Massachusetts

Jurors are expected to return to the courtroom Tuesday for the trial of Karen Read.

The high-profile trial began Monday with heated debates between the defense and prosecutors.

First thing on the docket is the cross examining of the officer who arrived first on scene on the night Read allegedly killed her then boyfriend John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer. This after he provided interesting testimony while speaking to prosecutors.

Watch the Karen Read trial live on nbcboston.com, NECN, NBC Boston streaming platforms (including Roku, Peacock and Samsung TV) and NBC10 Boston’s YouTube page. Every night of the trial at 7 p.m., come back for analysis and more.

Prosecutors say Read hit O’Keefe with her SUV, leaving him to die on the lawn of a Fairview Road home in Canton, Massachusetts, after a night out with friends back in 2022. Her defense claims it was a cover-up by law enforcement.

Read’s defense team wasted no time attempting to prove that claim, accusing law enforcement of planting broken taillight evidence, ignoring the accounts of a snowplow driver who says he never saw O’Keefe’s body on the front lawn and overall, raising questions as to how the investigation was handled.

Prosecutors and the defense each had about 45 minutes Monday morning to deliver their opening statements.

Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally outlined the Commonwealth’s case, saying that Read even said, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” in the hours after O’Keefe’s death. He indicated that jurors will hear from some of the people who were inside the house where O’Keefe was found and from investigators involved with the case.

Lally also referenced a 20-minute shouting match that Read and O’Keefe reportedly had during a vacation in Aruba about a month before O’Keefe’s death.

The defense argued that Read is being framed and someone else is responsible for O’Keefe’s death. But they didn’t say specifically who they think that person is.

The judge had previously ordered that the defense can’t make its third party culprit argument during opening statements. Instead, they have to “develop their argument, through relevant, competent, and admissible evidence over the course of the trial.”

“Karen Read was framed,” defense attorney David Yannetti said in his opening. “Her car never struck John O’Keefe, she did not cause his death, and that means someone else did.”

He argued that the lead investigator on the case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, had “deep ties” to the Albert family, the owners of the home outside which O’Keefe’s body was found, and that the investigation into O’Keefe’s death was not conducted properly.

“Michael Proctor never stepped foot inside the Albert home on Jan. 29 of 2022, never checked out whether there were any signs of struggle inside that home, never called for crime scene technicians and other specialists to look out for blood or other trace evidence in the home. He never asked Brian Albert for permission to go inside the home… never applied for a search warrant to go in that home. Instead, he focused immediately and exclusively on Karen Read, the outsider.”

Yannetti said on the day that O’Keefe was found dead, Proctor was texting with his high school friends, revealing information about the investigation and his “true thoughts” about Read.

“He called Karen Read names you would reserve only for your worst enemies. He told his friends that he hoped she would kill herself, he told his friends he had seized her cellphone.” He said Proctor even told his friends that he was “searching her phone for nude photos of Karen Read.”

Yannetti said Proctor also texted his friends that the Alberts wouldn’t face any issues despite the fact that O’Keefe had died on the lawn, because “the homeowner is a Boston cop too.”

Proctor is currently the subject of an internal investigation by Massachusetts State Police that sources have confirmed is connected to the Read case.

Yannetti also alleged that O’Keefe’s injuries were not consistent with being hit by a vehicle, but rather an attack by an animal. And he said the Alberts owned a German Shepherd that was known to be “not great around strangers.” He also said the dog, named Chloe, was rehomed several months after O’Keefe’s death.

First witnesses: John O’Keefe’s brother, sister-in-law

The first prosecution witness in the case, O’Keefe’s brother Paul, was called to testify shortly after noon on Monday.

He became emotional as he described how his brother took custody of their niece and nephew in 2013 after their sister and brother-in-law died.

Paul O’Keefe also testified about how his brother sometimes talked about his arguments with Read.

“He didn’t say too much. If they were arguing, he may give reference that they were arguing. He didn’t really tell me what they were arguing about. He mostly kept that to himself.”

He said the arguments would sometimes have to do with Read spending too much money on the kids for gifts.

“I know there was some arguments over, you know, what she fed them, whether it’s, you know, Dunkin’ Donuts or whatnot. But it was things along those lines.”

One one occasion he said he witnessed “one intense fight” between the two of them during a trip to Cape Cod. He said it was a verbal argument, John O’Keefe and Read had been drinking alcohol, and Read complained that John wasn’t nice to her.

“I was kind of the referee in that situation,” Paul O’Keefe said.

