5 AT NOON. TODAY MARKS DAY 21 OF THE KAREN REID MURDER TRIAL. STATE TROOPER YURI BIENICK IS BACK ON THE STAND TODAY ANALYZING SURVEILLANCE VIDEO FROM THE BAR. REID AND JOHN O’KEEFE WERE AT THE NIGHT HE DIED. AND HE’S ALSO MENTIONED DOORBELL CAMERA VIDEO FROM O’KEEFE’S HOME. HE SAYS IT HAS MISSING SECTIONS, INCLUDING WHEN REID SHOWS JEN MCCABE DAMAGE TO HER TAILLIGHT SHOWING THE JURY MORE EVIDENCE, INCLUDING PLASTIC AND GLASS FOUND AT THE SCENE AND O’KEEFE’S BALL CAP THAT WAS FOUND BURIED UNDER THE SNOW. WE’LL HAVE LIVE REPORTS FROM
Karen Read murder trial: Defense questions ‘mirrored’ video of Read’s SUV inside police station
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with an SUV during a winter storm
Updated: 1:18 PM EDT Jun 6, 2024
A Massachusetts State Police sergeant returned to the stand Thursday 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. Defense attorney Alan Jackson questioned Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick about a video that shows Read’s SUV inside the garage of the Canton Police Department.Jackson pointed out writing on another vehicle in the garage. 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. Earlier, Bukhenick testified that investigators recovered several pieces of evidence outside the home on several occasions in the weeks after O’Keefe’s death. The evidence included a Boston Police Department hat, a drinking straw and several chards of glass and pieces of plastic, which were revealed after the snow melted. He removed the hat and from a brown evidence bag and displayed it to the jury. Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally played the audio of an interview that Bukhenick said he conducted with Read on June 9, 2022. “You’re aware he was beaten up by Brian and Colin Albert? I mean, we’re all in on the same joke, right? My tail light was cracked, and John was pulverized,” Read said.Bukhenik said he advised Read at that point to stop talking. Defense attorney Alan Jackson questioned Bukhenik about the investigation and why he initially thought O’Keefe’s death was due to a “physical altercation.””I communicated our suspicions to the medical examiner’s office,” Bukhenik testified. Jackson also handed Bukhenik an evidence bag containing O’Keefe’s clothing. The label indicates it was Trooper Michael Proctor who placed the clothing in the bags.Bukhenik confirmed the label on the bag shows the clothing was bagged on Feb 4, 2022, six days after they were first recovered from O’Keefe when he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital. Bukheikc said the items had been in the snow and they were “drying during that time.”Jackson also questioned Bukhenik about surveillance video that shows Read backing her SUV out of O’Keefe’s home on Jan. 29, 2022.”It appears that there’s movement” of the rear wheel of O’Keefe’s vehicle as Read’s SUV backs out, Bukhenik said. Live updates: 11:20 a.m. Jackson replays video of Read’s SUV arriving at Canton PD. Bukhenik says this is a mirror image. The side closest to the camera is actually the driver’s side. The passenger-side taillight (which the prosecution says is broken by this point) is not visible. 11:10 a.m. “It appears that there’s movement” of the rear wheel of O’Keefe’s vehicle as Read’s SUV backs out, Bukhenik says. Jackson asks if that means they came in contact. Objection/sustained. 11 a.m. Jackson is now asking Bukhenik abou the surveillance video showing Read backing her SUV out of the O’Keefe’s home early on Jan 29th and coming “close” to O’Keefe’s parked car. 10:50 a.m. Bukhenik confirms label shows the clothing was bagged on Feb 4, six days after they were first recovered from Good Samaritan Hospital. Says the items were drying during that time. 10:40 a.m. Jackson asks about when O’Keefe’s wet clothing was laid out and dried. Bukhenik says it happened late that night. Says he and Proctor did it. Says they were left to dry “under lock and key.” 10:30 a.m. Bukhenik says he didn’t secure the inside of the home at 34 Fairview Rd, which Jackson calls a “potential crime scene.” 10:20 a.m. Defense attorney Alan Jackson begins cross-examination by asking about the search warrant for the doorbell video at O’Keefe’s home. Bukhenik says Proctor requested search warrant and received videos from the company. 10:15 a.m. Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally plays the audio of Karen Read telling Bukhenik on 6/9/22 that “We’re all in the same joke, right?” Says O’Keefe was beaten up by Brian Albert and that he was “pulverized.” Bukhenik says he advised Read at that point to stop talking. 9:55 a.m. Bukhenik says he returned to the scene and Feb 4 and Feb 10 after more items were found. He says on Feb 10, they found six more pieces of plastic and 14 pieces of glass. He says other troopers found other items on other days. 9:30 a.m. Bukhenik said the snow had melted away, revealing pieces of plastic near the flagpole and fire hydrant. 9:25 a.m. Bukhenik says he and other troopers went back to 34 Fairview Rd on 2/3/22 to do a secondary search of the property. Says they brought shovels, rakes and were specifically looking for O’Keefe’s ballcap. Says they found cap, drinking straw & plastic pieces near flagpole. 9:20 a.m. Bukhenik is back on the stand. He says the bar video shows nine drinks being consumed by Read. He says doorbell camera video from O’Keefe’s home has missing sections, including when Read showed Jen McCabe damage to her taillight. 9:12 a.m. The courtroom is cooler since court staff brought in two portable a/c units. But they also make noise and make it harder to hear. That’s why judge Beverly Cannone keeps telling attorneys and witnesses to “keep your voice up.” Good morning. Day 21 of testimony. We expect to hear more from Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick. On Wednesday, he testified about surveillance video showing Read’s SUV and the number of drinks she had the night before O’Keefe died. 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.
