Karen Read murder trial: Live updates as State Police Trooper Michael Proctor testifies
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with an SUV during a winter storm
Updated: 12:45 PM EDT Jun 10, 2024
Testimony resumed Monday in the murder trial of Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of hitting John O’Keefe, her boyfriend, with an SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.Read, 44, of Mansfield, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges. The prosecution says she hit O’Keefe with her black SUV outside of a home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking. Her defense plans to argue that someone else is responsible for killing O’Keefe. Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, a lead investigator in the case, said he saw O’Keefe’s body in the emergency room and noticed abrasions on his right arm, swollen eyes and blood on the back of his head. He and Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick then traveled to Read’s parents’ home in Dighton, where he saw Read’s vehicle. “We observed Miss Read’s Lexus parked in the driveway,” Proctor said. “The front of it was facing one of the garage doors. That’s where we observed a broken taillight on the right of the vehicle.” Proctor said the vehicle was then towed to the Canton Police Department. “Sgt. Bukhenick and I never touched any part of that vehicle,” Proctor said. Earlier, the trial began with a request from the prosecution to exclude a witness for the defense who is expected to testify about wounds on O’Keefe’s arm. The judge said she will hold a hearing later this week.Bukhenick was also questioned again about the “mirrored” video that shows Read’s SUV inside the garage of the Canton Police Department. Defense attorney Alan Jackson asked Bukhenick to identify a person who appeared to be behind the vehicle.”They are in a frozen frame. I can tell there are two individuals back there,” said Bukhenick, however, he could not identify Proctor as one of the people.Bukhenick said when he was questioned by the prosecution about the video, he did not indicate to the jury that it was inverted. “It’s an accurate depiction of the events taking place,” Bukhenick said.When asked about what appeared to be a “jump” in the footage, Bukhenick explained that the recording is triggered by motion, there are no “missing” parts and the video was not manipulated. “The video does not record because it is not triggered to record,” Bukhenick said.Nicholas Barros, a sergeant with the Dighton Police Department, testified that he accompanied state police to the residence of Read’s parents, where Read’s car was parked. “We observed a black Lexus SUV in the driveway,” Barros said. “I saw that there was some damage to the right rear taillight.” Barros said the taillight was “cracked with a piece missing” and there was “a dent” on the passenger side of the SUV near the taillight.Last week, the defense pointed out writing on another vehicle in the garage and on a garage door. Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick said the video was “mirrored,” however he could not explain why.The sergeant explained that what the jurors were seeing was the driver’s side of the car, and not the passenger’s side, which appeared to have a damaged taillight in another video shown to the jury. “So the video is inverted. Completely inverted. It’s a mirror image, which suggests that the driver side is the passenger side and vice versa but the timestamp across the bottom is not inverted, which means somebody had to put that on the inverted, the manipulated, the altered video on purpose,” Jackson told reporters outside the courthouse. Live updates: 12:30 p.m. Lally shows picture of O’Keefe’s Chevy Traverse. Proctor points to bumper to show where it might have come in contact with Read’s Lexus. Defense objects. Sidebar. 12:20 p.m. Proctor says no snow appears to fall off O’Keefe’s vehicle as Read’s SUV gets close and no pieces of red plastic appear on the snow as Read pulls away. (The defense says this is the moment Read’s taillight was cracked.) 12:15 p.m. Proctor says after visiting crime scene, they went to O’Keefe’s home to look at his vehicle. Says they’d seen Ring camera video of Read’s SUV coming close to it. 12:10 p.m. Proctor says he never went to 34 Fairview Rd alone. Says on Feb 3, they found black drinking straw, O’Keefe’s cap “deep underneath the snow”, pieces of plastic. 12 p.m. Proctor says when they executed the search warrant on Read’s SUV on 2/1/22 at Canton Pd, it was in the same condition as he’d seen in on 1/29/22 in Dighton. 11:55 a.m. Proctor says the evidence they recovered on 1/29/22 was placed in temporary storage area at Canton PD because they didn’t have access to permanent storage locker. 11:45 a.m. “Sgt. Bukhenik and I never touched any part of that vehicle,” Proctor says about the SUV when it was at the Canton Police Dept. 11:37 a.m. Proctor says he noticed “broken” taillight on Read’s SUV when they arrived at her parents’ home in Dighton. 