Things to know about the retrial of Karen Read in the killing of her police officer boyfriend
Things to know about the retrial of Karen Read in the killing of her police officer boyfriend
Jurors in the second murder trial of Karen Read heard conflicting evidence Thursday about her relationship with her boyfriend, the Boston police officer she’s accused of killing.
Prosecutors say Read backed her SUV into John O’Keefe, 46, in 2022 after dropping him off at a party hosted by a fellow police officer and returned hours later to find him dead. Defense attorneys say she was a victim of a conspiracy involving the police and they plan, as they did in the first trial, to offer evidence pointing to the real killer.
Read, 45, has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene. A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse.
The second trial has thus far looked similar to the first. It is being held in the same courthouse before the same judge, and dozens of Read’s passionate supporters are again rallying outside. The primary defense lawyers and many of the nearly 200 witnesses will also be the same.
Friend describes O’Keefe and Read as an affectionate couple
O’Keefe’s close friend, Michael Camerano, testified Thursday about the relationship between O’Keefe and Read and their interactions the night he died. He said the couple greeted each other with affection at a Canton bar, and that O’Keefe put his arm around Read and kissed her.
“He certainly never told you or even suggested that he was thinking about or planning to break up with Karen, right?” defense attorney David Yannetti asked.
“No,” Camerano said.
“And during the month before John’s passing, that January of 2022, you observed their relationship in your presence to be normal, caring, and affectionate, right?” Yannetti asked.
“Yes,” Camerano said.
Texts tell a different story
At the first trial, prosecutors called witnesses who described how the couple’s relationship had begun to sour before O’Keefe’s death, including his brother and sister-in-law, who testified that Read told her the couple had argued in Aruba after she caught O’Keefe kissing another woman.
On Thursday, a state police forensics investigator read a long series of tense text messages between Read and O’Keefe in the hours before they met up at a bar on the night he died. Jurors also saw screenshots of the messages.
“Sick of always arguing and fighting,” O’Keefe wrote. “It’s been weekly for several months now. So yeh I’m not as quick to jump back into being lovie dovie as you apparently.”
“I know your heart isn’t in this anymore,” Read wrote. “I’ve felt it for awhile and esp lately. I am willing to try more but not if you approaching the point of Indifference.”
New evidence to be offered
Prosecutors are relying on witnesses from the scene in the early days of the trial, counting on testimony from police officers and firefighters who recalled Read making comments that implicated her in the killing.
They are also introducing evidence of a broken taillight on Read’s SUV that prosecutors argue was damaged when she hit O’Keefe and possible DNA from O’Keefe found on her vehicle.
The defense’s goal is to raise doubts about the prosecution case and plant the seed that she was framed. They are expected to suggest that a hair found on the taillight was planted and the police investigation was marred by a conflict of interest.
O’Keefe friend testifies about taillight damage
Kerry Roberts, a close friend of O’Keefe’s, was one of two women with Read when she found the officer lying lifeless in the snow. She testified Tuesday and Wednesday about that discovery and damage to the taillight of Read’s vehicle.
Roberts said Read pointed out the taillight damage and said “Do you think I hit him?” Roberts also testified about receiving a panicked phone call from Read on the morning O’Keefe was found dead.
“When she first called she said, ‘John’s dead, Kerry, Kerry,’ and she hung up,” Roberts said.
The defense suggested Roberts has changed her story and made false statements to a grand jury.
O’Keefe’s mother gives tearful testimony
O’Keefe’s mother, Peggy O’Keefe, gave emotional testimony Wednesday about her discovery that her son, a 16-year-veteran of the Boston police force, was dead.
Peggy O’Keefe lost her daughter, Kristen, to a brain tumor in 2013, and Kristen’s husband, Stephen Furbush, died of a heart attack shortly thereafter. The pain of losing another child at a young age was devastating, she said.
She cried on the witness stand while relaying the story of seeing her son in the hospital after he was found lifeless in the snow.
“He was bruised up. His eyes were closed. Just not a good scene,” she said.
O’Keefe’s mother also briefly testified about her interactions with Read. She said Read told her she had left her son at a party.
The defense blames a third party for O’Keefe’s death
The defense’s approach has been to portray the investigation into O’Keefe’s death as shoddy and undermined by the close relationship investigators had with the police officers and other law enforcement agents who were at the house party.
Among the key witnesses they will call is former State Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation but has since been fired after a disciplinary board found he sent crude and sexist texts about Read to his family and colleagues. He is also on the prosecution’s witness list.
Proctor’s testimony was a key moment during the first trial, when the defense suggested his texts about Read and the case showed he was biased and had singled her out early in the investigation, ignoring other potential suspects.
By MICHAEL CASEY and HOLLY RAMER
Associated Press
