Last Witness? Prosecution Accident Reconstruction Expert Testifies | Case Brief

The Emily Show

Baker Media, LLC.

True Crime, Entertainment News, News

4.9 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Watch the full coverage of the live stream on The Emily D Baker YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/live/3DAtOqbCSh0

Day 21 of the Karen Read Retrial happened on May 27, 2025. Week six of evidence included a voir dire of Dr. Welcher, the Commonwealth's accident reconstructionist. Concerns were raised about updated slides and changes to the presentation at the direction of Special Prosecutor, Hank Brennan, without informing the defense. Dr. Welcher also mentioned being "inundated" with emails about issues with Burgess' CV but he was told by the court not to read or discuss them.

The accident reconstructionist focused on the "trigger event," during a three point turn and its connection to Ian Whiffin's last point of contact. There was also discussion of variance, the three-point turn of the Lexus, and the backing event. Dr. Welcher analyzed the Lexus's tech stream data, which records data before and after a trigger event, such as reversing and accelerating. The data showed the backing event occurred about 8 minutes after the three-point turn. There are discrepancies and confusing aspects of Dr. Welcher's testimony and PowerPoint slides.

He also revealed that the Lexus's tires were spinning and slipping during the backing event, and the car traveled a total of 87 feet. Dr. Welcher ultimately concluded that the Lexus struck John O'Keefe, which led to objections and a sidebar discussion. Dr. Dr. Welcher struggled to provide exact details, such as the point of impact or speed, and that many of his findings showed “results that were all over the map”. He also mentions he is only certain that damage to Karen Read's tail light didn't come from John O'Keefe's Chevy.

Though this expert's testimony was tedious and disorganized, it did provided many areas doubt which is a win for the defense. Direct Examination will continue on Day 22.

RESOURCES

What You Need to Know About the Retrial - https://youtu.be/89Jpa8vz1RQ

Karen Read Retrial Playlist - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsbUyvZas7gKOJlfL__9F027hlETVU-vo

Karen Read Trial - 2024 - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsbUyvZas7gKUeCUzApgsEuQRXu5IXeTS

This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis:

Spotify Ad Analytics - https://www.spotify.com/us/legal/ad-analytics-privacy-policy/
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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome back. It's time for a case brief, keeping you in the loop with the cases you care about most.
0:04.0	Just more briefly. If you want the full coverage, it's linked in the description below.
0:07.7	But for now, let's get into it.
0:09.6	It is day 21. It is week six of evidence in the Karen Reed case.
0:17.5	We have just had a five-day break from court they were dark on thursday they were dark
0:22.8	friday for the holiday saturday sunday for the weekend monday for memorial day it is tuesday may
0:28.3	27th 2025 week six day 21 they came into court this morning went a sidebar went on a break, then came back with a voir
0:40.4	dear outside the presence of the jury briefly of Mr. slash doctor, Welcher from Aperture,
0:50.7	the company that Burgess is from. This might be the Commonwealth's last witness.
0:57.8	I actually suspect that it is.
1:00.0	This is the accident reconstructionist for the Commonwealth.
1:05.5	And unless he was freaking heated during this voir dire,
1:17.6	he says that Welcher has updated his slides in the last few days. He said that he didn't update those slides based on a conversation with Burgess, but based on Burgess's report,
1:24.6	and said verbatim, the updated slides bring the trigger event,
1:32.3	1162-2, quote, closer in time to Ian Wiffin's last point of contact. Well, we knew that's where
1:42.0	the Commonwealth was going with that when we saw the updates
1:44.9	from Burgess saying that trigger event must have happened at a different time. And this expert
1:51.7	said the same thing that Burgess said. They were still within those 60-second variants that we
1:58.0	allowed for. This just narrows the time. It brings it closer in time.
2:01.6	It narrows down that 60 second variance.
2:04.6	And then he asked, who did you talk to about it?
2:07.6	Well, I talked to Mr. Brannon.
	...

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