Things to know about the retrial of Karen Read in the killing of her police officer boyfriend

A defense attorney in Karen Read’s second murder case on Friday grilled a top police investigator about delays in booking critical evidence connected to the death of Read’s boyfriend, a Boston police officer.

Prosecutors say Read, 45, backed her SUV into John O’Keefe, 46, and left him to die on a snowy night in the front yard of another officer’s home after she dropped him off at a party there in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police conspiracy and someone inside the home that night must have killed him.

A mistrial was declared last year. Read’s second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene has so far appeared to follow similar contours to the first.

What happened to the evidence?

On Friday, Read’s attorney Alan Jackson pressed one of the investigators, Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, about how the evidence including pieces of Read’s taillight were processed.

Judge Beverly J. Cannone greets jurors as the murder retrial of Karen Read continues, in Norfolk Superior Court, Dedham, Mass., Monday April 28, 2025. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS/Pat Greenhouse

Jackson repeatedly suggested the evidence was collected at the scene by Michael Proctor, the disgraced state trooper who led the investigation. Bukhenik kept saying he wasn’t sure who did what.

Proctor was suspended for sending sexist and lewd text about Read soon after the first trial and subsequently fired in March. The State Police Trial Board also found Proctor guilty of providing sensitive and confidential information about the case to people outside of law enforcement and consuming alcohol while on duty.

Bukhenik was disciplined but not fired for failing to reprimand Proctor for offensive text messages, some of which were read aloud on Friday.

Jackson then questioned Bukhenik why about six pieces of Read’s taillight — from a total of 46 pieces — collected in February 2022 weren’t logged into evidence for another two months. Bukhenik was shown an evidence bag with the items but couldn’t say who filled out the evidence bag.

“Can you point to any documentation indicating where those items went, whose possession they were in and what circumstance between Feb. 10 and March 14,” Jackson said, later displaying an evidence bag that had Proctor’s signature showing evidence collected Feb. 11.

Bukhenik insisted the evidence was handled appropriately, saying “you claiming it wasn’t booked into something doesn’t mean it wasn’t properly handled in custody and under our control.”

Read’s flirty text messages

The defense on Friday also had Bukhenik read aloud text messages between Read and Brian Higgins, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The large stack of text messages presented to Bukhenik prompted Judge Beverly Cannone to ask the defense, “You’re certainly not asking him to read this whole document?”

Ultimately, Bukhenik did read them all. They showed that Read initiated the conversation with Higgins, calling him “hot” and saying she liked how much they were alike.

“We’re single,” Read texted. “We can do whatever we want.”

Higgins also called Read “hot” and asked, “where did these feelings come from?”

The two also talked about sharing a kiss and at meeting up for a drink.

Additionally, Read told Higgins she was discontented with her relationship with O’Keefe. Read shared that O’Keefe had cheated on her during a recent New Year’s Eve getaway.

“I have issues with John and things are far from perfect,” Read texted Higgins.

During the initial trial last year, Jackson suggested Higgins lured O’Keefe to the house party, where the two got into a fight. Jackson appeared to be returning to the argument on Friday, pressing Bukhenik about why he didn’t confiscate Higgins’ phone during the investigation and replaying footage of Higgins pointing to O’Keefe’s direction when leaving the bar.

“We had the information that we had,” Bukhenik said. “We did not need to get his phone.”

Higgins was at the party that night after texting Read “well?” on the night of Jan. 28, 2022.

Higgins had seen Read and O’Keefe at the Waterfall bar and Grille, the last bar the two were spotted at before going to the party. Shortly after texting Read, who didn’t respond, Higgins texted O’Keefe “you coming here???” at 12:20 a.m. on Jan. 29.

“John died,” Read responded the next day.

Broken taillight questioned

Much of the trial has focused on Read’s broken taillight. Prosecutors have argued that it was broken after Read backed into O’Keefe while dropping him off at the party.

But on Friday, the defense focused on Ring surveillance videos that showed Read’s car leaving O’Keefe’s driveway that appeared to touch another parked car around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, several hours after Read dropped off O’Keefe at the party.

Jackson pointed out that Bukhenik had previously said in a report that Read’s vehicle “came near” the other car and asked him if he still felt that.

“Logically speaking, the two vehicles had to have come into contact for the tire to move,” Bukhenik said.

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