Controversial data expert takes stand in Karen Read trial after defense calls her 'not reliable'
Karen Read pleaded not guilty to murder charges in the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe and is facing a retrial after a jury was unable to reach a verdict last year.
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Second phone expert says 'hos long' search occurred after O'Keefe found, undercutting defense
During Dr. Jessica Hyde’s direct examination by prosecutor Hank Brennan, Hyde testified that her investigation utilizing Cellebrite’s data analysis software concluded that Jennifer McCabe’s Google search, “hos [sic] long to die in cold” was not conducted at the same time the Internet browser tab was opened at 2:27 a.m on Jan. 29, 2022.
“Can you tell us, to a reasonable degree of scientific certainty, your opinion about whether that search, ‘hos [sic] long to die in cold’ occurred at 2:27 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022?” Brennan said.
“What I can state, to a scientific degree of certainty, is that the search occurred at 6:24 a.m. and was the last search in the tab that had been opened at 2:27 a.m.,” Hyde said.
Hyde’s testimony further solidifies phone expert Ian Whiffin’s findings that the Google search was not conducted until after John O’Keefe’s body was found in the front yard of 34 Fairview.
Karen Read trial ends Day 11 with phone data expert dismantling defense team's timeline
Following phone data expert Dr. Jessica Hyde’s testimony, Judge Beverly Cannone sent the jury home for the day. Karen Read’s trial is set to resume Thursday as the prosecution continues to call witnesses.
Defense grills phone data expert on timestamps, John O'Keefe's health data
Defense attorney Robert Alessi grilled data expert Dr. Jessica Hyde on her findings within John O’Keefe and Jennifer McCabe’s phones.
Alessi went on to ask Hyde about cell phone records indicating McCabe made an outgoing phone call to an individual named “Coco” at 5:07 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022 - approximately one hour before O’Keefe’s body was found outside 34 Fairview. Alessi noted Hyde’s report did not include a call duration.
“After numerous early calls and, as you call it, interactive phone activity, nothing populated in this report until 8:59 a.m., that’s correct?” Alessi said.
“Yes,” Hyde answered.
Alessi pressed Hyde on her report using Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) to record McCabe’s Google search, “hos (sic) long to die in cold,” while the rest of her report was recorded in Eastern Standard Time (EST).
“So if you look under relevant findings, at the very bottom paragraph, you say second sentence, ‘A Google search for ‘hos (sic) long to die in cold’ at approximately 11:23 a.m. and then ‘hos long to die in cold’ took place at 11:24 a.m.,’” Alessi said.
“That is in UTC,” Hyde said. “I apologize for not having the timestamp format there, but that is the UTC time.”
Hyde’s testimony corroborated phone expert Ian Whiffin’s findings that the Google search was not conducted until after O’Keefe’s body was found in the front yard of 34 Fairview, further dismantling the defense team’s timeline that it had been conducted hours before.
Prosecution's phone expert braces for fiery cross-exam as Karen Read trial returns from lunch
Judge Beverly Cannone resumed Karen Read’s trial following an afternoon lunch break as data expert Dr. Jessica Hyde returned to the witness stand for for cross-examination from defense attorney Robert Alessi.
Controversial data expert explains findings on timing of 'hos (sic) long to die in cold' search
Following a tense back-and-forth between defense attorney David Alessi and prosecutor Hank Brennan regarding upcoming testimony, data expert Dr. Jessica Hyde was called to the witness stand.
In a hearing without the jury present, Alessi asked Judge Beverly Cannone to allow the defense to cross-examine Hyde on her use of a third-party software to investigate the timing of Jennifer McCabe’s Google search, “hos (sic) long to die in the cold.” Alessi argued that a Maryland court found Hyde’s methods to be unreliable in a separate case.
Cannone ruled the defense could cross-examine Hyde but cannot ask questions pertaining to the Maryland case.
Hyde began her testimony by explaining that McCabe’s web browser tab was opened at 2:27 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
“There is a timestamp for the search, ‘hos (sic) long to die in cold,’” Hyde said. “However, the timestamp isn’t about active searches. It’s about the time that a tab was either opened or moved to the background.”
Hyde went on to explain the software displays the most recent Internet search with the time the tab was originally opened.
“So the time in the instance of the ‘It's Raining Men’ video is the time that that video was moved to the background, and the new tab took over as the tab that's active,” Hyde said. “And [in] that tab, the last search done is, ‘hos (sic) long to die in cold.’ Because that database holds the current search, it constantly gets updated.”
Hyde testified that, to an untrained eye, the software may be confusing when trying to determine an exact time a search was conducted.
“There's a really scary danger that an examiner who has not dug into the artifact and tested it to see what it means may assume, erroneously, that that 2:27 a.m. timestamp is the time that what is there is searched,” Hyde said. “The search in that field of that artifact is going to always be the most recent search in the tab, but that timestamp actually means either the time that that tab was backgrounded - or if it's the first time the tab has been opened - when it was opened. So you could erroneously [imply] a search was done hours or even days before it actually occurred.”
Defense asks to cross-examine data expert, cites findings on Google search are 'not reliable'
In a heated hearing without the jury present, prosecutor Hank Brennan and defense attorney Robert Alessi sparred over the Commonwealth’s request to allow data expert Dr. Jessica Hyde to be called as a witness in Karen Read’s trial.
Alessi asked Judge Beverly Cannone for permission to cross-examine Hyde on her access to data from Apple and overall methodology. Alessi pointed to Hyde’s investigation into the timing of Jen McCabe’s Google search, “hos (sic) long to die in cold.”