11:25 a.m. From McCabe residence, Proctor went to Good Samaritan Hospital where he was told Read had been released several hours earlier. He also saw O’Keefe’s body in ER, noticed abrasions on his right arm, swollen eyes, blood on back of head. 11:20 a.m. Proctor says Firefighter Flematti told him more about O’Keefe’s injuries, including that he had a 10% chance of survival. So he decided to respond. Shoveled out his driveway and went to Canton PD about 10am to meet Sgt. Bukhenik. 11:17 a.m. Proctor says he was initially told O’Keefe’s death might be a “possible medical situation” so he contacted Sgt. Lank at Canton police to find out more. 11:15 a.m. Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor takes stand10:40 a.m. Barros says he saw “some damage” to right rear taillight of Read’s SUV. Says taillight was “cracked with a piece missing.” Says he also saw a dent near the taillight. 10:29 a.m. Prosecution calls Nicholas Barros, sergeant with Dighton Police Department10:20 a.m. Bukhenik says he initially told medical examiners office this might be a domestic situation based on info he’d received from first responders that Read said she’d hit him and that a cocktail glass was found at scene. 10:15 a.m. Lally is making the point that this video was shot after the video of the SUV in O’Keefe’s driveway and after the video at Read’s parents’ home in Dighton. 10:10 a.m. Prosecutor Adam Lally is now playing the uninverted video of the SUV in the garage. Asks Bukhenik to notice the snow falling from driver’s door Asks him if noticed any snow falling for O’Keefe’s vehicle when Read’s SUV came close in driveway.10 a.m. Jackson plays video from another camera in the Canton police garage. Jackson says the SUV “just appears”. Says 42 minutes are missing. Says portion of the video showing person near taillight is missing. 9:55 a.m. Court resumes. Jury returns. Jackson plays un-inverted video of the SUV. Bukhenik gets up to look at the timestamp near the bottom of the screen.9:30 a.m. Jackson asks if Bukhenik notices that some people appear out of nowhere in the video? Bukhenik says the video is triggered by motion. “It’s not missing. It just wasn’t recorded,” Bukhenik says. 9:20 a.m. Jackson: You did not mention that this video is inverted, did you? Bukhenik: It did not come up. 9:18 a.m. Jackson is asking where Tpr. Michael Proctor appears in the video. Bukhenik says he cannot be sure where Proctor is. 9:15 a.m. Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik returns to the stand. Defense attorney Alan Jackson resumes cross-examination about the video of Read’s SUV at the Canton Police Department. Bukhenik confirms the person seen slipping in front of the vehicle is the tow truck driver. 9:10 a.m. State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick returns to stand and is questioned about video of Read’s SUV inside Canton police station8:50 a.m. Judge says this looks like “at least a day of voir dire” to learn more about these defense witnesses. The judge reminds attorneys she told the jury they’d likely get case by last week of June. Yannetti says hearing will take “about two hours”. 8:45 a.m. Assistant District Attorney Laura McLaughlin says this is trial by ambush. 8:45 a.m. The prosecution wants to exclude, Dr. Marie Russell, an emergency medicine specialist in Los Angeles, because it did not learn about the plan to have her testify until week six of the trial. 8:36 a.m. Good morning. Day 22 of testimony. We’re starting early today with a prosecution motion to exclude a defense witness. Then we will hear more cross-examination of Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik. We may also hear more about the “mirrored” video of Read’s SUV. Follow posts from reporter David BienickRelated links:Recap of testimony, evidence from each day of the case Evidence slideshowWhat to know about the case:Karen Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of second-degree murder and other charges. The prosecution says she hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her vehicle outside of a home in Canton during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.Read has pleaded not guilty.Read and her defense team claim she is the victim of a cover-up and plan to present a third-party culprit defense. They claim O’Keefe was beaten inside the home, bitten by a dog, and then left outside.In pretrial motions, prosecutors revealed the existence of text messages they said suggested a “romantic entanglement” with a friend who was present at locations Read and O’Keefe visited on the night of the incident. Other documents have also suggested trouble in the relationship between Read and O’Keefe.Read is also accused of having frequent contact with a controversial blogger known as “Turtleboy,” Aiden Kearney, who now faces charges in related cases.Opening statements were delivered on April 29.The trial is expected to last 6-8 weeks.Case evidence slideshow: Prosecutors are trying to show that Read’s alleged actions outside 34 Fairview Road were intentional. Read’s lawyers have alleged there was a cover-up involving members of several law enforcement agencies. They say O’Keefe was beaten by someone else inside the home, bitten by a dog and then left outside.The defense, which has been allowed to present what is called