Prosecutors do not “explain why a veterinarian, forensic odontologist, or person trained in ‘canine’ behavior would be more qualified than Dr. Russell to opine on this topic,” Read’s lawyers wrote. “It is common sense that when people get bit by a dog or other large animal, they go to the emergency department. They don’t go to a veterinarian; they don’t go to a forensic odontologist; and they don’t go to a so-called canine behavior person.”
A hearing on a number of pending motions, including the one pertaining to Russell, is scheduled for Thursday.
Read’s lawyers had also requested that Judge Beverly Cannone not hold an evidentiary hearing on the prosecution’s motion related to Russell, but Cannone denied the request.
Read, 44, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of personal injury resulting in death. Prosecutors allege she drunkenly backed her SUV into O’Keefe, a Boston police officer she was dating, early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Canton residence 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 and possibly attacked by the family German Shepherd before his body was placed on the front lawn.
At Read’s first trial, Russell told jurors that scratch marks on O’Keefe’s arm appeared to come from a large dog. That trial ended in a hung jury in July. Her retrial is scheduled for April, and she remains free on bail.
In last week’s motion, prosecutors said Russell’s experience with dog bites was well in the past.
“Most of Dr. Russell’s canine experience was from 28 years ago and focused on law enforcement canines in a 1996 article: ‘Managing Law Enforcement (K-9) Dog Bites in the Emergency Department,’” prosecutors wrote. “During her trial testimony, Dr. Russell conceded there was no law enforcement canine involved and, in her experience, a bite and hold injury that law enforcement canines are trained to do would appear different than a domestic canine and arguably vastly different from the victim’s minor abrasions, which were isolated to one area of his forearm.”
In their response, Read’s lawyers disputed the government’s characterization of her experience.
“Dr. Russell’s experience with dog-induced human wounds spans her entire 30-plus-year career as an emergency physician and predominantly concerns civilian dogs in the community,” they wrote. “That Dr. Russell also treated and wrote peer-reviewed articles about law enforcement dog bites only bolsters her experience — she has seen both types of injuries and knows the differences between them.”
Also Tuesday, prosecutors filed another motion seeking an order for the defense to turn over information on two experts retained by the federal government who testified in Read’s first trial.
The experts from ARCCA, an engineering consulting firm, were hired by federal prosecutors in Boston, who convened a separate grand jury to investigate the state law enforcement handling of the Read case.
No one has been charged with any federal crimes in connection with the matter.
The ACCRA experts testified that O’Keefe’s injuries and some forensic evidence was inconsistent with being struck by a vehicle, and prosecutors said they want Read’s lawyers to provide information about the two analysts, Andrew Rentschler and Daniel Wolfe.
The motion said prosecutors are seeking “all communications between the US Attorney’s Office and any member of the defense team, as it pertains to the expert testimony in this case, including dates and substance of phone calls, copies of any written correspondence, dates of any strategy meetings, and list of materials received from the United States Attorney’s Office.”
Separately, the state Supreme Judicial Court is weighing a request from Read’s lawyers to drop the murder and leaving the scene counts, on the grounds that multiple jurors told them, either directly or through intermediaries, that the jury unanimously acquitted on those counts and remained deadlocked only on the manslaughter charge. It’s not clear when the SJC will rule.
Read also faces a wrongful death lawsuit filed by O’Keefe’s family in Plymouth Superior Court.
Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.
Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected].
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