Dateline NBC
Round two of Karen Read's defense. Josh Mankiewicz on Dee Warner. Plus, a courtroom sketch artist.
Thu, 5 Jun 2025
In Massachusetts, tension on the witness stand as Karen Read's defense team makes its case for a second time. Dateline correspondent Josh Mankiewicz shares updates on the case of Michigan grandmother Dee Ann Warner ahead of her husband's murder trial. And a courtroom sketch artist covering the Sean Combs trial on capturing what cameras can't. Find out more about the cases covered each week here:www.datelinetruecrimeweekly.com
Chapter 1: What updates are there on Karen Read's retrial?
Karen, what can we expect from the defense? Will you testify?
TBD. How are you feeling after today? I feel very good. Thank you. Karen Reed is charged with hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, with her car after a night of heavy drinking in January 2022. She has pleaded not guilty.
Her legal team has its own theory that Reed was framed by law enforcement officers to protect two of their own, who they say beat up O'Keefe at a house party that night. So far, the defense has brought in new witnesses, revisited controversial testimony, and word around the courtroom is they still have some surprises in store.
Here to bring us the latest is Dateline producer Sue Simpson, who is once again back in the courtroom. Literally, she got a seat. Sue, welcome back. Hi, Andrea. Hi, Sue. So now a big question hanging over this trial has been whether the defense would call former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor to the stand. He was fired in part for his handling of the investigation.
So far, the defense has not called him, but Proctor has, you know, remains a big focus of the case, Sue.
He does. Totally right, Andrea. And we saw them get at that with a new witness they called. His name is Jonathan Diamandis, and he's a childhood friend of Michael Proctor's.
We've been friends since middle school, approximately 30 years.
How often have you texted him over the years?
Frequently.
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Chapter 2: What is the background of Dee Ann Warner's case?
Brannon accused Russell of reaching out to the attorneys and wanting to be involved in this case, and also of exaggerating her expertise on dog bites.
Other than this case, there was never, ever a time in your career where you were presented with a photo and asked to give an opinion whether the mechanism of injury was a dog bite. Other than this case. That's correct. You do not have experience over your long accomplished career in the effort of pattern recognition analysis of dog bite wounds. Isn't that fair to say?
Okay. You know, watching in the court on the second day of cross-examination of Dr. Russell, it began to feel a bit like a slam dunk for the prosecutor until Russell came back with two points. First of all, she spoke very confidently about how a broken taillight could never in and of itself cause the kind of arm injuries that John O'Keefe had.
There would have to be multiple projections from the vehicle that were lined up in certain pattern to give those parallel marks all in the same direction. You know, that's why a broken taillight could not have done that.
And she also spoke about how people often blame themselves for accidents, sometimes for years afterwards, calling it acute grief reaction. So basically, she offered an explanation of why Karen might have been asking if she hit John with her car that morning.
Well, it has been a packed set of days so far. Sue, thank you for coming back and telling us all about this. And we'll see you next week, I'm sure.
Thank you, Andrea. Talk soon.
Coming up, Josh Mankiewicz will be here to talk about a case he's been covering for years. The murder of Michigan grandmother Deanne Warner. For our next story, we're heading to Lenawee County Courthouse in Michigan for the latest on a case Josh Mankiewicz and the Dateline Missing in America team have been following for years. The murder of 52-year-old grandmother and entrepreneur Deanne Warner.
One Sunday in late April 2021, Dee's daughter took her kids over to Dee's farm for breakfast like she did every week. Only Dee was not there. She'd vanished. What followed was the family's desperate search for answers, which Josh Mankiewicz reported on in season one of Dateline's Missing in America podcast.
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Chapter 3: What developments have occurred in Dee Warner's murder case?
Two years later, Josh had an update.
On Tuesday, November 21st, 2023, Dale Warner, Deanne's husband, was arrested and charged with murder and tampering with evidence in connection with her disappearance.
Dee's body still hadn't been found until nine months later, investigators removed a large metal tank from a barn on Dale's farm, X-rayed it, and discovered a body stuffed inside. It was Dee. The developments didn't stop there.
A lot has happened in just the past few weeks, including the filing of a new multimillion-dollar civil suit and some key decisions in the courtroom as lawyers gear up for trial. Here to bring us up to speed is my friend and colleague, Josh Mankiewicz. Hey, Josh. Josh, this is the first time you and I have talked about this case since Dee's body was found last fall.
What have you learned since then?
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Chapter 4: What evidence is there against Dale Warner?
