March trial date set in Read murder case

During another emotionally charged pre-trial hearing in Norfolk Superior Court on Friday that drew hundreds of the defendant’s supporters, Justice Beverly Cannone weighed in on a number of new motions before announcing a formal start date of March 12, 2024 for the murder trial of Karen Read.

Read has been charged in connection with the January 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer and Canton resident John O’Keefe, who was found battered and unconscious in the snow outside the home of fellow BPD officer Brian Albert on Fairview Road. Prosecutors allege that Read, who they say was intoxicated when she dropped off O’Keefe in front of the Albert residence to attend a party, struck him with her SUV at a high rate of speed before fleeing the scene. Read, however, maintains her innocence of all charges, while her lawyers point to evidence that they say hints at a cover-up involving multiple prosecution witnesses as well as law enforcement personnel.

Karen Read confers with Attorney Alan Jackson. (Image courtesy of CCTV)

The case has already garnered widespread interest as well as national media exposure, prompting Read’s attorney David Yannetti at one point during Friday’s hearing to characterize his client as “one of the most recognizable criminal defendants in America.”

“Where on earth would she go, even if she wanted to go somewhere?” Yannetti asked the court while arguing to have her bail returned. “But she’s not going anywhere. Her family is here; her doctors are here; and she has every incentive to fight this case and no incentive to flee.”

While Read is not currently being held after posting a cash bail of $100,000 (subsequently reduced to $80,000), her attorneys have asked that the money be returned to her so she can use the funds to properly defend herself. Specifically, Yannetti noted that Read, who has lost her job and her health insurance, has been forced to pay out of pocket for multiple experts to “do the work that the commonwealth has neglected and/or refused to do.”

While underscoring the significant financial strain that Read has faced as a result of the charges against her — albeit a strain that has likely been softened by the $190,000-plus raised to date through the Justice for Karen Read Legal Defense Fund — Yannetti mainly focused his arguments for bail reduction on the changing circumstances of the case since Read’s arraignment in Stoughton District Court in February 2022.

Although convinced of his client’s innocence from the outset, Yannetti said it was only hours after she was arraigned that a person he described as a “friend and colleague of Brian Albert’s” contacted his office with an unsolicited tip that O’Keefe was not struck by Read but rather had been beaten unconscious inside the Alberts’ home that evening. “That tip, on day one of this case, led us to do the investigation the commonwealth … refused to do,” Yannetti said.

With the help of their own experts, Yannetti said that they have since uncovered what he described as a pattern of deception on the part of members of the Albert family as well as Norfolk County prosecutors and State Police investigators. Specifically, Yannetti pointed to cell phone data analysis that they say reveals “beyond any doubt” that a Google search for the phrase “[how] long to die in cold” was initiated by Albert’s sister-in-law at 2:27 a.m., several hours before O’Keefe was found on the Alberts’ front lawn. Yannetti also pointed to Canton animal control records showing that Albert deceived the court by stating, through his attorney, that the family’s German shepherd had never attacked anyone, as well as new DNA analysis of a strand of hair found on Read’s vehicle that calls into question prosecutors’ claims that the hair had been “forensically” proven to be human.

But Yannetti saved his harshest condemnation for State Trooper Michael Proctor of Canton, one of the lead investigators on the case, who he accused in open court of being both “conflicted” and “corrupt,” citing everything from his family’s apparent prior close relationship with the Albert family, to his alleged unwillingness to pursue certain investigatory angles, to his handling and documentation of critical pieces of evidence.

Yannetti said it was also Proctor’s police reporting that contained the most consequential “lie” uncovered to date — a statement by Canton DPW Superintendent Mike Trotta that no town workers plowed Fairview Road on the morning that O’Keefe was found — which Yannetti said had the effect of shielding prosecutors from a person who he described as the most important eyewitness in the case.

That witness, veteran DPW driver Brian Loughran, has since reiterated to Proctor what he had previously told FBI investigators and a private investigator hired by the defense — that there was no body on the Alberts’ lawn when he passed by in his plow truck at approximately 2:30 a.m. on the morning in question.

Yannetti said that testimony by Loughran should be enough to “end the case” against Read. “To put it simply, no body at 2:30 a.m. means Karen Read is innocent,” he said. “Forget about all the other evidence that points to her innocence. This one fact alone prevents the commonwealth from ever convicting her.”

Despite these and other bold claims made by Read’s attorneys on Friday — including new allegations that Proctor conducted several “additional undocumented searches” of the Albert property in February 2022 that turned up more taillight pieces from Read’s SUV — Assistant DA Adam Lally said there has been no change in the facts surrounding this case and he dismissed as baseless any allegations of dishonesty directed at the commonwealth or its investigators.

Lally, who opposed the request to return Read’s bail, said the actual evidence in the case still points solely at the defendant, including “microscopic pieces” of red and clear plastic recovered from O’Keefe’s clothing that the State Police crime lab has reportedly matched to Read’s taillight.

Regarding the Google search raised by the defense, Lally reiterated their own expert’s conclusion that it was conducted not at 2:30 a.m. but later that morning “at the request of the defendant.” As for the hair found on the rear of Read’s vehicle, Lally said the defense team’s statements were a “complete misrepresentation” of what the DNA analysis showed. Rather than conclude that it was not human, Lally said there was an “insufficient amount of any DNA” found on the hair strand and therefore they are seeking the approval of the court to have it sent to an outside lab to conduct exhaustive testing. “There is nothing that’s being hidden here or kept from the defense,” he insisted.

Despite the barbs traded by attorneys, Justice Cannone sought to maintain a narrow focus throughout Friday’s hearing, and in the case of the bail motion, she said she could not rule until she received a more complete accounting of Read’s finances. She gave the defense a one-week deadline to provide the necessary documentation and said she would take the matter under advisement.

In other news from the hearing:

* Attorneys for Read spent a considerable amount of time outlining the various categories of evidence they have still not received from the commonwealth despite making several formal requests dating back to her arraignment in February 2022. Elizabeth Little, co-counsel for the defendant, said this includes handwritten notes taken in connection with the police investigation as well as 56 pieces of key physical evidence. “That is unacceptable,” she said. “That is unconstitutional, and that clearly violates the [commonwealth’s] mandatory discovery provisions.”

ADA Lally, in response to Little’s statements, said prosecutors are well aware of their legal obligations and that it is “patently ridiculous” to suggest that they are intentionally withholding evidence. Lally said the evidence is in the possession of the State Police lab and has been held for the purposes of comparison testing to establish potential forensic links. Cannone ordered the commonwealth to turn over all police notes and documentation of searches by September 29 and to make every effort to have all outstanding physical evidence tested by November 3.

* After hearing no objection from counsel on either side, Cannone allowed a defense motion seeking GPS records from the town of Canton that they believe will further corroborate the testimony of Brian Loughran. She also allowed a defense motion seeking records from Google LLC pertaining to a home surveillance system owned or set up by Brian Albert prior to January 29, 2022. Defense attorneys are skeptical of Albert’s testimony in which he claimed to have never set up the cameras; however, attorneys for both the commonwealth and Albert said they did not object to the records request.

* Cannone allowed a similar motion filed by the prosecution seeking Alarm.com footage of the exterior of Read’s parents’ home during the time that Read was visited and interviewed by state troopers on January 29, 2022.

* The next pre-trial hearing is scheduled for December 8 at 9 a.m. in Norfolk Superior Court.

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Posted by Canton Citizen on Sep 22 2023. Filed under News. Both comments and pings are currently closed.