About This Archive

What This Is

A searchable, cross-referenced archive of both Commonwealth v. Karen Read criminal trials — 118,890 utterances across 71 trial days, with video-synced timestamps. Click any moment in the transcript to watch the original courtroom footage.

This is a research tool, not a legal document. It exists because court transcripts are expensive and inaccessible, and public trial footage deserves a better reading experience than a YouTube comment section.

How It Was Built

Transcripts are derived from YouTube auto-generated captions of Law&Crime Network and Court TV trial coverage. AI correction and human review are applied in multiple passes to fix speaker attribution, structure proceedings, and improve accuracy.

The result is significantly more accurate than raw auto-captions, but it is not a verbatim legal transcript and never will be. Official court reporter transcripts are the only legally authoritative record.

Editorial content on this site — person bios, proceeding-level analyses, day summaries, and witness write-ups — is drafted by Claude (Anthropic) models and reviewed by a human editor before publication. Transcripts themselves follow the same pattern: AI-corrected YouTube captions with human review. Anything interpretive here started as a model draft, not independent reporting.

Video Sync

Every one of the 71 trial days is synced to its YouTube broadcast. Click the Video toggle in a transcript’s right sidebar to dock the player, then click any line’s timestamp to jump the player to that moment. The Sync transcript to video checkbox auto-scrolls the transcript as the video plays.

Known Limitations

• Speaker attribution is imperfect. Some voices are difficult to distinguish. Most errors have been corrected through review, but some may remain.
• Some content is missing. Sections of testimony are occasionally lost, particularly during witness transitions or poor audio. Known gaps are documented; others may exist.
• Proceeding boundaries are approximate. Sidebars, bench conferences, and overlapping speakers can shift boundaries by a few utterances.
• Text accuracy varies. Clear speech and common legal terms are highly accurate. Mumbled asides, overlapping speech, and technical jargon have higher error rates.

If you find an error, use the Report an Issue button in the footer or the flag icon on any transcript line.

Disclaimer

This is not a legal document, not an official transcript, and not a substitute for the court record. Do not cite this archive as a primary source without verifying against the original video or official transcripts.

This project is not affiliated with any party to the case, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or any law firm. All content is derived from publicly broadcast courtroom footage.

Contact

Found an error? Have a question? Use the Report an Issue button on any page, or email contact@commonwealthvread.com.