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”You have not paid us anything,” Wolfe told Read attorney Alan Jackson.
Dr. Andrew Rentschler, a biomechanical engineer and accident reconstructionist at ARCCA, testified that if John O’Keefe were struck by Read’s SUV as it moved in reverse at 24 m.p.h. as prosecutors allege, “certainly you’re going to see extensive” wounds, as well as bruising and fractures beyond the superficial abrasions documented on O’Keefe’s right arm.
Rentschler also said the head injury O’Keefe sustained, in the absence of other trauma, “is not” consistent with being struck by a vehicle.
”If there’s enough force to cause a skull fracture then there’s going to certainly be enough force” to cause injuries elsewhere, including on the cervical spine, Rentschler said. Having just the skull fracture, he said, “is inconsistent” with being struck by a taillight, as prosecutors have maintained.
But under cross-examination by prosecutor Adam Lally, Rentschler said he learned after the ARCCA report was completed that O’Keefe’s DNA was found on pieces of broken taillight recovered from his snow-covered body and on the light’s housing unit. Rentschler also acknowledged that he did not review a State Police reconstruction report, which determined that the accelerator on Read’s SUV was about 75 percent depressed when the vehicle shot backward at high speed and allegedly struck O’Keefe, knocking him into the yard.
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Text messages showed Read and O’Keefe had been fighting that day and prosecutors allege that she ran into him intentionally early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Fairview Road home in Canton following a night of bar-hopping and heavy drinking. Witnesses said that Read had nine alcoholic drinks before driving O’Keefe to Fairview Road, later acknowledged she had damaged her taillight, and found O’Keefe’s body through a predawn blizzard before the two women she was with saw anything.
When she did, she repeatedly shouted “I hit him” in the presence of emergency responders, witnesses have testified.
Attorneys for Read say O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, was fatally beaten and possibly attacked by a dog inside the Fairview Road home, where a group of relatives were hosting an afterparty, before his body was planted outside.
Numerous witnesses testified that O’Keefe never went inside and police never searched the home after O’Keefe’s body was found in the front yard near the road.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing personal injury or death.
On Tuesday, another crash reconstruction analyst, Dr. Daniel Wolfe, testified that Read’s SUV had damage to her right taillight, as well as a small dent and paint chips near the bumper.
“The rest was remarkably intact,” Wolfe said, adding that bumper damage would be expected “assuming a pedestrian is positioned in a normal upright position.”
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Wolfe said the damage “was really confined to just the taillight, a very isolated portion of the vehicle.”
On cross-examination, Wolfe told jurors he was unaware that Read had allegedly shouted “I hit him” after O’Keefe’s body was found and did not know that his DNA was found on pieces of broken glass found nearby and that DNA on human hair found on Read’s bumper was consistent with O’Keefe’s DNA profile.
In addition, Wolfe said he was aware that one of O’Keefe’s shoes was found at the scene.
“Shoes can come off in a pedestrian impact, yes,” Wolfe said.
Dr. Frank Sheridan, a retired chief medical examiner in California who was hired by the defense, testified that the patterned cuts and scratches on O’Keefe’s right arm didn’t resemble wounds from a car strike “at all.”
“We don’t have any bruising here,” he said. “We just have” linear abrasions.
Sheridan said he would expect to see “a lot of bruising” or a fracture in the affected area if O’Keefe was struck by a vehicle.
He said he’s “not 100 percent” certain but his “basic impression” was that the arm injuries could have been caused by a dog’s teeth or claws.
”In a sense they’re all consistent with scratch marks,” Sheridan said.
Sheridan also testified that O’Keefe’s head injury was inconsistent with falling on the ground.
”Grass is basically too soft” to cause such an injury, he said. O’Keefe’s injuries, he added, could be consistent with a fight “in a general sense.”
On cross-examination, Sheridan said he agreed with the state medical examiner’s finding that the cause of O’Keefe’s death was blunt force trauma and hypothermia. The manner of death was found to be undetermined, records show.
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Sheridan also testified under cross-examination that he “wasn’t aware” that authorities sent DNA swabs from O’Keefe’s shirt to a California lab, which detected no traces of canine DNA in the samples.
“I must have missed it,” Sheridan said, adding that he did not recall being informed that microscopic pieces of taillight were found in O’Keefe’s shirt, or that pieces of glass were recovered near O’Keefe’s body.
He said he “vaguely” recalled being told O’Keefe had been seen leaving the Waterfall bar in Canton with a co*cktail glass in his hand. O’Keefe left the bar with Read, who drove him to Fairview Road.
Following the testimony, Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors they will hear closing arguments on Tuesday, with each side having an hour to make their final presentation. She will then instruct jurors on the law before they begin deliberating.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.
