- 6/19/2025
"It was like a sporting event"-
Ted Daniel of Boston 25 joins!- to discuss the Karen Read trial and verdict
Was Daniel surprised with how many people were there? How much time has Daniel put in covering the trial?
Wiggy: "Do you feel like- the publicity of this case, helped her to eventually being found not guilty?"
Curtis: "(one key moment) that led to the jury finding Karen Read not guilty?"
Ted Daniel of Boston 25 joins!- to discuss the Karen Read trial and verdict
Was Daniel surprised with how many people were there? How much time has Daniel put in covering the trial?
Wiggy: "Do you feel like- the publicity of this case, helped her to eventually being found not guilty?"
Curtis: "(one key moment) that led to the jury finding Karen Read not guilty?"
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NewsTranscript
00:00Joining us now after the verdict in the Karen Reid trial is our friend Ted Daniel of Fox 25, Boston 25.
00:11Ted, good morning.
00:12Good morning.
00:13What a day.
00:14Unbelievable.
00:16How much time over both of these trials would you say you gave to covering it, watching and being there, would you guess?
00:26Months, I'm assuming, right?
00:27Yeah, it's probably been my life for two and a half years.
00:32I've never, you know, I've covered some other big cases, but this one, the lawyering was so intense, you know, with all the motions.
00:39There's like new developments every single day, and you could not sleep on this case at all because if you did, something would pop and you would miss it.
00:47So as much as I enjoy the people at the Norfolk County Superior Courthouse, I am certainly happy not to be driving there this morning.
00:57Were you surprised, we were talking about this earlier, both on and off the air in our meeting this morning, were you surprised by how many people were there for a criminal trial in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts yesterday outside?
01:14It was like a sporting event.
01:17When I was in the courthouse, when the verdict was being read, you could hear the cheers loud and clear in the courtroom.
01:27And, you know, there were restrictions about, you know, people's behavior outside the courtroom.
01:34And, you know, at the end of the case, all that goes out the window and people just absolutely erupted.
01:41It was surreal seeing something like that.
01:43And then, you know, as she walked out the front door, that's when it got the loudest.
01:49Ted, when it comes to the jury, being in that courtroom, I just can't imagine being a jury member as it's being read.
01:57What was the tone?
01:58What were the facial expressions of all of them?
02:00Did they all seem like they were on the same page?
02:02Because, of course, they gave a verdict, then they didn't give a verdict, and then they finally did.
02:08Yeah.
02:09So I got screwed the last week of the trial.
02:12I did not make – I was in the courthouse getting the direct fee, but I was not in the courtroom when the verdict was read.
02:19So that was super disappointing to me because, you know, I covered the case, and there were some, you know, entities that really didn't cover it at all,
02:28but put their name in this sort of randomizer list, and they got the spots.
02:34So it is what it is, you know.
02:37But, I mean, that's the first time I've seen Karen read.
02:41I know she shed some tears in one of those documentaries, but that's the first time I think I've seen sort of emotion from her in a courtroom.
02:51And there's been a lot of sort of dramatic events since this all began, and she was wiping tears and hugging her attorney.
02:59So, yeah, you know, the jury, I would imagine, more than anyone, are probably happy to be waking up not going into the courthouse this morning
03:09because they had a huge responsibility.
03:12Ted, you said you've been to a bunch of cases and everything.
03:15One of the things that we kind of talked about that I feel like I wasn't into it as much as Greg and Courtney was,
03:21but do you feel like that the public presence, the publicity of this case helped her to eventually being found not guilty?
03:30I think the answer to that is probably yes.
03:36I mean, the jury, when they were brought in, they were asked, hey, we know that you might have heard about this case,
03:43but can you put whatever you heard aside and listen to the evidence in the courtroom and make that decision?
03:49But, yeah, I'm assuming that there were people on that jury who probably knew about some of the, you know,
03:55strange things that had occurred and the questions that were being raised.
03:59But I also think that the defense did an amazing job.
04:03I mean, this time around was a little different than the first trial,
04:06and they really focused on sort of the reasonable doubt aspect of this case
04:11and, you know, that there was no collision from what, you know, the defense told the jury over and over again,
04:18and I think that was super effective.
04:20Ted, I'm just curious what you think the key moment, if you had to pick one,
04:26that led to the jury finding Karen Reed not guilty of the two main charges?
04:33I would imagine, I would suspect it may have to do with John's injuries.
04:39The fact that, you know, John O'Keefe had a serious skull fracture, head wound,
04:44and that's what took his life, but he did not have broken arms.
04:47He did not have, you know, broken legs.
