Jury deliberations began in the Karen Read case on June 25, 2024, in Massachusetts. Read is accused of intentionally hitting her boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him to die. Meanwhile, details of the case and Read’s trial have caused the story to go viral and captured media attention nationwide.
Read and her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, were reportedly drinking heavily when they got into an argument in January 2022. Read allegedly hit O’Keefe with her SUV on purpose outside another man’s home, where the couple had attended a party. Read then fled the scene, according to the prosecution. O’Keefer’s body was discovered that next day.
Read says she woke up the next morning, noticed O’Keefe missing, and found his body in the front yard of the home where she left him alive. Still, Read was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection to her boyfriend’s death and pleaded not guilty. As of this report, the jury had not yet reached their verdict.
Was John O’Keefe killed in a fight?
Karen Read’s defense says that while Read and O’Keefe’s relationship was rocky, Read dropped O’Keefe off alive at the home where he was beaten and killed. His body was then dragged to where it was found. According to Read’s defense, Massachusetts law enforcement officers were involved in O’Keefe’s death, and Read was framed in a police cover-up.
The defense says Brian Higgins, an ATF officer and one of two law enforcement officers they say killed O’Keefe, had exchanged flirtatious text messages with Read earlier that evening. Evidence presented by the defense also suggests that one of the officers allegedly there that night, Brian Albert’s dog, a German Shepherd, injured O’Keefe in the fight.
Did Karen Read admit what she’d done?
According to the prosecution, however, Read admitted what she’d done. Read also left an angry voicemail on O’Keefe’s phone around the same time she allegedly struck him, KEYT reported. There was damage to Read’s car matching what they say happened the night O’Keefe died. Read, meanwhile, waited to call the police after she discovered O’Keefe was missing and before she found his body.
“‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.’ Those are the words of the defendant,” prosecutor Adam Lally said in his closing arguments. “Four times. You heard testimony from four different witnesses who overheard and observed those statements from the defendant on January 29, 2022. No calls to 911 from the defendant while John O’Keefe is laying, freezing and dying from a brain injury and skull fracture, on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road,” he added.
The Michael Proctor texts
Challenging the prosecution’s case, however, Michael Proctor, a state police trooper involved in Read’s case, admitted he sent derogatory text messages and jokes about the defendant amid O’Keefe’s death investigation, according to The Patriot Ledger. There were also problems with key pieces of evidence including surveillance footage flipped to a mirror image for no clear reason.
“When you stare the truth down, you’ll see that the Commonwealth has not proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty. Not even close. Ladies and gentlemen, Karen Read is innocent. Do justice and find her not guilty,” Read’s defense attorney Alan Jackson said in his closing statement.
The uncertainty in the Read case drew the attention of Aidan Kearney, known as “Turtleboy,” an online journalist, who believes Read is innocent and helped bring viral attention to her trial. Kearney, however, is now accused of witness tampering. Nonetheless, Read’s trial gathered massive attention online, and some Massachusetts residents have taken to the streets supporting Read’s innocence.