Karen Learn trials price taxpayers practically $1.5M, data present

Prosecution prices within the Karen Learn trials price taxpayers about $1.5 million and ended with solely a conviction for drunken driving.

That determine comes from the second installment of Norfolk County District Legal professional data obtained by the Herald by a data request.

The Herald beforehand reported that particular prosecutor Hank Brennan, who led the prosecution in Learn’s second trial earlier this yr, was paid a complete of $566,000 for his work.

However now we see that there have been additionally some big prices towards witness funds and bills — and a boatload {of professional} transcripts of every little thing from hearings to defendant Learn’s quite a few media interviews and appearances. Whole bills throughout each trials method $900,000, in line with court docket data.

The largest price of all was the work of forensics firm Aperture LLC, whose skilled Judson Welcher was the prosecution’s star witness. The opposite prosecution witness for the corporate, Shanon Burgess, was embarrassed on the stand when the protection roasted him about together with a bachelor’s diploma he hadn’t earned on each his curricula vitae, which is a kind of resume, his LinkedIn web page and even his firm biography.

Aperture ended up raking in a complete of $599,753.45 for its work forward of and within the second trial, with the primary bill dated Sept. 30, 2024 and the final June 18, 2025, which included skilled testimony.

The following highest earner was a paralegal, Mary Ellen Gray, who charged the prosecution a price of $50 an hour for authorized work and trial prep and took in a complete of $67,535 from October 2024 via June 2025.

Subsequent up was digital forensics skilled Jessica Hyde, whose firm, Hexordia, provided the DA’s workplace a reduction of 25% off her regular price, which is coverage for regulation enforcement businesses. Even nonetheless, her complete invoice throughout each trials was $54,774.39.

Then got here famend neurosurgeon Aizik Wolf, who charged a complete of $28,800 — with $20,000 of that only for his court docket look.

Then got here the court docket reporters and transcribers. Of the court docket reporters, Paula Mills earned $21,493, Christine Blankenship $14,082.00, Diane Cercone $904, Valerie O’Hara $253.46 and Nancy King $28.50. The transcriptionist agency McGill & Associates, which offered transcripts of each court docket exercise and Learn’s TV and different interviews, billed $11,017.50.

Of explicit observe is opposition and juror analysis.

The New York Metropolis agency Asher Analysis LLC charged $20,000 for background analysis on proposed protection witnesses that the agency solely recognized on the invoices by initials — however via context clues the witnesses are clear. The agency Becker & Firm charged $5,400 for “lawful and ethical” background analysis on the 18 jurors “to identify any potential bias or prejudice for or against the defendant,” in line with its contract.

Initially Printed: September 4, 2025 at 8:31 PM EDT