DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) – The Karen Read murder trial resumed in Norfolk Superior Court Monday after a nearly week-long hiatus.
State police Lt. Kevin O’Hara was the first new witness on the stand. He was followed by Maureen Hartnett, a Massachusetts State Police forensic scientist.
Court was last in session on Tuesday, May 28. During court proceedings, Read’s defense finished cross examining federal agent Brian Higgins and the prosecution called seven new witnesses.
Read is facing second degree murder charges after prosecutors said she hit her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and left him to die in a snowbank outside the Canton home of Brian and Nicole Albert.
Read’s defense has said she is being framed, saying O’Keefe was actually beaten to death during a party inside the Albert home.
Read’s trial began in late April. On Tuesday, John O’Keefe’s niece and nephew testified after Higgins. Jurors then heard testimony from doctors and a former state police crime lab worker who treated O’Keefe and evaluated Read on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
Canton’s DPW superintendent and information systems manager also testified before court proceedings ended for the day.
State police lieutenant testifies
Kevin O’Hara serves with a state police unit that conducts evidence searches.
He said his team responded to the Albert home on Jan. 29 and found either six or seven pieces of red and clear plastic from a broken trail light during a grid search of a roughly 50-foot area.
Read’s defense concedes the tail light on Read’s SUV was broken at some point. Contrary to claims from the prosecution, though, the defense claims the light broke after O’Keefe died. The defense has claimed police planted red and clear plastic at the scene outside the Albert house in an effort to frame Read.
“I know it was broken later,” defense attorney Alan Jackson told 7’s Jonathan Hall early last month. “100%, it was broken later.”
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