Live court video, updates: Day 10 of witness testimony in Karen Read’s retrial

Retired Canton Police Lieutenant Paul Gallagher, the ranking officer who was in charge at the scene of John O’Keefe’s death, is expected back on the stand Tuesday on Day 10 of Karen Read’s retrial.

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.

• WATCH LIVE: Witness testimony resumes at 9 a.m.

ON STAND FIRST: Retired Canton Police Lieutenant Paul Gallagher

FOLLOW TED DANIEL’S COURT UPDATES:

On Monday, jurors were able to see a key piece of evidence for the first time in Read’s second murder trial.

Gallagher displayed a broken cocktail glass from where O’Keefe’s body was found outside 34 Fairview Road on the morning of January 29, 2022.

Gallagher was one of six people who were called to the witness stand Monday, telling jurors that he found the glass and several drops of blood in the snow with a leaf blower and that he feared a shovel could break or miss evidence.

“I wasn’t going to miss anything with a leaf blower,” Gallagher said. “Much better control.”

The blood was collected in red Solo cups and placed in a paper Stop & Shop bag, Gallagher testified. He defended the use of those items for collecting evidence.

“The storm was coming down terribly,” Gallagher explained. “I believed if we didn’t collect that biological matter, we weren’t going to get that biological matter.”

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Canton firefighter Katie McLaughlin also testified that she heard Read incriminate herself at the scene.

“She repeated. ‘I hit him. I hit him,” McLaughlin told the court.

“How do you remember she made those statements?” special prosecutor Hank Brennan asked.

“I won’t ever forget those statements,” McLaughlin replied.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson asked why McLaughlin failed to document the alleged confession.

“You’re also aware that not a single police officer out at the scene wrote that down either?” Jackson asked before Brennan objected.

Ryan Nagel told the jury he saw a woman believed to be Read parked outside 34 Fairview when he drove by around 12:35 am.

Hannah Knowles, a forensic scientist and toxicologist at the Massachusetts State Police crime lab, testified that Read was still intoxicated the morning after O’Keefe was killed.

She analyzed a blood sample Read gave around 9 in the morning. She says the reading was right around the legal limit of .08 at that time

In addition, she calculated that Read would have been 2 to 3 times the legal limit after midnight, when police allege she struck John O’Keefe with her SUV.

The defense asked Knowles if she was asked to test anyone else’s blood:

“Were you ever asked to determine the blood alcohol level of Brian Albert?” asked David Yanetti.

“No,” Knowles replied.

“Were you ever asked to determine the blood alcohol level of Brian Higgins?”

“No,” said Knowles. “My only involvement with this case in my unit, was the request to perform these calculations on this individual.”

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Read has not denied drinking vodka sodas that night.

None of the six people who testified remembered seeing John O’Keefe on the lawn or entering the home.

Read did not speak to reporters at the end of Day 9 of witness testimony, but her father called it a “good day” for the defense.

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.

A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

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