Karen Read claims she is being framed for her Boston cop boyfriend John ... trends now

First responders to a scene where a woman allegedly ran over her policeman boyfriend and left him to die in the snow admit he could have been beaten to death.

Karen Read, 44, is on trial in Norfolk Superior Court, south of Boston, claiming she was framed by police as part of a vast conspiracy.

John O'Keefe, a 16-year Boston cop, was found dead about 6am on January 29, 2022, outside a house where she dropped him off for an afterparty about 12.45am. 

The financial analyst and former Bentley University professor faces second degree murder and manslaughter charges for allegedly backing over him with her SUV in a snowstorm after an argument.

Her defense instead claims O'Keefe, 46, was beaten up by people at the party and thrown outside where he died on the lawn. 

'Karen Read was framed. Her car never struck John O'Keefe. She did not cause his death and that means somebody else did,' Read's defense attorney David Yannetti said in his opening statement.

'You will question the Commonwealth's theory of the case. You will question the quality of the Commonwealth's evidence. 

'You will question the veracity of the Commonwealth's witnesses and you will question their shoddy and biased investigation.'

Two cops and two firefighters who were among the first on the scene that early morning testified on the second day of the trial on Tuesday.

Initially, Timothy Nuttall, a Canton firefighter who treated O'Keefe at the scene, said he couldn't say whether the injuries — including a hematoma or egg over his right eye — came from a fight. 

But when pressed by Read's attorney Alan Jackson, Nuttal acknowledged the injuries were consistent with getting beaten up. 

Read's defense says she went home after dropping O'Keefe off and woke up about 4.30am in a panic as he hadn't come home.

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.

They returned top the house and found O'Keefe lying on the snow-covered lawn, bleeding from his nose and mouth with swollen eyes, and Read began CPR.

A key part of the prosecution's case is that Read essentially admitted to the crime at the scene by yelling 'I hit him!' over and over, along with 'this is my fault. I did this'.

Prosecutors also alleged Read said 'could I have hit him? Did I hit him?' and 'what if he's dead? What if a plow hit him? I don't remember anything from last night, we drank so much I don't remember anything'.

Read's defense was able to get both cops to acknowledge they never heard Read say she hit O'Keefe.

The defense also used the testimony from the police and firefighters to raise doubts more broadly about the investigation.

They were able to get Canton police officers Steven Saraf Stephen Mullaney to acknowledge they never saw pieces of broken taillight at the scene. 

Prosecutors allege the fragments were found near O'Keefe's body and are proof that Read backed her SUV into O'Keefe. She says it was broken as she left her home that morning in a panic to look for him.

When police and paramedics arrived, they found Read still trying to revive her boyfriend, her face covered in blood from giving him mouth-to-mouth.

All of the witnesses in their evidence described Read as distraught and screaming and that O'Keefe had no pulse and wasn't breathing.

Officer Saraf and Nuttall were both asked about their claims of Read saying she hit O'Keefe.

Defense attorneys on Tuesday attempted to discredit Saraf and raise doubts about the integrity of the investigation by pointing out mistakes made in the police dispatch log, including the wrong address where O'Keefe's body was found. 

They also pointed out that Saraf never wrote in his police report that Read said, 'This is my fault,' only that she screamed, 'Is he dead?'

In response, Saraf said yes, but when Jackson tried to suggest Saraf's memory of that morning was evolving, Saraf said that the discrepancy between what he initially wrote and what he later testified at the trial was 'an oversight 

The defense team also tried to raise doubts about what Nuttal heard, suggesting he was too focused on saving O'Keefe's life to hear conversations around him. 

Investigators alleged they found a cracked right rear tail light near where O'Keefe was found and scratches on her SUV. 

Prosecutors are also expected to present evidence of injuries suffered by O'Keefe consistent with him being hit by the car and strains in the couple's relationship including a '20 minute screaming match' witnessed by O'Keefe's two adopted children they had while on vacation in Aruba.

The defense has spent months arguing in court that the case was marred by conflicts of interest and accused prosecutors of presenting false and deceptive evidence to the grand jury.

The house at 34 Fairview Road in Canton that O'Keefe's body was found outside 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. 

On Monday, Yannetti argued that close relationships between investigators and those in the house resulted in authorities focusing solely on Reid, whom the defense described as a 'convenient outsider'.

Yannetti also claimed investigators failed to consider the possibility that O’Keefe got into a fight at the party and was left for dead outside. 

While not offering evidence of who was responsible, they laid out of a series of missteps in the investigation — failing to investigate a history of animosity between O’Keefe and the family who owned the home nor searching the home for evidence of a struggle.

They also are expected to provide evidence that Read’s taillight was damaged when she hit O’Keefe’s car hours later at their home — not at the party — and dispute that the couple had a strained relationship. 

They got along well that night and had made plans for several trips in the months ahead.

The trial began after two years of intrigue, conspiracies, social media circus, and a secretive parallel FBI investigation.

The prosecution has 87 witnesses and the defense has 77. The commonwealth's case is expected to last three to four weeks and the defense's two weeks.

Prosecutors will allege the couple's two-year relationship was breaking down and she rammed her car into O'Keefe after he repeatedly tried to dump her.

Read's black Lexus SUV had a broken taillight when it was seized by Massachusetts State Police investigators, pieces of which allegedly had O'Keefe's DNA on them.

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 was picketed every day of the trial so far by Read's supporters, including a local true crime blogger who was jailed for allegedly harassing witnesses.

Such is their ferocity that Judge Cannone banned protesters from coming within 200ft of the courthouse or its car park during the trial.

No one can enter the courtroom wearing buttons, photographs, clothing, or insignia relating to the case, or anyone involved.

'Law enforcement officers who are testifying or are members of the audience are also prohibited from wearing their department issued uniforms or any police emblems in the courthouse,' the order read.

O'Keefe was pronounced dead and his autopsy ruled he died of head trauma and hypothermia, with no obvious signs of a fight.

Read was charged with manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death on

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