She rejected prosecutors’ motion to bar the two witnesses, from the Philadelphia-based company ARCCA, and said that “those witnesses can testify, as long as counsel complies with their reciprocal discovery obligations.”

Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

Prosecutors allege that she backed her Lexus SUV in a drunken rage into her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night of bar-hopping.

Her lawyers say she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the house, owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German Shepherd before his body was planted on the front lawn.

Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury in July. She remains free on bail.

The ARCCA witnesses testified at the first trial that O’Keefe’s injuries weren’t consistent with being struck by a vehicle.

Jurors were told that a third party had hired the analysts, rather than the defense, which was technically true; the Justice Department initially hired them as part of a separate federal grand jury probe of state law enforcement’s investigation into O’Keefe’s death.

However, the jury wasn’t told that one of the ARCCA witnesses and Read attorney Alan Jackson had discussed a possible retainer agreement in March 2024, about a month before trial. That email correspondence came to light during discovery for the upcoming retrial.

In addition, ARCCA sent a bill to the defense for about $23,000 weeks after the mistrial, records show. Read’s lawyers said that bill came “out of the blue” and they weren’t anticipating it.

Cannone said Tuesday that Read’s lawyers filed a motion last month that described ARCCA analysts as “neutral expert witnesses.”

“I find that there have been repeated misrepresentations made to the court by defense counsel, and I conclude that they were deliberate, concerning the ARCCA witnesses,” Cannone said.

She said she would call Read and the defense to sidebar before deciding on “which sanctions are appropriate.”

Following the sidebar conference, Cannone said she would not revoke permission for Read’s out-of-state lawyers to try the case.

“I don’t expect to have to address this again,” Cannone said.

Cannone also heard a request from Read’s lawyers to bar witnesses from the courtroom after they testify, including during closing arguments.

Read attorney Elizabeth Little said that during closings at the first trial, prosecution witnesses Brian Albert, the now-retired Boston police officer who owned the Canton home at the time of O’Keefe’s death, his nephew Colin Albert, and his sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe “were all seated … with the O’Keefe family.”

At least one juror told Vanity Fair that they felt “intimated by their presence” at closings, Little said.

Read’s lawyers have accused the three witnesses of being involved in O’Keefe’s death; no one has been charged in connection with O’Keefe’s death besides Read.

“A sitting juror reporting feeling intimidated by the presence of third-party culprits towards the close of the case is highly concerning,” Little said.

Little said “there is information that the Massachusetts State Police and the district attorney’s office wanted to have the third-party culprits seated there [across from jurors] during closing arguments.”

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan rejected that assertion.

He said Read’s lawyers were taking “an opportunity to provide an unsolicited bashing on their targets. … They invoke those names, they characterize [them as] third-party culprits, and they suggest that some anonymous [juror] was uncomfortable.”

Brennan said “the idea that witnesses should not come in after the evidence rests and during a closing, not only does it seem quite unfair, it doesn’t seem to have any basis in law, in justness, in courtesy.”

Cannone took the matter under advisement.

She also heard brief arguments on a defense motion to bar any mention of alleged harassment of prosecution witnesses by Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as “Turtleboy” who has championed Read’s claims of innocence. He has pleaded not guilty to charges of intimidating and harassing witnesses.

Jackson said that prosecutors had convened a grand jury in an effort to pursue witness intimidation charges against Read, who according to court records spoke frequently with Kearney in 2023.

About a month before the first trial, the grand jury declined to indict Read for witness intimidation, Jackson said.

At trial, McCabe mentioned the harassment she said her family’s endured. On Tuesday, Cannone said McCabe did that after Jackson “opened the door” to the topic on cross-examination.

“Whatever that door was, it was on some very, very significant lubricant,” Jackson said.

“Read the transcript,” Cannone said.

“I have, several times,” Jackson said.

Brennan pushed back on the notion that McCabe used her testimony to expound on her family’s ordeal.

“It is unfair to stand up here at this podium and suggest for a second that Ms. McCabe is using a witness box as some type of forum,” Brennan said. “She didn’t drag herself into this case, she was dragged into it. And to suggest they can stand here and bash witnesses … because it pleases them and fits their narrative, is something I can’t just sit by and listen to.”

Jackson couldn’t listen to Brennan without offering a response.

“I just wonder where this ire, and these invectives from Mr. Brennan come from,” Jackson said. “Was he listening? I didn’t bash a witness. I didn’t attack a witness. I didn’t make any fraudulent statements.”

Cannone took the matter under advisement. At the first trial she barred any mention of witness harassment unless the defense opened the door to it during cross-examination.

The hearing will resume Thursday.

Read’s lawyers are also appealing a federal judge’s denial of their request to drop the murder and leaving the scene charges, on the grounds that multiple jurors indicated the jury unanimously agreed to acquitt her of those counts and remained divided only on the manslaughter charge.

The state Supreme Judicial Court rejected the request in February, and a US District Court judge in Boston followed suit last week. Read’s lawyers filed an appellate brief Tuesday with the US First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, which set a March 24 deadline for prosecutors to reply in writing, records show. Oral arguments before the First Circuit haven’t been set.

Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report.

Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected].