Opening statements presented on day 1 of Read’s retrial

Lawyers for the prosecution and the defense weaved two starkly different narratives about Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe’s last moments on earth as opening statements were given and first witnesses were called in the highly anticipated retrial of Karen Read on Tuesday, April 22, in Norfolk Superior Court.

Read, 45, is again being tried on three charges — second degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident — and faces a possible life sentence in prison for her alleged actions in the early morning hours on January 29, 2022, when O’Keefe, her boyfriend at the time, was found unresponsive in the snow in front of a home on Fairview Road in Canton.

Read’s first trial, held in the spring and summer of 2024, lasted nearly 10 weeks before ending in a mistrial after the jurors informed Judge Beverly Cannone that they were hopelessly deadlocked. Some of the jurors later claimed that they had been in unanimous agreement on an acquittal for Read on two of the three charges, and her attorneys have filed for relief with the U.S. Supreme Court on the grounds that she cannot be tried for the same crimes twice due to double jeopardy protections.

With Read’s team having exhausted all attempts to halt the state trial, however, both parties proceeded as planned on Tuesday, starting with jury instructions by Judge Cannone and a meticulous recounting of the commonwealth’s case against Read by Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan.

Brought on to reexamine the case with a fresh set of eyes, Brennan asserted in his opening remarks to jurors that the “facts, science and data” would lead them to a guilty verdict on all three counts.

Recounting the events on the night in question, Brennan, citing data from cell phones as well as the “black box” in Read’s Lexus SUV, alleged that a heavily intoxicated Read, after driving O’Keefe to a party at the home of fellow BPD officer Brian Albert and arguing in the car while parked out front, “put the Lexus in reverse, put her foot on the gas pedal and began to press — not 25 percent, not 50 percent, up to 75 percent acceleration.”

“There was a light dusting of snow,” Brennan recalled. “The Lexus tires spun backwards; she went backwards at least 70 feet. She clipped John O’Keefe, he fell backwards, hit his head, broke his skull, and there he lay on the corner of Fairview Road, on the ground, lying on top of his cell phone, alone.”

Brennan also made a point in his opening statement to highlight the battery temperature of O’Keefe’s phone, which he said dwindled, based on recovered data, from 77 degrees at the point that O’Keefe was in Read’s vehicle down to 37 degrees when his body was found in the snow early the next morning — suggesting it remained outside for the duration of the evening.

Brennan also attempted to paint a picture for the jurors of the victim in this case, calling O’Keefe a “family man” and a “helper” by nature — someone who put his career on the backburner to raise his young niece and nephew after both of their parents, O’Keefe’s sister and brother-in-law, passed away tragically within a short time of one another.

“He moved in with the children and he raised them like they were his own; they were his passion, his love,” said Brennan.

Brennan said that ultimately, Read’s own words, through comments given to various media outlets, would confirm for the jurors what the science and data suggests. “You’re going to hear from her own lips in many of her statements, her admissions to extraordinary intoxication, her admissions to driving the Lexus, her admissions to being angry at John that night, and I dare say her admissions that she told [people] she hit him.”

Contrary to Brennan’s version of events, Read’s attorney Alan Jackson insisted in his opening statement that the “facts, evidence, data and science” would demonstrate to the jurors, above all else, that Read did not strike O’Keefe with her SUV on the night he was killed.

“The commonwealth has pinned its entire case on a brazen and a flawed assertion that is untethered, unconnected to the facts and to the evidence,” stated Jackson, “and their assertion is contrary to science because, at the end of the day, folks, there was no collision with John O’Keefe.”

Previewing various elements of Read’s defense, Jackson said his client’s innocence will be supported by the testimony of several experts, including accident reconstructionists and a “renowned” forensic pathologist, among others.

More importantly, Jackson said jurors will learn that the case against Read was poisoned from the start by its lead investigator, former State Trooper Michael Proctor, who came under fire during the first trial for disparaging and sexist statements he made about Read in text messages with friends and fellow officers.

Jackson noted that Proctor’s name was conspicuously absent from Brennan’s opening remarks; however, his implicit bias, according to Jackson, both against Read and in favor of fellow officers such as Brian Albert, was like a “cancer that cannot be cut out.”

“[Proctor] is the very definition of the commonwealth’s case — and he’s also their Achilles heel,” Jackson told the jurors. “He was the lead investigator on the case, the case officer, the architect of the entire prosecution. You’ll learn there’s not a single part of this case … that he didn’t orchestrate personally.”

Suggesting, but not directly stating, that others could have been responsible for O’Keefe’s death, Jackson said many people who were at the Alberts’ house stayed “very busy” after the party had ended, making phone calls and what he alleged were suspicious Google searches.

The bottom line, said Jackson, was that Read was a victim of a “botched, biased and corrupt investigation that was never about the truth …

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Posted by Jay Turner on Apr 25 2025. Filed under Top Stories. Both comments and pings are currently closed.