Prosecutors in the murder case against Karen Read want a judge’s permission to reassemble and retest electronic systems in her Lexus SUV, saying they may contain more data than investigators initially retrieved in an effort to track her vehicle’s location when she allegedly struck her boyfriend and left him for dead on a winter night in Canton in 2022, records show.
In a filing Friday in Norfolk Superior Court, prosecutors said they “intend to engage in further testing of the defendant’s Lexus’s telematics system,” which contains data that include GPS positioning, speed, and engine light information.
A prosecution expert, Shanon R. Burgess, believes “significant data” was likely not acquired during a review of the system in 2023.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She’s free on bail.
Prosecutors allege Read drunkenly backed her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston police Officer John O’Keefe, after dropping him off outside a Canton residence early on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of bar-hopping. Her lawyers say she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the house, owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer, where he was fatally beaten in the basement before his body was planted on the front lawn. Her first trial ended with a hung jury in July; the retrial is scheduled for January.
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Additional data from Read’s electronics in the Lexus would “provide independent corroboration to the numerous witnesses who made observations that the defendant’s Lexus was parked in front of the Fairview Road address [in Canton] after midnight,” prosecutors wrote.
In addition, the data would identify the location of Read’s SUV “at the time it engaged in the impact event” and “the precise locations that the defendant’s Lexus traveled from the time that the defendant struck and killed Mr. John O’Keefe until the time the vehicle was seized,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors wrote that they’re requesting a hearing to “permit prompt testing” of the vehicle’s electronics.
Prosecutors wrote that issues with data retrieval date to December 2023, when defense expert Maggie Gaffney performed a digital data extraction procedure known as a “chip off,” which involves physically removing memory chips from the Lexus’s telematics and infotainment systems, a process that was observed by a state trooper and another government expert.
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Burgess believes “the evidence acquired in the ‘chip off’ was incomplete” and that more data exists, prosecutors wrote.
“This evidence may be inculpatory or exculpatory,” prosecutors wrote. Hardware and software updates have been developed that weren’t available at the time of the original testing, they wrote.
During Read’s trial, Trooper Joseph Paul testified that he conducted forward and rear acceleration braking tests on the SUV and that data from the vehicle was “consistent with” a pedestrian strike.
Paul said he labeled the primary events as A and B. Event A, which occurred first, lasted about 10 seconds, with the SUV traveling at 9.9 miles per hour before slowing down and then increasing to about 6 miles per hour. Paul said it appeared the vehicle was “slowing down and making a U-turn” at that point.
Event B showed the vehicle hitting speeds of more than 24 miles per hour, with the gas pedal pressed down at 74 percent, Paul testified. He said the data show the vehicle “was in drive” and slowed to a stop before backing up.
On cross-examination, defense attorney Alan Jackson noted that Paul had testified that the dent and scratches on Read’s SUV could have been from O’Keefe’s hand.
“Hand and a glass cup,” Paul said.
“Is there any way to scientifically date a scratch?” Jackson asked.
“No,” Paul said. “There’s no way to say that specific date and time.”
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Jackson asked if it’s possible if the SUV scratches predated Jan. 29, 2022.
“You’re being pretty broad on your scratches here,” Paul said.
A request for comment was sent to Read’s attorneys late Tuesday morning.
Separately, her lawyers are scheduled to present oral arguments to the state Supreme Judicial Court on Nov. 6 in an effort to have the charges of murder and leaving the scene dismissed on the grounds that several jurors told them, either directly or through intermediaries, that they’d unanimously voted to acquit Read on those two counts. Legal filings have indicated a majority of jurors were prepared to convict her of the manslaughter charge or one of its lesser included offenses.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report. This breaking news story will be updated when more information is released.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.