defense dog bite expert faces grilling from prosecutors

“I did not know that,” Russell said.

“When’s the first time you learned of that?” Brennan asked.

“Right now,” Russell said.

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 that she drunkenly backed her SUV into O’Keefe 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 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 planted on the front lawn.

Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury in July, and her retrial is scheduled to begin in April. She remains free on bail.

On Tuesday, Russell restated her opinion that the linear pattern of scratches and abrasions on O’Keefe’s right arm came from a dog, based on her decades of experience treating dog bite victims in the emergency room.

The fact that shards of taillight were found in O’Keefe’s sweater doesn’t change her opinion that “those injuries, those abrasions” were caused by a dog bite, she said.

“How do you think the shards of taillight got into his sweater?” Brennan asked.

“They could have got into the sweater from an accident, correct,” Russell said.

“From an impact with the taillight, yes?” Brennan continued.

“Could be,” Russell said.

Read’s lawyers alleged during the first trial that O’Keefe’s clothing and other key pieces of evidence were tampered with.

On Tuesday, Brennan also brought up statements he said Read made to Boston Magazine; prosecutors recently received off-the-record material from the magazine’s interviews with Read pursuant to a court order.

“Would it help you if you knew she told Boston Magazine that maybe John hit the back of her car telling her to stop, and that she ran over his foot or she clipped him in the knee, and in his drunkenness he passed out?” Brennan said.

“It wouldn’t help, because those wounds were caused by a dog,” Russell said.

The hearing is ongoing.

Separately, the state Supreme Judicial Court is weighing a defense request to drop the murder and leaving the scene counts, on the grounds that multiple jurors have indicated, either directly or through intermediaries, that the jury unanimously voted to acquit her of those charges and remained deadlocked on manslaughter.

It’s not clear when the SJC will rule.

Read also faces a wrongful death lawsuit brought by O’Keefe’s family in Plymouth Superior Court.

This story will be updated.

Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected].