Karen Learn says she’s ‘combating for the reality’ as choose rejects try and query witnesses on cellphone proof

Crime

A choose shot down the protection crew’s bid to query two witnesses, however took one other movement about their cellphones beneath advisement.

Prosecutors and attorneys for Karen A. Learn — the girl accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend — had been again in Norfolk Superior Court docket Wednesday, buying and selling barbs about “fanciful” fact-finding and “sloppy” policing.

However standing on the steps of the courthouse after the listening to, the girl on the middle of this dizzying homicide case lastly had her say.

“It feels we’re the one ones combating for the reality of what occurred to John O’Keefe, and me and my household and my attorneys and my crew have marshaled each useful resource to get to the reality,” a tearful Learn stated in video captured by WCVB. “It simply appears like nobody else needs it.”

The background

Prosecutors allege that on Jan. 29, 2022, Learn struck O’Keefe along with her automotive whereas dropping him off at a fellow Boston police officer’s house in Canton after an evening of ingesting. However attorneys for the 42-year-old Mansfield girl have put forth a principle of their very own, arguing that the proof factors to O’Keefe having been severely overwhelmed and attacked by a canine inside the house. 

Learn, they declare, was framed. 

“It’s a credible principle. We consider on the finish, it will likely be revealed to be the reality on this case,” David Yannetti, certainly one of her attorneys, stated throughout Wednesday’s listening to.

Nevertheless, prosecutors notched a victory as Choose Beverly J. Cannone shot down the protection crew’s bid to query two key witnesses, Brian Albert — who owned the house in Canton on the time — and his sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe. Cannone took one other protection movement to look at Albert’s telephone and McCabe’s telephone data beneath advisement. 

Learn’s attorneys have recommended that telephone information may clear their consumer’s identify, pointing to a Google seek for “ho[w] lengthy to die in chilly” that McCabe allegedly made at 2:27 a.m., hours earlier than O’Keefe’s physique was discovered. However prosecutors have challenged the protection crew’s interpretation of the timestamp, suggesting the search was really made later that morning, and at Learn’s request.

‘Fanciful’ details?

Alan Jackson, certainly one of Learn’s attorneys, stated her authorized crew has a “good religion perception” that the cellphone info they’re searching for can be related and important to her protection. 

“What’s the commonwealth so desperately afraid of?” he requested. “They appear to be desperately fearful that we’re really going to get to the reality of what really occurred on Jan. 29, 2022.”

Norfolk Assistant District Lawyer Adam C. Lally, who has accused the protection of a “fishing expedition,” was fast to dispute Jackson’s declare. 

“This isn’t a scenario the place the commonwealth is afraid of proof being produced,” Lally stated. “It’s merely that counsel and the defendant have to adjust to the principles and wish to really state precise details and precise proof, versus the fanciful details part that’s been submitted to the courtroom.”

Jackson retorted: “The whole lot that we recommended is supported by the info, the proof, and the details. The commonwealth’s principle is supported by conjecture and actually dangerous policing.”

Jackson later doubled down in his assault on the police investigation into O’Keefe’s loss of life, particularly referencing O’Keefe’s telephone information. 

Lally has sought to undermine the protection crew’s declare that the telephone information signifies O’Keefe entered Albert’s house that evening, noting that the identical information additionally reveals O’Keefe taking a number of steps lengthy after he’d been declared lifeless.  

Jackson argued that these posthumous steps as a substitute mirror a police officer strolling round with O’Keefe’s telephone in proof, telling the courtroom, “that was incorrect policing, sloppy policing.” 

Learn: ‘I attempted to avoid wasting his life’

Standing outdoors the courthouse following the listening to, Jackson maintained that his consumer is “an harmless girl.”

Requested straight if she killed O’Keefe, Learn replied: “We all know who did it. … And we all know who spearheaded this cover-up.”

Somebody then requested Learn why she admitted to killing O’Keefe, seemingly referencing prosecutors’ allegation that Learn repeatedly advised a paramedic, “I hit him,” after discovering O’Keefe’s physique. Jackson disputed the characterization, responding: “She didn’t admit to it; she didn’t admit to something near that.” 

“I attempted to avoid wasting his life,” Learn stated as her supporters applauded. “I attempted to avoid wasting his life at six within the morning. I used to be lined in his blood. I used to be the one one making an attempt to avoid wasting his life.”

Learn is due again in courtroom for a pretrial listening to on July 25.