A who’s who guide of witnesses and key people in the Karen Read trial

The trial of Karen Read, a Mansfield woman charged in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, began more than four weeks ago.

Read, 44, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of O’Keefe, who was found cold to the touch and unresponsive on Jan. 29, 2022, outside a home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton.

Since the start of opening statements on April 29, prosecutors from Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s Office have called dozens of witnesses to the stand.

The case has gained national attention due to the defense’s approach to the trial. Read’s attorney, David Yannetti told jurors during opening statements that “Karen Read was framed.”

“Her car never struck John O’Keefe. She did not cause his death, and that means that somebody else did,” he said.

The case is not a simple one. And for newcomers to the case, the number of people involved may seem daunting. Even for those who’ve followed the case for the last two years, it can be difficult to track who is who during the trial.

The judge told jurors the trial in Dedham’s Norfolk County Superior Court could last a total of six to eight weeks.

Here is a guide to key witnesses and people involved in Read’s trial. Included are Read, O’Keefe, attorneys, members of Canton police and people who were at 34 Fairview Road before O’Keefe’s body was found.

Karen Read

Read and O’Keefe met briefly sometime in 2004 and reconnected around March 2020, according to a Norfolk prosecutor during opening statements.

Read stayed at O’Keefe’s house in Canton several times a week, and she helped out with O’Keefe’s niece and nephew. O’Keefe became their guardian after the deaths of his sister and brother-in-law in 2013.

“In the month or so leading up to Mr. O’Keefe’s death, their relationship soured,” Adam Lally, the Norfolk prosecutor, said during opening statements. “You will see text messages between Mr. O’Keefe and Ms. Read to that effect.”

Read previously worked as an equity analyst at a financial firm and an adjunct finance professor at Bentley University in Waltham, The Boston Globe reported.

“I would call him the patron saint of Canton,” Read said of O’Keefe during an ABC News interview in August 2023. “You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn’t care for John.”

They reconnected when O’Keefe reached out on Facebook, Read said and added that she “admired” how O’Keefe took care of his niece and nephew. “I thought that was amazing,” she said.

Read told ABC News about an argument she had with O’Keefe on New Year’s Eve during a trip to Aruba and that the incident kept getting re-hashed when they returned in January 2022.

On Jan. 28, 2022, Read and O’Keefe went out for drinks at two Canton bars: first C.F. McCarthy’s and then the Waterfall Bar & Grille where they met up with a group of friends.

After receiving an open invitation to go back to 34 Fairview Road, the home of fellow Boston police officer Brian Albert, Read and O’Keefe left the bar shortly after midnight and drove to the Canton home.

Read told ABC News that she dropped off O’Keefe and saw him approach the side door of the house. She waited in her car for 10 minutes, and after being irritated that he never texted her, she drove back to O’Keefe’s home.

Read said she woke up before 5 a.m. the next morning and O’Keefe wasn’t home. She called two of O’Keefe’s friends — Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts — and the three women went to Albert’s home. She “immediately” saw O’Keefe’s body on the front lawn, covered in snow, she told ABC News.

O’Keefe was brought to the hospital and was pronounced dead.

Norfolk prosecutors, however, charged Read and said that she drove intoxicated while dropping him off at the Canton home and struck him with her vehicle as she left, leaving him to die in the cold.

Read pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle crash causing death.

Her attorneys claim other people are responsible for O’Keefe’s death and that alleged conflicts of interest have compromised the case.

John O’Keefe

O’Keefe, 46, grew up in Braintree and lived in Canton. His sister died of cancer in 2013, and her husband died months later. O’Keefe’s nephew and niece were young, and he became their legal guardian.

McCabe and Roberts were friends of O’Keefe and helped out with the children, according to Norfolk prosecutor Lally.

O’Keefe worked for the Boston Police Department, first as a patrolman and then in the sex offender unit, Lally said.

On Jan. 28, 2022, O’Keefe learned that his niece was accepted to Bishop Feehan, a Catholic high school, Lally said.

O’Keefe decided to celebrate the news and he and a friend, Michael Camerano, went out for drinks at C.F. McCarthy’s. Read joined them shortly after and video footage shown during the trial captured them sharing a kiss. Camerano testified during the first week of the trial that everything seemed normal and he did not detect any tension that night.

On the first day of the trial, O’Keefe’s brother, Paul O’Keefe, said that his mother called at 6:40 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, and told him, “Something happened to your brother” and that he was brought to the hospital.

David Yannetti

David Yannetti is a former prosecutor and a defense attorney with a law office in Boston, according to his firm’s website.

Yannetti previously worked as a Middlesex County prosecutor and has appeared on Fox News and CNN as a criminal defense analyst, according to The Boston Globe.

In 2008, Yannetti represented Roland Douglas Phinnery Jr. who was acquitted of murdering a 22-year-old nursing student in Lowell in 1980 after being granted a new trial, according to Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly.

During opening statements at the Read trial, Yannetti told jurors that his client was “framed” and that her car never hit O’Keefe.

He described the investigation into O’Keefe’s death as “shoddy and biased.”

Yannetti also told jurors that Read’s defense team uncovered text messages from the lead Massachusetts State Police investigator, Michael Proctor, who wrote that he hoped she would kill herself.

Alan Jackson

Alan Jackson is a former prosecutor with the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office where he served as assistant head deputy for the major crimes division, according to his law firm’s website.

In 2019, the Boston Globe profiled Jackson when he represented Hollywood actor Kevin Spacey, who was charged with sexual assault.

Jackson prosecuted the high-profile case of music producer Phil Spector in the killing of actress Lana Clarkson, the Globe reported.

During Read’s trial, Jackson often puts witnesses on the hot seat and grills them with questioning that produces sharp exchanges.

When cross-examining Brian Albert, the homeowner of the Canton home where O’Keefe was found, Jackson said, “You literally changed your testimony within your own testimony.”

Jackson had referenced testimony Albert gave before a grand jury in April 2022, when Albert said: “No, I’ve never met [Read] or seen her before [Jan. 28], maybe once but I’ve never had a conversation with her, I don’t think.”

“I have an innocent client, period,” Jackson said in an interview with NBC’s “Dateline.” “John walked into an element of hostility in that house. John O’Keefe got out of a car, walked into the house, was sucker punched, fell, hurt himself, and then ultimately his body was moved.”

Adam Lally

Adam Lally is an assistant district attorney for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s Office. He is the lead prosecutor on the Read case.

Lally told jurors during opening statements about a group trip to Aruba when a 20-minute screaming match took place between Read and O’Keefe in front of his nephew and niece.

Lally said text messages obtained by prosecutors show that Read believed O’Keefe cheated on her on the trip to Aruba.

Lally described how jurors will hear from two officials from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner and the types of injuries found during O’Keefe’s autopsy.

Those injuries included cuts to the back of the head and an initial skull fracture that radiated throughout, which led to bleeding and swelling of the brain, Lally said.

Lally said Read struck O’Keefe with her car, knocking him back on the ground, causing his head to strike the ground and the injuries to the back of his head, and then left him in the cold.

Jennifer McCabe

Jennifer McCabe recalled knowing O’Keefe for about 10 years and testified that she got close with his family.

“My daughter was very good friends with his niece,” she said “She would be over all the time — [O’Keefe] was my friend, he was an amazing guy.”

When O’Keefe told McCabe he was dating someone, he mentioned that his new girlfriend, Read, has multiple sclerosis, McCabe said. She added that she, too, has multiple sclerosis and wanted to meet her.

McCabe recalled the mood as cheerful on the night of Jan. 28, 2022, at the Waterfall.

Read expressed some frustration about quarreling with O’Keefe about the kids, McCabe testified. “Welcome to parenthood,” McCabe recalled telling Read that night.

As people left the Waterfall after midnight, O’Keefe texted McCabe, “Where to?” She called back and gave him the address 34 Fairview Road, she said.

McCabe testified she saw a dark SUV pull up outside the house that night but did not see anyone step out of it. She texted O’Keefe several times, but he never responded.

Early that morning, O’Keefe’s niece called McCabe and said he never came home. McCabe heard Read screaming in the background and then Read got on the phone.

“She told me that she didn’t remember going there,” McCabe said. “She said, ‘Did I hit him, could I have hit him?’ Then she proceeded to say she had a cracked headlight. Honestly, I thought she was talking crazy.”

Read drove to McCabe’s house that morning and Kerry Roberts — who Read also called — arrived shortly after. The three decided to drive back to 34 Fairview Road. Read immediately saw his body lying on the front lawn, McCabe said.

