Commonwealth v. Read — Trial ArchiveDaniel Wolfe — Redirect
121 linesREDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. JACKSON:
MR. JACKSON: Can we, Dr. Wolfe, go back to your power -- do you have your PowerPoint --
DR. WOLFE: Yes.
MR. JACKSON: -- set up?
DR. WOLFE: Your Honor, may I?
JUDGE CANNONE: Yes.
MR. JACKSON: Do you have that ready?
DR. WOLFE: Yes.
MR. JACKSON: Can you go forward. I don't have them memorized so bear with me. Can you go forward to test E? I'm going to ask you a couple of quick questions.
DR. WOLFE: Okay.
MR. JACKSON: Okay. If you could scroll through, keep going, please to the slide, to the next, to the next. Can you -- is this a video or is this a still photograph?
DR. WOLFE: It is a video.
MR. JACKSON: Is this full speed or is this slow?
DR. WOLFE: This is full speed.
MR. JACKSON: Okay. Can you go to the next slide. Okay. Go back one. This is a test at what speed?
DR. WOLFE: This is the Lexus moving in reverse contacting at 24 miles per hour.
MR. JACKSON: All right. Let's go ahead and play this at full speed.
(Video played.)
MR. JACKSON: Dr. Wolfe, can you -- that's awfully fast --
DR. WOLFE: Try to --
MR. JACKSON: Get to a point where you're moving frame by frame just to point of contact?
DR. WOLFE: Am I able to display my screen without doing the -- if you could just move forward frame by frame rather than -- A I don't know that I can in the ... oh, I missed it.
MR. JACKSON: Okay. It may be more difficult than we thought. Let me ask you a couple questions --
DR. WOLFE: Sure.
MR. JACKSON: -- based on that. Did you review that video in slow motion as well as as at full speed?
DR. WOLFE: Yes, from a frame by frame perspective.
MR. JACKSON: And in terms of -- a couple of different questions about that particular test. When there's impact with that right arm, what's the speed that the arm gets to upon impact?
DR. WOLFE: In test E?
MR. JACKSON: Right. If the car's going 24 miles an hour, what's the expected speed of the arm?
DR. WOLFE: So the hand got up to a little over 24. The arm got a little over 21 miles an hour.
MR. JACKSON: The debris that comes off of the taillight, the fragments, what speed would they be going at the point of impact when they crack and are released from the taillight?
DR. WOLFE: At the impact speed or less?
MR. JACKSON: In order to penetrate the sweatshirt and cut the arm across, would the shards have to be going faster or slower than the arm?
DR. WOLFE: They would have to be going faster. If they're moving at a common velocity with the arm relative to it, they would somehow have to accelerate with more speed to catch up and go beyond the arm, essentially.
MR. JACKSON: Is that physically possible?
DR. WOLFE: No.
MR. JACKSON: I also want to ask you about the -- do you have in your PowerPoint the photographs of the sweatshirt at the full -- what you call the full on impact, test F as in foxtrot?
DR. WOLFE: I don't have any of those in the PowerPoint.
MR. JACKSON: Okay. The photo that you were shown?
MR. JACKSON: If I could ask Ms. Gilman to show the same photograph that she showed earlier of the subsequent two tests as is it foxtrot with the holes in the sleeve?
JUDGE CANNONE: If she can.
MR. JACKSON: If she can.
JUDGE CANNONE: Can you do that, Ms. Gilman?
MR. JACKSON: Very kind of you. Thank you.
MR. JACKSON: Dr. Wolfe, you were shown just the left arm underneath the -- whatever you're calling Randy, right?
DR. WOLFE: Yes.
MR. JACKSON: Did Mr. Brennan show you the rest of sweatshirt?
DR. WOLFE: No.
MR. JACKSON: What did the rest of the sweatshirt look like after this full on impact when he was launched from the asphalt?
DR. WOLFE: Mangled. So there was not only significant road rash to the clothing all over the torso section, the left arm, the right arm, there was holes in many different locations of various sizes. There was also just on the skin of the dummy, there was a road rash on the face had been scraped, the torso had been scraped, so there was significant body damage to the torso as well.
MR. JACKSON: Taking just the sweatshirt, separating that out, what about the bodice of the sweatshirt, the front of the sweatshirt, were there holes, frays and damage to the front?
DR. WOLFE: It was covered in all those, yes.
MR. JACKSON: What about the back of that sweatshirt? Did that also have damage?
DR. WOLFE: I don't believe the back because I think he fell onto his stomach.
MR. JACKSON: What about the other arm?
DR. WOLFE: Yes, both arms did.
MR. JACKSON: Were the holes and frays larger than the holes, the puncture holes, that you saw on John O'Keefe's sweatshirt?
DR. WOLFE: They were certainly larger and, again, spread out amongst the entirety of the sweatshirt at least on the front size.
MR. JACKSON: Was the damage to the sweatshirt that you saw in this experiment consistent with the damage or defects that you saw in just the right arm, those nine puncture holes on the right arm of the sweatshirt of John O'Keefe?
DR. WOLFE: No, this is distinctly road rash. There's a clear distinction between the two.
MR. JACKSON: I'm showing, looking at these at this particular set of defects in the arm, is that misleading in terms of its comparison to John O'Keefe's sweatshirt?
MR. BRENNAN: Objection.
JUDGE CANNONE: Sustained.
MR. JACKSON: Your Honor, I'm going to ask to approach very briefly on an issue we discussed earlier at sidebar.
JUDGE CANNONE: Okay.
(Sidebar commences:
MR. JACKSON: Your Honor, I believe the Commonwealth has opened the door to a line of questioning concerning the insurance company. We talked about this, we talked about this at sidebar before the Commonwealth's cross- examination, and I indicated a very specific concern that the last jury was under a misimpression, a false impression that insurance companies were involved in hiring ARCCA on behalf of Ms. Read.
