Karen Read Retrial Week 2.5: The Prosecution's Version of Events is Being Blown Up By ... the Prosecution's Version of Events

I knew this was going to be a lot of heavy lifting. But you only get a couple of cracks at covering the Trial of the Century. So sacrifices must be made. I guess I'm making up for all the time I was getting paid the taxpayers to follow jury trials, and spent much of that time working on Barstool posts. Not all heroes wear polyester uniforms with coffee stains, I guess. 

When we last talked about this, Jen McCabe was testifying about the interview with the Officers From Another Agency That May or May Not Be the FBI, how she gave them a false name, lied to them, called them back to correct the lie, made calls to pretty much all the major players in this saga, Googled "hos long to die in cold," found John O'Keefe near death in the snow outside 34 Fairview, called 911, never ran to get her brother-in-law police officer Brian Albert in the house to help perform CPR, heard Karen Read shriek "I hit him!", eventually went into the house  to wake up the Alberts to break the news, and kept PB&Js in her car. The details are here:

 How all these events occurred, and at what times, remains a matter of dispute. But McCabe's testimony was more or less the Commonwealth's way of laying out their theory of the case. And to introduce the forensics portion of their narrative. In TV terms, the pre-credits opening scene of their episode of CSI: Canton. Or if you prefer, Law & Order: SUV.

So far though, it doesn't seem to me that it's working out the way they'd hoped. 

I will say this, the prosecution's witnesses have corrected a lot of missteps from the first trial. Like an NFL team facing a division rival for the second time, they've watched a lot of film, done some self-scouting, and made adjustments. This is New England, where we can accept errors, just not error repeaters. By way of a prime example, first responder Katie McLaughlin, who infamously stepped in it last time when asked if she knows the Albert's daughter by seeming to search her brain for some vague, distant memory how she "went to high school with A Caitlin Albert." Only to have the internet erupt like Krakatoa with photo arrays of the many, many memorable times they've had together:

As I said last year, I've got friends I've been hanging with since first grade that I haven't taken this many photos with. But in her second bite at this particular apple, the uncertain, "I know of a" became more of a casual acquaintanceship. They know people in common. Secondary or even tertiary friends. And since these pictures are not being allowed into evidence by the judge, the jury has no way of knowing how McLaughlin tried so hard to side step the truth the first time. Everything else about her presentation, from her lucky testifyin' outfit:

… to her claims she heard Read say … wait for it … "I hit him!" was exactly the same. 

One thing about that last part that landed though. The dashboard camera video show to the jury at the point Read was supposedly playing all the "I hit him!" hits, which again can't be heard on the audio, no one reacts to what should've been seen as an admission of guilt. No one, not McLaughlin or McCabe, does a version of "Wait. Beg your pardon? Come again? You did what to your boyfriend with your large death machine?" The cop at the scene doesn't respond. For certain, he doesn't do what you'd assume he'd do, which is immediately treat this like a crime scene, slap the cuffs on the person who just confessed to vehicular homicide, and break out the magic Miranda words. In fact, Read was only put in the cruiser to get out of the storm and try to get her to take her histrionics from The Costanzas to somewhere down around The Bundys.

This info also came in, which doesn't do any favors for the denials that McLaughlin has a relationship with the Alberts:

That would be the Kevin Albert who Brian Albert's brother, and was on the Canton PD. That would be the Canton PD that washed their hands of this investigation because of the obvious, blatant conflict of interest. We'll circle back to them shortly.

But some of the Commonwealth's witnesses came across as very composed, forthcoming, and truthful. Which was not a good thing for the Commonwealth. Not at all. In fact, they managed to very credibly blow up the narrative the prosecution is trying to put forth. Namely, that John O'Keefe never went into the house. That Read never actually dropped him off, she only dropped him. With her Lexus. Into the front yard. To his eventual death. But without getting too lost in the weeds of who was in the area or picking up whom, three eyewitnesses testified they saw Read sitting in the car, clearly, with the dome line on, and with no O'Keefe. And saw a front yard that was 100% free of mortally injured police officers:

… On re-cross examination, Ryan Nagel confirms his testimony—that he observed no John O’Keefe in Karen Read’s vehicle as he passed by it. This refutes the Commonwealth’s case and supports the defense’s case that John O’Keefe went inside the house at 34 Fairview, as was the plan.

To be clear, these two young women are not involved in this. Not even tangentially. They were only present at the time Read was alleged to have been about to commit vehicular homicide because they were with friends or dates. Meaning they don't have a dog in this fight. And stick a pin in that for now, because we'll get to dog fights soon enough.

The Horatio Cain of this Crime Scene Investigations was Canton PD Lt. Paul Gallagher, now retired. Let's take his handling of the investigation in Fun Size portions. First, he testified he chose not to take any photos of the scene. In fact, he reacted to the question like it was a ludicrous suggestion. But the in-depth audit by his former department begs to differ:

Like I said the first time around, the idea that he cleared snow away from the spot where O'Keefe was found using a leaf blower sounded ridiculous to me at first. Until I saw the video of how methodically this noisy little piece of outdoor power equipment was able to strip the snow away layer by layer. And I was impressed, since here Gallagher's team did capture some images:

Which again, works against the prosecution's case. Watch that video and tell me where you see the massive debris field of taillight plastic they claim was found at the scene later on by the Mass State Police team:

…either, did you? 

PG: No, sir. Not in that area. 

AJ: As a matter of fact. You didn't see 46 pieces of tail light material, either clear or bright red plastic in any part of the area that you searched? 

PG: No, the only thing we discovered was the blood sampling and the glass. 

That glass he referred to is allegedly cocktail glass O'Keefe carried out of the bar with him into the car. What my Weymouth (the other end of Norfolk County) and I used to call a Road Apple. (Don't drink and drive, kids.) Gallagher's bit of leaf blower archaeology uncovered that glass, not any of these:

Circling back to Gallagher's answer about the "blood sampling." According to some reports. Officer O'Keefe lost quarts. I think. I don't know how to do metric conversions. But "drops" is a universal volume of measurement:

Which you'd think would require more to collect than just going across the street to another police lieutenant's house and asking for that favorite tool of top forensic scientists and hot suburban MILFs at CountryFest, the Red Solo cup. But that's precisely what Gallagher relied on to crack this caper:

Then there's canvassing the area. When it came to yard clean up equipment and materials for setting up your Flipadelphia table:

…  the LEO located conveniently across the street from 34 Fairview was an invaluable resource. But when it came to … I dunno … seeing if his home security camera might have captured images of one of their own being fatally struck by a Lexus, well there he was no help. Despite having this view of the supposed crime scene:

… footage of Karen Read running John O'Keefe over with her car, if she had done so.

Excellent sleuthing by Turtleboy. And as sure as the ocean's near the shore, we can all be certain that if there was such footage, it would currently marked as "Commonwealth Exhibit No. 1." And this trial would be over already.

But Gallagher's aggressive incuriousity about that worked both sides of the street. He never searched the Albert's house. Why? He said he saw nothing to justify requesting a warrant:

…  basement. 

PG: That's correct.

Yeah, about that. I might not have been paying much attention for almost two decades spent working around lawyers and judges. But even I know the police didn't need a warrant. All any cop needs is the homeowner's or occupant's permission to search. In fact, I talked to a lawyer friend earlier who said probably less than 1% of all legal searches are done this way. Certainly all searches of vehicles are. "Do you mind popping the trunk for me?" is all that's required. But the request, "Do you mind if I look around your house to see if there's anything to connect it to the dying patrolman found in your yard in a blizzard missing a shoe and with no winter coat on?" was either never made or denied. Both are possibilities are pretty damning for the Commonwealth.

To the extent Gallagher did set foot in the Albert's house, he provided Jackson with a perfect Arthur Conan Doyle moment. The Dog That Didn't Bark Because She Was Nowhere to Be Found:

Where Chloe the German Shepherd was in all of this, no one has said. Or even tried to explain. That's for the defense to bring into question with awkward silences. We wouldn't know much because incredibly, Gallagher determined that it wasn't his job to write any reports. And in fact, wasn't even interviewed by the lead investigators until around the time the were about to empanel a jury last year:

There's so much more. Timelines that don't add up or contradict the prosecution's interpretation of the phone data. Which I won't get into because it would be less painful to fire down an extra large Big Gulp in one sip. And because I've already gone on way too long. So let's end on a punchline that is worthy of this whole descent into Masshole culture by circling back to the Alberts and the Canton police:

He explained that bias they had to avoid, was because of this:

“We should recuse ourselves because our best detective was Kevin Albert.”

This Kevin Albert:

You can't make it up. And we haven't even gotten Proctor to the stand yet. A wild few weeks are still to come.