The second murder trial of Karen Read, who is accused of causing the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, entered Day 2 as witness testimony resumed Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Read backed her SUV into John O’Keefe in 2022 after dropping him off at a party 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 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 will look much like the first, with the same judge, many of the same witnesses and several of the prominent defense attorneys.
A rocky relationship comes under scrutiny
Read had worked as a financial analyst and a Bentley College adjunct professor before being charged in the death of O’Keefe, who was 46. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer.
After a night out drinking, prosecutors say Read, who is 45, dropped O’Keefe at the house party just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.
As at the first trial, prosecutors will try to convince jurors that Read's actions were intentional. They are expected to call witnesses who will describe 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.
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.
The prosecution questioned Roberts on Tuesday about her memories of the discovery of O’Keefe’s body, including damage to the taillight of Read's vehicle.
Roberts, back on the stand Wednesday, testified that Read pointed out the taillight damage and confirmed that Read said, “Do you think I hit him?” in reference to the damage. 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 also questioned Roberts on Wednesday and sought to portray her as having changed her story and made false statements to a grand jury.
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.
They also are expected to suggest Read was framed, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home during a fight with another partygoer and then dragged outside. In the first trial, defense attorneys suggested investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
A new prosecutor steps in
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 charges, primary defense lawyers and many of the nearly 200 witnesses will also be the same.
The biggest difference is the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. A former prosecutor and defense attorney who was brought in as a special prosecutor after the mistrial, Brennan has represented several prominent clients, including notorious Boston gangster James "Whitey" Bulger, and experts think he might be more forceful than Lally was in arguing the case.
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