“I got out of the car and came around,” McCabe said. “For a second or two, I completely just froze. Then Kerry and I made eye contact, and I called 911 … I could not believe that was John laying [sic] there. He was just lying flat on his back. There was enough that his body was covered in snow.”

As first responders arrived, McCabe recounted what Read told an EMT: “Three times. ’I hit him. I hit him. I hit him.’ Earlier it was ‘Could I? Did I?’ This was crystal clear. ‘I hit him.’”

Read grabbed McCabe’s hands and said, “‘Google ‘hypothermia.’ Google ‘How long it takes to die in the cold,’” McCabe testified. She took out her phone, her hands shaking from the cold and Read shaking her arm.

Under cross-examination by Jackson, McCabe agreed she had a clear and good view of the SUV that night, but she never saw a body on the front lawn.

Jackson also scrutinized the “I hit him” statements McCabe attributed to Read. McCabe spoke to a Norfolk County grand jury in April 2022 and testified about 12 statements Read said that morning. She never told the grand jury, however, that Read said “I hit him,” according to Jackson.

“The truth is that you have manufactured this story for this jury because you think it helps you out,” Jackson said

“Absolutely not,” McCabe said.

McCabe was on the stand for three days, and at one point, said Jackson was “spinning all of this” during contentious testimony.

Jackson wrapped up his cross-examination on May 22 by showing jurors a phone extraction report that showed she made a 2:27 a.m. Google search “hos long to die in cold” — hours before O’Keefe’s body was found.

“That is not reality,” McCabe said.

Kerry Roberts

Kerry Roberts, a close friend of John O’Keefe, testified after McCabe on May 22.

Roberts was not at 34 Fairview Road on Jan. 29, 2022, when the people there were drinking, but was with Read and McCabe when they found O’Keefe unresponsive on the front lawn.

Roberts said her husband, Curt Roberts, had gone out to meet friends, including O’Keefe, at McCarthy’s Pub in Canton on the night of Jan. 28, 2022, and came home around 10:30 p.m.

At exactly 5 a.m. the next morning, Roberts said a call from Read woke her up a minute or two after she had missed an earier call from Read.

“I answered the phone, and she said, ‘John’s dead. Kerry, Kerry, Kerry,’ and then she hung up,” Roberts said. “[She was] very loud. She woke my husband, who was sleeping.”

Read called again and told Roberts she believed O’Keefe might be dead and might have been hit by a plow, Roberts testified.

“She said, ‘I’m driving, can I come to your house? Can you drive my car? I don’t remember anything from last night. I drank so much,” Roberts said

When the three women went to 34 Fairview Road, Roberts recalled what she saw.

“All of a sudden Karen said, ‘There he is, there he is, let me the F out of this car,’ and started kicking the door,” Roberts said. “I looked over, and I didn’t see anything and I looked at Jen and said, ‘She’s crazy.’ So I unlocked the door, and she got out and ran over to a mound of snow.”

Speaking through tears, Roberts described realizing that the mound of snow was a body and running over, clearing the snow off his head, and realizing it was O’Keefe. She said his entire body was covered in 3 to 4 inches of snow and he was bleeding from his nose and mouth and a cut on the back of his head.

After O’Keefe was brought to the hospital, Roberts said that Read threatened suicide. Roberts brought Read back to 34 Fairview Road where she was put into an ambulance and taken to Good Samaritan Medical Center.

The defense did not cross-examine Roberts.

Brian Albert

Brian Albert, owner of the house at 34 Fairview Road, was a 30-year member of the Boston Police Department before his retirement. Albert’s brother, Kevin Albert, is a Canton police detective.

“Although I didn’t know [O’Keefe] well, I considered him to be a friend and our relationship was good,” Albert said during his testimony on May 10. “I considered him to be someone I could hang out with and have a good time with.”

Before leaving the bar, Albert said they discussed plans to return to the Albert home to celebrate his son, Brian Jr., whose birthday was the next day.

“Anybody who was there was welcome to come by if they wanted to,” Albert said.

Read and O’Keefe never entered his home, he said.

On the morning of Jan. 29, Albert said, his sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe burst into the Alberts’ bedroom between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m. She was “very upset, almost hysterical,” he said.

