By PATRICK WHITTLE, Related Press
The protection within the second trial of Karen Learn rested its case on Wednesday and stated Learn was framed for the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Learn, 45, is accused of fatally hanging O’Keefe together with her SUV and leaving him to die within the snow outdoors one other officer’s dwelling when she dropped him off at a celebration in January 2022 after the 2 had been ingesting. She’s charged with second-degree homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene in Canton, outdoors Boston.
Prosecutors have stated Learn deliberately struck O’Keefe together with her sport utility car and left him to die. Learn’s protection has instructed she was the sufferer of a wide-ranging conspiracy that included planting proof and utilizing her as a handy scapegoat for her boyfriend’s loss of life.
Protection attorneys within the case have accused the prosecution of twisting Learn’s phrases right into a confession she by no means made. The state has pointed to a tv interview by which Learn stated, “I imply, I didn’t assume I ‘hit him’ hit him, however I may I’ve clipped him?”
That’s not a confession however an individual expressing real concern throughout a determined scenario, protection legal professional Alan Jackson has stated.
“That’s an individual making an attempt to make sense of an unexplainable circumstance, a pure concern of a bereaved vital different,” he stated.
A crash professional who testified for the protection stated, primarily based on assessments he carried out, the injury to Learn’s taillight and O’Keefe’s clothes was inconsistent together with her SUV hanging an arm or physique on the velocity described by the prosecution.
Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a former medical expert known as by the protection, stated O’Keefe’s accidents had been certainly per blunt power trauma to the again of the pinnacle, however that his eye wounds weren’t per being hit by the rear of Learn’s SUV. She additionally testified she didn’t assume O’Keefe was hit by the SUV in any respect.
The protection additionally unsuccessfully sought a mistrial earlier within the second trial. Learn’s first trial resulted in a mistrial because of a hung jury. The try for a second mistrial hinged on a protection principle that O’Keefe was crushed inside the house the place the occasion befell, and that he was bitten by a household canine after which left outdoors as a part of a conspiracy by the police that included planting proof towards Learn.
The protection staff tried for a second mistrial after the prosecution identified that no canine DNA was discovered on O’Keefe. The protection stated there had been no point out within the trial about DNA and the canine chunk, and argued that elevating the topic whereas questioning Russell had prejudiced the jury.
Superior Court docket Choose Beverly Cannone stated the trial may proceed.
The protection has additionally tried to point out that police had been biased towards Learn from the beginning and needed to pin O’Keefe’s loss of life on her. Jonathan Diamandis, a pal of Michael Proctor, the lead investigator of Learn’s case, was requested by the protection staff to learn textual content messages that Proctor despatched to associates concerning the investigation.
Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board discovered he despatched sexist and crude textual content messages about Learn to his household and colleagues. His testimony performed a key position within the first trial. Protection attorneys used his textual content messages to try to point out that Proctor was biased and ignored the potential for different suspects.
The subsequent huge step within the case is closing statements from either side. The case will then go to the jury.
Initially Revealed:
