Karen Read's defense takes the wheel, vying to convince jury she didn't kill John O'Keefe
The first full week of Karen Read's defense
begins today more than a month after jury selection began in her retrial on murder and other charges in the death of her former boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe.
The 45 -year-old Read's first trial ended with a deadlocked jury last year.She is accused of striking O'Keefe, 46, with a Lexus SUV in a drunken fight, then driving away and leaving him to die in the cold during a blizzard.
Read's lawyers -- partially paid for after she sold her home and tapped into her retirement fund
, deny that she struck him at all, however, over the first five weeks of trial, witnesses for the prosecution testified that O'Keefe suffered a head injury consistent with falling backward after a glancing vehicular strike and that plastic fragments consistent with Read's broken taillight were recovered from his clothes.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan rested the commonwealth's case Thursday.
The first defense witness was an accident reconstruction expert named Matt DiSogra, who said that only three out of nearly 30 possible scenarios based on phone and vehicle data align with the prosecution's timeline.
Twenty-five of them suggest O'Keefe's last interaction with his cellphone was a conscious button-press made after Read took her SUV out of reverse, he said.
However, under cross-examination, he could not rule out a collision.
"Sir, are you trying to offer an opinion suggesting that Miss Read's Lexus never hit John O'Keefe on January 29th, 2022?" Brennan asked. "Is that your opinion?"
"No sir,' DiSogra replied.
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Jackie Norris says she's 'very proud' of Des Moines Public Schools' policy limiting cell phones Norris, who worked as a high school government teacher in Perry, Ames and Johnston, said "families are in crisis" and are struggling to afford child care, health care and housing while young people also struggle with anxiety and depression. She pointed to her efforts as a school board member to pass a district-wide policy limiting cell phone use during class time. The district's Hoover High School previously adopted a similar policy in an effort to improve students' grades and their mental health. "We heard loud and clear that we needed to improve the conditions where students can learn and teachers can teach," she said. "And so cell phone addiction was becoming an issue. Kids were struggling with mental health challenges, they weren't hitting their mark on academic outcomes, and so moving forward and passing a cell phone policy for 30,000 students is something I'm very proud of." 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Jackie Norris criticizes Joni Ernst for Medicaid comments, support for Pete Hegseth Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has been scrutinized this year for comments she made at a May 30 town hall, saying, "Well, we all are going to die" after a constituent shouted that people would die due to Medicaid cuts in President Donald Trump's budget bill. The next day, Ernst shared a sarcastic apology video that she filmed while walking through a cemetery. Ernst ultimately voted for the bill, which extends and deepens tax cuts signed by Trump in 2017 while cutting Medicaid spending by nearly $1 trillion over a decade. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office says 10 million people are expected to become uninsured over a decade as a result of the bill. Norris characterized Ernst's remarks as "some pretty flippant comments about people who are going to face real harm." 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