Crime
In a marathon listening to Friday, the choose in Karen Learn’s homicide case heard a number of motions and set a trial date for subsequent March.
Prosecutors and protection attorneys for Karen Learn went head-to-head in courtroom Friday, buying and selling scathing barbs and arguing a sequence of latest motions as Decide Beverly Cannone set a trial date for March 12, 2024.
Learn is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, early on Jan. 29, 2022.
Prosecutors say that after an evening of consuming, Learn struck O’Keefe along with her automotive and left him to die within the snow whereas dropping him off on the Canton residence of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer. Her attorneys argue that she is being framed, and that O’Keefe was really crushed to dying.
Learn has pleaded not responsible to fees of second-degree homicide, motorized vehicle manslaughter whereas driving beneath the affect, and leaving the scene of a collision inflicting harm and dying.
The contentious case has drawn in depth media protection and widespread debate in Canton and past, with Learn’s supporters rallying outdoors the courthouse throughout her hearings.
Protection says prosecutors have withheld proof
In courtroom Friday, the protection group accused prosecutors of withholding a number of gadgets of proof, together with samples taken from O’Keefe’s clothes and physique, in addition to items of a damaged taillight reportedly discovered on the scene.
Protection legal professional Elizabeth Little alleged that since Learn’s arraignment greater than a 12 months in the past, “the protection nonetheless has not been allowed to a lot as take a look at the bodily proof that the commonwealth has had in its possession for 21 months, and has so desperately withheld from the protection out of concern of what it’d present.”
Little additionally mentioned that date-marked proof luggage advised investigators carried out not less than 5 undocumented searches at Albert’s residence and reportedly recovered items of a taillight.
“We don’t have a police report for any of these. No notes, no stories, no pictures of the place these taillight items had been discovered within the yard,” Little mentioned, including, “If this data exists, we’re entitled to it. We’d like a brief compliance date for the manufacturing of those notes and stories in order that we are able to not less than try to stop additional fabrication of proof.”
Assistant District Lawyer Adam Lally pushed again, asserting that “any suggestion that we’re ‘desperately withholding’ proof from the protection as we’re afraid of what it’d present is simply patently ridiculous.”
He famous that some proof remains to be present process testing, additionally casting doubt on the protection declare of 5 undocumented searches.
“I’ll actually look into that, and if there may be any documentation associated to these — whether or not they be notes, whether or not they be pictures, whether or not they be stories — the commonwealth has no concern of offering these in brief order,” Lally mentioned.
Cannone ordered expedited testing and requested prosecutors to report again on outcomes by Nov. 3.
Hair pattern referred to as into query
At one level, the protection group additionally accused prosecutors of mendacity in regards to the information in courtroom filings.
The dispute concerned a hair prosecutors mentioned was recovered from Learn’s bumper. Protection legal professional Alan Jackson argued that “the historical past of that hair is considerably tortured,” asserting that testing on the hair confirmed “no human DNA detected.”
“So after … 19 months or so of claiming this was a human hair on the again of that bumper, seems it’s not hair, and DNA testing indicated it was not a hair, and now the commonwealth appears to be in some kind of triage mode to strive to determine how they made a mistake,” Jackson mentioned. “Truly, I query whether or not or not it was a mistake, as a result of you may make a mistake as soon as — I don’t know that you may do it 4 separate instances.”
He additionally alleged that the state police forensic skilled who initially confirmed that the hair was human had failed their proficiency examination.
Lally refuted Jackson’s narrative as “a whole misrepresentation of what that DNA testing report says.” He asserted that the take a look at’s lack of ability to detect a ample quantity of DNA didn’t essentially imply that the hair wasn’t human.
Prosecutors are requesting additional DNA testing that might doubtless expend the proof pattern, given its measurement. The protection, nonetheless, is asking that the hair be made accessible to their skilled first.
Livestream of the listening to by way of WCVB.
Learn asks choose to return bail cash
Learn’s attorneys additionally requested the courtroom to return $80,000 in bail cash she had beforehand posted and go away Learn free on private recognizance. In alternate, they mentioned, Learn would flip in her passport and signal a waiver of rendition.
The attorneys’ argument was based mostly partly on Learn’s mounting authorized bills, with protection legal professional David Yannetti describing an “overwhelming monetary crush” tied to her prison case.
He denied that Learn posed a flight threat, noting her private ties to Massachusetts and the nationwide publicity her case has generated.
“My shopper is among the most recognizable prison defendants in America,” Yannetti mentioned. “The place on earth would she go, even when she needed to go someplace?”
Yannetti additionally argued that the circumstances of the case have “utterly modified” since Cannone final reconsidered Learn’s bail earlier this 12 months.
He cited data from a snowplow driver who allegedly cleared Fairview Street the day O’Keefe died and informed investigators that he didn’t see a physique outdoors Albert’s residence when he handed by early that morning.
“The plow driver’s testimony ought to finish this case. To place it merely, no physique at 2:30 a.m. means Karen Learn is harmless,” Yannetti mentioned. “Overlook about all the opposite proof that factors to her innocence; this one reality alone prevents the commonwealth from ever convicting her.”
He additionally attacked the credibility of 1 investigator, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, alleging that Proctor has private ties to the Alberts and even calling him “corrupt.”
Viewers members within the courtroom erupted into laughter and jeers as Lally asserted there may be “merely no proof of Trooper Proctor having a detailed reference to the householders.”
District Lawyer Michael Morrissey made the same assertion final month, when he launched a video trying to debunk conspiracy theories and condemning witness harassment within the case.
Morrissey asserted that Proctor had no shut private relationship with anybody concerned within the investigation, nor was he on the scene the day O’Keefe died.
A press release of the case filed by prosecutors in 2022 notes that Proctor and state police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik “responded to the scene” and interviewed witnesses on Jan. 29, however a spokesperson for the DA’s workplace later informed Boston.com that Albert’s residence was not among the many numerous scenes Proctor and Bukhenik visited that day.
Morrissey’s public assertion seemingly touched a nerve with Learn’s supporters, because the DA’s identify appeared on not less than one signal within the crowd outdoors the courthouse Friday.
Jackson additionally took goal at Morrissey whereas addressing Learn’s supporters after the listening to, in line with the Boston Herald.
“I’ll say this slowly so you possibly can perceive,” Jackson reportedly mentioned, incomes some laughs. “Michael Morrissey, we ain’t bought no give up. … Ms. Learn and her household won’t ever, ever give up.”
Cannone took Learn’s bail request beneath advisement. Additionally pending is prosecutors’ movement to request footage from interviews Learn gave to NBC’s “Dateline” and ABC’s “Nightline.” Protection attorneys didn’t object to the movement, however Cannone opted to present each networks extra time to weigh in.
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