Karen Read Retrial, Week 7: The Defense is Playing the Hits. And it Seems to Be Working

You'll have to pardon the shameless self-promotion. Or not. It doesn't matter. It was great to talk to Eddie about this like we did at practically the same point in the first trial last year. It can be a complicated narrative, like I said. With a lot of Brians and bald law enforcement officers from an Alpha-Bits can of various agencies. And even though I'm deep in the weeds of this case, Eddie brought up side plots and minor characters I hadn't actually thought about since they testified in 2024. So good on him and I regret not having answers to a question or two. It was great talking to him again. 

Anyway, to wrap up this week, I'm going to dispense with the usual metaphors about this being Season 2 of a TV drama or a movie sequel and go with something much more original. Karen Read's defense has the stage, and they are not playing stuff off their new album:

 They are playing the hits. Leading with "Taking Care of Business" and cutting right to the "Workin' overtime" part. What the people came to hear. 

For that reason, I'll get through this without digging too deep. Since this is less new ground to anyone who's been here before. And all for the benefit of the 18 adults who somehow live in Norfolk County and somehow managed to miss this cultural event that has turned their community into the jurisprudence version of a civil war. It's news if they're hearing it for the first time. 

Since starting their portion of the trial with expert witnesses, the defense turned to civilians to refute the Commonwealth's preferred narrative of the case. Beginning with Karina Kolokithas, a friend of the group who were getting hammered at the Waterfall Bar in the hours leading up to John O'Keefe's death:

What makes Kolokithas a more reliable narrator than most is that she was drinking water that night. Which maybe wouldn't get her voted Life of the Party, but does make her a better witness than all the Tipsy McStaggers (Simpsons reference No. 2; that's my limit. I'm shut off.) getting hammered on double vodkas (Karen Read) and Jameson and gingahs (Brian Higgins). Karina's version of events directly contradicted the word picture painted by prosecution witnesses (Jen McCabe, others) that Read was a jealous rage monster and she and O'Keefe were on each other's last nerve on the night in question. 

Though to be totally fair to the Commonwealth, Koloki-- … Karina K … changed some of the details from her testimony last year. Who was in what group conversation, where they were in the bar and so on. More to the point, she has a lower standard for what constitutes a perfectly loving, affectionate relationship than literally any woman in my life:

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So O'Keefe "gave her a kiss on the forehead. … Honestly, I'd never seen that before; a boyfriend do that to a girlfriend in public. Never saw that. It just stood out to me. I was like, 'Wow! That's the sweetest thing I've ever seen.'" Imagine if we all got to live by that standard. It would probably destroy America's Diamond Tennis Bracelet and Sunday Brunch industries, but life would be simpler. Find yourself a woman with the standards of Karina K. 

More importantly, she scored points for Read by giving some context to the infamous, but hard to discern, grainy, black and white security camera footage inside the bar that night. And tied it into that PDA she'd already testified to:

… affection between Karen and John. She saw a certain act of affection--right in front of a jealous Higgins. She narrated video strongly suggesting Higgins was agitated at John at the end of the evening. She opined that Karen did not appear visibly intoxicated. And she implied that Jen McCabe wanted Karen and John to leave separately. There was nothing to cross her on. I'd say that is helpful. 

So she was, in fact, helpful. Not as helpful as if, say, security cameras could be upgraded to 2025 technology so that every crime scene looks at least as clear as images that get beamed back from the surface of Mars instead of from the 19th century. 

Next was fan favorite Brian "Lucky" Loughran, the driver of beloved snow plow "Frankentruck." I mean that without a trace of condescension. Loughran is an impossible person not to like. Certainly not in the context of him being a witness in a homicide trial. The trait I value most in people in my life or people on TV is authenticity. The world has exceeded its capacity for self-possessed, image conscious phonies, thanks. Lucky is the genuine article. He was doing his job that night. A tough one. Navigating through streets in a blizzard so people could sleep soundly knowing help could arrive in an emergency and they can be about their business as soon as the storm lets up. Without guys like him, civilization comes to a standstill.

