossal conspiracy to frame Karen Read.

The lead clown >

 

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After getting through credentials and terms they get to the classification of undetermined, he asks her a remarkably stupid question, it is hard to follow. I will try.

Brennan: "When you're conducting an autopsy and making an analysis and attempting to reach a conclusion you said that when you looked at in a case in, is your case and what you do different than procedure in a prosecution's case?"

Dr. SB: "Can you repeat the question I'm not sure I understand." She looks totally confused.

Brennan: "When you're making determinations about cause and manner of death do you have any limitations?"



Her face:

Nods and starts talking as if to a kindergartener. "Okay, so the cause of death is something that is determined by the autopsy, that is my opinion or our office opinion as to the disease or injury that led to that person's death, so that is, I don't have any major limitations unless we're dealing with cases where the body's decomposed and we're not able to do all the testing necessary but in most cases the cause of death depends on my findings during the autopsy. The manner of death, yes, there are limitations because the circumstances, it's circumstances driven and so the circumstances might not have been known to us at the time of the autopsy it might not be known to us ever, and therefore while the cause of death is my medical opinion the manner of death depends on information I get from other people."

Holy shit she's a talker.

 

[ASHES]

The trial has become a circus with Read in the leading act, can't wait till its over.

So let me get this straight. Read wakes up from an earlier blackout at 4.30 AM in O'Keefe's home. Still drunk and hysterical she rushes off to O'Keefe's Niece's bedroom and shakes her awake. Wailing at the half asleep young lady, Read says "I Think I hit him, I might have hit him", yet another confession. So many confessions, its hard to keep count. Unless of course, the niece is part of the colossal conspiracy to frame Karen Read.

The lead clown >

View attachment 67570043

First time she's ever claimed it. Amazing how that keeps happening eh? It isn't a 'conspiracy', it's witnesses tainted by Jennifer McCabe. As they have testified to. Nobody agrees on the "confession."

 

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Finally getting to the submitting of information.


Autopsy photos are shown of his face, we are not shown.



Showing the photos of his arm and describing the injuries.


Going over why she didn't measure the penetration depth. Says if she had tested depth, she would have made a note, and she says there's no note regarding the depth.

 

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Asked if she eventually came to a conclusion about the manner and cause of O'Keefe's death.

First regarding cause to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, she says she has a cause of death. She says the cause of death was blunt impact injuries (to the head) and hypothermia. She says the blunt impact injuries were the primary cause of death. Says she couldn't say if the hypothermia would have been fatal without the head injury. Says she was told when he came to the hospital his body temperature was 80.1F.

Asked if she came to a conclusion about the manner of O'Keefe's death, to a reasonable degree of medical certainty, she says no she didn't.

 

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She's explaining why the death certificate was changed.

Says she issued an amended death certificate when she recieved new information.

They read off the information on the final death certificate.

It says:

Cause of death is blunt impact injuries of head and hypothermia, manner of death couldn't be determined.

And that's it. Commonwealth is done with their ME. Defense now cross examined.

 

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Alessi does the cross of Dr. Scordi-Bello.

She agrees that the manner of death includes the circumstances surrounding the person's death. Asked if that requires medical examiners to go beyond just looking at the medical analysis, but takes into account other factors, she agrees.

Agrees she talked on direct about the 5 different manners of death: natural causes, accident, suicide, homicide, and undetermined.

Focusing on undetermined, she is asked if it's correct that's what she concluded regarding O'Keefe, she agrees. Asked if that happens when none of the other 4 can reasonably be interpreted as more likely over the others, or if the death investigation lacks sufficient information when the death certificate is signed, she agrees.

Testifies scene investigation is not the job of the ME in Massachusetts, it's strictly law enforcement.

LOL she just said she wouldn't want a neurosurgeon or neurologist helping her conduct her investigation, they have their own speciality that is unrelated to death investigation. (The Commonwealth has a neurosurgeon coming to opine about O'Keefe hitting his head on the hard ground causing his death.) She doesn't believe they'd have the proper training to conduct an autopsy.

 

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She agrees with his description of the scientific method and that that is what her field uses to come to it's conclusions.

