Karen Read’s murder retrial will enter its 13th day on Wednesday as witness testimony continues in Norfolk Superior Court.
Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert following a night of drinking.
NOW ON THE STAND: Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Yuriy Bukhenik will return to the stand for the second straight day to testify on behalf of the Commonwealth. He was ordered to forfeit accrued vacation days after Read’s first trial for failing to reprimand now-fired lead investigator Michael Proctor for text messages he sent about the murder case.
On Thursday, the prosecution and Bukhenik outlined their early findings at the scene of 34 Fairview Road in Canton.
Michael Proctor was let go by state police after multiple violations, including derogatory texts messages about Karen Read during the investigation into John O’Keefe’s death.
Bukhenik was in that chain and lost 5 days of vacation time for failing to reprimand him.
Both Bukhenik and Proctor saw O’Keefe’s body at the hospital, interviewed Read at her family’s Dighton home…and collected evidence outside of 34 Fairview Road.
The prosecution on Thursday also outlined several surveillance clips from John O’Keefe’s driveway, CF McCarthy’s, and the Waterfall between January 28-29 2022.
Bukhenik also spoke on the missing shoe of John O’Keefe’s.
He explained, “Our theory had evolved to a vehicle strike.”
Bukhenik and Proctor saw O’Keefe’s body at the hospital after he was found dead.
“I saw pooling of blood underneath his head,” he explained. “There was seepage of blood into the sheets... There was also swelling, discoloration, a large amount of blood pooling underneath his eyelids.”
In the afternoon, defense attorney Alan Jackson grilled Bukhenik on not reprimanding Proctor regarding his text messages.
Bukhenik responded, “The investigation was done with honor, integrity, and all the evidence pointed in one direction, one direction only.”
Jackson asked, “Honor and integrity by Michael Proctor?!”
He continued, “If you don’t properly supervise your subordinates in an investigation, failing to properly supervise them could increase the chances that mistakes are made. Is that right?”
Bukhenik responded, “That is one possibility."
Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense has claimed that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.
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