The Karen Read trial is now in the hands of the defense, which called its first witness Friday. The prosecution rested its case in the high-profile Massachusetts murder trial on Thursday after weeks of testimony from 38 witnesses.

Testimony in Dedham's Norfolk Superior Court started at about 9:30 a.m. after Judge Beverly Cannone met with the attorneys.

Read is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow in Canton in January 2022. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. Her first trial in 2024 ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. 

Defense calls crash reconstruction expert

The first witness called by defense attorney Alan Jackson was Matthew DiSogra, a digital forensics expert who specializes in car data and crash reconstruction.

DiSogra said he analyzed prosecution witness Shanon Burgess' original report on data from Read's Lexus SUV on the night she allegedly hit and killed O'Keefe. Burgess had testified that Read drove in reverse around 12:32 a.m., almost the exact same time O'Keefe's cellphone stopped moving.

Jackson asked DiSogra whether O'Keefe could have locked his phone prior to the reverse event recorded on Read's car. DiSogra said no, the "lock event" happened after.

But when taking into account Burgess' updated report an how to calculate the difference between O'Keefe's phone clock and the SUV's clock, DiSogra noted that there's a 10% chance that O'Keefe could have locked his phone before an alleged collision.

"Is there any ability to say to a degree of scientific certainty that the ... event occurred after the last physical interaction with John O'Keefe's phone?" Jackson asked.

"Yes, three out of the 30 possibilities would result in that," DiSogra said.

Cross-examination of DiSogra

On cross-examination, special prosecutor Hank Brennan asked DiSogra why he didn't put together a report to show the basis of his opinions. Brennan accused him of only criticizing his experts instead of doing his own research. 

"Did you ever test Ms. Read's car?" Brennan asked. "Did you ever do any actual testing in this case?"

"No," DiSogra said.

Outside court Friday, Karen Read commented on her team's first witness. 

"We hope he cleared it up a little bit," Read said. "He didn't do any new analysis, he just tried to shed some light on what the Commonwealth did." 

Read greets supporters

During a break in testimony on Friday, Read went outside the courthouse to greet her supporters. 

"They're here every day and I can't tell you what this does to my spirits every day," Read told reporters. "I've said this before, and I'll say it again, I can't help but smile." 

Michael Proctor's text messages

The prosecution on Friday filed a motion opposing any efforts by the defense to call four witnesses to the stand who were in group chats with Proctor, arguing that the testimony would be "inadmissible hearsay." 

"Michael Proctor is available to testify and could authenticate and perhaps adopt and acknowledge the statements sought to be introduced," prosecutors wrote.

In the first trial, Proctor admitted he sent "unprofessional and regrettable" text messages about the case, including texts that called Read a "whackjob [expletive]" and saying "hopefully she kills herself." 

After the jury was sent home on Friday afternoon, Jonathan Diamandis took the stand for a voir dire. Diamandis said he has known Proctor since middle school and was in a group chat with him. 

Defense attorney David Yannetti asked Diamandis to authenticate phone numbers in the text chain with Proctor. Brennan asked the witness if he independently remembered the texts, and Diamandis said no.

Brennan again suggested to the judge that Proctor is the best person to authenticate the text messages - an argument the defense took issue with.

"We should not be forced to call Michael Proctor so that Mr. Brennan can then cross-examine him and lead him through basically his entire closing argument," Yannetti said.

Judge Cannone did not issue an immediate ruling on the motion.

Outside court, WBZ-TV's Kristina Rex asked Read why she doesn't want to call Michael Proctor to testify. "That's not Karen's call, it's her attorneys' call," Yannetti responded. 

Karen Read's defense

Read said outside court on Thursday that the defense expects its case to last one-and-a-half to two weeks. Last year, the defense called all of its witnesses over the course of just two days.

It remains to be seen whether the defense will call key witnesses from the last trial who were not called by the prosecution this time around, including former 34 Fairview Road homeowner Brian Albert, federal agent Brian Higgins or fired Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor. 

A WBZ-TV legal analyst expects that Jackson will handle the majority of the defense's case. 

Karen Read's lawyer asks judge for not guilty finding

Before jurors entered court on Friday, Jackson moved for a required finding of not guilty on all charges, a typical motion at this stage of a trial. He argued that there's no evidence that a collision occurred between Read's SUV and O'Keefe. 

"No reasonable jury could find Karen Read guilty," he said. "This case never should have been brought in the first place."

Brennan countered that "any reasonable person could find that her conduct that night created a plain and strong likelihood of death."

Cannone immediately denied the defense's motion.  

Prosecution rests in Karen Read case

The final witness for the prosecution was crash reconstructionist Judson Welcher, a biomechanical engineer for Aperture LLC who was subject to intense cross-examination by the defense. Welcher's testimony included videos that showed him dressing up like O'Keefe on the night he died and performing tests with an SUV similar to Read's Lexus.

Before resting, Brennan played a documentary interview clip for the jury. In the video, Read remembers a conversation she had with defense attorney David Yannetti shortly after O'Keefe's death.

"Did he come and hit the back of my car, and I hit him in the knee and he's drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something?" Read said in the clip. "You know, what if I ran his foot over, or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out?"

• Karen Read