third-party culprit evidence, argues that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider other suspects. Those they have implicated include Brian Albert, who owned the home in Canton where O’Keefe died, and Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who was there that night.Higgins testified about a “romantic” encounter and a series of text messages he exchanged with Read. In those flirty messages, Read told him that O’Keefe had “hooked up” with another woman during a vacation. The defense is trying to convince the jury that O’Keefe was beaten and suggested that Colin Albert, nephew of the family that owned the home on Fairview Road, had been in a fight. Albert said a hand injury came when he fell in a driveway and that he never saw O’Keefe during the celebration of his cousin’s birthday on the night in question.He also confirmed on cross-examination that he has known the lead state police investigator in this case, Trooper Michael Proctor, since he was a child. A former Massachusetts police toxicologist, Nicholas Roberts, testified that Read’s blood alcohol content at 9 a.m. was between .078% and .083%, right around the legal limit for intoxication in Massachusetts. Based on a police report that suggested her last drink was at 12:45 a.m., her peak blood alcohol level would have been between .135% and .292%, he said.O’Keefe had been raising his niece and nephew, and they told jurors that they heard frequent arguments between him and Read. Both of the teenagers described an incident in which O’Keefe asked Read to leave the house and she refused.The trial’s first few days detailed the futile efforts of first responders to save O’Keefe. They found him face up when they arrived just before dawn on Jan. 29. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, and an autopsy later found he died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma. Several of the first responders said they heard Read make statements, including, “I hit him,” after O’Keefe was found. Defense attorneys confronted several of those witnesses by asking why those alleged remarks were not included in official reports.Officers also testified about unusual procedures used during the investigation, including the decision to collect bloody snow in red plastic cups and clearing snow from the crime scene.
Testimony resumed Monday in the murder trial of Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of hitting John O’Keefe, her boyfriend, with an SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges. The prosecution says she hit O’Keefe with her black SUV outside of a home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking. Her defense plans to argue that someone else is responsible for killing O’Keefe.
Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, a lead investigator in the case, said he saw O’Keefe’s body in the emergency room and noticed abrasions on his right arm, swollen eyes and blood on the back of his head. He and Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick then traveled to Read’s parents’ home in Dighton, where he saw Read’s vehicle.
“We observed Miss Read’s Lexus parked in the driveway,” Proctor said. “The front of it was facing one of the garage doors. That’s where we observed a broken taillight on the right of the vehicle.”
Proctor said the vehicle was then towed to the Canton Police Department.
“Sgt. Bukhenick and I never touched any part of that vehicle,” Proctor said.
Earlier, the trial began with a request from the prosecution to exclude a witness for the defense who is expected to testify about wounds on O’Keefe’s arm. The judge said she will hold a hearing later this week.
Bukhenick was also questioned again about the “mirrored” video that shows Read’s SUV inside the garage of the Canton Police Department. Defense attorney Alan Jackson asked Bukhenick to identify a person who appeared to be behind the vehicle.
“They are in a frozen frame. I can tell there are two individuals back there,” said Bukhenick, however, he could not identify Proctor as one of the people.
Bukhenick said when he was questioned by the prosecution about the video, he did not indicate to the jury that it was inverted.
“It’s an accurate depiction of the events taking place,” Bukhenick said.
When asked about what appeared to be a “jump” in the footage, Bukhenick explained that the recording is triggered by motion, there are no “missing” parts and the video was not manipulated.
“The video does not record because it is not triggered to record,” Bukhenick said.
Nicholas Barros, a sergeant with the Dighton Police Department, testified that he accompanied state police to the residence of Read’s parents, where Read’s car was parked.
“We observed a black Lexus SUV in the driveway,” Barros said. “I saw that there was some damage to the right rear taillight.”
Barros said the taillight was “cracked with a piece missing” and there was “a dent” on the passenger side of the SUV near the taillight.
Last week, the defense pointed out writing on another vehicle in the garage and on a garage door. Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick said the video was “mirrored,” however he could not explain why.
