DAY 4: Karen Read Retrial
Bus rides, blood tests, and booze. Oh boy.
Today was Field Trip Friday for the jurors.
The morning started off with a bus ride to the crime scene at 34 Fairview so jurors could view the area themselves. Karen’s damaged SUV was also present for them to look at.
Despite that the alleged crime happened in the middle of the night during snowy weather, the jury was given the opportunity to see everything in broad daylight on a Spring day. (I feel conflicted about this decision by the judge because although the layout may be helpful to view, the conditions —bright and not snowing — is the polar opposite visual of when the event actually took place).
Reporter David Bienick gives a glimpse of the scene once the jurors headed back to court.
TESTIMONIES OF THE DAY
DR. GARREY FALLER (Chief Pathologist at Good Samaritan Hospital back in 2022):
Testifies regarding the purpose of blood testing in general. It helps give clues to what is actually going on with a patient.
When Karen Read was admitted to the hospital for a psych evaluation, her blood was taken for testing.
On 1/29/22 —
9:03 am The blood test was ordered.
9:08 am The blood test is taken.
9:13 am The lab receives the blood sample.
9:53 am The blood test results are complete and added to the computer system.
The results were: 93 mg/dL
He doesn’t explain any further what that means in layman’s terms, so I assume we’ll be hearing from another expert witness who will testify to the Blood Alcohol Content results of Karen Read.
CROSS EXAMINATION:
Defense attorney, Elizabeth Little, questions the witness about the hospital’s accreditation. He says they have been — and still are — in good standing. Little points out that they are clinically accredited, but not forensically accredited.
Dr. Faller explains that it is very rare for them to be testing blood for a murder trial (forensic), but that the clinical testing given to Karen Read that day is “just as good”.
Dr. Faller explains the difference of those two testing styles.
Forensic is ‘whole blood’, and clinical testing is ‘serum/plasma’.
Attorney Little asks if he is aware of the serum testing limitations, and the witness says, yes. He then states that the limitations are unlikely to effect ethanol (alcohol) testing.
Attorney Little asked Dr. Faller if he was aware of a specific study that shows a multiple sclerosis diagnosis (Karen has MS) could lead to elevated levels of the enzyme tested when determining a patient’s blood alcohol content level.
He says no, but that the enzyme would not have an impact on the BAC results.
JASON BECKER (Firefighter/Medic)
Becker was called for a ‘Section 12 Psych Evaluation’ for Karen Read at 34 Fairview Road the morning John was found. His ambulance arrived on scene after John O’Keefe had already been transported to the hospital.
Karen was sitting in a vehicle in the passenger seat when he arrived on scene.
He spoke with her from the window for a brief time, and then they headed to the ambulance. Karen Read was cooperative.
Medic Becker and Medic Whitley were in the back of the ambulance with Karen as they headed to the hospital. Becker was responsible for the report, and asked her basic triage questions. He was hearing the conversation of Karen and Medic Whitley on and off as he wrote the report.
He recalls a moment where the defendant states that the last conversation she had with John was an argument.
CROSS EXAMINATION
Defense Attorney Alan Jackson asks Becker if he knew whether Karen’s ‘last words’ with John were actually the voicemails she left him. He says no. He didn’t ask her any further questions because his job was to get her safely to the hospital. At one point Karen tried to show him her phone, but he didn’t look.
Jackson says at the Grand Jury, Becker said Karen told him she was upset because the last words she said to him were in anger. Becker agrees, however Prosecutor Brennan objects and there’s a side bar called.
Jackson asks if Becker recalls his earlier interview from 2022 where he said Karen told him they were in an argument earlier in the night. He said yes.
REDIRECT
Prosecutor Brennan points out that Defense Attorney Jackson only referred to a part of the Grand Jury testimony, and did not allow Becker to respond to the quote in it’s full context. He lets Becker read it.
Medic Becker had actually told the grand jury that Karen was upset because “the last time they had talked” she was arguing with O’Keefe. “She was upset that that was like her last words to him.”
Brennan asks if Karen ever mentioned that she was talking about a voicemail, and he said no.
When Karen said they had argued ‘earlier last night’, she was telling the medic this statement in the early morning after John was found dead. Brennan asked is she could have been referencing the midnight time frame. Yes.
RE-CROSS
Alan asks if ‘earlier last night’ could have meant 6pm? 5pm? 9pm? Yes, could have been. He never asked her specifics.
COMING UP…
Monday 4/28/25 there will be witness testimonies in the morning, and then the afternoon is dedicated for the voir dire of ARCCA.
As you may know already…
The defense team has recently found themselves in another violation of the court when they failed to comply with the judge’s order to hand over the history and full content of their communications with the company, ARCCA. They shared that they had 99 text conversations with the experts, but claim the content of those texts have been deleted.
In order for the judge to even consider allowing the experts to testify at this point, she scheduled a voir dire. I’m not sure what we should expect on Monday, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are fireworks in court.
Great title for today. What a wonderfully terrible week for Karen. The second trial is hugely different from the first. I promised myself I wouldn't watch this trial because I HATE FKR vitriol, but I pray so hard for the family and the witnesses, and that made me watch..and wow! What a difference! Thank you for your coverage!
Thanks Tuesday!