JUDGE CANNONE: Okay. I understand the argument. You made it earlier for the interest of time, I understand the argument that you made.
MR. JACKSON: I simply want to ask the question, were you hired by insurance companies or any insurance company affiliated with or associated with Ms. Read, or is it a completely separate entity. I'm not going to ask, even though I think the door's been opened, to ask who he was actually hired by. I'm not intending to ask that.
MR. BRENNAN: So the purpose of the question on the insurance company was to think he wasn't candid in the clientele and also to buttress or rebut the defendant's claims that there was something sinister about Shanon Burgess working for an insurance company. However, I do understand their concern. So if the question to the jury to the witness is, you were not hired by an insurance company in this case, I won't object to that question.
MR. JACKSON: Can I lead?
JUDGE CANNONE: So we have about seven or eight minutes or he's coming back.
MR. JACKSON: I won't finish.
JUDGE CANNONE: Okay. I just wanted tell you because it's on you guys.
MR. JACKSON: I do appreciate that.
MR. BRENNAN: If he could lead on this question, I'd appreciate it.
MR. JACKSON: Happy to.
JUDGE CANNONE: Then we'll knock it off shortly.
MR. JACKSON: Okay.
end of sidebar.)
MR. JACKSON: May I, Your Honor?
JUDGE CANNONE: Yes.
MR. JACKSON: You were asked on cross-examination about some of the work that ARCCA does on behalf of private lawyers, even insurance companies, correct?
DR. WOLFE: Correct.
MR. JACKSON: You were not hired by an insurance company, that's not who hired you on behalf of Ms. Read or anything like that in the initial?
DR. WOLFE: Correct, it was not an insurance company.
MR. JACKSON: Thank you.
MR. JACKSON: A couple more questions if it's okay for the Court, Your Honor.
JUDGE CANNONE: Okay.
MR. JACKSON: You were asked several questions about the glass and whether or not the glass weighed in on your analysis of the damage to the rear taillight, correct?
DR. WOLFE: Correct.
MR. JACKSON: Did you consider that the glass on the rear bumper did not match the cocktail glass that was found close to John O'Keefe's body, or were you aware of that?
DR. WOLFE: I don't think initially I was aware that there was a difference between the glass cup that was found and the glass on bumper.
MR. JACKSON: You were asked a lot of questions about the difference in the weight of the arm, and I may have -- I'm going by memory, 11.8 pounds statistically as it relates to Mr. O'Keefe, versus 9.4 pounds; do I got that right?
DR. WOLFE: Approximately, yes.
MR. JACKSON: Okay. Are you aware that anybody has ever measured the weight of just John O'Keefe's right arm?
DR. WOLFE: I'm not aware of that, no.
MR. JACKSON: When you asked questions about whether or not his arm weighed 11.8 pounds, are you aware of anybody ever just weighing just his arm?
DR. WOLFE: No.
MR. JACKSON: What is that based on, 11.8, where did that come from?
DR. WOLFE: I don't know.
MR. JACKSON: Mr. Brennan mentioned the word statistic, based on the statistics, his arm would weigh that much - height, weight et cetera?
DR. WOLFE: Correct.
MR. JACKSON: Does a statistic determine the actual weight of an arm?
DR. WOLFE: No. Not conclusive to what Mr. O'Keefe's arm.
MR. JACKSON: As you sit here, do you know whether his arm, whether John O'Keefe's right arm if weighed by itself accurately, because pounds or apparently half pounds matter, if it weighed 11.8 pounds or if it weighed 9.4 pounds, do you know?
DR. WOLFE: I don't know, no.
MR. JACKSON: Do you believe that your testing, the totality of your testing, was dependent upon those 2.5 pounds based on the weight of the hybrid three or at least the arm of the hyper three and the statistic of 11.8 pounds?
MR. BRENNAN: Objection.
JUDGE CANNONE: Sustained.
MR. JACKSON: In what way does that differentiation, 2.5 pounds or approximately 2.5 pounds, in what way does that make a difference in terms your testing?
DR. WOLFE: It doesn't, and it's part of the reason why we increased the speeds to almost 30 miles an hour to look at, again, when you're bringing that much more kinetic energy from the vehicle, that's going to overcome any mass that that arm has. Like I said, if it's a pound difference, two pound difference, the momentum of that vehicle moving at 30 miles an hour versus 20 miles an hour, again, kinetic energy is equal to one half times the mass times to the velocity squared. So even if you go up a few miles per hour, you're exponentially increasing that amount of kinetic energy from the vehicle.
MR. JACKSON: You were also asked a series of questions about reducing the speed of the testing by a certain percentage, do you remember those questions?
DR. WOLFE: Yes.
MR. JACKSON: Did that make any sense to you mathematically?
MR. BRENNAN: Objection.
JUDGE CANNONE: Sustained in that form.
MR. JACKSON: What effect if you can tell us -- well, let me ask it this way. Is the speed of the testing vehicle tethered in some way to the difference of that 2.5 pounds that Mr. Brennan was asking you about?
DR. WOLFE: No, and again as you saw throughout the PowerPoint, when that vehicle was coming in at 24 miles, 29 miles an hour, at those speeds, that arm when it makes contact is going to get accelerated up to that velocity. It's just going to reach that common velocity. It's not going to -- you're not going to somehow affect the vehicle speed due to that, you know, the fact that the arm weighing 10 pounds roughly and you've got 6,000 pounds. It's not going to somehow scrub off speed of the vehicle.
MR. JACKSON: Thank you. Your Honor, at this point, I will be going through a couple of photograph --
(End of testimony at 3:41 p.m.)