Latest news with #murderTrial
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Karen Read jurors speak out after verdict. What they've said so far.
Hours after a 12-person Massachusetts jury found Karen Read not guilty of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe, several jurors have spoken out about how they came to their decision. Read was accused by prosecutors of hitting O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022. Her first trial in 2024 ended in a hung jury, but on June 18, she was acquitted on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter. The jury did, however, find her guilty on a drunk driving charge. She was sentenced to one year of probation. Read's defense team has long alleged O'Keefe's death stemmed from an incident inside the Canton, Massachusetts house of fellow police officer Brian Albert. O'Keefe was found dead on Albert's front lawn, but he says O'Keefe never came inside. Here's what jurors have said so far. Karen Read trial: What happens now that she has been found not guilty of murder? One of the jurors in Read's trial, who was identified only by his first name, Jason, told TMZ he believes she is innocent. "I think for the jurors there's a mix of, some people think that she was definitely innocent, and the other people, there was a lot of reasonable doubt at least to where we didn't want to convict her," he said. Regarding the theory that Read may have been framed in O'Keefe's death, Jason said he doesn't know if there was a coverup. "I was only presented a limited scope of what happened at the night, and I can only base my opinion off of the evidence that was shown in the courtroom," he said. He added, "All I know is that there was a lot of holes in the investigation." Paula Prado, another juror who found Karen Read not guilty, spoke out in several media interviews after the verdict was handed down. She told local media on June 19 that she found there were too many inconsistencies in the investigation. "I thought Karen Read was actually maybe guilty of manslaughter in the beginning. But as the weeks passed by, I just realized there was too many holes that we couldn't fill and there is nothing that put her on the scene, in our opinion, besides just dropping John O'Keefe off," Prado said, per WBZ News and NBC 10 Boston. Prado, who is a lawyer from Brazil, said in an interview on the TODAY show on June 20 that she's "confident we did the right thing," but feels "sorry that justice wasn't served" for O'Keefe's family. "The reason why I'm coming out and talking to people is to keep the flame going and the supporters going after the DA, or whatever they have to do, to reopen the case and find who really killed John O'Keefe," she said. Melina Khan is a national trending reporter for USA TODAY. She can be reached at This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Here's what Karen Read jurors are saying after not guilty verdict
Fox News
a day ago
- Fox News
Boston cop would have 'taken a bullet' for Karen Read's officer boyfriend found dead on his property
Print Close By Michael Ruiz Published June 20, 2025 The Boston police officer who owned the property where John O'Keefe was found dead during a blizzard in January 2022 said he would have "taken a bullet" for his former colleague in a televised interview just days after jurors found the suspected killer, Karen Read, not guilty. Brian Albert's sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, woke him up after she, Read and another woman found O'Keefe unresponsive in the yard around 6 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. "By the time I came downstairs, the police were already in my house, John was already gone, [and] there was nobody to save," Albert told ABC News Friday. "I would've taken a bullet for John O'Keefe." CLEARED OF MURDER HARGES, KAREN READ COULD EYE LEGAL PAYBACK AGAINST INVESTIGATORS WHO COST HER WATCH: Karen Read's message for John O'Keefe's family Outside a celebratory post-verdict dinner, Read was asked if she had any word's for O'Keefe's family. "I fought for John O'Keefe, harder than anyone," she said. "Harder than anyone." Read's supporters have painted Albert and his family as villains, although he was not called to the stand in her second trial, her defense insinuated that O'Keefe's fatal injuries had something to do with his dog, Chloe, and possibly a friend who was also at the house party. Police never identified anyone but Read as a suspect, and no one else faced charges in connection with O'Keefe's death. WATCH: Karen Read's attorneys weigh in on John O'Keefe's death: 'Somebody is still out there' VINDICATED KAREN READ THANKS 'GREATEST' LEGAL TEAM AS JURORS DELIVER NOT GUILTY VERDICT IN BOYFRIEND'S DEATH FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X Read, O'Keefe and a group of other people had been invited back to Albert's home just after midnight when the local bars closed. Six hours later, O'Keefe was found dead under a layer of snow on the front lawn. Prosecutors alleged that Read hit him with her Lexus SUV and left the scene, but jurors didn't buy the story. GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER After a trial that stretched on for more than 30 days, and four days of deliberation, jurors found Read not guilty of all homicide-related charges. They convicted her only of drunken driving, for which she will serve a year on probation. After the trial, her defense hinted that whoever did O'Keefe has eluded investigators, who were faulted for a sloppy investigation and missed protocols at trial, in an audit, and through internal reviews. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "Somebody is still out there, and it's a shame that this investigation was not done in the proper way so that they could have gotten to the truth," David Yannetti, one of her defense attorneys, told reporters Thursday. Print Close URL
New York Times
2 days ago
- New York Times
Karen Read Acquittal Exposes Flaws in Police Practices, Supporters and Critics Say
Pink-clad supporters of Karen Read who spent years protesting her prosecution on highway overpasses and in traffic rotaries reacted with jubilation on Wednesday when a Massachusetts jury acquitted her of murder and manslaughter charges. Others who believed that Ms. Read was guilty of killing her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, in 2022, and scoffed at defense claims of a police cover-up, came away disheartened and frustrated. But people on each side of the hotly debated, long-running legal drama could, in the end, agree on one thing: The police investigation into the death of the officer, John O'Keefe, was deeply flawed, plagued by unethical and unprofessional conduct, and was a likely factor in the jury's rejection of the prosecution's case. 'People have an expectation that investigations will be fair and diligent, that public servants will do right by us, procedurally, and respect our rights,' said Eric Faddis, a former prosecutor in Denver who followed the trial. 'The evidence showed that Karen Read didn't receive a fair shake from police, and I think the jury saw that as polluting the whole case.' Ms. Read's lawyers, in arguing that the investigation was unfair, had accused police officers who handled the case of planting evidence and protecting witnesses with ties to law enforcement. In an interview with ABC's '20/20' that was released after the verdict, the case's lead investigator, Michael Proctor, denied that he had planted evidence to frame Ms. Read. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Yahoo
Key takeaways from the acquittal of Karen Read in John O'Keefe's death
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Karen Read walked out of court a free woman after more than three years and two trials over the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who was found on the lawn of a fellow officer's home after a night of heavy drinking. Prosecutors said Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, leaving him to die in a blizzard, and charged her with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a deadly collision. Her lawyers successfully defended her, painting a sinister picture of police misconduct and theorizing that O'Keefe was, in fact, killed by colleagues, followed by a vast cover-up. She was convicted of drunken driving, however, for which she will face a year's probation. Though her criminal case is over, Read still faces civil litigation. O'Keefe's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against her and two bars where the couple drank that night. The two trials were filled with moments that raised reasonable doubt, both in the public's mind and, as illustrated by Wednesday's verdict, the minds of jurors. Here are some key takeaways: Defense lawyers asserted from the beginning that there was no collision between O'Keefe and the 6,000-pound (2,700-kilogram) SUV driven by Read, arguing instead that a crew of tightly knit local and state cops were shielding one of their own and framing her. Lead investigator Michael Proctor, who was fired from the Massachusetts State Police after the first trial for misconduct, knew some people at the party at the house outside of which O'Keefe was found. Proctor sent text messages to friends, family, and co-workers, calling Read a 'whack job' while implying that she was the lone suspect and he wanted her to pay. 'There will be some serious charges brought on the girl ... Zero chance she skates. She's f'd,' he texted just hours into the investigation. A federal agent who was at the party, Brian Higgins, acknowledged at trial destroying his phone and SIM card afterward and disposing of them in two different locations on a military base. In another exchange, Jackson questioned a former officer who originally reported seeing Higgins and the Canton police chief near the SUV in a station garage, a statement she later recanted. 'Have you ever heard of something called the blue wall of silence?' Jackson asked the officer. In closing arguments, he suggested that she changed her story under pressure from the department. The prosecution's evidence included pieces of Read's broken taillight that were recovered at the scene; accounts of the couple's crumbling relationship, fueled by booze; and several witnesses testifying that they heard her repeatedly say, 'I hit him.' But defense lawyers portrayed the case as riddled with errors, missteps, and malfeasance. They emphasized that the taillight fragments were not found immediately and argued that police had time to take them from Read's impounded vehicle and plant them. They also presented video evidence that Read's taillight could have been damaged instead when she hit O'Keefe's car at home later that morning. The shards, which the state claimed cut into O'Keefe's arm, had no blood, tissue, or DNA on them. The only DNA found was on an intact piece of taillight on Read's SUV, and it contained three possible sources — O'Keefe and two unknown males. A hair traced to O'Keefe was found on the rear of the SUV, but the defense questioned how it could have stayed there through the blizzard. Prosecutors also struggled to demonstrate that O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle. They acknowledged not knowing how he was hit, and an accident reconstruction video they produced was panned by the defense since no one knows where he would have been standing. Meanwhile, crash reconstruction experts testified for the defense that O'Keefe's injuries were inconsistent with being hit by a large vehicle. Instead, the defense argued, O'Keefe was beaten up at the party. Neither side produced witnesses who saw him enter into the house, but the defense was able to show a fight was possible. A medical expert testified that wounds on his arm were consistent with an animal bite, supporting the theory that a family dog at the home attacked O'Keefe. A cut over his right eye and injuries to the back of his head, they said, more likely came from being punched and falling backward on a hard surface. It was hard to know, defense attorneys argued, since police never searched the home or treated anyone there as a suspect. Even Read's comments about having 'hit him' were explained away by the defense, which said prosecutors were trying to twist into a confession the dazed words of someone who was grieving and in shock. 'It wasn't a confession. It was confusion,' Jackson said, noting that it is common to be in such a state after an emotional trauma. Any number of people at the home, defense lawyers suggested, while questioning why multiple key law enforcement witnesses were never considered potential suspects or investigated. The defense did not prove that someone else killed O'Keefe, but it was apparently able to create enough reasonable doubt for jurors. Higgins, the federal agent, had sent sexually charged and flirtatious text messages to Read despite knowing she was in a relationship with O'Keefe. On the night in question, Higgins texted her while they were at a bar — 'Umm, well?' he wrote. Moments later he was seen 'play fighting' with Brian Albert, a retired Boston police detective and the owner of the home where the party took place. They defense also pointed to a group text that morning in which one person suggested they all agree that O'Keefe never entered the home and Albert said, 'exactly.' Albert, the defense said, never bothered to exit the house after O'Keefe was found. He later sold it, got rid of the family dog and ditched his cellphone. They also portrayed the family as politically connected, noting that Albert's brother was a police officer and a second brother was on the town's governing body. The defense also questioned Jennifer McCabe, Albert's sister-in-law, who was with Read when they discovered the body, about a misspelled web search: 'hos long to die in cold.' The defense argued that McCabe made it just before 2:30 a.m., but prosecutors said it was after O'Keefe was found at Read's request. McCabe was also asked why she never went in the house after finding the body, suggesting that she already knew they were safe inside. No one from the home came outside as police and paramedics gathered. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
The Independent
3 days ago
- The Independent
Key takeaways from the acquittal of Karen Read in her Boston police officer boyfriend's death
Karen Read walked out of court a free woman after more than three years and two trials over the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who was found on the lawn of a fellow officer's home after a night of heavy drinking. Prosecutors said Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, leaving him to die in a blizzard, and charged her with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a deadly collision. Her lawyers successfully defended her, painting a sinister picture of police misconduct and theorizing that O'Keefe was in fact killed by colleagues, followed by a vast cover-up. She was convicted of drunken driving, however, for which she will face a year's probation. Though her criminal case is over, Read still faces civil litigation. O'Keefe's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against her and two bars where the couple drank that night. The two trials were filled with moments that raised reasonable doubt, both in the public's mind and, as illustrated by Wednesday's verdict, the minds of jurors. Here are some key takeaways: The defense theory: Crooked cops and 'the blue wall of silence' Defense lawyers asserted from the beginning that there was no collision between O'Keefe and the 6,000-pound (2,700-kilogram) SUV driven by Read, arguing instead that a crew of tightly knit local and state cops were shielding one of their own and framing her. Lead investigator Michael Proctor, who was fired from the Massachusetts State Police after the first trial for misconduct, knew some people at the party at the house outside of which O'Keefe was found. Proctor sent text messages to friends, family and co-workers calling Read a 'whack job' while implying that she was the lone suspect and he wanted her to pay. 