Karen Read Murder Trial: Questionable Witness Testimonies, Prosecution vs. Defense Tactics, Public Uproar
Zone 7 with Sheryl McCollum
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.4 • 696 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2024
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Karen Read, 43, of Mansfield, is accused of second-degree murder and other charges. The prosecution says she hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her vehicle outside of a home in Canton during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking.
Guest Bio and Links:
Judge Ashley Wilcott is a nationally recognized Child Welfare Law Specialist and Juvenile Court Judge with over 20 years of experience as a trial attorney and child welfare specialist. Her life’s work revolves around passionately advocating for and striving to improve the lives of children at risk and youth in the foster care system.
Joshua Schiffer is an attorney providing legal services covering Criminal Defense, Personal Injury. Listeners can learn more about Joshua Schiffer at his website
Resources:
Listen to previous episodes on The Karen Read Murder Trial:
The Karen Read Murder Trial: Killer or Cover Up Murder with Joshua Schiffer
In this episode of Zone 7, Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum, sits down with esteemed guests Judge Ashley Wilcott and defense attorney Joshua Schiffer. The panel dissects the latest on the Karen Read trial, which includes: the questionable witness testimonies, evidence, potential cover-ups, the unprecedented media involvement, and the intensity of the public's reaction to the trial.
Show Notes:
- (0:00) Welcome back to Zone 7 with Crime Scene Investigator, Sheryl McCollum
- (0:15) Background on Karen Reed and John O'Keefe
- (1:25) Sherly introduces guest, Judge Ashely Wilcott and returning guest Joshua Schiffer to the listeners
- (5:00) The intensity of community engagement during this trial
- (8:00) Discussion of evidence at the scene of the crime
- (15:00) “I'm interested for them to get into the personal relationships. Every one of these witnesses has been evasive and or just outright lie about how well they do or do not know the other people involved.” -Joshua Schiffer
- (16:00) Questionable witnesses
- (20:00) Closing thoughts - “Can the case be saved for the Commonwealth?”
- Thanks for listening to another episode! If you’re loving the show and want to help grow the show, please head over to Itunes and leave a rating and review!
---
Sheryl “Mac” McCollum is an Emmy Award winning CSI, a writer for CrimeOnLine, Forensic and Crime Scene Expert for Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, and a CSI for a metro Atlanta Police Department. She is the co-author of the textbook., Cold Case: Pathways to Justice. Sheryl is also the founder and director of the Cold Case Investigative Research Institute, a collaboration between universities and colleges that brings researchers, practitioners, students and the criminal justice community together to advance techniques in solving cold cases and assist families and law enforcement with solvability factors for unsolved homicides, missing persons, and kidnapping cases.
Social Links:
- Email: [email protected]
- Twitter: @ColdCaseTips
- Facebook: @sheryl.mccollum
- Instagram: @officialzone7podcast
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Tonight, we're going to be talking about Karen Reid. |
| 0:11.0 | Those of you that may not know what I'm talking about, January 28, 2020, Karen Reed and |
| 0:17.0 | her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, go out with a group of friends to the waterfall bar. |
| 0:23.1 | Later that evening, Karen drops John off at a Canton home of a Boston police officer, Brian |
| 0:29.2 | Albert. |
| 0:30.8 | John doesn't return home. |
| 0:33.3 | Reed gets panicked. |
| 0:34.9 | She calls two friends. |
| 0:36.1 | They go looking for him. |
| 0:57.6 | Eventually, at 6 o'clock in the morning on January 29, they found him dead in a snowbank out in front of his friend's house. How did John O'Keefe die? Who has lied about it? Who's misrepresented? Who's covered up? Or who just can't plain remember? Police officers are witnesses. There are other witnesses and bystanders and people that are accused. It is difficult |
| 1:04.2 | for me to know who the bad guy is, y'all. This is one of the craziest trials I've ever seen in my life they've got a |
| 1:14.3 | thing called a buffer zone and we'll get back to that something I've never heard of |
| 1:18.3 | but y'all we got two of the best in the business with us tonight to help judge |
| 1:25.0 | Ashley Wilcox nationally recognized child welfare expert. A former juvenile court judge, |
| 1:34.8 | over 20 years experience as a trial attorney and legal analyst. She has devoted her life |
| 1:43.1 | around fighting for children, not just children that are at risk |
| 1:47.5 | and in the system, but all children. |
| 1:50.1 | She's a graduate of Emory University. |
| 1:52.8 | She's the former executive director of Fulton County CASA. |
| 1:56.1 | She had her own law practice. |
| 1:58.4 | She has served as a special assistant attorney general for |
| 2:01.4 | defects with two counties. She was a Cab County Juvenile Court judge. She was also |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in -312 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.