Commonwealth v. Read — Trial Archive
Person Richard Green Trial 1Richard Green is the defense’s digital forensics expert in Trial 1, testifying about the timing of Jennifer McCabe’s "how long to die in cold" Google search and the deletion of call records on McCabe’s phone. ← All People
🔬 Expert Witness · Defense team

Richard Green

Trial 1
251 lines 2 proceedings
Courtroom still of Richard Green.

About

Richard Green is a digital-forensics expert retained by the defense who testified in Trial 1 Day 29. He analyzed data central to the defense theory, including O'Keefe's location data, McCabe's Google-search history, and call records. He placed the disputed 'how long to die in cold' search at or before 2:27 a.m. and, for a displayed call-log report running from 5:33:47 to 8:50:05 a.m., said all listed calls were in a deleted state and opined that they had been manually deleted.

Key Points

  • Green testified that Jennifer McCabe's Google search for 'how long to die in cold' occurred at or before 2:27:40 a.m. on January 29, 2022 — a conclusion that, if accepted, would place the search hours before O'Keefe's body was found and before any public knowledge of his condition.
  • Green testified that, in a call-log report running from 5:33:47 a.m. through 8:50:05 a.m., 100% of the displayed calls were in a deleted state, while live data began at 8:59:34 a.m.; he opined that the calls had been manually deleted.
  • On cross-examination, Green was forced to acknowledge that his sworn affidavit from roughly eighteen months earlier contained an incorrect conclusion about a 'how long to digest food' search, and that subsequent testing had proven him wrong — an admission that the prosecution used to challenge the reliability of his other findings.
  • Prosecution established that two other digital forensics experts — Hyde and Whiffin — both disagreed with Green's interpretation of the McCabe search timestamp, and that Green lacked Cellebrite certifications despite his analysis relying heavily on Cellebrite data.

Trial Record (2)

Trial 1 First Criminal Trial Apr 29, 2024 – Jul 1, 2024 2 proceedings

Day 29

Direct Richard Green David Yannetti 7 highlights 152 lines spoken
Summary

Digital-forensics expert Richard Green gave opinions on phone-location data, a Safari search artifact, and deleted call records; the court limited one opinion's phrasing and required redaction of a call-log exhibit.

Highlights (7)
Quote

“It could be 5 meters or 10 meters, but none of it was granular enough at a 3 foot or less accuracy level.”

Explains the precision limitation Green identified in the location data.

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Quote

“That that would have happened at or before January 29, 2022, at 2:27:40 a.m. in the morning.”

States Green's opinion on the timing of the search artifact after the court limited the scientific-certainty phrasing.

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Quote

“So we found no live data, so 100 percent of them would have been deleted.”

Summarizes Green's characterization of the call-log entries in the identified time period.

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Show 3 more
Key Moment

Green described his digital-forensics experience and said he was engaged to review data from phones belonging to Karen Read, John O'Keefe, and Jennifer McCabe.

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Key Moment

Green testified that John O'Keefe's phone first registered in the 34 Fairview driveway at 12:24:28, while a CellHawk filter for accuracy of three feet or less returned no results.

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Key Moment

Green testified that the Apple Health records showed distance, steps, and elevation changes over time ranges, but could not identify where within a range the steps or flights occurred.

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Cross Richard Green Adam Lally 3 highlights 99 lines spoken
Summary

The Commonwealth challenged Richard Green's digital-evidence analysis; he acknowledged that further testing changed one interpretation in his prior affidavit while defending his search-timing opinion.

Highlights (3)
Quote

“That's inconsistent with the actual data I'm seeing on this actual phone with this precise iOS version.”

Green maintained that the record supported his timing interpretation despite the Commonwealth's alternative explanation.

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Quote

“Yes. And on that day, that is what my true and proper belief was. Okay. It -- since further testing, I have found that I now believe that that was probably an automatic one, and if I've caused you any distress, I apologize.”

Green acknowledged that further testing changed an interpretation stated in his affidavit.

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Quote

“Yes, with the asterisk they updated one of two programs I think.”

Green qualified his agreement that Cellebrite had modified software related to the disputed interpretation.

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Locations Touched By This Testimony

34 Fairview Road 2 procs Canton Police Department 1 proc