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The Case of Karen Read [Early Premiere]

🕑 Added 2025-08-31 14:27:53 +0000 UTC

Comments

Matt Orchard

That’s precisely it - it’s one task I can focus on in the between time, which is just a good productivity thing. And plus yeah, an ad pitched to the converted would just mess with me on a neurotic level, no matter if people found the ad entertaining lol

sammer

although everyone here is already sold, it would be nice to have the patreon plug here. they are very entertaining and I'd rather not have to go on YT and watch a dumb ad just to watch your good ad. If you usually make those between the Patreon and Youtube releases that's fine though

srahhh

i'm reposting my youtube comment here as PROOF i watched it here first (and because it's kind of off topic for yt anyway): "i slammed on the spacebar at the face reveal-- i wasn't watching the screen on Patreon my first watch??? I LOVE YOU MATT YOU'RE CUTE AS HELL AND YOU GOT A NICE BEANIE" (btw nice beanie)

Ember Bennett

The fact that so many people found that “journalist” compelling is shameful. Too many people in this country think that rhetoric is smart 😩

Ember Bennett

I do agree they did enough to give the jury reasonable doubt. Though, to quote the video on JBR “just how big and numerous can you really expect coincidences to be?”. Getting that many people to falsely claim to hear her talking about hitting him is unlikely, even if they cant seem to keep their story straight under pressure. Once again, the case seemed airtight, they went to trial, lawyers found enough to destroy the case, now they cant try it again.

Gizmo

This vid is a little Over analytical for ppl with low attention span, but besides that, this is a super good video. Nice job as always Mr. Orchard

Sonseed

The graphics of the dog moving from Mass to VT stole the entire documentary for me.

Matt Orchard

Thanks for the catch!

D BB

You misspelled battery at 1:16:30

Kaylee

Thank you so much for laying the details out so thoroughly! I had been half-following this case and there are a lot of obvious, biased rundowns, but not a lot of objective analysis of the case. I love your stuff and am glad that I’m subbed to your content

Gizmo

I think there's reasonable doubt. Period. Our law is designed to prevent the innocent from being in prison. If there's reasonable doubt, even if she DID do it, she should go free. End of story. The burden is on the state to prove her guilt. Edit: I know it's likely she did it, but the law has to take into account all cases as a whole. It's about the bigger picture, not just this case. If it's gonna work, it has to work in a way that's fair for all, even at the expense of one or more lost cases. There's no better way to make the law work that we know of currently.

Staive Gaming

How did she get away with this! The crash test seemingly benefits the prosecution, and what even was that with the juror at the end!

Gizmo

If you put Karen Reed in a sealed box with a vial of poison that can randomly go off at any time or even not at all, she is both guilty AND innocent until you look inside to see the results.

zomb1elvis

Awesome! Been looking forward to this one! Cheers matt

corvdb1992 .

Quite a restrained and sober discussion of the case! The accusations of corruption were everywhere. Some of the causal stuff was included, but not all of it by a long shot. Especially the judge was a target of suspicion.

Cosmo Reverb

Matt didn't watch these trials live, and catching up with the entirety of both of them, along with all related motions filed and court orders is a very tall order.

Angie Lynch

The judge was so corrupt, and the DA went out of his way to put out a video claiming she was guilty during her trial. She was wrong to drive drunk, but she was railroaded by the state. Did yall watch the trial?! I watched a lot of the 2nd one, and I am convinced she was framed. There is a lot of corruption in Massachusetts, look up microdots, on YT he explains it awesomely.

Joe Shea

Just finished the video. So one thing I've thought about is that I think Karen Read was overcharged, going from manslaughter to 2nd degree murder. I feel like the prosecution was always going to have a difficult time proving full blown murder in this case. I would like to know how the case got upgraded from manslaughter to murder. Perhaps it was from Karen's angry voice messages she left on John's phone? Perhaps these were used to indicate malice? But I don't think these would even be enough to indict someone for murder. Either way, I believe she was overcharged, and I think this is one of the reasons why she was ultimately let go by the jury. All in all, I do think the jury got this one right, as I just don't think there was enough clear and convincing evidence to fully convict Read. Trooper Proctor looked fucking AWFUL, with tons of suspect behavior during his investigation, as well as those messages, which left me completely baffled. At the very least, the investigation was botched and Proctor had clear tunnel vision towards Read and nobody else. And who knows? Maybe Read did it, and the jury just let her walk free. But given the evidence (or lack thereof) and the amount of reasonable doubt her lawyers provided, I think releasing her was the only real option for the jury. With that said, if Read didn't splurge on top tier Lawyers, I wonder how this case would have played out... Great video, Matt. 👍

Rosalind Margulies

As a New England native I gotta admit I love hearing all the Boston middle aged women talk. Reminds me of hanging out with my family, hysteria and all

Bronwyn Boyd

Personally I think she probably did do it while completely wasted but there's nowhere near enough evidence to charge her let alone convict her. Thanks for the excellent breakdown of this case ❤️

Matt Orchard

“Vodka OJ” is the best Karen Read diss I’ve heard around the internet!

Lee Basil

THANK you-- I had listened to a super basic Wondery podcast on this case to try to make heads or tails of my mom's obsession with it. We were in agreement that the cops fucked up, but I felt like I must be missing something, because why on earth are so many people jumping to defend this (sorry!) DEEPLY unpleasant woman who was definitely driving wasted that night? I can't say I'm any closer to understanding in an intellectual sense, but spiritually I've settled on "Karen Read is OJ for white women." Blown away by how damning that cell phone evidence was, though.

isaiah

I live in eastern MA. Its crazy how while the trial was ongoing, police departments and pro-police businesses were putting up "JUSTICE FOR OKEEFE" signs as if it was like an anti-police thing to think Karen Read probably didnt do it

SHAUN BAILEY

Matt Orchard, I love your cameo appearance at 44:45

Miles Lemaire

My wife produced the ID doc that premiered on Max this year. Such an interesting case.

Claire

IT'S TWO FUCKING HOURS??? let's gooooooo 🎉

Emily Cruz

I'm excited to watch your breakdown of this one. I watched both trials and this case wild.

Joe Shea

While I know some details about this case, I was purposefully withholding looking too deeply into it until this video came out. This one really seems like a doozy, so I'm looking forward to watching this. Keep up the great work, Matt! 👍