She is asked to keep that in mind and switch to the legal part of her job, and is asked if she is familiar with Michael Proctor. She says she is. Asked if at one time he was a trooper, she says correct. She is asked if former trooper Proctor informed her of the working law enforcement theory at the time, namely that it was a collision of a vehicle with a pedestrian. She agrees that he informed her office of that.

Asked if that happened in February, she says no, first it was at the time of the autopsy, one of the "pieces of information" that had come in, there were multiple sources calling into her office providing information, and some of that was this was a possible person struck by motor vehicle. (Autopsy was January 31st)

 

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She's singing the praises of the defense brain pathologist.

 

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Asked if when determining hypothermia she ever considered he'd died somewhere else and been moved to the cold. Brennan objects, sustained.

She says she didn't consider other circumstances of the law enforcement investigation in determining an undetermined manner of death.

Says she doesn't hypothesize the cause of injuries.

So she's saying she was told he died in a motor vehicle accident, but nowhere in her autopsy report does it say anything about him having injuries consistent with a car pedestrian accident.

 

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She agrees she is able to amend a death certificate. Asked if she was provided information after April 2022 regarding cause and manner of death.

She doesn't understand what he means by provided. He asks her if the "blunt force impact injuries of the head" was a very severe injury. She says yes it was.

Asked if he would be instantly unconcious and dead shortly thereafter, she agrees yes that's possible. Kind of waffling on instantly unconcious, so she's asked to be specific about that but Brennan objects, Judge won't let him continue this.

They say he got hit by a car at 12:31am but he's walking and checking texts at 12:32am, so they should be allowed to explore this.

 

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She's asked about his ability to manipulate his hands after such an injury. She doesn't know.

Asked if she noticed a pattern to the head injuries of O'Keefe. She says she just noticed the injuries to the back of the skull, and internal injuries to the base of the skull, and the brain.

Defense shows her an exhibit on the screen. It appears to be an autopsy photo. We are not shown. She points out a scale ruler in the photo with a laser pointer.


They agree that what is documented in the photo is a laceration. Agrees that the red area above that is an abrasion. He asks her about a J shaped injury and if it was noted. She says she noted it as part of the abrasion. Alessi says that is his point, she didn't make a seperate note for the apparently clearly J shaped injury, she agrees she did not.

Asked if she considers the J an abrasion or something else, she says still an abrasion. She is asked if she concludes the J is different in any manner from the red abrasion she noted above the laceration. She says she believes it could be part of the whole abrasion or it could be something different.

Asked if a fall backwards on a flat frozen ground would produce a circular and not a linear abrasion as depicted here on the back of an injured person's head, she asks him to repeat the question.

Alessi: "Assume a fall backwards on a flat frozen ground. Would such a fall and impact present that type of pattern or would it be circular pattern."

She says she can say that a fall backwards could very well produce that injury (that linear abrasion, J mark and laceration.) Found a photo. Spoiler because it's graphic.

Spoiler: Autopsy photo

 

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After looking at it, I feel like the J is from a baseball cap strap. There's little loop rings on adjustable bands on some baseball caps that looks like the right location.

 

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She is asked of the injury was caused by a fall into grass if there should be pieces of grass embedded in the injuries. She says it's possible. She says she didn't find any evidence of grass during the autopsy. Asked if she even considered grass or the absence of grass in her findings, she says she had very limited information as to the exact nature of the surface at the time of the autopsy. She agrees that no she didn't consider it.

Asked if she looked into as part of her investigation whether any stones or rocks were around the scene. She says that she didn't have any information on that. Says she didn't make any findings with regards to stones or rocks at the scene.

Asked about any other potential causes other than ground, did she consider them, she says there's lots of possibilities other than ground.

He reminds her the question is if she considered them not if any others were possible, she says she's always considering at the time of autopsy what could have caused an injury.

Asked if she put in her notes or report any of those other considerations, she says no.

Lunch break at this point.

 

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She was memory refreshed by her death notification report. She says it says that O'Keefe was found in a snowbank after having been at a party, and that there was what appeared to be an altercation or dispute with-

Brennan objects and Bev sustains.

Brennan doesn't want it in evidence that his ME had the opinion O'Keefe had been in a fight. Judge tells Alessi to move on.