04:51And this time we saw x-rays.
04:54Those x-rays did not exist in the first trial.
04:57They were taken by the medical examiner's office, and the jury got to see that.
05:02And this time around, you know the ARCA guys, the two crash reconstructionists the defense hired?
05:08Crash daddies.
05:08Oh, yeah, we know them.
05:09Yeah, Courtney loves them.
05:11You know them well.
05:12Yeah, you know, these guys are, you know, sort of the cream of the crop.
05:17And especially Andrew Rentschler, the second one who testified, Brennan really, you know, went after him and his conclusions.
05:27But Rentschler was so effective because every, you know, almost every single question that he answered, he kind of ended,
05:34well, it doesn't matter because there was no collision.
05:38And he kept saying it over and over again.
05:41And, you know, when you look at, okay, this is a person who did, you know, all these tests,
05:46and they showed the test, the crash test, and they're saying we can't replicate what the prosecution says happened here.
05:54And I would, you know, if any juror wants to speak, hit me up, get in touch with me.
06:01But I'd love to hear, you know, what were the other things that they may have thought that really sealed the deal for them.
06:08Ted, what happens now?
06:09What does the Commonwealth do now?
06:11Do they open an investigation to figure out, you know, if something else did happen to John O'Keefe and what that was?
06:18Not a chance in hell.
06:19No, no, the Commonwealth is all in on Karen Reed doing this and that this was the incorrect verdict.
06:27No, they will never, there will never be another investigation by the state.
06:34And there's the civil case, of course, the O'Keefe family has sued Karen Reed for wrongful death, for John's death.
06:41So she has to face that.
06:44And it's sort of, you know, civil court's a different animal.
06:46So, you know, she may, there's possibility that she may have culpability there.
06:51But, you know, as for the, her criminal troubles in, in, on this case, you know, she's done.
06:58They can never try her again on these charges.
07:02So I think it just, it just ends.
07:05It becomes a cold case and that the family of Officer O'Keefe will probably never get the answers to what really happened.
07:13Well, I mean, they're, they're absolutely convinced that Karen Reed did this.
07:19So I think that, that it's not like they're, they're coming out and saying, you know, well, we need to, we need to open this, reopen this.
07:27No, they, they just feel in their mind that the jury did not return the right verdict.
07:33Okay.
07:35How long until we get a film, like a feature film?
07:40And who would you guess plays you, Ted Daniel?
07:48That's a good question.
07:49I, I, I, I would imagine, I mean, Karen Reed's got some serious bills to pay, right?
07:53Yeah.
07:53She, she, uh, I think she told me that she was about, you know, 5 million in on legal fees.
08:00Yeah.
08:01I know they had raised a million.
08:03So.
08:04Yeah.
08:04I just heard, I just heard that excuse from Alan Jackson the last five minutes during the break in here.
08:09So, yes.
08:10So I, I would imagine she's going to do something, whether it be a book, uh, you know, whether it's some sort of documentary or something that will have her sort of stamp and her involvement in it.
08:21Um, but yeah, no, this is, you know, Hollywood couldn't create this script.
08:27Yeah.
08:27Wyatt Russell could play him.
08:29He kind of looks, I went to his IG, uh, his IG.
08:32Could play Ted Daniel.
08:34Yeah.
08:34Wyatt Russell.
08:35Who is that?
08:36Wyatt Russell.
08:36That's Kurt Russell's son.
08:38Oh.
08:38Yes.
08:39He was in the, uh, new Avengers movie that we just saw.
08:42Thunderbolts.
08:43Okay.
08:44He was.
08:44I got to look up, but he better be good looking.
08:47Yeah.
08:48I mean, he's.
08:48I mean.
08:49Well, when he gets uncomfortable, he doesn't put sunscreen on.
08:51He's a great actor too.
08:53Like the defense that much.
08:55And I, I kind of get, you know, remember that they came swinging at her sort of as the infancy of, of, of being in her courtroom saying that she was conflicted with having, you know, connections to people on the other side.
09:08Um, so yeah, I, um, I, I, I think that she certainly made a name for herself in Massachusetts.
09:15Yeah.
09:16Ted, is there going to be another documentary where their documentary camera is following this trial around?
09:21I, there were a lot of cameras yesterday, but.
09:23Um, yeah, so there's a British company.
09:27There's a British, uh, film company that's, uh, working with Netflix.
09:31Oh.
09:32So they, um, have been sort of, you know, I think they began about seven or eight months ago, um, getting everything together and they've been meeting with different people.
09:44And yeah, they were, they've been on, they were on the ground for the last couple of weeks outside the courthouse.
