Defense Strikes Back: No Crash, No Crime? | Karen Read Trial Day 24

Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

True Crime

4.6 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 30 May 2025

⏱️ 9 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Karen Read’s defense team isn’t pulling any punches. Their first expert says there’s zero evidence her SUV ever struck John O’Keefe — not that night, not ever. And just as the dust started to settle, a group text involving Trooper Proctor sparked a fierce battle over bias, misconduct, and whether the lead investigator himself should take the stand. In this episode of Drop Dead Serious, Ashleigh Banfield breaks down day 24 of Karen's Read's trial.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, I'm Ashley Banfield and this is Drop Dead Serious. It is day 24 in the Karen Reed trial.
0:10.7	And today, it was finally time for the defense to take the wheel. Their first witness, a crash reconstruction expert named Matt DeSogra. He's a licensed professional
0:23.4	engineer who's worked with everything from infotainment systems to something called
0:27.9	EDR black boxes. And this expert told the jury that Karen's SUV did not hit anyone, not on
0:37.0	the night in question. Not ever. But the real fireworks came later
0:42.1	when a surprise witness, who was included on a group text with former trooper Michael Proctor
0:48.7	set off a battle over potential bias and whether Michael Proctor's own words could end up in front of this jury.
0:56.7	This case has turned a corner, y'all, and if today was any sign of what's ahead, the gloves
1:02.4	are coming off. So let's rewind. Back to the beginning of the day. Before Karen's lawyers even
1:09.3	stood up to begin her case, they threw a proverbial
1:13.3	Hail Mary. They asked the judge to toss the case out completely. Like, that's it. Game over. Let's go
1:20.4	home. They argued that the prosecution had failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime
1:26.0	had even occurred. It's something called, quote,
1:29.7	required finding of not guilty. And it is not unusual for defense attorneys to ask for something
1:34.8	like this during a trial. And Karen's lead attorney, Alan Jackson, made it crystal clear
1:40.0	why he felt their motion had merit. He told the court that in this case, there was no video,
1:47.4	there were no eyewitnesses, and there was no clear evidence that Karen Reed ever struck John O'Keefe
1:54.0	with her SUV. He said, all that exists in this case is, quote, circumstantial technical data, quote, and in his words,
2:02.9	quote, a vindictive prosecution, end quote. But the judge, Judge Beverly Canoni, she wasn't biting.
2:10.8	She denied the motion something also that is not unusual. But hey, if you're a defense lawyer,
2:16.2	you got to throw every piece of spaghetti at
2:18.3	that fridge. You got to cross your fingers that something will stick. And I have seen cases
	...

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