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Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

Weaponized Emotion: Karen Read’s Public Persona vs. What the Evidence Shows

Hidden Killers With Tony Brueski | True Crime News & Commentary

True Crime Today

True Crime, News, News Commentary

3791 Ratings

🗓️ 27 May 2025

⏱️ 15 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Weaponized Emotion: Karen Read’s Public Persona vs. What the Evidence Shows

In this gripping conversation with psychotherapist Shavaun Scott, we examine one of the most debated aspects of the Karen Read case: her emotional presentation.

Karen Read has cried in court. She’s collapsed in the arms of supporters. She’s publicly mourned and passionately declared her innocence. But the digital evidence — the timeline, the taillight fragments, the iPhone data — tells a different story. So how do we reconcile the two?

Shavaun walks us through the concept of weaponized emotion — the use of tears, distress, and vulnerability to sway public perception or gain sympathy. We explore the psychological mechanics of performance: when is emotional expression authentic, and when is it strategically employed? Is Karen Read showing genuine trauma, or projecting an image to maintain control over the narrative?

We also dig into gender dynamics in courtroom psychology — how women are often given emotional leeway that male defendants wouldn’t receive — and how this can complicate the search for objective truth in emotional trials.

If you’ve ever felt conflicted between how someone acts emotionally and what the evidence actually says, this episode will give you the clinical insight to separate performance from reality.

#KarenRead #KarenReadTrial #ShavaunScott #WeaponizedEmotion #TrueCrimeAnalysis #CourtroomPsychology #EmotionalManipulation #BehavioralAnalysis #KarenReadPersona #HiddenKillers
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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is the Hidden Killers podcast with Tony Bruske and continuing coverage of the case against

0:06.1

Karen Reed. We're going to dive more into the mind behind the crime on this edition of the program

0:14.0

with Chivon Scott, psychotherapist and author, and her new book is out, Nightbird. You can get it on

0:20.0

Amazon or wherever you get books,

0:21.9

or you can go request it from your local bookstore or wherever you want. It's very good.

0:27.7

It's quite a story that you have to tell in this book. I've just, just begun getting into it,

0:35.2

and I need more time in my day.

0:39.3

But you also gave me the audiobook, too.

0:41.3

So you can get the audiobook out there as well,

0:43.7

depending on what your schedule is like, but do check that out.

0:46.4

So there's a lot in this.

0:48.4

We're obviously we're not diagnosing Karen Reed.

0:49.2

We can't do that.

0:55.8

This is just speculation on a lot of different angles of what may be going on in this mind.

1:00.8

Because I think once you kind of get an understanding of maybe what's going on behind those statements, behind those thoughts, behind those actions, you can kind of, it makes more sense.

1:05.8

Let's start off with what happened, what this whole case is about.

1:10.8

John O'Keefe being struck by a vehicle.

1:13.9

The allegation is Karen Reed is the one that struck him. Vehicle is the one that says it struck

1:20.5

him at the precise moment when his phone stopped working. So let's operate on the assumption that

1:26.8

this actually did happen and that

1:29.5

Karen, in fact, backed it up. The big question is, did she do it with rage, with a lot of passion

1:38.5

because she was angry at John? Or was this simply just an accident? She hit reverse and then she went in it

...

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