Albert described to Lally “a very chaotic, unbelievably chaotic morning.”

He said he, his wife and Jennifer and Matthew McCabe spoke with police. He called Brian Higgins, a federal law enforcement officer, believing “it was important for him to know what was going on and what had happened.” He also spoke with his sister-in-law who had stopped by the home for Brian Albert Jr.’s birthday.

“Everybody’s reaction that morning was utter shock,” Albert said.

During cross-examination, Jackson showed a video of Albert and Higgins, also a witness, squaring off with their arms around each other and raising their fists at the Waterfall on Jan. 28, 2022. Albert said they were “just fooling around … being silly.”

Nicole Albert

Nicole Albert is married to Brian Albert. She is also the sister of Jennifer McCabe.

She testified that they decided to sell their home in April 2023 but that it had “no relation” to what happened in January 2022.

“The kids were getting older. We were looking to possibly downsize,” she testified, later adding: “We had reached out to a Realtor at the end of 2021.”

During a May 2023 pre-trial hearing, Jackson said that O’Keefe’s injuries to his right arm were consistent with dog bites. During Albert’s testimony, Read’s attorney questioned what happened to Albert’s dog in the months after O’Keefe’s death.

In response to questions from Elizabeth Little, one of Read’s lawyers, Albert said her German Shepherd, Chloe, had incidents of biting other dogs. In one May 2022 incident, Chloe had escaped the Alberts’ backyard and was in an altercation with another dog. Two women were injured separating the dogs.

Soon after, the Alberts found Chloe a new home. Under questioning, Albert pushed back on Little’s phrasing that the family “got rid” of the dog.

“I did not get rid of my dog, I rehomed my dog,” Albert said. “She’s in Vermont … If she was ever needed for anything, we know where she is.”

Brian Albert Jr.

Brian Albert Jr., the son of Brian Albert, invited a few friends over to 34 Fairview Road on the night of Jan. 28, 2022. His birthday was the following day.

He said he saw a dark SUV outside the house that he didn’t recognize when somebody came to pick up his cousin.

He said he looked out the dining room window of 34 Fairview Road twice on the night of Jan. 28, 2022. The first time, he noticed a dark SUV he did not recognize.

The second time, he noticed that it had moved further down the street closer to the flagpole on the front lawn.

He did not see a body lying out in the snow, he said, although he did not specifically say when he saw the car. He said he saw the SUV around the same time that a vehicle came to pick up his friend Julie Nagel, between 12:15 a.m. and 12:30 a.m.

Caitlin Albert

Caitlin Albert, the daughter of Brian Albert, said she was familiar with John O’Keefe’s name because of the “tragedy” that happened in his family.

“In general, it was kind of like a known thing, the tragedy of what happened in the O’Keefe family and so I had just heard that story,” Albert said.

She said Read and O’Keefe never entered the home at 34 Fairview Road.

Under cross-examination by Yannetti, Albert confirmed she was the last to leave the house at about 1:45 a.m. or 2 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.

No police investigators contacted her on the days after O’Keefe died nor the entirety of 2022, she said.

In May 2023, she was called before a federal grand jury — the first time she was asked to give testimony about what happened on Jan. 28, 2022.

Then in August 2023, Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor interviewed Albert, she said, for the first time. Proctor is a lead investigator in the Read case.

Under cross-examination, Albert agreed she did not see a black baseball cap, a white sneaker, 45 pieces of red taillight plastic, or a body on the front lawn of her parent’s home when she left the house at about 1:45 a.m. or 2 a.m.

Canton police officer Steve Saraf

Canton police officer Steven Saraf was one of the first to arrive at 34 Fairview Road after O’Keefe’s body was found by Read, McCabe and Roberts.

Lally played dashcam footage from his police cruiser during the first day of the trial.

During cross-examination, Jackson compared the time stamps on the police dispatch log of the incident versus what the dashcam from Saraf’s cruiser showed.

The Canton police dispatch log erroneously stated the order of which officers arrived at which time, Saraf agreed under questioning.

“So right off the bat, the official Canton Police Department dispatch log — one of the first documents generated in any investigative event — that’s completely wrong,” Jackson said.

Additionally, the address on Saraf’s incident report stated he responded to 32 Fairview Road. He later testified under oath to a grand jury that he responded to 35 Fairview Road, which Saraf agreed he did when presented with the transcript of his prior testimony.

