A defense attorney for Karen Read, the Mansfield woman charged in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe, told jurors during opening statements Monday that text messages by the lead investigator will show their “true feelings” about the case.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of O’Keefe and Monday marked the first day that her defense attorneys and prosecutors from Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s Office were able to address jurors directly about their competing theories of the case.
David Yannetti, Read’s attorney, told the jury plainly that Read was “framed” in the killing of O’Keefe while Norfolk County prosecutor Adam Lally largely stuck to the narrative authorities had submitted in court documents that Read was driving under the influence of alcohol when she struck O’Keefe with her SUV and left the scene of a house party in Canton on a snowy night on Jan. 28, 2022.
O’Keefe was found in the snow, cold to the touch and with serious injuries to his head by Read and two other women she had called the following morning in a frantic state, Lally told oaths on Monday morning.
The trial began with jury selection two weeks ago and Monday began with opening statements. O’Keefe’s brother, Paul O’Keefe, and his sister-in-law, Erin O’Keefe, as well as the first Canton police officer on the scene, took the stand in the afternoon.
Here are some of Monday’s biggest takeaways from the murder trial in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham.
Text messages from lead State Police investigator
On the day that O’Keefe was found, the lead Massachusetts state police investigator, Michael Proctor, texted his high school friends that revealed his “true thoughts” and “true feelings” about Read, according to Yannetti.
Proctor, using his personal cell phone, “called Karen Read names you would reserve only for your worst enemies,” Yannetti said.
In one of the texts, he wrote that he hoped Read would kill herself, Yannetti told swearers.
The investigator told his friends he seized Read’s cell phone, and without getting a search warrant, Yannetti said, he looked through her phone searching for nude photos.
“He was disappointed he hadn’t found any yet,” Yannetti said. “That is the professional and unbiased investigator chosen to lead the investigation into the death of John O’Keefe.”
When one of the friends texted Proctor that Brian Albert, the homeowner at 34 Fairview Road where O’Keefe’s body was found, was likely “going to catch a lot of grief” about the incident, Yannetti told Proctor responded with: “Nope. The homeowner is a Boston cop too.”
Yannetti told jurors they would evaluate if the investigation was “on the up and up” and judge Proctor’s own words.
Snowplow driver
Yannetti told jurors that a private detective hired by Read’s team went to Canton’s Department of Public Works to learn whether Fairview Road was plowed on the night of Jan. 28, 2022.
Trooper Proctor wrote in a police report that after one conversation with the head of the Department of Public Works, he determined that the streets had not been plowed and did not follow up after that single conversation, Yannetti said.
Yannetti said the private investigator spoke with the same department head who said the street was actually plowed that night.
The private investigator tracked down the snowplow driver who drove down Fairview Road that night. The driver told the investigator that he drove a truck called “Frankenstein” because of its size and it had a lot of spare parts, Yannetti said.
The driver said he’s careful driving down the roads in that truck and keeps an eye out for fire hydrants and yards to the sides of the plow and that he passed by 34 Fairview Road at 2:30 am, according to Yannetti.
“(The snow plow driver) confirms that at about 2:20 am John O’Keefe was not on that front lawn,” Yannetti said.
The snowplow driver said that when he went back to Fairview Road at 3:30 am, he saw a Ford Edge on the side of the road where O’Keefe was later found, according to Yannetti.
Yannetti said no police investigators interviewed the snow plow driver.
Read’s taillight
Lally told jurors on Monday that footage from a Canton police officer’s cruiser in the morning O’Keefe’s body was found will show the right taillight of Read’s vehicle was cracked.
When Read woke up that morning, Lally said, she called two friends — Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts — after she noticed that O’Keefe was not home.
Read met with McCabe and told her that she noticed her taillight was cracked, Lally said.
Lally said during opening statements that shards from a cocktail glass were found on the bumper of Read’s car and that surveillance from the Waterfall showed he walked out with a cocktail glass in hand.
During Yannetti’s opening statement, he said that Trooper Proctor wrote on a search warrant that he towed Read’s car at 5:30 pm but that the defense team obtained surveillance footage that showed Proctor picked up the car 90 minutes earlier.
“The words on the sworn affidavit were a lie,” Yannetti told swearers. “You will learn that timing is important.”
At least four police officers searched the snow of the home’s front lawn after O’Keefe was taken to the hospital and zero pieces of broken taillight were collected, according to Yannetti.
Later in the day, after Read’s car was seized, Proctor went back and found pieces of taillight buried in the snow, Yannetti said.
A week later, former Canton Chief of Police Kenneth Berkowitz drove through the house and found additional pieces of taillight, Yannetti said.
Witnesses take the stand
Norfolk prosecutors called John O’Keefe’s brother, Paul O’Keefe, as the first witness in the trial.
Paul O’Keefe said that John O’Keefe took guardianship of his niece and nephew when they were 6 and 3 after both their parents died in 2013.
He said that his mother called at 6:40 am on Jan. 29, 2022, and told him, “Something happened to your brother” and that he was brought to the hospital.
Lally then called Erin O’Keefe, Paul O’Keefe’s wife, to the witness stand. She said that Read texted her about how John O’Keefe kissed another woman during a December trip to Aruba.
Prosecutors said during opening statements that O’Keefe and Read took a trip to Aruba with friends but that an incident on the second day became an issue in their relationship.
O’Keefe and a woman in the friend group were speaking in a hotel lobby and Read began to yell and scream at the woman because she believed the two were kissing, Lally said.
This led to a 20-minute screaming match in front of O’Keefe’s niece and nephew, who he had guardianship over, Lally said.
The defense team had no questions for either Paul or Erin O’Keefe.
Canton police officer Steven Saraf took the stand last.
The day ended with video footage of Saraf’s cruiser when he arrived at 34 Fairview Road. Read’s attorneys said there would be cross-examination but Judge Cannone decided to end the day before questions were asked.
What’s next?
The trial will continue on Tuesday and is expected to last six to eight weeks.
Read’s defense team in court has said other people are responsible for O’Keefe’s killing and the presiding judge has allowed them to pursue a third-party culprit defense at trial — but did not allow them to present it during opening statements.
Defense attorneys previously said that three men in the Canton house on the night of O’Keefe’s death had “a motive and the means to attack” him.
Read pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash causing death. Her attorneys claim other people are responsible for O’Keefe’s death and that alleged conflicts of interest have compromised the case.
