Karen Read’s legal team has claimed that a crucial error made by the prosecutor during the trial led to the jury’s decision to acquit her of murder charges. The pivotal moment occurred when prosecutor Hank Brennan inquired about the state of the victim’s sweatshirt, which revealed holes that a forensic analyst had previously identified as being created by a collision. This misstep, according to Read’s defense attorneys, undermined Brennan’s credibility and allowed them to gain an advantage in the courtroom. Read’s attorney David Yannetti told the Canadian lawyer and podcaster Ian Runkle over the weekend that he believed Brennan had lost the case due to this error.
Brennan, who was acting as the special prosecutor in the case, initially suggested that the holes in the victim’s sweatshirt could have been caused by a collision, but later admitted to the judge that he had made a mistake. This error was significant enough to impact the jury’s perception of the prosecution’s case, as Read’s attorneys argued that Brennan had promised something and then failed to deliver. Jurors were later instructed that the holes in the sweatshirt did not come from the collision as Brennan had suggested, but rather from the forensic analysts.
Read was found not guilty of murder, manslaughter, and fleeing the scene of a deadly crash, but was found guilty of only a drunken driving charge, which will result in her serving a year of probation. Her attorneys stated that the charges were unjust and unwarranted, with one of them, Robert Alessi, saying,