As a Massachusetts jury is deliberating the fate of Karen Read — who is accused of murdering her cop boyfriend — here is a recap of some of the most memorable moments from the past two months of trial.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, Mass., is charged with second-degree murder for allegedly mowing down her beau and Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV and leaving him for dead outside during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022.
She has pleaded not guilty and faces up to life imprisonment if convicted on the top count.
The jury in Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham began deliberating Tuesday and resumed its decision-making process again Wednesday morning, around 9:15 a.m.
The 29 days of testimony were marked with many notable moments that have only added to the national attention the case has garnered.
Judge slams Karen Read for smirking: ‘This is funny?’
On the second day of deliberations Wednesday, while the jury was out of the courtroom, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone slammed Read for seemingly making a face during a legal discussion.
“Excuse me. This is funny, Ms. Read?” Cannone asked.
Read, who was mostly obscured on a courtroom video feed by her lawyer, who was standing up, could be seen shaking her head back and forth in response.
The judge responded: “All right, we’re done.”
The tense moment came after Read’s lawyer Alan Jackson had been asking the judge to alter the wording of the verdict form, a request Cannone initially rejected, seemingly prompting Read’s reaction.
Later, the judge said she reconsidered Jackson’s arguments, read a brief instruction to the jury and sent them an updated verdict slip.
Jurors are introduced to Karen Read’s angry, swear-laden messages she sent to her cop beau after his death
On Thursday, during the second-to-last day of testimony, jurors heard numerous angry voicemails that Read left O’Keefe between the time he was allegedly killed around 12:30 a.m. and when his body was found around 6 a.m.
“John! I f–king hate you!” Read could be heard saying in a message from 12:37 a.m.
“John I am here with your (expletive) kids,” Read says in a voicemail from 12:59 a.m. “Nobody knows where the (expletive) you are. You (expletive) pervert,” according to a report by WCVB 5.
Eight of Read’s voicemails to O’Keefe were played during the testimony of forensic expert Nicholas Guarino, of the Massachusetts State Police.
Guarino told jurors how Read had called O’Keefe’s phone over 50 times after his death, texting and leaving voicemails until his body was found by Read and two others hours later.
Jackson told jurors during closing arguments Tuesday that Read’s calls and messages that night demonstrated how she went from being angry — after dropping O’Keefe off at Brian Albert’s Canton home because he made her wait without word — to flying into a panic hours later over not knowing where he was.
Lead investigator admits to ‘unprofessional and regrettable’ texts calling Karen Read ‘wack job c–t’
Earlier this month, lead investigator Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor was forced to answer questions about a slew of nasty messages he’d sent to others about Read, including calling her a “wack job c–t” and “retarded.”
Proctor admitted while on the witness stand on June 11 that the messages he sent to friends about Read were “juvenile [and] unprofessional” but maintained they didn’t impact “the integrity of this investigation.”
Jurors were shown messages from Proctor saying Read was a “babe” with “no ass” and joking that when he was searching her phone during the probe he looked for nudes of her.
“She waffled him. I looked at his body in the hospital. He was banged up,” Proctor said of O’Keefe in another message. “She hit him with her car.”
“She hot, at least?” a friend asked in response.
“She’s a wack job c–t. Yes, she’s a babe. Weird Fall River accent, though. No ass,” Proctor answers.
He also made fun of Read’s Crohn’s disease saying in a text: “She’s got a leaking balloon knot. Leaks poo.”
In another message, Proctor said he hoped she would kill herself.
“I believe poor jokes and unprofessional language have no bearing on the integrity and the facts and physical evidence of this case,” he claimed.
Karen Read kissed another officer, exchanged flirty texts: testimony
Last month, the jury heard from Brian Higgins, a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent, about how he and Read struck up a flirtation and even kissed one time.
“You’re, hot,” the accused killer wrote to Higgins.
“Are you serious or messing with me?” he asked.
‘No, I’m serious,” she responded.
Higgins testified that one time when he was leaving O’Keefe’s house, Read “planted a kiss on me. Not like a friend,” according to a report by WCVB 5.
“I am not proud of these text messages,” the agent told the jury. “John was a friend at the same time.”
