CANTON, Mass. — Judge Beverly Cannone will allow the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office to conduct more testing on electronics from Karen Read’s Lexus SUV. The written order was added to Read’s court file Wednesday afternoon following a hearing that Read attended.
Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan conceded the first examination of Read’s Lexus missed important information from the vehicle’s memory chips.
Police allege Read struck and killed John O’Keefe with her Lexus in Canton on January 29, 2022. Read’s lawyers maintain she is “factually innocent.”
Brennan said a prosecution expert made an oversight in calculating the digital information storage capacity in the vehicle.
“Initially he thought that the data was not fully downloaded or compiled. He checked and he believed that gigabits were gigabytes and there was a discrepancy,” Brennan told the Judge, “There is a plethora of information on these chips that has not been downloaded relevant to this case.”
It was Brennan’s first court appearance since he was hired to represent the Norfolk District Attorney’s (DA) Office in September.
He was seated with Assistant District Attorneys Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin from Read’s first trial.
Attorney Alan Jackson said the defense does not object to the testing, but he asked for a defense expert to be present.
Jackson said the DA’s expert “didn’t understand the difference between megabytes and megabits, gigabytes, and gigabits, and that gave us pause. If you didn’t understand that which is at the foundation of reading the data, we’re concerned that some of the data could be destroyed in whatever process he engages in.”
Judge Cannone ordered, “that should the defendant seek to have their own expert present for testing, they provide the Commonwealth the name and contact information of their expert within five (5) calendar days.”
Both sides argued to postpone Read’s trial until April. It is currently scheduled to begin in late January.
“I want to avoid unfairness to defense at all costs, but I also want to avoid any unfairness to the prosecution,” Brennan said, “I think it will make for a shorter, more effective, efficient trial.”
68 witnesses testified for the prosecution in Read’s first trial. Brennan said he plans to substantially reduce the witness list for the next trial and additional time will allow him to do that.
Defense attorney David Yannetti argued a 2-month delay was “reasonable.”
“I would remind the court that during the last trial we were still receiving reports and some discoverable material as trial was ongoing, sometimes deep into trial,” Yannetti told Judge Cannone about the need for more time.
Yannetti would not reveal to reporters if the defense has planned any strategy changes for the next trial.
“I don’t have a comment on that. I will say that trial number one, we did get an education and hopefully we will be using that education to further our strategy,” he said.
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