Live court video, updates: Day 19 of witness testimony in Karen Read’s murder retrial

DEDHAM, Mass. — Tuesday marks Day 19 of witness testimony in Karen Read’s murder retrial, and an expert who admitted during cross-examination on Monday that his credentials don’t line up with those on his resume is expected back on the stand.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party in Canton at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert following a night of drinking.

NOW ON THE STAND: Christina Hanley, forensic scientist with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab

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Texas-based Shanon Burgess, of the accident reconstruction, biomechanics and digital forensics company Aperture LLC, returned to stand Tuesday morning for another round of intense questioning.

Burgess offered nearly six more hours of testimony before Christina Hanley, a forensic scientist at the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, took the stand.

On Monday, Burgess testified that data was missed from an initial investigation of the vehicle she was driving that can be used to more clearly pinpoint her movements on the morning her boyfriend was killed.

Burgess, who specializes in the analysis of digital forensics from vehicles and cell phones, didn’t participate in the initial investigation of Read’s car in 2023, but told the court on Monday that data from Read’s Lexus shows it made a three-point turn and traveled in reverse in the midnight hour of January 29, 2022.

Burgess claims the timing didn’t initially match up to movements recorded by O’Keefe’s phone until he synced the clocks in a new report.

Read’s team tried to poke holes in Burgess’s credibility, accusing the analyst of misleading clients about his academic credentials.

Defense attorney Robert Alessi presented Burgess’s biography on the company website, which states that Burgess graduated with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and business administration from the University of Alabama. Burgess’s LinkedIn profile, previously linked to his employer Aperture’s website, showed him having obtained a bachelor’s degree. On a different CV on the company’s website, Burgess is listed as having earned his bachelor’s degree from Alabama in 2022.

Copies of Burgess’s CV submitted to the court say he is “currently pursuing” the degree but does not yet have one.

Burgess said he graduated in 2015 with an associate’s degree. When Alessi asked when he began “pursuing” his bachelor’s degree, Burgess said in 2008.

“If I did the math correctly, you’ve been pursuing a bachelor of science degree for 17 years, correct?” he asked Burgess, asking him whether he was familiar with the terms “mendacity” and “academic dishonesty.”

Burgess said he doesn’t know why his resume on the company website contained inaccuracies, and that he hadn’t updated his LinkedIn profile for some time.

Alessi also questioned why Burgess waited to submit a new report about time stamp data obtained via the car modules on May 8, weeks after Read’s trial had begun.

“Do you think it’s fair to submit a report without anybody asking you in the middle of a trial?” he asked the expert. Burgess said the new report contained clarifications, not changes, to a previous analysis.

Last week, Read’s lawyers tried to prevent Burgess’s report from being presented to jurors and Aperture experts from testifying. They accused the prosecution of committing a pretrial discovery violation. But Judge Beverly Cannone let the prosecution proceed.

Outside of court on Monday, Read was not pleased, accusing special prosecutor Hank Brennan of springing new information about the case on her team at the last minute.

“Attorney Brennan represented to this court and us just last week that he was surprised to get a report on May 8th that was only shared with us on May 11th, and now we find out from this witness that attorney Brennan knew this report was coming the whole time,” Read told reporters. “That’s the definition of an ambush.”

'The definition of an ambush': Read claims prosecutors sprung last-minute information on defense

Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense has claimed that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.

A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

Get caught up with all of the latest in Karen Read’s retrial.

Associated Press reporting was included in this article.

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