Karen ReadThe murder trial is ongoing.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with his vehicle in front of another police officer’s home outside Boston in January 2022 and leaving him for dead in the snow, prosecutors said in court documents.
However, Read’s lawyers have alleged in court and in court documents a massive cover-up between local and state police that left the 44-year-old man charged with O’Keefe’s murder – drawing criticism national attention and dividing the small town of Canton, Massachusetts.
Authorities have denied any cover-up of the case, but intrigue has not stopped a crowd of Read’s supporters from showing up at the Norfolk County Superior Courthouse since opening statements in his trial began on the 29th. april. NBC Boston reported.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, vehicular homicide and fleeing the scene of a fatal accident in connection with O’Keefe’s death.
Here’s what you need to know about the case.
What happened to John O’Keefe, prosecutors say
On the night of January 28, 2022, Read, O’Keefe, Boston Police Detective Brian Albert, his sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe and others were drinking at Canton bars outside Boston, according to a criminal complaint obtained by TODAY.com.
The area was experiencing heavy snowfall and freezing temperatures due to a winter storm, the complaint states.
While a bar where the group was gathered was closed around midnight on January 29, 2022, members of the group decided to go to Albert’s home, according to the complaint. Read and O’Keefe left in Read’s black Lexus SUV, prosecutors said in court files.
Several witnesses told authorities they remembered seeing a dark SUV pull up to Albert’s house around 12:15 a.m., although no one from the car went inside and it drove away around 12:45 a.m., prosecutors said .
At 4:53 a.m., Read’s niece and O’Keefe both tried to contact O’Keefe, but they were unable to reach him, according to a police report. obtained by NBC Boston. (TODAY.com has not reviewed the same report.)
A friend picked up Read and McCabe to start looking for O’Keefe around 5 a.m., according to the complaint.
The group found O’Keefe unconscious in the snow outside Albert’s house around 6 a.m. and began performing CPR until medical personnel arrived on the scene, according to the criminal complaint.
O’Keefe was pronounced dead later that morning at Good Samaritan Hospital in Boston, according to the complaint.
During a search of the crime scene, Canton police officers discovered broken glass matching the one O’Keefe had seen earlier in the night, as well as bloodstains, prosecutors said.
On Jan. 29, around 6 p.m., Massachusetts State Police investigators also recovered three pieces of plastic matching the taillight of Read’s vehicle, prosecutors wrote in a court memo.
During a phone call, a spokesperson for…