As he related, he made several sweeps of the area. Sitting high in the cab of Frankentruck with a clear view. Sweeping his eyes to both sides for any hazards, pedestrians, or in his words, "God forbid any animals." While every female pet owner watching at home bit her lower lip and went, "Awww." If there was a body lying in the snow in front of 34 Fairview Rd, Lucky would've seen it. He was emphatic he did not:

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Again to be fair to the prosecution, they got him to admit he missed a dumpster in the yard of a house that was being renovated:

… said he did not.  

Later, he was shown video that clearly showed a large red dumpster in the driveway across from 34 Fairview.  

A body is far smaller than a dumpster and that will be seared into the juror's memories when weighing Lucky's testimony. 

But Loughran never wavered in his testimony he saw no 6-foot-2 police officer lying in the snow at the place and time the Commonwealth is alleging Read left O'Keefe for dead.

To be less fair to the prosecution, ADA Hank Brennan tried to get Loughran to admit he changed his story. Because this is the Karen Read case and all roads in this thing lead to a media circus, he tried to put the blame for that theory on Turtleboy. Without mentioning Turtleboy:

… would expose you and tell personal things about you if you weren't helpful?  

BL:  He was not threatening. 

And in doing so, Brennan stepped on a rake:

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I'll spare you the awkward, "I'm sorry for your loss. But …" as the questioning went on as before. Instead, I'll ask what the difference is between a blogger and an "online blogger." What does the first kind do? Print leaflets and hand them out on street corners? Second, if the plan was to not mention "Turtleboy" or "Aidan Kearney" by name so as to not give him any undue publicity, it had a boomerang effect:

Or to phrase it better, The Streisand Effect. The DA's might want look that up right after they search the remaining witnesses' history to make sure none of them suffered a personal tragedy in the middle of all this. 

Before we move on though, two key points. First, is that Lucky gave his statement to the police a good year before Kearney started covering this. As his early research into this shows, lead investigator Michael Proctor lied in his reports when he said Fairview wasn't plowed:

And that no business named "By the Yard" had a license to operate in Massachusetts until after Proctor started investigating O'Keefe's murder. 

Next, and the jury won't be told a theory of the case which is horrifying, if true. It is believed by a majority of the Free Karen Read crowd that the original plan of the people they allege attacked Proctor in the house and dragged him to the side of Fairview was to blame it on a careless, snowplow driver. Meaning somewhere in an alternate universe, Lucky Loughran is on trial for killing John O'Keefe, instead of being a universally respected witness. 

Let's wrap up the week with the moment your middle aged aunt who watches all he live coverage on LawTube has been waiting for. The Crash Daddy is BACK! And no libido is safe from his charms:

In the interest of time, I'm just going to hit the highlights of how crash reconstruction expert Dr. Brian Wolfe deconstructed (see what I did there? That's the Old Balls Difference) the work of the Commonwealth experts:

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Specifically their crash expert, Dr. Judson Welcher. He of the Blue Man Group paint:

It's safe to say Crash Daddy didn't think much of it:

What the impact of the Lexus does to a crash test dummy:

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…abrasions to his elbow and a one inch abrasion on his knee. 

Anybody that says anything different doesn’t care about John O’Keefe or his family.  

It is indisputable, unarguable, proof that Karen Read did not hit him with her vehicle. 

The only option you have left - is that something happened inside 34 Fairview, and that some of those people know exactly what happened.  

As a result - McAlbert LE friends in the CPD and MSP helped coverup the murder of John O’Keefe to frame Karen Read.

The way a taillight hitting a sweatshirt will not created tears in the sleeve the way, say, for instance, a German Shepherd's teeth and claws might:

How dressing up in the same outfit with the same color scheme as the murder victim is just unscientific nonsense. Playing dress up to make your video seem cool and thorough:

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And how Welcher's data didn't add up:

All of which left Brennan in the unenviable position of trying to insinuate that the jury couldn't rely on Crash Daddy's background and education. Which would be laughable if it wasn't so secondhand embarrassing, given that Shanon With Two Ns lied on his resume and has been working on the same Bachelor's for 17 years:

OK, that's enough for this week. As I said before, next week is going to be wild. They haven't made a liar out of me yet.