Karen Read arrives for first day of trial accused of murdering her Boston cop ... trends now
The trial of Karen Read begins today after two years of intrigue, conspiracies, social media circus, and a secretive parallel FBI investigation.
Read, 44, is accused of murdering her Boston policeman boyfriend John O'Keefe by intentionally backing her car into him and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.
Jury selection begins on Tuesday at the Norfolk Superior Court, south of Boston, where Read faces second-degree murder and manslaughter charges.
O'Keefe, a 16-year cop, was found dead about 6am on January 29, 2022, outside a house where she dropped him off for an afterparty about 12.45am.
Prosecutors alleged the couple's two-year relationship was breaking down and she rammed her car into O'Keefe after he repeatedly tried to dump her.
" class="c5" scrolling="no"
Karen Read, 44, takes her seat before jury selection begins on the first day of her trial, accused of murdering her policeman boyfriend
Read walks into Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday morning for the first day of her trial
John O'Keefe, 46, was found dead 6am on January 29, 2022, outside a house where she dropped him off for an afterparty about 12.45am
Read's car had a broken taillight when is was seized by Massachusetts State Police investigators, pieces of which allegedly had O'Keefe's DNA on them.
Her defense instead claims O'Keefe, 46, was beaten up by people at the party and thrown outside where died on the lawn, and Read is being framed.
The case, and Read's claims of a wide-ranging conspiracy against her, whipped up intense speculation online that spilled over into the real world.
The court will likely be picketed for the whole six-week trial by Read's supporters, and a local true crime blogger was jailed for allegedly harassing witnesses.
Read, a financial analyst and university professor, woke up about 4.30am in a panic as O'Keefe hadn't come home from the party.
She called Jennifer McCabe, a friend of O'Keefe whom they were drinking with at Waterfall Bar the previous night, and they went looking for him.
Eventually they returned to 34 Fairview Road in Canton, where the afterparty was held. The house was owned by McCabe's brother-in-law Brian Albert, 60, a Gulf War veteran who was on the Boston Police Fugitive Unit until his retirement.
They found O'Keefe lying on the snow-covered lawn, bleeding from his nose and mouth with swollen eyes, and Read began CPR.
When police and paramedics arrived, they found Read still trying to revive her boyfriend, her face covered in blood form giving him mouth-to-mouth.
Karen Read at her final pretrial hearing on April 12 at Norfolk Superior Court
