Commonwealth v. Read — Trial ArchiveRichard Green
Testimony Impact
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.
Challenges & Responses
What attorneys challenged during examination and how the witness responded.
Green's credibility was challenged on multiple fronts: he lacked Cellebrite certifications despite relying on its tools, he admitted his prior sworn affidavit was wrong about a predictive search conclusion after further testing, and the prosecution established that two other forensic experts directly contradicted his 2:27 a.m. search timestamp finding. Green acknowledged each of these points directly under cross-examination.
Notable Quotes From The Record
“We found a Google search that happened — first of all, the search was 'how's long to die in cold,' and it happened at or before 2:27 a.m.”
Core defense claim about the timing of McCabe's search, placing it hours before O'Keefe's body was officially discovered.
“That that would have happened at or before January 29th, 2022 at 2:27:40 a.m. in the morning.”
Green's formal expert opinion on the search timing, delivered to a reasonable degree of certainty.
“Yeah, so we found no live data. So 100% of them have been deleted.”
Establishes Green's testimony that every call record in the displayed report interval from 5:33:47 a.m. through 8:50:05 a.m. was deleted, while calls beginning at 8:59:34 a.m. were live.
“No sir. I know what the individual words mean, but in relation to digital forensics I'm not familiar with that term.”
Green rejects the concept of 'spontaneous deletion' that the prosecution had previously used to explain the missing records.
“Those would have been manually deleted.”
Green's opinion that the deletions were not automatic — someone deliberately removed the call records.
“Yeah — and I know that's different from my affidavit from about a year and a half ago, in all fairness, but that's entirely different.”
Green acknowledges his sworn affidavit contained an incorrect conclusion about the 'how long to digest food' search
“That is correct.”
Green confirms Lally's immediately preceding question that further testing showed the affidavit conclusion was wrong.
Key Moments
- 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.