The sergeant explained that what the jurors were seeing was the driver’s side of the car, and not the passenger’s side, which appeared to have a damaged taillight in another video shown to the jury.
“So the video is inverted. Completely inverted. It’s a mirror image, which suggests that the driver side is the passenger side and vice versa but the timestamp across the bottom is not inverted, which means somebody had to put that on the inverted, the manipulated, the altered video on purpose,” Jackson told reporters outside the courthouse.
Live updates:
- 12:30 p.m. Lally shows picture of O’Keefe’s Chevy Traverse. Proctor points to bumper to show where it might have come in contact with Read’s Lexus. Defense objects. Sidebar.
- 12:20 p.m. Proctor says no snow appears to fall off O’Keefe’s vehicle as Read’s SUV gets close and no pieces of red plastic appear on the snow as Read pulls away. (The defense says this is the moment Read’s taillight was cracked.)
- 12:15 p.m. Proctor says after visiting crime scene, they went to O’Keefe’s home to look at his vehicle. Says they’d seen Ring camera video of Read’s SUV coming close to it.
- 12:10 p.m. Proctor says he never went to 34 Fairview Rd alone. Says on Feb 3, they found black drinking straw, O’Keefe’s cap “deep underneath the snow”, pieces of plastic.
- 12 p.m. Proctor says when they executed the search warrant on Read’s SUV on 2/1/22 at Canton Pd, it was in the same condition as he’d seen in on 1/29/22 in Dighton.
- 11:55 a.m. Proctor says the evidence they recovered on 1/29/22 was placed in temporary storage area at Canton PD because they didn’t have access to permanent storage locker.
- 11:45 a.m. “Sgt. Bukhenik and I never touched any part of that vehicle,” Proctor says about the SUV when it was at the Canton Police Dept.
- 11:37 a.m. Proctor says he noticed “broken” taillight on Read’s SUV when they arrived at her parents’ home in Dighton.
- 11:25 a.m. From McCabe residence, Proctor went to Good Samaritan Hospital where he was told Read had been released several hours earlier. He also saw O’Keefe’s body in ER, noticed abrasions on his right arm, swollen eyes, blood on back of head.
- 11:20 a.m. Proctor says Firefighter Flematti told him more about O’Keefe’s injuries, including that he had a 10% chance of survival. So he decided to respond. Shoveled out his driveway and went to Canton PD about 10am to meet Sgt. Bukhenik.
- 11:17 a.m. Proctor says he was initially told O’Keefe’s death might be a “possible medical situation” so he contacted Sgt. Lank at Canton police to find out more.
- 11:15 a.m. Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor takes stand
- 10:40 a.m. Barros says he saw “some damage” to right rear taillight of Read’s SUV. Says taillight was “cracked with a piece missing.” Says he also saw a dent near the taillight.
- 10:29 a.m. Prosecution calls Nicholas Barros, sergeant with Dighton Police Department
- 10:20 a.m. Bukhenik says he initially told medical examiners office this might be a domestic situation based on info he’d received from first responders that Read said she’d hit him and that a cocktail glass was found at scene.
- 10:15 a.m. Lally is making the point that this video was shot after the video of the SUV in O’Keefe’s driveway and after the video at Read’s parents’ home in Dighton.
- 10:10 a.m. Prosecutor Adam Lally is now playing the uninverted video of the SUV in the garage. Asks Bukhenik to notice the snow falling from driver’s door Asks him if noticed any snow falling for O’Keefe’s vehicle when Read’s SUV came close in driveway.
- 10 a.m. Jackson plays video from another camera in the Canton police garage. Jackson says the SUV “just appears”. Says 42 minutes are missing. Says portion of the video showing person near taillight is missing.
- 9:55 a.m. Court resumes. Jury returns. Jackson plays un-inverted video of the SUV. Bukhenik gets up to look at the timestamp near the bottom of the screen.
- 9:30 a.m. Jackson asks if Bukhenik notices that some people appear out of nowhere in the video? Bukhenik says the video is triggered by motion. “It’s not missing. It just wasn’t recorded,” Bukhenik says.
- 9:20 a.m. Jackson: You did not mention that this video is inverted, did you? Bukhenik: It did not come up.