09:50So there will be one on, on Netflix, um, that that's in the works now.
09:57And, uh, I think they're still trying to, I know they have a lot of people kind of locked up to do interviews with, but I think they're still working to get, uh, more people from the defense.
10:07When you say there will never, whatever you said, there'll never be anything like it.
10:12Is there anything when it comes to stories that you've covered, uh, in a considerable amount of time, is there anything that's close?
10:20I mean, Hernandez, Aaron Hernandez was kind of close.
10:23I think that the national attention on that was pretty big, but that was, you know, pretty cut and dry.
10:29Um, at least the one that was down in fall river is his first case, you know, and, and there wasn't people outside the courtroom.
10:37I'm cheering for Aaron Hernandez.
10:39So, I mean, just when you, when you look at the totality of everything that happened here and how it all unfolded over, over the years and, you know, new stuff would pop up and interesting stuff.
10:53I, I, I don't know.
10:55I honestly, you know, I'm, I'm, you know, I still got, I got college, uh, to pay for, uh, for a daughter.
11:02So I'm not getting that anytime soon, but I, I think that, you know, I'm not sure if I'll see, I'll see something like this again.
11:10Yeah.
11:11I'm guessing that there are some, this morning, there are some fan addicts who are wondering what they're going to watch all day long today.
11:19I certainly am.
11:20They're going to do, they may have to go to work or, or interact with other human beings.
11:25I was on random people's Tik TOK pages, watching their live stream of outside the courthouse.
11:30They know nothing.
11:31Like they know just as much as I know, but I'm watching their stream.
11:34It was nuts.
11:37There's so many of them.
11:39Take them a while to recover, Ted.
11:40All right.
11:41Um, and then the civil case, when will, uh, when is your guess at when that ends up going to court?
11:48That takes a while, right?
11:50Yeah.
11:50So, I mean, they're already in court and the, the judge, um, had put a sort of a stay on everything, uh, while the criminal trial was going on.
12:00So now that the criminal trial is over, the civil case can start back up again.
12:05But those cases, usually there's more of sort of a pressure to move a criminal case along faster than there would be in civil court.
12:15So these civil cases can run years and years.
12:18And, you know, if, if Karen Reed fights it as hard as she, you know, fought, uh, her criminal trial, you know, this is going to be, uh, another case where it's, you know, everything gets on the table.
12:30Ted, just, uh, from your perspective, when did you think if you had a moment where you said there's no way that she's going to go away for this?
12:38Was there a point, did you think from the beginning, was it, where, where, where, and when did you come to that conclusion?
12:44Well, when the jury asked those questions, I had kind of, you know, that they kind of telegraphed what the verdict was with those questions saying, you know,
12:55they asked if, Hey, if we acquit on two charges, but, uh, do the lesser least serious charge on the third, you know, does that subcharge mean she gets convicted of the higher charge?
13:10And that's a little confusing, but that's exactly what happened.
13:14But here's the thing. So that happened, you know, the day before and it like earlier in the day.
13:22So we're like, okay, they're getting a verdict. Like, this is their question. Like, obviously this is the way they're leaning.
13:26And then for the rest of the day, the jury's silent and they go home.
13:29And then yesterday, um, we, they bring everyone back in the courtroom in the afternoon and they say, we have a verdict or the judge, no, the judge said the jury knocked on the door.
13:41A court officer came in. They said, we have a verdict. And then before that got into entered, jury said, no, we don't have a verdict, which was wild.
13:49And then 15 minutes later, yes, we do have a verdict. And the one that we saw pretty wild. All right. Well, I just wanted to ask if you watched the Michael Proctor interview last night.
14:00And if you thought anything about that, no, and that's something I plan to watch today. I did not get a chance to watch it. What were like the, well, the big takeaways.
14:11You know, he, he, he regrets. He said he would never plant evidence. Right. Uh, he's, he's misunderstood. Uh, he said some things about you that weren't very nice.
14:23Uh, maybe you can't read those. And no, he didn't say anything. Uh, I, uh, yeah, uh, it was, it was, it was, uh, you know, I, I'm sure everybody's going to do an interview now is what's coming to it.
14:33Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Yep. Well, I appreciate for, I, for one, appreciate you taking the time for the last three and a half years to be our unofficial crime correspondent.
14:42We don't have the, uh, don't have the money around here to pay one. So I appreciate you. And that's probably why we won't get Karen and Alan on for a while, but, um, Tad, you're the best. Thank you. Go get some sleep. Take some time off.
14:55All right, guys. All right. Have a great day.
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