A Massachusetts State Police sergeant returned to the stand Thursday 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.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson questioned Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick about a video that shows Read’s SUV inside the garage of the Canton Police Department.
Jackson pointed out writing on another vehicle in the garage. 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.
Earlier, Bukhenick testified that investigators recovered several pieces of evidence outside the home on several occasions in the weeks after O’Keefe’s death.
The evidence included a Boston Police Department hat, a drinking straw and several chards of glass and pieces of plastic, which were revealed after the snow melted. He removed the hat and from a brown evidence bag and displayed it to the jury.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally played the audio of an interview that Bukhenick said he conducted with Read on June 9, 2022.
“You’re aware he was beaten up by Brian and Colin Albert? I mean, we’re all in on the same joke, right? My tail light was cracked, and John was pulverized,” Read said.
Bukhenik said he advised Read at that point to stop talking.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson questioned Bukhenik about the investigation and why he initially thought O’Keefe’s death was due to a “physical altercation.”
“I communicated our suspicions to the medical examiner’s office,” Bukhenik testified.
Jackson also handed Bukhenik an evidence bag containing O’Keefe’s clothing. The label indicates it was Trooper Michael Proctor who placed the clothing in the bags.
Bukhenik confirmed the label on the bag shows the clothing was bagged on Feb 4, 2022, six days after they were first recovered from O’Keefe when he was taken to Good Samaritan Hospital. Bukheikc said the items had been in the snow and they were “drying during that time.”
Jackson also questioned Bukhenik about surveillance video that shows Read backing her SUV out of O’Keefe’s home on Jan. 29, 2022.
“It appears that there’s movement” of the rear wheel of O’Keefe’s vehicle as Read’s SUV backs out, Bukhenik said.
Live updates:
- 11:20 a.m. Jackson replays video of Read’s SUV arriving at Canton PD. Bukhenik says this is a mirror image. The side closest to the camera is actually the driver’s side. The passenger-side taillight (which the prosecution says is broken by this point) is not visible.
- 11:10 a.m. “It appears that there’s movement” of the rear wheel of O’Keefe’s vehicle as Read’s SUV backs out, Bukhenik says. Jackson asks if that means they came in contact. Objection/sustained.
- 11 a.m. Jackson is now asking Bukhenik abou the surveillance video showing Read backing her SUV out of the O’Keefe’s home early on Jan 29th and coming “close” to O’Keefe’s parked car.
- 10:50 a.m. Bukhenik confirms label shows the clothing was bagged on Feb 4, six days after they were first recovered from Good Samaritan Hospital. Says the items were drying during that time.
- 10:40 a.m. Jackson asks about when O’Keefe’s wet clothing was laid out and dried. Bukhenik says it happened late that night. Says he and Proctor did it. Says they were left to dry “under lock and key.”
- 10:30 a.m. Bukhenik says he didn’t secure the inside of the home at 34 Fairview Rd, which Jackson calls a “potential crime scene.”
- 10:20 a.m. Defense attorney Alan Jackson begins cross-examination by asking about the search warrant for the doorbell video at O’Keefe’s home. Bukhenik says Proctor requested search warrant and received videos from the company.
- 10:15 a.m. Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally plays the audio of Karen Read telling Bukhenik on 6/9/22 that “We’re all in the same joke, right?” Says O’Keefe was beaten up by Brian Albert and that he was “pulverized.” Bukhenik says he advised Read at that point to stop talking.
- 9:55 a.m. Bukhenik says he returned to the scene and Feb 4 and Feb 10 after more items were found. He says on Feb 10, they found six more pieces of plastic and 14 pieces of glass. He says other troopers found other items on other days.
- 9:30 a.m. Bukhenik said the snow had melted away, revealing pieces of plastic near the flagpole and fire hydrant.
- 9:25 a.m. Bukhenik says he and other troopers went back to 34 Fairview Rd on 2/3/22 to do a secondary search of the property. Says they brought shovels, rakes and were specifically looking for O’Keefe’s ballcap. Says they found cap, drinking straw & plastic pieces near flagpole.
- 9:20 a.m. Bukhenik is back on the stand. He says the bar video shows nine drinks being consumed by Read. He says doorbell camera video from O’Keefe’s home has missing sections, including when Read showed Jen McCabe damage to her taillight.
- 9:12 a.m. The courtroom is cooler since court staff brought in two portable a/c units. But they also make noise and make it harder to hear. That’s why judge Beverly Cannone keeps telling attorneys and witnesses to “keep your voice up.”
- Good morning. Day 21 of testimony. We expect to hear more from Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenick. On Wednesday, he testified about surveillance video showing Read’s SUV and the number of drinks she had the night before O’Keefe died.
- 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.