- 9:18 a.m. Jackson is asking where Tpr. Michael Proctor appears in the video. Bukhenik says he cannot be sure where Proctor is.
- 9:15 a.m. Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik returns to the stand. Defense attorney Alan Jackson resumes cross-examination about the video of Read’s SUV at the Canton Police Department. Bukhenik confirms the person seen slipping in front of the vehicle is the tow truck driver.
- 9:10 a.m. State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick returns to stand and is questioned about video of Read’s SUV inside Canton police station
- 8:50 a.m. Judge says this looks like “at least a day of voir dire” to learn more about these defense witnesses. The judge reminds attorneys she told the jury they’d likely get case by last week of June. Yannetti says hearing will take “about two hours”.
- 8:45 a.m. Assistant District Attorney Laura McLaughlin says this is trial by ambush.
- 8:45 a.m. The prosecution wants to exclude, Dr. Marie Russell, an emergency medicine specialist in Los Angeles, because it did not learn about the plan to have her testify until week six of the trial.
- 8:36 a.m. Good morning. Day 22 of testimony. We’re starting early today with a prosecution motion to exclude a defense witness. Then we will hear more cross-examination of Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik. We may also hear more about the “mirrored” video of Read’s SUV.
- Follow posts from reporter David Bienick
Related links:
What to know about the case:
- Karen Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of second-degree murder and other charges. The prosecution says she hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her vehicle outside of a home in Canton during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.
- Read has pleaded not guilty.
- Read and her defense team claim she is the victim of a cover-up and plan to present a third-party culprit defense. They claim O’Keefe was beaten inside the home, bitten by a dog, and then left outside.
- In pretrial motions, prosecutors revealed the existence of text messages they said suggested a “romantic entanglement” with a friend who was present at locations Read and O’Keefe visited on the night of the incident. Other documents have also suggested trouble in the relationship between Read and O’Keefe.
- Read is also accused of having frequent contact with a controversial blogger known as “Turtleboy,” Aiden Kearney, who now faces charges in related cases.
- Opening statements were delivered on April 29.
- The trial is expected to last 6-8 weeks.
Case evidence slideshow:
Prosecutors are trying to show that Read’s alleged actions outside 34 Fairview Road were intentional. Read’s lawyers have alleged there was a cover-up involving members of several law enforcement agencies. They say O’Keefe was beaten by someone else inside the home, bitten by a dog and then left outside.
The defense, which has been allowed to present what is called third-party culprit evidence, argues that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider other suspects. Those they have implicated include Brian Albert, who owned the home in Canton where O’Keefe died, and Brian Higgins, an ATF agent who was there that night.
Higgins testified about a “romantic” encounter and a series of text messages he exchanged with Read. In those flirty messages, Read told him that O’Keefe had “hooked up” with another woman during a vacation.
The defense is trying to convince the jury that O’Keefe was beaten and suggested that Colin Albert, nephew of the family that owned the home on Fairview Road, had been in a fight. Albert said a hand injury came when he fell in a driveway and that he never saw O’Keefe during the celebration of his cousin’s birthday on the night in question.
He also confirmed on cross-examination that he has known the lead state police investigator in this case, Trooper Michael Proctor, since he was a child.
A former Massachusetts police toxicologist, Nicholas Roberts, testified that Read’s blood alcohol content at 9 a.m. was between .078% and .083%, right around the legal limit for intoxication in Massachusetts. Based on a police report that suggested her last drink was at 12:45 a.m., her peak blood alcohol level would have been between .135% and .292%, he said.
O’Keefe had been raising his niece and nephew, and they told jurors that they heard frequent arguments between him and Read. Both of the teenagers described an incident in which O’Keefe asked Read to leave the house and she refused.
The trial’s first few days detailed the futile efforts of first responders to save O’Keefe. They found him face up when they arrived just before dawn on Jan. 29. He was pronounced dead at the hospital, and an autopsy later found he died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
Several of the first responders said they heard Read make statements, including, “I hit him,” after O’Keefe was found. Defense attorneys confronted several of those witnesses by asking why those alleged remarks were not included in official reports.
Officers also testified about unusual procedures used during the investigation, including the decision to collect bloody snow in red plastic cups and clearing snow from the crime scene.
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#Live #updates #State #Police #Trooper #Michael #Proctor #testifies