Defense attorneys for Karen Read rested their case Wednesday, bringing her retrial for the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend one step closer to its blockbuster conclusion.
Judge Beverly Cannone indicated closing arguments will begin Friday, with jurors expected to begin deliberating thereafter.
Prosecutors have accused Read of hitting John O’Keefe with her SUV in January 2022 during a wintry night out drinking with friends – alleging she struck the off-duty officer while driving in reverse and left him to die outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts.
Read’s defense has claimed she is the victim of a cover-up, alleging other off-duty law enforcement inside that home killed O’Keefe, placed his body on the lawn and conspired to frame her. But their case during the retrial – the first ended with a hung jury – appeared more focused on sowing doubt in jurors’ minds about the quality of the investigation, rather than substantiating the theory of a third-party culprit.
Both sides have concentrated on the forensic evidence, with expert witnesses for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and Read’s defense offering conflicting theories about what caused O’Keefe’s fatal injuries.
The Commonwealth presented testimony and evidence it said showed O’Keefe was hit by Read’s vehicle around 12:30 a.m. on January 29, 2022, pointing to data taken from his phone and Read’s SUV, as well as fragments of the vehicle’s taillight found scattered across the scene. In prosecutors’ telling, the collision threw O’Keefe to the cold ground, causing blunt force injuries to his head that left him incapacitated as the snowfall buried him.
Prosecutors also presented evidence suggesting the couple was at odds leading up to O’Keefe’s death. That included text messages indicating they were fighting on January 28. In the hours after prosecutors say O’Keefe died, Read called him dozens of times, testimony showed, leaving eight scathing voicemails. “F**k yourself,” Read said.
Read’s attorneys challenged this theory: Their experts testified some of O’Keefe’s injures – specifically cuts and scratches on his arm – were caused by a dog, and that the damage to Read’s taillight was inconsistent with it striking a person.
The defense also worked to undermine confidence in the investigation, highlighting sexist and offensive text messages the lead investigator, Michael Proctor, sent about the defendant, which ultimately led to his dishonorable discharge from the Massachusetts State Police. Proctor, however, was never called to testify.
Read also chose not to take the stand. Throughout the prosecution’s case, the Commonwealth played numerous clips taken from interviews Read provided news outlets and documentary film crews, using her own words to highlight inconsistencies in her account and refute the defense’s arguments.
“I didn’t think I hit him, hit him,” Read said in one clip taken from her October 2024 interview for NBC’s “Dateline.”
“But could I have clipped him? Could I have tagged him in the knee and incapacitated him? He didn’t look mortally wounded as far as I could see,” Read said, “but could I have done something that knocked him out and, in his drunkenness, and in the cold, (he) didn’t come to again?”
Asked Tuesday if she would testify, Read confirmed she would not, nodding to the many clips played in court, according to CNN affiliate WCVB.
The jury, she said, has “heard my interview clips. They’ve heard my voice. They’ve heard a lot of me.”
This story has been updated with additional information.
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