Chilling footage showing a glamorous accused killer in a Boston bar on the night she allegedly killed her cop boyfriend has been shown in court.
Karen Read, 44, is charged with drunkenly and intentionally mowing down her partner John O’Keefe during a snowstorm on January 29, 2022.
The cop of 16 years was found dead around 6am that day, close to a house where Read had dropped him off for an afterparty at around 12.45am.
Read’s attorneys claim she was framed by police as part of a vast conspiracy, saying O’Keefe was beaten up by people at the party and thrown outside.
Video of the accused killer on the fateful night shows her embracing O’Keefe at CF McCarthy’s in Boston before ordering drinks at the bar. She was seen hugging and kissing the man she is accused of killing just hours later.
Chilling footage showing a glamorous accused killer Karen Read in a Boston bar on the night she allegedly killed her cop boyfriend has been shown in court
Read, 44, is charged with drunkenly and intentionally mowing down her partner John O’Keefe during a snowstorm on January 29, 2022
O’Keefe, a cop of 16 years was found dead around 6am that day, close to a house where Read had dropped him off for an afterparty around 12.45am.
O’Keefe had been out celebrating the acceptance of his niece, who was in his care, into private school, Norfolk Superior Court heard on Thursday.
He’s seen enjoying bottles of Bud Light with friends, and Read joins them at the bar a little later and sips a vodka tonic.
The financial analyst and former Bentley University professor is accused of second-degree murder and manslaughter for allegedly backing over him with her SUV in a snowstorm after an argument later that night.
Prosecutors have argued that Read and O’Keefe’s relationship had been on the rocks amid allegations he was cheating and tensions over the two children in O’Keefe’s care – his orphaned niece and nephew.
But O’Keefe’s friends at the first bar testified in court saying the couple seemed content. The group said while they went home at around 10pm, the couple continued on to the Waterfall Bar & Grille.
At the second bar, the couple met up with friends Brian Albert, Brian Higgins and Jennifer McCabe, who would go on to attend the afterparty at the house where O’Keefe perished outside.
A worker at the Waterfall Bar & Grille, Nicholas Kolokithas, said he didn’t notice any tensions between O’Keefe and Read, and that they seemed affectionate to the point that his wife asked why he wasn’t like that with her.
Rebecca Trayers, the bartender at the last establishment they visited, testified that no one seemed overly drunk.
Read’s defense is that O’Keefe was bashed at the party, and possibly attacked by a dog as marks on his arm looked like bites
Video evidence is presented on a display screen in the court
This video shows scene of the alleged crime
Katherine Camerano, a friend of the couple’s who was also present at the January 28 celebrations, revealed the chilling text message Read sent her the next morning.
Camerano testified that at 6:34am, Read texted her saying: ‘He’s dead.’
She responded saying: ‘What? Karen are you serious?’ to which Read replied ‘he was in the snow.’
Read’s defense says she went home after dropping O’Keefe off and woke up about 4.30am in a panic as he hadn’t come home.
She called Jennifer McCabe, a friend of O’Keefe whom they were drinking with at Waterfall Bar the previous night, and they went looking for him.
They returned top the house and found O’Keefe lying on the snow-covered lawn, bleeding from his nose and mouth with swollen eyes, and Read began CPR.
A key part of the prosecution’s case is that Read essentially admitted to the crime at the scene by yelling ‘I hit him!’ over and over, along with ‘this is my fault. I did this.’
Prosecutors also alleged Read said ‘could I have hit him? Did I hit him?’ and ‘what if he’s dead? What if a plow hit him? I don’t remember anything from last night, we drank so much I don’t remember anything.’
Read’s defense was able to get both cops to acknowledge they never heard Read say she hit O’Keefe. The defense also used the testimony from the police and firefighters to raise doubts more broadly about the investigation.
Read, 44, is on trial in Norfolk Superior Court, south of Boston, claiming she was framed by police as part of a vast conspiracy
Read’s case, and her claims that she was framed, attracts dozens of protesters to every one of her court appearances
Protesters must stay at least 200ft from the courthouse during the trial
Prosecutors allege the fragments were found near O’Keefe’s body and are proof that Read backed her SUV into O’Keefe. She says it was broken as she left her home that morning in a panic to look for him.
Defense attorneys were also able able to get Canton police officers Steven Saraf Stephen Mullaney to acknowledge they never saw pieces of broken taillight at the scene.
When police and paramedics arrived, they found Read still trying to revive her boyfriend, her face covered in blood from giving him mouth-to-mouth.
All of the witnesses in their evidence described Read as distraught and screaming and that O’Keefe had no pulse and wasn’t breathing.
The defense has spent months arguing in court that the case was marred by conflicts of interest and accused prosecutors of presenting false and deceptive evidence to the grand jury.
The trial at Norfolk Superior Court close to the Massachusetts capital continues.
