A State Police lab analyst told jurors in the Karen Read trial on Wednesday that pieces of plastic found at the crime scene matched the damaged taillight of her SUV.
Red plastic found on John O’Keefe’s clothes was “consistent” with the taillight of Read’s SUV, analyst Christina Hanley testified.
She also testified that six pieces of glass investigators found at the scene on Fairview Road in Canton matched a broken cocktail glass recovered there.
Hanley told prosecutor Adam Lally that “upon examining and comparing” five additional glass pieces recovered from the bumper of Read’s SUV, she used two larger pieces for comparison, and “there was no physical match” to the drinking glass.
Viewed under a microscope, however, one of those pieces appeared “consistent” with another piece of glass found at the scene, Hanley said.
Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder for allegedly backing her Lexus SUV in a drunken rage into O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night of bar hopping.
Her lawyers say she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the home, owned at the time by a fellow Boston officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German shepherd before his body was planted on the lawn.
Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury in July, and she remains free on bail.
On cross-examination, Read attorney Alan Jackson asked Hanley if she found blood, skin, or other biological material on any of the glass or plastic she tested.
Hanley said biological material isn’t her area of expertise, but that she didn’t note anything “that would be consistent with that.”
Jackson put up a slide on the monitor indicating that bumper piece E, which Hanley said was consistent with another glass piece at the scene, was recovered by State Police investigator Michael Proctor, who was fired after he was forced during the first trial to read crude and misogynistic texts he sent about Read to friends and co-workers.
Read’s lawyers have alleged that Proctor tampered with Read’s SUV at the Canton police garage.
Judge Beverly J. Cannone sustained a defense objection when Lally asked Hanley if she knew the bumper glass “was recovered by [State Police analyst] Ms. Maureen Hartnett from your lab” on Feb. 1, 2022.
Hartnett previously testified that pieces of apparent glass were “resting on the bumper,” as opposed to being embedded there, when she processed Read’s SUV that day at the Canton garage.
Also Wednesday, prosecutors called one of their expert witnesses, Dr. Aizik Wolf, a neurologist who has treated many severe head and brain injuries and written widely on the subject.
Wolf told prosecutor Hank Brennan that O’Keefe had sustained “a classic blunt trauma injury” to his head.
“The only way he could get this kind of an injury was to fall backward, hit the back of his head, and then the resulting energy forces [enter] into his brain and into the base of his skull,” he said.
Wolf said he has seen similar injuries of patients who fall on hard ground.
“Can someone suffer this type of injury simply by falling backward?’ Brennan asked.
“Absolutely,” Wolf said.
Read attorney Robert Alessi asked if a separate cut to O’Keefe’s eyelid would be caused by a “direct application of force” to the area, and Wolf said it was possible.
“This injury is unrelated to any of what you’ve been describing — the fall backward,” Alessi said. “This injury has nothing to do with that, correct?”
”Correct," Wolf said.
Testimony was delayed Wednesday morning while Cannone spoke to each of the 18 jurors individually at sidebar to address what she described as an “issue.”
Cannone did not elaborate but reminded jurors after the lengthy interlude not to discuss the case with anyone ahead of deliberations.
Testimony resumes Tuesday following the holiday weekend.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.