“Was there an effort on your part or anybody else’s to your knowledge to mask the actual address of Brian Albert’s house as 34 Fairview Road?” Jackson asked.

“No,” Saraf said.

“All those are just mistakes over and over again?” Jackson asked.

“Yes,” Saraf said.

Saraf testified to a Norfolk grand jury in April 2022 that he attributed the statements, “This is my fault … I can’t believe this happened” to Read, according to Jackson. However, that statement did not appear in his original police report, Jackson said.

“It was an oversight,” Saraf said. “I didn’t write it down.”

Canton police Lt. Paul Gallagher

During testimony from Canton police Lt. Paul Gallagher, jurors were shown photographs of snow with red drops inside six Solo cups. These were taken from the scene after O’Keefe was taken to the hospital.

These Solo cups were brought to the Canton police station in a brown Stop & Shop bag, according to Gallagher’s testimony on May 6.

He said he decided to use a leaf blower at the scene to uncover the area where O’Keefe’s body was found in the snow.

The leaf blower revealed pieces of broken glass and darker red spots that police thought might be blood, Gallagher said.

No pieces of taillight or a missing shoe belonging to O’Keefe were initially recovered, Gallagher said.

“Do you think it’s standard practice for a police department to borrow red Solo cups from a neighbor to gather evidence?” Jackson asked.

“Of course not,” Gallagher said. “Nothing about this scene was standard.”

Jackson asked whether Canton police ever attempted to search the home at 34 Fairview Road for evidence related to the investigation, and Gallagher said that police did not ask for consent to search the home nor did they believe there was probable cause to seek a search warrant.

Canton police Sgt. Michael Lank

Canton Police Lt. Michael Lank — a detective sergeant at the time of O’Keefe’s death — said he arrived at the scene around 6:30 a.m. and three officers arrived before him.

Lank said during his testimony that he was raised in Canton and knew members of the Albert family, including Brian’s brother Chris, who Lank was friendly with growing up. Kevin Albert, another brother, is also a member of the Canton Police Department.

Jackson asked Lank if he knew the Canton police were ultimately recused from the O’Keefe investigation because of a “perceived bias” or conflict of interest between the department and the Albert family.

“Yes, there was a perceived bias,” Lank responded.

“I wouldn’t have had a probable cause,” Lank said after Jackson questioned why Lank did not search for evidence that O’Keefe had been attacked inside the home, mirroring questions he asked another police officer who testified earlier in the trial.

Chris Albert

Chris Albert is the brother of Brian Albert. During his testimony, Chris Albert said that O’Keefe bought a home on the same street he lived on in 2017 and that they had a good relationship and were friends.

Chris Albert said he saw Read on Jan. 28, 2022, walk into the bar with a glass hidden beneath her jacket with clear liquid and that he found it amusing.

O’Keefe went to the bar to order a beer and “everyone was having a good time,” Albert said.

When Yannetti began questioning Albert, he asked about the connections the Albert family has to Canton. Albert said he was recently elected to the town’s Select Board, that his brother, Kevin Albert, works for the Canton Police Department and that his family moved to Canton when he was young.

“You would agree that your entire family has deep roots in the town of Canton?” Yannetti asked.

“I guess,” Albert said.

Albert agreed that he was a childhood friend of Canton Police Lt. Michael Lank, one of the police officers who responded to 34 Fairview Road on Jan. 29, 2022. He also agreed that he had previously met Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who was investigating O’Keefe’s death, before an investigatory interview.

Julie Albert

Julie Albert is married to Chris Albert.

When Julie Albert took the stand, Yannetti questioned her about her relationship with Courtney Proctor, the sister of Michael Proctor, the state trooper who investigated O’Keefe’s death.

“Do you deny that you are very close with Courtney Proctor?” Yannetti asked.

“No,” Julie Albert said.

She said she provided child care for Courtney Proctor’s two children in 2019.

Yannetti questioned whether she denied speaking with Courtney Proctor 67 times on the phone between Feb. 1, 2022, and Sept. 6, 2022. She responded she could not recall the exact number of times.

Read’s attorney handed Julie Albert a piece of paper with phone records and asked about a 12-minute phone call between Julie Albert and Courtney Proctor on Feb. 1, 2022 — the day of Read’s arrest.