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He also described receiving a phone call from his mother at 6:40 a.m. on the day of John O’Keefe’s death.

“She called and said, ‘Something happened to your brother, they found him in the snow and they took him to the hospital,’” Paul O’Keefe said.

He testified about seeing Read at the hospital, being restrained by staff, screaming, “Is he alive? Is he alive? Is he alive?”

Paul O’Keefe also described his relationship with Read as a good one, and said he thought she was a good influence on his niece and nephew. He said Read also became very friendly with his wife.

The second witness to take the stand for the defense was Paul O’Keefe’s wife, Erin. She testified about the Aruba trip, saying that Read had reached out to her to say that she had seen John O’Keefe kissing someone else in the lobby of the hotel they were staying at.

She also testified about speaking to Read by phone soon after the body was discovered: “she just yelled back in the phone, ‘John’s dead!’”

Canton police officer testifies

The third and final witness of the day was Canton Police Officer Steven Saraf, a 27-year veteran of the department who was the first officer to respond to the 911 call reporting O’Keefe’s body in the snow.

He recalled finding Read “visibly upset” and saying, “This is all my fault, my fault. I did this.”

He added, “She kept asking, ‘He’s dead. Is he dead? Is he dead?’” and confirmed that she said the phrase several times, yelling.

Prosecutors showed dashcam video of Saraf pulling up to the scene on Fairview Road in the snow that morning.

It showed the officer jump out of his cruiser and say, “What happened?” After several moments, the sound of yelling can be heard, then three women come into view. One appears frantic.

Lally had no further questions for Saraf, but Read’s lawyers did. Their cross-examination of the officer should be how Tuesday’s day in court begins.

The scene outside Norfolk Superior Court Monday

With no room inside the courtroom for the public, supporters of Read gathered outside to listen to opening statements on Monday.

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, with full days on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

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After 34 years as a nurse at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Brighton, Susan Church is worried about losing the job she loves and the community she cares for, as uncertainty swirls around Steward Health Care’s eight operating Massachusetts hospitals.

“A lot of us have been here for 30 or 40 years. We all stayed because we do the best job we can for our patients. We care about this community,” she said.

Church, other health care providers and community members from Allston and Brighton rallied in front of the hospital on Monday — the day before a deal a deadline central to efforts to keep the for-profit Steward hospital network afloat.

The system has eight hospitals operating in Massachusetts, but as financial woes have come to light and politicians have accused Steward operators of failing to disclose financial information to state regulators, the company is looking to sell its physician network. Gov. Maura Healey and other elected officials have called for Steward operators, who they have said are “greedy,” to pull out of the state.

Steward announced in late February that it had secured a “robust financing agreement that will provide a $150 million cash infusion to provide additional liquidity as the company marches towards the sale of its highly desired asset physician group Stewardship Health.”

“This allows Steward to reset its operations and address vendor obligations, which it is working diligently to resolve in service to getting to a sustainable operating model,” a release put out by the company on Feb. 23 says.

Lenders agreed to the loan through April 30 to give the company time to execute the plan. With that deadline on Tuesday, Steward hospital workers say they have received little information about what’s going to happen to the hospitals and their jobs.

“Our members are really concerned that the hospitals will close,” Cari Medina, vice president for Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union, told the News Service. “They’re super concerned about Steward declaring bankruptcy, they want to know what happens to their jobs. But more importantly, they care about each other and their community, because this will affect patients too.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kate Walsh told lawmakers last week that there was the potential for a bankruptcy filing and acknowledged that state receivership of hospitals had been discussed.  She said “there’s much about this situation that we don’t control” but also emphasized that the state is “prepared to respond.”

“Every day at 7:30, we have a stand-up call with leaders across government, external counsel, people across the health care system, other colleagues in other parts of government, to discuss what we know, what we’ve learned and how we’re going to proceed,” she said.

Still, workers are nervous about the future. 

“(Health care workers) want to know that they’re not going to show up tomorrow and have there be locks on the doors,” Medina said.

The Healey administration has held private meetings on preparations for various transition scenarios, but Medina said 1199 SEIU — which represents 5,200 workers in Steward hospitals — has not been invited to those conversations. They have, however, received communications from the Department of Public Health, she said.

Rep. Kevin Honan of Brighton, as well as Boston City Councilors Liz Breadon, Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn came to the rally to show their support for keeping the hospital open.

Honan said he had been born at St. Elizabeth’s, as had all of his family.

“This institution is more than an institution, it’s such a strong part of this community that is so important to us,” Honan said.