Karen Read Judge warns lawyers for ‘misrepresentations’

Livestream through NBC10 Boston.

Karen LeeThe lawyers received a severe warning on Tuesday from the judge that supervises their case of murder, who said that lawyers have made “repeated misrepresentations” with respect to accident reconstructionists who previously testified the defense.

The defense team scrutiny For its management of Experts from Arcca Inc., an engineering consulting firm initially hired by federal authorities to investigate the case. While Read lawyers previously indicated that experts were working independently and had not paid the defense, later admitted having paid experts Almost $ 24,000 after the null trial of last year of Read.

“According to all the evidence, I conclude that … the required frankness of all lawyers has not been shown here,” said Judge Beverly Cannone on Tuesday. “I find that the defense lawyer has made repeated misrepresentations in court, and concluded that they were deliberate regarding the relationship with the witnesses of Arcca.”

Cannone also found a “flagrant violation” of the defense team Rule 14 obligations For sharing the discovery prior to the trial, although he called read for a sidebar before discussing possible sanctions. When pointing out the “strong desire” to read his legal team as he is, the judge finally refused to revoke permission for lawyers outside the state of Read to continue practicing the law in Massachusetts.

Cannone also denied the motion of prosecutors to prevent Arcca witnesses from testifying at the next new Read trial, although he concluded his comments with a strong warning for the defense.

“The frankness with the court is essential,” said Cannone. “It is the fundamental obligation of all lawyers who appear in this court and all courts in Massachusetts. A lawyer is as good as his word, and I need to be able to take advice in his word.

What about barrel for Tuesday’s audience?

The prosecution and defense began a legal saga of two days of marathon on Tuesday to tie the loose wings before the Read trial next month. Dozens of pending motions remain, including a burst of requests prior to the trial, both parties presented during the last week. Many of them are Movements in Liminethat help determine the evidence, witnesses and the arguments that the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense can appear to the jury.

Reading, 45, is accused in the death of his boyfriend in January 2022, Boston police officer John O’Keefe. Prosecutors claim that drunk after a bar jumping night and deliberately backed their SUV in O’Keefe while leaving him at Canton’s house of Boston’s official partner Brian Albert.

However, Read lawyers argue that it was a “convenient strange” framed in a police conspiracy to protect Alberts, a well -connected local family. The defense has presented an alternative theory that O’Keefe entered the house for a later party and was beaten, attacked by the family’s dog and finally thrown out in the snow.

The first Read trial ended with a jury hanging last July. She must be judged again next month. As the second trial approaches, prosecutors are one more time Looking for Bar Read by raising a guilty defense of third parties to blame someone else for O’Kefe’s death.

Meanwhile, the defense has asked Cannone to keep certain witnesses outside the courtroom before and after testifying. Brian Albert and other witnesses, including his sister -in -law Jennifer McCabe and his nephew Colin Albert, sat with O’Kefe family members during the final arguments in the trial of last year.

Read lawyers are even more asking Cannone to prevent prosecutors from police to get in touch with witnesses after they have begun their testimony. Another request seeks that Norfolk district prosecutor Michael Morrissey and the Massachusetts State Police contact the jury.

The defense also seeks to prohibit the mention of an incident that occurred during a group trip to read and O’Keefe took Aruba during the New Year’s Eve in 2021. During the first Read trial, two of the friends of the O’Kefe family, the sisters Laura and Marietta “Etta” Sullivan, they testified that. accused of anger o’Keefe to deceive her During the trip. Prosecutors claim that Read killed O’Keefe in a drunk anger, pointing out the Aruba incident as evidence that his relationship was agitation. However, defense lawyers say that the incident is not relevant in the case of Read murder.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers have also presented grieving motions about whether to admit that the results of a blood analysis read at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton the morning that O’Keefe died. A former state forensic scientist previously testified that a retrograde analysis of the test results put the alcohol content in Read blood between 0.135% and 0.292% Around the moment the prosecutors say that O’Kefe was injured in death.

Prosecutors have also asked Cannone to restore the 200 feet damping zone She got around the Superior Court of Norfolk during the last Read trial. However, they are requesting an extended shock absorber on one side of the court after they say that protesters can still be heard inside during the jury’s deliberations. Prosecutors also request an application mechanism to ensure that the shock absorber does their job.

“When it is believed that a person has violated the provision of the damping zone, and has rejected requests to comply, police personnel must be authorized to use reasonable physical force and arrest that person to guarantee compliance,” they wrote in their motion.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches public transport, crime, health and everything else.