“Yes, I see it,” Julie Albert said. “I just don’t recall, it was a long time ago.”

Colin Albert

Colin Albert, 20, is Chris Albert’s son and Brian Albert’s nephew.

He was a senior in high school on the night of Jan. 28, 2022, and said he’d been drinking at a friend’s house before going to 34 Fairview Road around 10:30 p.m. or 11 p.m.

He said he remembered saying goodbye to Brian Albert and other family members as they arrived at 34 Fairview Road from the Waterfall Bar & Grille as he was leaving the house.

Albert said he got home around 12:20 p.m. and said goodnight to his parents, Chris and Julie Albert.

He said he knew O’Keefe since he lived two houses down from him. He said his parents were friendly with him and that he’d wave at him and Read when he drove past them.

Asked by Lally if there were ever any arguments or animosity between him and O’Keefe, he said, “Never.”

“Nice guy, good guy,” Albert said when Lally asked for his description of O’Keefe.

Albert said he never saw O’Keefe that night.

After a number of questions focused on Albert’s memory during cross-examination, Jackson asked Colin Albert whether he knew Courtney Proctor, the sister of Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who investigated O’Keefe’s death.

Courtney Proctor is friendly with Albert’s aunt, he told Jackson.

But on further questioning, Albert confirmed he was the ring bearer at Courtney Proctor’s wedding. He was shown a picture from the wedding that also included Michael Proctor.

“You consider the Proctor family close to your family?” Jackson asked. Albert agreed they were.

Jackson showed jurors a photograph of Albert with cut-up knuckles taken on Feb. 26, 2022, and videos of Albert threatening members of a club hockey team during his time in high school.

Allison McCabe

Allison McCabe is the daughter of Matthew and Jennifer McCabe. She is Brian Albert’s niece.

Colin Albert is a close friend, and they share relatives but are not directly related.

On the night of Jan. 28, 2022, Colin Albert texted Allison McCabe for a ride home. She arrived at 12:10 a.m. at the house, according to a screenshot of text messages shown to jurors and provided to police.

During cross-examination by Yannetti, he raised questions about the text messages.

McCabe said she was not asked to share the text messages with any law enforcement in the days after O’Keefe’s body was found nor all of 2022.

She said the texts were not relevant because it didn’t become known that Colin Albert was at the house until later.

She agreed she did not turn over the screenshot of the text messages until the summer of 2023. She also did not remember when exactly she took the screenshot of the text messages.

Julie Nagel

Julie Nagel was at 34 Fairview Road on Jan. 28, 2022, to celebrate her friend Brian Albert Jr.’s birthday.

“Everyone having fun, hanging out,” listening to music, drinking alcoholic seltzers, she said.

Later that night, Jennifer McCabe and Matthew McCabe offered to drive her and her friend Sara Levinson home.

“I did notice something out of the ordinary, like a black blob in the ground by the flagpole,” she said when they got into the car and drove away.

She said she mentioned seeing something to the group in the car, but because people were intoxicated, nobody seemed to pick up on it.

Under cross-examination, Nagel agreed the first time she described the dark object as being five or six feet long was during her testimony under questioning by Lally.

“You didn’t see a body on that lawn?” Yannetti asked.

“I mean, I don’t know what I saw, but I saw an object,” Nagel said.

“You told investigators that when Brian Albert Jr. called you the next morning, and you found out about the tragedy the previous night, you quote ‘put two and two together,’ correct?” Yannetti asked.

“I did, yes,” Nagel said but admitted she did not call Canton police, state police or the district attorney’s office about what she saw.

Marietta Sullivan

Marietta Sullivan, of Plymouth, went on a group trip to Aruba planned by her sister, Laura Sullivan, in December 2021.

On Dec. 30, 2021, she was in the hotel lobby around 9 p.m. when she left the elevator to find O’Keefe stumbling and glassy-eyed.

O’Keefe walked toward his room, and Sullivan continued outside toward the pool, but she heard an angry voice yell O’Keefe’s name and say “Who the [expletive] was that?”

“It made me stop in my tracks,” she said.

Sullivan said she came back into the lobby and saw Read, who she knew of but had never met, speaking to O’Keefe. She said O’Keefe told Read it was “just Laura’s little sister,” and Sullivan said hello.