'There will be some serious charges brought on the girl ... Zero chance she skates. She's f'd,' he texted just hours into the investigation. A federal agent who was at the party, Brian Higgins, acknowledged at trial destroying his phone and SIM card afterward and disposing of them in two different locations on a military base. In another exchange, Jackson questioned a former officer who originally reported seeing Higgins and the Canton police chief near the SUV in a station garage, a statement she later recanted. 'Have you ever heard of something called the blue wall of silence?' Jackson asked the officer. In closing arguments, he suggested that she changed her story under pressure from the department. What the evidence showed the jury The prosecution's evidence included pieces of Read's broken taillight that were recovered at the scene; accounts of the couple's crumbling relationship, fueled by booze; and several witnesses testifying that they heard her repeatedly say, 'I hit him.' But defense lawyers portrayed the case as riddled with errors, missteps and malfeasance. They emphasized that the taillight fragments were not found immediately and argued that police had time to take them from Read's impounded vehicle and plant them. They also presented video evidence that Read's taillight could have been damaged instead when she hit O'Keefe's car at home later that morning. The shards, which the state claimed cut into O'Keefe's arm, had no blood, tissue or DNA on them. The only DNA found was on an intact piece of taillight on Read's SUV, and it contained three possible sources — O'Keefe and two unknown males. A hair traced to O'Keefe was found on the rear of the SUV, but the defense questioned how it could have stayed there through the blizzard. Prosecutors also struggled to demonstrate that O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle. They acknowledged not knowing how he was hit, and an accident reconstruction video they produced was panned by the defense since no one knows where he would have been standing. Meanwhile crash reconstruction experts testified for the defense that O'Keefe's injuries were inconsistent with being hit by a large vehicle. Instead, the defense argued, O'Keefe was beaten up at the party. Neither side produced witnesses who saw him enter into the house, but the defense was able to show a fight was possible. A medical expert testified that wounds on his arm were consistent with an animal bite, supporting the theory that a family dog at the home attacked O'Keefe. A cut over his right eye and injuries to the back of his head, they said, more likely came from being punched and falling backward on a hard surface. It was hard to know, defense attorneys argued, since police never searched the home or treated anyone there as a suspect. Even Read's comments about having 'hit him' were explained away by the defense, which said prosecutors were trying to twist into a confession the dazed words of someone who was grieving and in shock. 'It wasn't a confession. It was confusion,' Jackson said, noting that it is common to be in such a state after an emotional trauma. If Read didn't kill O'Keefe, who did? Any number of people at the home, defense lawyers suggested, while questioning why multiple key law enforcement witnesses were never considered potential suspects or investigated. The defense did not prove that someone else killed O'Keefe, but it was apparently able to create enough reasonable doubt for jurors. Higgins, the federal agent, had sent sexually charged and flirtatious text messages to Read despite knowing she was in a relationship with O'Keefe. On the night in question, Higgins texted her while they were at a bar — 'Umm, well?' he wrote. Moments later he was seen 'play fighting' with Brian Albert, a retired Boston police detective and the owner of the home where the party took place. They defense also pointed to a group text that morning in which one person suggested they all agree that O'Keefe never entered the home and Albert said, 'exactly.' Albert, the defense said, never bothered to exit the house after O'Keefe was found. He later sold it, got rid of the family dog and ditched his cellphone. They also portrayed the family as politically connected, noting that Albert's brother was a police officer and a second brother was on the town's governing body. The defense also questioned Jennifer McCabe, Albert's sister-in-law, who was with Read when they discovered the body, about a misspelled web search: 'hos long to die in cold.' The defense argued that McCabe made it just before 2:30 a.m., but prosecutors said it was after O'Keefe was found at Read's request. McCabe was also asked why she never went in the house after finding the body, suggesting that she already knew they were safe inside. No one from the home came outside as police and paramedics gathered. ___ See an AP Photo Gallery from Read's acquittal here.
