DEDHAM, Mass. — Monday marks Day 9 in Karen Read’s murder retrial and the start of the third week of witness testimony.
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.
Next on the stand: Katie McLaughlin, a firefighter/paramedic with the Canton Fire Department who responded to the scene of O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022.
LIVE COURT UPDATES BY TED DANIEL:
Previously on the stand: Sarah Levinson, Heather Maxon, Ryan Nagel, Hannah Knowles
Sarah Levinson testified that she was at Brian Albert Jr.’s birthday party at 34 Fairview Road hours before O’Keefe was found dead in the snow.
Levinson said she got a ride home with Matthew and Jennifer McCabe and that she was seated behind Jen in the rear passenger seat. That was closest to the house as they pulled out. She told the jury that she didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.
Heather Maxon was riding with Ryan Nagel when he went to pick up his sister, Julie Nagel, from the same party.
Maxon and Nagel both testified that they didn’t see a man outside Read’s SUV, either walking to the house or lying on the lawn when they pulled up to get Julie.
Hannah Knowles, a toxicologist with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, was involved in Read’s retrograde extrapolation, a forensic technique used to estimate a person’s blood alcohol concentration.
Knowles stated that the extrapolation estimated Karen Read’s BAC to be between 0.14 and 0.28 at approximately 12:45 a.m., around the time O’Keefe was killed. This range is nearly two to three times the legal limit.
Read’s BAC just after 9:00 a.m. on January 29, 2022, was estimated to be between 0.078 and 0.092. Her blood sample was taken at Good Samaritan Hospital, which the defense has previously noted is a clinical laboratory, not a forensic one.
Before the forensic scientist took the stand on Friday, Jennifer McCabe finished her testimony. She was in the courtroom for a total of three days.
So far, nobody has been in the hot seat longer than she has. Read has called McCabe the “quarterback” of a conspiracy to frame her for murder.
McCabe told the jury she’s been put through hell and has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the feds.
McCabe also read text messages between herself, her husband, sister, and brother-in-law, and was questioned about seven late-night calls from her phone to O’Keefe’s that McCabe claimed were “butt dials.”
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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