Red Solo Cups, an Inappropriate Witness, Fake Videos, and the Absolutely Inept trial of Karen Read (Part 1).

 I will always remember the evening of Friday June 17, 1994, almost 30 years ago to this day.  It was a warm, late spring/early summer day, and the majority of my time, as a 16 year old high school kid, was spent hanging out with my friends and having competitions to see who was the dumbest of us all.  However, this night was different.  It was different in the sense that I was glued to the television, and most shocking of all, I was glued to the television watching TV with my parents.  On the TV was aerial footage of a White Ford Bronco being chased by police.  In that Ford Bronco was, the now infamous and late Orenthal James Simpson.  This was where it all began for me.  My interest in true crime began with an old fashioned car chase that eventually became anything but old fashioned.  

Until this past spring, I am not sure I had seen a true crime case that ever came close to the level of the OJ Simpson case, from the Bronco chase, the preliminary hearings, to the gloves not fitting, all the way to the not guilty verdict.  Even as young as I was, I remember thinking this would be the most famous trial of all time, and it may still be.  I wondered if I would ever be as interested in a case as I was at the time.  All of these ideas changed instantly the moment I heard about the death of Boston Police veteran John O'Keefe and the arrest of his girlfriend Karen Read.  

I first heard about Karen Read in the spring of 2023.  By this time, I had become a seasoned true crime follower and was not someone that was easily fooled by a lot of media attention like I was 30 years earlier.  I had heard so many people saying she had been "railroaded", "framed", or that she was the "scapegoat."  Immediately I was skeptical for several reasons, but most of all because it appeared that, for her to be guilty, more than 10 people would likely have to be complicit in a conspiracy to frame Ms. Read.  

On January 28, 2022, Karen, John, and several others gathered at the Waterfall Bar in Canton Massachusetts, a town of just under 24,000 about 15 miles south west of Downtown Boston.  There have been several videos of this gathering shown during the Commonwealth's building of the case against Ms. Read and, by all accounts, it seemed like a fairly normal evening spent by friends at a local bar.  However, what has been alleged to have taken place just minutes after the people at the Waterfall dispersed to an after party at on of the patron's houses, was anything but normal.  

On the morning of January 29, 2022, Karen Read woke up and realized her boyfriend John O'Keefe had not returned home after she dropped him off somewhere around 12:30 am at 34 Fairview Rd in Canton, the home of fellow Boston Police Officer Brian Albert.   She was frantic as this was out of the ordinary for John, and she was still intoxicated from the evening prior.  This led Karen to wake up John's niece, who John had custody of after the tragic death of his sister, and asked her to call Jennifer McCabe, and Canton resident, friend of John's, and the sister in law to Brian Albert.  John's niece told Ms. McCabe that Karen was worried because John hadn't come home and that something may have happened to him.  What happens next is the beginning for the end for Karen Read and the start of one of the most hotly contested cases I have ever encountered.  

Karen, intoxicated and panicked, leaves John's house at 1 Meadows ave in Canton at 5:07 in the morning.  Ring videos attached to the home of Mr. O'Keefe show Ms. Read backing out and, ever so slightly, connecting with John's vehicle that was parked in the snow.  Karen drove to Ms. McCabe's house where eventually, John's friend, Kerry Roberts meets up to assist in trying to find John.  They first go back to John's, but they eventually head to 34 Fairview.  As they are approaching 34 Fairview Karen, from the back seat, alerts Ms. McCabe and Ms. Roberts that she see's John in the snow and she tells the driver to stop the car.  Ms. Read immediately exits the vehicle and runs over to where John is laying covered in snow and badly bloodied with severe head trauma.  Testimony has revealed that when first responders and officers arrived on the scene, Karen was distraught and not making much sense when she was speaking.  This, apparently, was very obvious to Kerry Roberts who repeatedly told Ms. Read to "shut the fuck up" when she was talking to authorities.  I am unclear on why she spoke so harshly to Karen, but I suspect it is because she wanted to save her from making incriminating statements.  If only Karen had listened.  

Several witnesses, including Canton Fire Fighters Katie McLaughlin, Anthony Flemmatti, Matthew Kelly, Timothy Nuttall, Ms. McCabe, and Ms. Roberts have all testified that Ms. Read at various points, on the morning of 1/29/2022, was repeating a statement to the effect of, "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him."  Keep in mind this is after Karen had made the statement that she did not remember being at 34 Fairview and she thought she had left the victim at the Waterfall.   Long before the trial started, Karen responded to these statements on an episode of Nightline on August 22, 2023.  She goes on to explain that she was not stating this matter of factly, but she was asking "could I have hit him?"  

If, by crazy chance, you are finding out about Karen Read for the first time from reading my blog, you are probably wondering "Where is the controversy?"  The controversy began, the moment Canton Police began investigating during the early morning hours of January 29, 2022, and the controversy continues to this day as Karen Read is on trial for her life, and after thoroughly examining the available evidence, autopsy photos, pre-trial documents thanks to Aidan Kearney, A.K.A Turtleboy, documents from experts, and Commonwealth witness testimony thus far, I am supremely confident that the victim was not struck by a vehicle, the police fabricated, planted, and destroyed physical evidence, and that the victim died as the result of a physical altercation.  Karen Read is 100% innocent of the crime of second degree murder, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of an accident.