A hearing is being held Thursday morning in the Karen Read case ahead of her second trial next year.
The hearing started at 9 a.m. in Norfolk Superior Court.
The reason for the hearing is to discuss whether certain experts will be allowed to testify at Read's second trial. Scheduling for the trial is also expected to be discussed after Judge Beverly Cannone last week approved a motion from the defense team and prosecutors to delay the trial from January until April.
Read is accused of hitting her Boston Police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts, in January 2022. Read's team claims she was framed, the victim of a police conspiracy. She faces charges of second-degree murder, knowingly leaving the scene of an accident and involuntary manslaughter.
The case has captured international attention and the first trial, which ended in a mistrial in July, raised questions about the way Massachusetts State Police investigators handled the case.
The first person to take the stand at Thursday's hearing was Dr. Marie Russell, a defense witness who testified at Read's first trial about the wounds on John O'Keefe's arm being consistent with a dog bite. The prosecution is questioning her qualifications in an effort to keep her from testifying in the second trial.
She was questioned by attorney Robert Alessi, a new member of the defense team added for the second trial. He went over Russell's resume, qualifications, and previous trial testimony, attempting to make the case that she should be allowed to testify about O'Keefe's injuries during Read's second trial.
She testified about her history as a medical professional working in emergency rooms, her past as a police officer, and numerous times during her career that she saw or treated people with dog bite injuries, including one when she was working as an EMT.
Read's full legal team from the first trial, including Alan Jackson, David Yannetti and Elizabeth Little, also attended Thursday's hearing, as did Hank Brennan, the newly-appointed special prosecutor for the second trial, and Assistant District Attorneys Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin.
Read's parents were also in court, along with O'Keefe's brother and sister-in-law, and Aidan Kearney, the blogger better known as "Turtleboy."
