'Cannon' Test Boosts Karen Read's Defense with Evidence of Taillight Damage from Thrown Bar Glass
ARCCA expert Daniel Wolfe testifies that damage to Karen Read's taillight aligns with a thrown glass, fueling her murder retrial.
The legal battle for Karen Read entered a pivotal stage on Friday as her defense team neared the conclusion of its case, bringing crash reconstruction expert Dr. Daniel Wolfe to testify on the 28th day of her retrial. Read, 45, is facing murder and related charges in connection with the death of her former partner, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, whose body was found outside during a blizzard in January 2022.
Dr. Wolfe, who serves as the director of accident reconstruction at ARCCA, took the stand to describe a series of scientific simulations designed to challenge the prosecution's theory that Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV. Wolfe explained that his team built a specialized "cannon" to hurl a cocktail glass at a taillight matching Read's vehicle, mimicking certain elements of the alleged crime. According to Wolfe, their tests showed that damage similar to Read’s SUV could occur if a drinking glass was thrown at speeds of approximately 31 to 37 miles per hour.
“From the 37 mile per hour test, we are getting damage that’s generally consistent,” Wolfe testified, referencing missing portions of the outer lens, damage to the underlying diffuser, and fracturing on the backside of the assembly. He emphasized that these lab-induced damages closely matched those observed on Read’s actual taillight, suggesting that such evidence could be explained without a collision between the SUV and O’Keefe.
Further challenging the prosecution’s account, Wolfe discussed additional ARCCA experiments that tested whether an impact between the taillight and the back of O’Keefe’s head could have caused his fatal skull fracture. At a simulated speed of 15 mph, the impact caused excessive damage to the taillight but failed to generate enough force to fracture a human skull, casting doubt on the theory that a vehicular strike inflicted O’Keefe’s injuries.
Prosecutors maintain that Read struck O’Keefe with her 2021 Lexus SUV, leaving him fatally wounded in the snow and driving away. The defense, however, has consistently denied this allegation, offering alternative explanations for O’Keefe’s injuries, including a possible dog bite or a confrontation with another individual around the time of his death.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan attempted—unsuccessfully—to prevent Dr. Wolfe and his colleague, Dr. Andrew Renstchler, from presenting their expert testimony at trial. Wolfe had previously testified during Read’s first trial, which resulted in a hung jury, that the damage to the SUV did not support the prosecution's collision scenario.
Outside the courthouse on Wednesday, Karen Read indicated that her defense may rest its case early next week. If convicted, she faces the possibility of a life sentence. As testimony draws to a close, the retrial—which has featured high-stakes expert analysis and sharply conflicting accounts of what happened the night O’Keefe died—remains intensely watched by both the local community and the wider public.
