Prosecutors in Karen Read re-trial file motion to exclude doctor who took stand in first trial

Prosecutors in the Karen Read murder case have asked a judge to exclude a medical expert who took the stand in the case’s first trial from next month’s re-trial.

In a motion filed in Norfolk Superior Court Tuesday, prosecutors claimed Doctor Marie Russell isn’t a qualified expert in dog bites.

Russell, a retired emergency room doctor and forensic pathologist, was allowed to take the stand during Read’s first trial during voir dire. Read’s lawyers argue her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, died after being beaten and attacked by a dog before his body was planted on the front lawn of a canton home.

On June 18, Russell told the court that she spent nearly three decades at Los Angeles General Medical Center and that part of her job was determining the cause of injuries. Russell also spent part of her career in law enforcement, working as a police officer in Malden for seven years.

Russell claimed that the combination of cuts and scratches on O’Keefe’s arm was “consistent with a large dog attack,” not an accident involving a motor vehicle.

“These injuries on the arm, in my opinion, is that they are the result of an animal -- bites or scratches,” Russell told Judge Beverly Cannone when asked for additional clarification. “Most likely a dog, a large dog.”

When Cannone asked her how confident she was in her opinion, Russell responded, “Very sure” to a “high degree of medical certainty.”

Now, prosecutors argue her experience is outdated by over 25 years and called into question her background knowledge.

“Although Dr. Russell is a trained emergency room physician, the defendant has failed to prove that Dr. Russell has ‘a reliable basis in the knowledge and experience of her discipline’ to render an opinion in the field of canine bites or claw marks, veterinary medical science, forensic odontology or canine behavior,” prosecutors wrote in the court paperwork filed Tuesday. " During her trial testimony, Dr. Russell conceded there was no law enforcement canine involved and, in her experience, a bite-and-hold injury that law enforcement canines were trained to do would appear different than a domestic canine and arguably castly different from the victim’s minor abrasions, which were isolated to one area of his forearm.”

The Yannetti Criminal Defense Law Firm has asked to add Robert Alessi, a partner at the New York-based firm DLA Piper, to Read’s group of legal representation. David Yannetti, Alan Jackson, and Elizabeth Little also serve on Read’s legal team.

Read is accused of killing O’Keefe by striking him with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in Canton in January 2022 after a night of drinking.

For the latest happenings in the Read case, click here.

The full motions filed Tuesday can be read below:

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