The prosecution previously called data expert Ian Whiffin to testify on how he used Cellebrite software to uncover a software bug that explained the discrepancy regarding when the web browser tab was opened and when the search was conducted.
“What I want to do with regard to her 2:27 a.m. timestamp and her anticipated testimony on that,” Alessi said. “Where she uses a tool - Cellebrite - to determine and come to a conclusion about that timestamp. She is not using Apple’s source code to find out where [the data is] located specifically in the phone and what it means.”
Alessi went on to reference a decision from a Maryland court deeming Hyde’s report in a separate case as unreliable, citing her use of a third-party platform.
“I’m not looking to exclude [her testimony],” Alessi said. “I’m looking to cross her on her reliability for the conclusions I anticipate she’s going to make on [the Google search].
Brennan hit back, arguing that the Maryland case is separate from Karen Read’s trial and Apple’s source code is unavailable to all investigators.
“The opinion did not say she was wrong,” Brennan said. “It said that it was not admissible under [the Maryland case], unrelated. Nobody has the Apple source code, no expert can testify about Apple source code. It’s only owned by Apple.”
Following the back-and-forth, Cannone ultimately decided to allow Read’s defense to cross-examine Hyde.
Trooper grilled by Karen Read's defense on work with Michael Proctor, John O'Keefe's autopsy
During cross-examination by defense attorney David Yannetti, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Connor Keefe was grilled on his working relationship with former investigator Michael Proctor.
Keefe reported to Proctor during the initial investigation into O’Keefe’s death, with Keefe compiling video evidence from C.F. McCarthy's and The Waterfall Bar and Grille. Proctor was then tasked with analyzing and writing reports based on the footage provided by Keefe.
“Were you one of the newer members of the unit as of January of 2022?” Yannetti asked.
“Yes,” Keefe said.
“Then Trooper Michael Proctor had more experience than you did as of Jan. 29, 2022, correct?” Yannetti continued.
“He could have," Keefe said. "He’d been on the job longer.”
Yannetti then went on to question Keefe on his conversations with medical examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello during John O’Keefe’s autopsy.
“Did you talk to Dr. Scordi-Bello during the autopsy?” Yannetti asked.
“Yes,” Keefe said.
“And you gave her information, if you don’t want to call it input, correct?” Yannetti said.
“Yes,” Keefe answered.
“And at the end of [the autopsy], you left without her ruling it a homicide,” Yannetti said.
However, prosecutor Hank Brennan objected before Keefe could provide an answer.
O’Keefe’s manner of death remains undetermined, with the cause ruled as blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.
Broken taillight blunder: More pieces than expected in Karen Read evidence bag
Prosecutor Hank Brennan called Massachusetts State Police Trooper Connor Keefe to the witness stand on Wednesday morning. Keefe is assigned to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office and was sent to 34 Fairview to investigate the crime scene after John O’Keefe was found frozen to death in the front yard.
During his testimony, Keefe held up six pieces of evidence found at the crime scene - O’Keefe’s black sneaker and pieces of a broken vehicle taillight - noting a third piece of the red taillight was not initially placed in the bag.
“Do you know if the other piece in the bag is a piece that broke off?” Brennan asked. “Do you know how that arrived there?”
“I do not,” Keefe said.
Following a brief delay, Keefe was instructed to place the third piece of the broken taillight in a separate bag upon leaving the stand.
Karen Read trial enters Day 11 as prosecution calls Massachusetts state trooper to witness stand
Judge Beverly Cannone called Court into session on Wednesday morning with both Karen Read and John O'Keefe's family sitting front-row in the gallery.
Karen Read arrives at courthouse as prosecutors follow up profanity-powered evidence
Karen Read arrived at the Norfolk Superior Courthouse surrounded by her defense team for Day 11 of her murder trial. The Commonwealth is set to continue calling witnesses on Wednesday.
Karen Read's frantic voicemails to John O'Keefe played in murder trial
On Tuesday, special prosecutor Hank Brennan played a series of voicemails that Karen Read allegedly left John O'Keefe after authorities said she struck him with an SUV and left him to die in a blizzard.
Massachusetts State Trooper Nicholas Guarino returned to the stand Tuesday to read through text messages and phone calls between Read and O'Keefe from the evening of Jan. 28, 2022, into the following morning, when Read was among three women who found him.
Records show Read's phone connected to the Wi-Fi at O'Keefe's home at 12:36 a.m. on the 29th, Guarino said. Read made more than 50 calls to O'Keefe that morning but did not leave a voicemail every time.
At 12:37 a.m., she left the first of eight voicemails for O'Keefe.
"John, I f---ing hate you," she said, in a recording played in court.
By then, prosecutors allege O'Keefe had been mortally injured by the rear end of Read's Lexus SUV and left for dead as a blizzard picked up strength.
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Witness testimony resumes on Day 11 of Karen Read trial
Karen Read’s trial will resume Wednesday morning as special prosecutor Hank Brennan continues to call witnesses to the stand. Jurors heard from testimony from retired Canton Police Lt. Paul Gallagher, meteorologist Robert Gilman and State Police Lt. Kevin O’Hara on Tuesday as the Commonwealth continues to build its timeline of John O’Keefe’s death.
Read is facing charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death after O’Keefe was found frozen to death in the front yard of 34 Fairview on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. If convicted, Read could spend up to the rest of her life in prison.
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