 

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Asked if she considered whether O'Keefe died somewhere other than the front lawn of 34 Fairview. Brennan objects, Bev overrules.

She says "initially no."

She found hemorrhaging (bleeding) from his pancreas and stomach. She's asked if she recalls testifying any differently about the environment-

Bev cuts him off mid question and calls a sidebar.

She is asked if at the Grand jury, she testified to the following: "if the injuries had been sustained in a different environment where the temperature wasn't that low, then there might've been an alternative explanation for those gastric and pancreatic hemorrhages."

She says yes, she recalls saying that. She is asked if hemorrhaging to the pancreas can be caused by blunt force trauma, she says "correct." She's asked if it can be caused by CPR, she says it's possible.

She's asked if she knows what a Lucas (sp?) machine is. She does, they agree it's a large device strapped to the chest to perform automatic CPR.

She agrees those machines can cause hemorrhaging. She's asked if a Lucas machine was applied to O'Keefe, she says she believes so.

 

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Asked if the machine was hooked up to him from the time he got in the ambulance until he was declared dead in the hospital, she says she believes so yeah.

Asked if when a Lucas machine (henceforth LM) is used that she'd expect to find some pancreatic and gastrointestinal hemorrhaging. She says not in the mucosa of the stomach, and not as extensive in the pancreas.

Asked about the pancreas specifically, if she would agree that from the use of a LM she would expect some degree of hemorrhaging.

She is quick to disagree.

"Not always."

Asked if it's very possible, she says it's possible.

Moving to the stomach, she's asked if a LM could cause hemorrhage in the stomach. She says she's personally not seen it in that context. She says she can't rule it out.

(The point of this is other things can cause internal hemorrhaging than hypothermia.)

 

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She's asked if she knows how long O'Keefe had the LM hooked up. She doesn't. She's asked if she knows how many compressions per minute the LM does. She says "close to 60" but seems to be guestimating.

Asked if 100 per minute would be a reasonable amount, she agrees. She is asked to assume if for 37 minutes, a person is hooked up to a LM, and assume 100 compressions a minute, that they received 3,700 compressions. She agrees that is the correct number of compressions for those numbers.

Asked if 3,700 compressions from a LM could explain hemorrhaging in the pancreas, she says "It could." She says she considered CPR in her report, that she attributes the cracked ribs to that, but acknowledges she never used the term "Lucas machine" in any report or the autopsy.

Who knows if she even knew about it.

 

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She is asked about a specific type of ulcers often associated with hypothermia, and whether O'Keefe had any. She says she thinks he did. She is asked to point them out anywhere in her autopsy report. She says she didn't call them by their medical name (Wischnewski ulcers), she called them "gastric hemorrhages." She is asked if she used the word ulcer at all, she says no she used gastric hemorrhages, under the title of hypothermia.

Asked if she believes all hemorrhages in the pancreas are Wischnewski ulcers, she asks if he meant stomach. No he tells her he meant pancreas. She says that Wischnewski ulcers are used to describe the gastric hemorrhages. She is asked if she believes all the hemorrhaging in the stomach were caused by Wischnewski ulcers, she says not all of them.

They're presenting some depictions on the screen for her starting first with the gastric mucosa.

She is asked to describe the photographic evidence. She says it is a picture of the stomach of O'Keefe after it was removed and opened and the contents were removed, and the pink red surface she's pointing at is the mucosa, the stomach lining. She points out small areas she says are redder than everything else, that's hemorrhage, thats blood. She says she agrees those are what she's referring to as Wischnewski ulcers.

Asked again that she didn't use Wischnewski ulcers in her report, she used hemorrhages, she says correct.

She's shown another exhibit, on paper this time, and asked to identify what it depicts. She says it is a picture of a stomach, again with the gastric mucosal showing, with multiple hemorrhages. She is asked if that stomach fairly and accurately represents what she called "multiple ulcers." She says yes.

They're going over the stomach on the big screen now. I'm done for today but there's still a couple hours to go today. They're getting to he didn't have hypothermia, or frostbite, so he wasn't outside for as long as the prosecution claims. Doing a fine job so far.