Karen Learn trial nears finish with protection knowledgeable difficult car strike concept

[ad_1] Karen Learn says she will not testify in her personal protection Homicide suspect Karen Learn instructed reporters exterior a Massachusetts courthouse Tuesday that she will not take the stand in her retrial within the loss of life of former boyfriend John O'Keefe, a Boston police officer. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)

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Karen Learn’s protection saved her strongest witness for final, specialists inform Fox Information Digital, bringing in Dr. Andrew Rentschler to attempt to debunk the prosecution’s claims about how her boyfriend, Boston cop John O’Keefe, died.

Jurors have the time off Thursday and can start deliberations after receiving directions from the decide and listening to closing arguments Friday.

Learn, 45, is accused of hitting O’Keefe, 46, together with her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die on the bottom with a cranium fracture throughout a blizzard.

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Protection witness Andrew Rentschler of ARCCA on the stand through the Karen Learn retrial in Norfolk Superior Court docket, Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger through AP, Pool)

Her protection denies that her car ever struck O’Keefe, and Rentschler spent two days on the stand explaining how he got here to the conclusion that O’Keefe’s accidents had been inconsistent with a car strike on a pedestrian.

"I don't imagine that damage is in step with being struck by an SUV at roughly 24 miles an hour," he testified.

O’Keefe had no damaged bones on his proper arm, solely superficial abrasions, he testified. Based mostly on his testing at ARCCA, a crash reconstruction agency, he mentioned that the arm ought to have sustained extra severe injury.

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Rentschler mentioned he didn't imagine Learn's SUV may have struck O'Keefe based mostly on his accidents and ARCCA testing.

However particular prosecutor Hank Brennan grilled him on cross-examination, questioning how thorough his testing was and forcing him to concede that he didn't consider shattered items of taillight on the bottom close to O'Keefe and embedded in his garments.

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Protection legal professional Alan Jackson questions witness Andrew Rentschler of ARCCA an accident reconstruction agency through the Karen Learn retrial in Norfolk Superior Court docket, Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger through AP, Pool)

"The prosecutor will certainly zero-in on this in closing," mentioned David Gelman, a Philadelphia-area prison protection legal professional and former prosecutor. "The closings can be key for each events now. Brennan and [defense attorney Alan] Jackson are each sturdy personalities, so that is going to be massive."

Brennan additionally revealed Wednesday afternoon that he is not going to name a rebuttal witness to the stand earlier than the case goes to jurors.

In what may boil all the way down to a so-called battle of the specialists, authorized analysts say Rentschler was a stable alternative to shut out the case.

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Karen Learn arrives at Norfolk County Superior Court docket Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Dedham Mass. Learn is charged with killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by deliberately driving her SUV into him. (David McGlynn for Fox Information Digital)

"He methodically defined why the DA’s concept of an SUV-pedestrian strike does not maintain up," mentioned Mark Bederow, the New York Metropolis-based legal professional representing Learn ally and Canton blogger Aidan Kearney. "The dearth of arm accidents, the shortage of holes within the hoodie, which does not come near corresponding with the quantity abrasions, the ultimate location of John O’Keefe not making sense."

He argued that Rentschler's exhibiting may have prompted Brennan to "wave the white flag" relatively than name Dr. Judson Welcher again to the stand for rebuttal.

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Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official headshot. O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Reed, is presently on trial for homicide after he was discovered useless exterior of a Massachusetts house in January 2022. (Boston Police Division)

Welcher drew the alternative conclusion from Rentschler – testifying that in his opinion, Learn's SUV clipped O'Keefe with a glancing blow, knocking him off-balance earlier than he fell and cracked his cranium.

"The protection couldn't have completed the trial any stronger than they did," Bederow mentioned.

Jack Lu, a retired Massachusetts decide and Boston Faculty regulation professor, mentioned having Rentschler go final was each a normal technique and a very good one.

Karen Learn sits together with her attorneys David Yannetti and Robert Alessi as they hearken to prosecutor Hank Brennan throughout her retrial, Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald through AP, Pool)

"What stood out is that he was steadfast that Dr. Welcher’s testimony about simulating the contact was fallacious. Counterpoint: so was Rentschler’s," Lu instructed Fox Information Digital.

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He mentioned each are a part of a profit-based consulting trade and at factors, their testing got here throughout as absurd.

"You might have a disembodied arm hitting a Lexus, versus a grease-painted knowledgeable getting hit at low velocity by a Lexus," he mentioned.

Cannone gave jurors the time off Thursday so the edges can maintain a charging convention. The panel returns Friday for jury directions and shutting arguments.