“Ms. Read’s head snapped up, and she very loudly told me to go [expletive] myself across the lobby,” she said. “I said, ‘Yeah, [expletive] you too,’ and walked away.”

Two days later, Sullivan said her sister asked her if she had been making out with O’Keefe on the night they had the altercation. She said it was “absolutely not” true, and that “He was family, he was my older brother for all intents and purposes. It just never would’ve happened between us.”

Text messages revealed in later testimony showed that Read told Brian Higgins, another witness, that O’Keefe had cheated on her.

Brian Higgins

Brian Higgins is an agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and a friend of Boston police officer Brian Albert.

On Jan. 28, 2022, he drove back to Massachusetts from New York City. He’d attended a funeral for a police officer killed in the line of duty with Brian Albert, Kevin Albert and a third officer.

Higgins was at the Waterfall, and he said he spoke briefly to O’Keefe but not Read.

He sent Read a text that night: “Um well,” which he described as “flirty.”

Higgins said he did not stay very long at 34 Fairview Road after receiving an open invitation from Brian Albert.

Higgins said he was woken up around 6:30 a.m. when he received calls from multiple people, including Brian Albert and the Canton chief of police.

“Both my work and my personal phones were blowing up,” he said.

The call from Albert was concerning, he said, because he had just spent the entire previous day with him, so he picked up the phone. After their conversation and he learned O’Keefe had been found on the lawn, he got dressed and went directly back to Albert’s home on Fairview Road.

“It didn’t make sense to me. I couldn’t do the math in my head. I know John O’Keefe and the defendant, they never showed up,” Higgins said. “It didn’t make sense.”

For over an hour during direct examination by Lally, Higgins read from text message conversations he had with Read in the weeks leading up to Jan. 28, 2022. The thread started on Jan. 12, 2022.

On Jan. 15, 2022, Read texted Higgins, “You’re hot.”

“Are you serious or messing with me?” Higgins texted back.

“No, I’m serious,” Read texted.

Higgins went to O’Keefe’s house to watch a New England Patriots game that evening, and as he left, Read kissed him on the lips, he said.

It seemed romantic, he said, and he was not expecting it.

That night, according to the texts read in court, Higgins asked Read where her feelings came from and why she had originally reached out to him. They both admitted they liked each other and found each other attractive.

Later, Higgins asked Read if she was going to break up with O’Keefe. She said she wasn’t sure and that O’Keefe had “hooked up” with another girl on vacation, referring to her belief that he kissed Marietta Sullivan on a group trip to Aruba on New Year’s Eve a few weeks before.

She later told Higgins that she was bothered less by the supposed cheating and more by problems she and O’Keefe had regarding his niece and nephew, who he took in after their parents died.

“It’s just a very very complicated dynamic with the four of us. He isn’t cut out for what he’s doing and the kids present constant issues … his heart isn’t in it,” Read texted. “I try very hard but they are very spoiled and they’re not my family. My parents keep telling me I’d feel different if they were mine or my own sister’s.”

Later, Read told Higgins that O’Keefe had seen Ring camera footage of them leaving the house after the Patriots game and asked her if they were hooking up. She told Higgins she knew where the cameras were located, so the video did not show them kissing.

Multiple times in the text transcript, Read invited Higgins to come to her house in Mansfield, get a drink with her or meet up with her.

On one occasion, Higgins said Read also stopped by his home after a night out with a friend, the only other time they interacted one-on-one.

He said she didn’t stay long and that they spoke more about the nature of their relationship and what they wanted but did not kiss or have any other sexual contact. He described the visit as uncomfortable.

The last text in the transcript was Read telling Higgins, “John died.” He said he did not respond to the text and did not have any contact with her after that.

Witnesses not yet called to the stand

Several witnesses on the Norfolk prosecutor’s list include several Massachusetts State Police yet to be called.

Trooper Michael Proctor, Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik and twelve other members of the state police are on the list.

Two doctors from the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner are also expected to testify.

Four staff from Good Samaritan Medical Center are also on the prosecutor’s witness list.

Gretchen Voss, who wrote about the Read case for Boston Magazine, is also on the witness list.

There are 77 names on the defense’s witness list, including many of the same people called by prosecutors.

Other names include former Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz, Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey and six expert witnesses.

The trial resumes on Monday, June 3.

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