Higgins also admitted that he “was physically attracted to her, yes.”
During closing arguments Tuesday, Read’s lawyer claimed that prosecutors attempted to drag her character through the mud during the trial because they had such a weak case.
Witness testifies Karen Read asked her to Google search ‘how long it takes for someone to die in the snow’
Hours after O’Keefe had allegedly been murdered by Read, Read — claiming not to know where O’Keefe was — returned to Albert’s home around 6 a.m. with O’Keefe’s pal Jennifer McCabe and a third friend Kerry Roberts, where the trio found the cop’s body in a snowbank.
McCabe told the jury during testimony last month that Read told her to Google search “how long it takes someone to die in the snow.” Prosecutors say McCabe carried out the internet search around 6:23 a.m.
But Read’s lawyers say McCabe searched the phrase around 2:27 a.m. — as they tried to paint McCabe as an integral player in the cover-up to frame Read.
Read’s lawyers have claimed all along that she was a scapegoat in a sweeping law enforcement conspiracy and that O’Keefe was killed after getting into a fight with his officer buddies at Albert’s house.
But when cross-examined by Read’s lawyers, McCabe insisted she never made the Google search at the earlier time.
“I did not delete that search,” McCabe testified. “I never made that search at 2:23. I never would have left John O’Keefe out in the cold to die. Because he was my friend that I love,” McCabe answered.
Karen Read rolls eyes, snaps at lawyers after emotional witness testimony
Read was visibly upset following the testimony of McCabe’s daughter, Allison McCabe, who emotionally testified about how others involved in the case faced vicious “harassment” by “bloggers, people online.”
After Allison stepped off the stand for a break, Read spoke with her lawyers, rolling her eyes, snapping her head back and aggressively muttering something to her team.
During testimony, the younger McCabe came to the defense of Colin Albert — one of the men that Read’s lawyers say got in the fight with O’Keefe that led to his death.
But Allison testified that she picked up Colin and he wouldn’t have been at the house when the altercation allegedly happened.
She went on to tearfully testify that Colin had been on the receiving end of brutal online harassment over his alleged involvement in O’Keefe’s murder.
‘Turtleboy’ blogger gets arrested for harassing witnesses
Read’s case has drawn national public discourse on whether she’s guilty, with droves of supporters showing up to the Dedham, Mass., courthouse throughout the trial.
In fact, the so-called controversial “Turtleboy” blogger — whose real name is Aidan Kearney — has been so enthusiastic in his activism in support of Read’s innocence, that he allegedly crossed the line into witness tampering, officials claimed.
Kearney was arrested in October for sending “harassing, threatening and intimidating” messages to witnesses and investigators in the case.
Kearney pleaded not guilty at the time, and his lawyer said he was protected from the charges under the First Amendment right to free speech.
Over the weekend, a polarizing Kearney — who has supported the theory that the Alberts were involved in O’Keefe’s death — was allegedly assaulted by two Canton residents, one of whom mentioned the Alberts and accused him of meddling in her family’s affairs, Outlook reported.
Canton cops confirmed the pair were charged with assault and battery of Kearney.
Swarm of Karen Read supporters
At one point Tuesday, when Read and her lawyers left the courthouse for a break, she was swarmed by a crowd of supporters cheering her on.
“Love you, Karen!” one woman could be heard yelling.
Massachusetts criminal defense attorney Michael Delsignore told The Post the case has taken the Bay State by storm.
“Everyone is talking about it,” he said. “There is a billboard on Route 1 near Gillette Stadium where it says ‘Free Karen Read.’”
“Everyone is watching [the trial] and commenting on it,” he added. “Clients ask me about it. Former clients text me to give thoughts on the case. People are really taking an interest in the case for sure.”
Delsignore said he thinks it fascinates the public because of the suggestion that there could be a police frame job afoot.
“There has been some evidence that the investigation hasn’t gone the way you’d expect it to,” he explained. “There have definitely been a lot of things to come out about the police in terms of the way they talked about her inappropriately.
“The governor has come out and said the state police shouldn’t be acting this way,” the attorney added. “So I think that fueled a lot of public interest in this.”
