Karen Read went to trial in 2024 for the murder of her boyfriend and Boston police officer John O’Keefe. After a mistrial was declared last July, her retrial was scheduled for the end of January 2025. With the new trial coming up fast, hearings have begun, and tension between the prosecution and Karen Read’s defense is heating up. The dog bite expert from the first trial is under further examination, and her testimony is up in the air about whether or not it will be used. Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor’s misconduct hearing will take place next week over the crude text messages he sent about Read to his fellow officers. The entire case is a complete mess.
Karen Read’s First Trial
Karen Read was charged with manslaughter while under the influence, second-degree murder, and fleeing the scene of a crime regarding the death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe. She pleaded not guilty to all charges, and her original trial began in April 2024. After two months of both sides sharing their arguments, weeks of expert testimony, and five days of jury deliberation, a unanimous decision was still out of reach.
It was released shortly after the trial was declared a mistrial that jurors admitted to finding Read not guilty on all charges but manslaughter. They could not properly communicate their decision to the judge and did not know how to proceed with the manslaughter charge. John O’Keefe was a former Boston police officer in a romantic relationship with Karen Read. They went out to the bars with a few police friends on the night of January 28, 2022, during a blizzard.
There was an after-party at a fellow police officer’s home where Read drove and dropped off O’Keefe. Read claims she went straight home after dropping him off. After she realized he had not come home, she searched for him on January 29. O’Keefe’s body was discovered shortly after in the snow out front of the house where she dropped him off. While Karen Read claims she is being framed by the fellow officers who partied in the house that night she dropped O’Keefe off; the prosecution argues she was angry and hit him in a fit of rage with her car.
O’Keefe’s autopsy revealed he died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma, so her hitting him is not out of the question. However, he could have also been struck with something else. It is also possible that since O’Keefe was a Boston police officer, his murder was dealt with differently, a more unethical one. How is it that his buddies did not realize he never showed up or did not look out the front of the house once?
Dog Bite Expert
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone approved the prosecution’s request to decide whether or not the dog bite expert testimony can be used in Karen Read’s second trial. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan told the judge, “She doesn’t have the qualifications, she doesn’t have the experience, she doesn’t have the methodology.” Brennan took dags at Russell’s testimony, and the cross-examination continued to heat up. He implied that she was solely relying on her “subjective opinion.”
Dr. Marie Russell is a former emergency room doctor who worked at a highly ranked hospital for trauma cases. She also has a professional background as a forensic pathologist and medical examiner. In the original trial, she stated the dog bites caused the wounds to John O’Keefe’s body by the rips and tears in his clothing. At yesterday’s hearing, she maintained that opinion. Russell seems more than qualified to determine how those wounds and holes were made. If the prosecution believes it was not dog bites, then they need a more substantial argument than the grill of the SUV.
Final Thoughts
Karen Read’s retrial is set to begin on January 27, 2025. It could very well be one of the biggest trials of the year. Just before that, on January 15, Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor will appear in front of a trial board to hear the allegations of his misconduct in Read’s case. Proctor was suspended without pay just after the first trial ended. He was the lead investigator on the case and acted unprofessionally in an interesting manner. Read’s defense is accusing Proctor of planting evidence to frame their client for the murder of his buddy, his fellow officer, John O’Keefe.
He certainly did not think about his actions before sending crude text messages about Karen Read to his friends, family, and coworkers from his phone. He referred to her as a ‘whackjob’ and insisted she should kill herself. Understandably, he is upset since O’Keefe was his friend. But he still had a duty to be professional, and he failed. In the first trial, he took the stand and apologized for his actions, claiming they were “regrettable.” However, maybe he was pushing his guilt onto her because he could have saved his friend, and he knows it.
