
Karen Read murder case prosecutor adds defense team to witness list
Prosecutors want to put murder defendant Karen Read’s defense team on the stand, according to their updated witness list.
The new list submitted Thursday includes a total of 91 witnesses and ends with a new section called “Counsel for Defendant” that lists Read’s three trial attorneys: Alan Jackson, Elizabeth Little and David Yannetti. The original list released last week had 86 total names.
“This is a hard-fought fight and the lawyers on both sides are getting a little rough,” Jack Lu, a retired state superior court judge who is an adjunct faculty member of both Boston College and UMass Lowell, told the Herald.
He said adding trial team lawyers to a prospective witness list is “not unheard of” but he’s not sure he ever encountered it in his judicial career.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan adding his trial opponents to the list says “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” Lu said.
“This case is unbelievable and always just one more thing,” he added. “It shows that Brennan plays to win … (and) is keeping his options open.”
Lu said the chance of Brennan actually calling them is “quite low.”
The updated witness list came Thursday, which also featured another all-day pretrial hearing that showed both sides’ thinning patience with one another.
“I suggest that we take the personal attacks completely out of this … both sides.,” Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly J. Cannone said just before the lunch break. “Leave all the attacks, all the falsehoods, leave it all the aside. Let’s focus on the motions.”