Terms of Use

What this archive is

The archive organizes material that is already public: official court reporter transcripts and courtroom video from both Commonwealth v. Karen Read criminal trials. It exists so that the record is searchable and citable. It is a reference work, not journalism, not advocacy, and not entertainment. It is not affiliated with any party to the case, with any court, with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, or with any law firm.

Accuracy and the official record

Transcript text comes from official court reporter records where available and from AI-corrected broadcast captions elsewhere. The transcript viewer identifies the source supporting each line. Errors are possible, and some sources contain errors of their own.

The About page describes the sources, coverage and limitations.

The official court record always governs. Nothing on this site is a certified transcript, and nothing here should be relied on as one. If a passage matters to you, verify it against the official record before you use it. Where the archive links to an official source, that source outranks anything shown here.

Supporting material

Summaries, profiles, timelines, and other guides are separate from the transcript. Some are produced with AI assistance and may contain errors or miss important context; use the transcript and cited records for important questions.

This material describes the record and takes no position on guilt, credibility or the merits of a case.

Not legal advice

Nothing on this site is legal advice, and using the archive creates no attorney-client relationship of any kind. If you have a legal question, consult a lawyer.

Charges, testimony, and findings

Charges, allegations, testimony, and argument are not findings of fact. A person charged with a crime is presumed innocent unless and until convicted in a court of law, and where a charge did not result in a conviction that presumption is never displaced. The archive presents the record on that basis and does not adjudicate what was true.

Corrections and removal requests

Accuracy matters more here than volume, so corrections are genuinely welcome.

To report an error, use the report link on any page, or write to contact@commonwealthvread.com. Please include the page address and enough of the passage to locate it. Verified errors are corrected.

To request removal, write to contact@commonwealthvread.com and identify the specific material and the basis for the request. Every request is read and answered by a person.

Please understand the standard that is applied. The archive publishes material that is already part of the public court record, and it will not remove accurate public-record content simply because a person would prefer it were not findable. What will be acted on is material that is inaccurate, material that is under a sealing or impoundment order or an equivalent legal restriction, and material that identifies a person in a way the court itself protected. Requests that fall outside those grounds may be declined, and the reason will be given.

Copyright and reuse

Court records are public documents. The selection, organization, correction, annotation, design, and code of this archive are the work of Trice Digital and are protected accordingly.

The underlying broadcast footage belongs to the news organizations that produced it.

Citing, quoting, and linking to the archive is encouraged, including deep links to individual lines. Attribution to Commonwealth v. Read is appreciated. Crawling and indexing, by search engines and by AI systems alike, are permitted, and the archive is built to be quoted accurately. What is not permitted is republishing the archive wholesale as your own, or presenting its content in a way that misstates what the record says.

If you believe material here infringes your copyright, write to contact@commonwealthvread.com with the material at issue, the work you claim is infringed, your contact information, and a statement of your good-faith belief.

Availability and liability

The archive is provided as is, without warranty of any kind. It may be incomplete, may contain errors, and may be unavailable at times. To the fullest extent the law allows, Trice Digital is not liable for any loss arising from use of, or reliance on, this site.

Governing law

These terms are governed by the laws of the State of Maryland.

Changes

If these terms change, the effective date above changes with them.