Cross-examination exposes gaps in defense expert’s crash testing for Karen Read
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Karen Read’s legal team is nearing the end of the case for her defense with crash reconstruction expert Dr. Daniel Wolfe called to the stand Friday.
Wolfe testified about a series of testing he performed that he said showed the damage to Read’s SUV is “inconsistent” with the type of pedestrian strike that prosecutors say killed her former boyfriend John O’Keefe – and he instead found that the damage to her taillight could have been inflicted by throwing a cocktail glass at the car at a speed of at least 37 mph.
But on cross-examination, he conceded that flying fragments of a taillight could have been the source of injuries to O’Keefe’s face and nose before he suffered a fractured skull.
As part of the prosecution’s case, special prosecutor Hank Brennan played a clip of Read telling an interviewer she pulled a “piece of glass” out of O’Keefe’s nose.
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Wolfe also admitted to having to “retake” part of his certification exams and that he used a crash dummy arm that is about 26% lighter than O’Keefe’s real arm. He ultimately obtained his certification.
“When you’re bringing that much more kinetic energy from the vehicle, that’s going to overcome any mass that that arm has,” he said. “Kinetic energy is equal to one-half times the mass times the velocity squared, so even if you go up a few miles per hour, you’re exponentially increasing that amount of kinetic energy from the vehicle.”
Wolfe denied that the weight difference in the dummy arm would have made an impact on the tests he performed, but he acknowledged that O’Keefe, who stood at 6 feet, 1 inch tall and weighed over 200 pounds, was larger than the crash dummy that is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and 170 pounds.
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There are crash dummy arms weighing around 12 pounds which would have been closer to the real weight of O’Keefe’s arm, Wolfe agreed.
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Brennan questioned the validity of his testing overall and called out Wolfe for swapping out dummy arms and not mentioning that detail in his direct examination.
“I’m asking for a third time, name one journal, one paper, one study that supports your proposition that you’re relying on the basis for your opinion in front of this jury today,” Brennan said. “Name one.”
“I did not cite any in my report,” Wolfe replied. “No.”
“Can you think of one that you didn’t cite?” Brennan followed up.
“Not that I’m aware of, no,” Wolfe said.
Brennan grilled Wolfe about his use of the Signal app to share encrypted messages with the defense and about his inability to produce communications under a court order because his texts were deleted.
Earlier, Wolfe played video for the jury that showed multiple recreations of an impact involving a 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV and a crash dummy to simulate that alleged impact of Read’s vehicle of the same make and model on O’Keefe, whom she is accused of killing in a drunken hit-and-run.
In each simulation, at speeds ranging from 10 to 29 mph, the damage to the vehicle’s taillight was “inconsistent” with that damage police recorded on Read’s actual taillight.
While most of the impacts shattered the outer lens, internal components that were destroyed in Read’s vehicle remained intact in multiple test taillights.
“Did you reach any opinions or conclusions as to whether the damage to the right rear tail light of the subject vehicle is consistent or inconsistent with an impact to a right arm during a high-speed reversing maneuver?” asked defense attorney Alan Jackson.
“It was inconsistent,” Wolfe replied.
Wolfe also obtained sweatshirts that were the same brand and fabric blend of the one O’Keefe was wearing when he died. Notably, the impacts did not produce similar holes in the cloth.
“Do you have an opinion or conclusion as to whether or not the damage that you saw to the hoodie related to John O’Keefe is consistent or inconsistent with an impact from a right rear taillight of the subject SUV?” Jackson asked.
“It was inconsistent,” Wolfe replied.
“And what do you base that opinion on?” Jackson followed up.
“Based upon all of the impact testing that we did with the closed ATD arm in the laboratory, as well as the field,” Wolfe said, using an acronym that refers to the formal name for crash dummies — Anthropomorphic Test Device.
Judge Beverly Cannone called a midday lunch break around 12:40 p.m. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan was expected to kick off cross-examination when court resumes.
Friday marks the 28th day of her retrial on murder and other charges in the death of her former boyfriend, a 46-year-old Boston police officer.
Wolfe is the director of accident reconstruction at a firm called ARCCA.
Earlier in his testimony, he said ARCCA designed a specialized “cannon” to simulate throwing a cocktail glass at Read’s taillight and determined that similar damage could have been caused if someone threw the glass at around 31 mph and 37 mph.
“From the 37 mile per hour test, we are getting damage that’s generally consistent, and by that I mentioned we have portions of the outer lens missing, the underlying diffuser,” he said.
“There was also some fracturing on the backside of the assembly. So again we observed damage that was generally consistent with that of the subject taillight.”
Wolfe said he gave an opinion that the damage Read’s SUV was generally consistent with someone throwing that drinking glass at at least 37 mph.
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In another ARCCA test, the reconstructionists wanted to see if an impact between the taillight and the back of O’Keefe’s head could’ve caused his skull fracture.
Wolfe said he tested at 15 mph. Damage to the test taillight was significantly more than Read’s taillight at that speed – but it didn’t generate enough force to cause a skull fracture.
ARCCA obtained sweatshirts from the same company and of the same fabric blend as the one O’Keefe was wearing when he died and also simulated strikes to see if the fabric would puncture in the same way. At 10 and 17 mph, the taillight sustained different levels of damage but the fabric remained undamaged.
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Prosecutors accused Read, 45, of hitting O’Keefe with her 2021 Lexus SUV and driving away as he died on the ground with a skull fracture during a blizzard.
Investigators recovered a broken cocktail glass and a black straw from the scene and found additional glass on Read’s bumper. However, experts testified earlier at trial that the bar glass was not a match for the fragments found on her car.
The defense denies that she struck him and has called witnesses who have attributed his injuries to other causes, including a dog bite and a potential fistfight with a man Read was flirting with behind his back.
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Brennan unsuccessfully tried to have Wolfe and a colleague, Dr. Andrew Renstchler, blocked from testifying before the start of the trial.
Wolfe testified during the first trial, which ended with a deadlocked jury, that damage to Read’s SUV is inconsistent with a collision involving O’Keefe.
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Read told reporters outside court Wednesday that her defense could rest as soon as next Tuesday. There was no court on Thursday.
She could face up to life in prison if convicted. Her first trial, in which the defense claimed she had been framed, ended with a deadlocked jury last year.