The case is proceeding and it's going to go to trial. You know, there is some evidence of Dale being in the barn where the tank was around the time she disappeared. He's pleaded not guilty. But there have been a few things that have happened since then. Her kids have filed a lawsuit. You know, Dee was a businesswoman and owned a trucking company and a lot of property.
So, I mean, she had some significant assets. And her kids have now filed a $100 million lawsuit against Dale.
Dee's adult children from a previous marriage filed the suit in part because they want to stop Dale from using money from Dee's estate for his defense.
Yeah, look, I don't know how much money is in Dee's estate, but it's significant. What her kids want to do, and I haven't spoken with them, but I think what they're doing is trying to make sure that if money was the motive, if getting out of that marriage and getting all of her money was Dale's motive, if he is convicted or if he's acquitted, they want to make sure that he does not get that money.
If you listen to the attorney for this wrongful death lawsuit, Todd Flood, he is suggesting that Dale might not be the only one named in this lawsuit, that there are other people at play here possibly.
They're hinting at other people, but we don't really know who that is at this point.
There is one person whose name has come up, and that is Dale's son, Jaron D. 's stepson. A prosecutor actually charged him in connection to the case, but then they ended up dropping those charges. Josh, what happened with that?
Well, he was charged with being an accessory after the fact and tampering with evidence. So, you know, I think the assumption at the time was he wasn't there when it happened. But, you know, his dad said, can you help me out? Whatever prosecutors thought at one time, they later did not think that they had any kind of provable case against Jaron.
They dropped the charges without prejudice back in May. And what that means is, of course, they can refile if they want. Maybe there's going to be some pressure on him to talk. But there is no way to know. And whether Jaron is one of those people that the attorney is hinting will also be added to the lawsuit, we don't know that either.
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Chapter 5: Who are the key witnesses in the Karen Read trial?
Chapter 6: What role does the courtroom sketch artist play?
Ultimately, Debra said she told law enforcement officials that she saw the chief of the Canton Police Department and Brian Higgins an ATF agent, go into the Sally Port garage where Karen's SUV was and stay for a while.
Did you tell these law enforcement officers that you, in fact, saw Brian Higgins and Chief Berkowitz go into the Sally Port together and alone with the SUV for a wildly long time?
That was my recollection at the time.
So you did say that?
At the time, that is what I recollected.
So the reason this is important is that the defense has claimed the police tampered with the taillight on Karen's SUV and planted pieces of it at the crime scene. And they also say that Brian Higgins, who was at the house party that night, had been jealous of John and Karen's relationship. And so they say he had motive to beat John up.
So what Dever originally told law enforcement could bolster their theory, but Sue, it sounds like she's saying she remembers something different now.
So she's saying she has a false memory, that she couldn't have seen what she thought she saw when the previous officers talked to her because the timeline didn't work out.
The defense released a timeline right prior to the first trial that the vehicle on that day did not arrive in the Sallyport until... about an hour and a half after I left, meaning it is not possible that I saw that.
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Chapter 7: How do the defense strategies differ in these cases?
Chapter 8: What impact does the media have on high-profile trials?
Good morning.
How you doing?
Good. You're listening in to Dateline's morning meeting. He just filed the charges end of day yesterday. Our producers are swapping tips about breaking crime news. That would be an amazing twist. Yeah.
He was offering him $4,000 for this. He only gives him $70 in the end. I don't know what her story is going to be.
Welcome to Dateline True Crime Weekly. I'm Andrea Canning. It's June 5th and here's what's on our docket. In Michigan farm country, the body of Dee Warner, a beloved grandmother and businesswoman, was found sealed in a metal tank last year. Now her husband is in court for her murder. Josh Mankiewicz has the latest.
The case is proceeding and it's going to go to trial, but there have been a few things that have happened since then.
In Dateline Roundup, a verdict in the trial of the first of three men charged in connection to the murder of a Kentucky mother. And a dramatic scene during jury selection at Lori Vallow Daybell's latest trial. I did not plan on getting sick.
I'm incapable of going forward and doing a good job representing myself.
Plus, when cameras aren't allowed in the courtroom, sketch artists fill in the blanks. We'll talk to the sketch artist at the trial of Sean Combs about what the cameras are missing. Puffy Combs' mom is sitting behind me, and she tapped me on the shoulder and gave me a thumbs up. But before all that, we're heading to Dedham, Massachusetts, and a new chapter in the retrial of Karen Reed.
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