Karen Read’s own words coming back to bite as prosecutor weaves in videos at trial
The Karen Read murder case has attracted thousands of people from across the country to pay attention to her trial every day.
People have gravitated to the case, in part, because they've read about or heard from the defendant directly so consistently in magazine stories, TV interviews and in documentary series — a rare move for someone facing such a high-stakes trial.
"Doing this film is my testimony," Read, 45, said in a docuseries by Investigation Discovery and streaming on Max.
Her interviews allowed her to put out her version of the story in the court of public opinion. It's paid off so far as she's got hundreds, if not thousands, of supporters who believe what her defense team says: that she's been framed for killing her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, in January 2022.
Those supporters have contributed $885,949 to a defense fund to date.
But as the trial is getting underway, it's clear that the new prosecutor, Hank Brennan, is using those very same interviews and Read's own words against her. Some of the interviews were done before the first trial last year. But they were not played for jurors then.
Brennan has played four videos so far after two days of testimony, and they are often played after meaningful testimony to drive home certain points to jurors — who won't be hearing from Read since she is not expected to testify.
Brennan used some of Read's own words during his opening statement. He said that Read "clipped" O'Keefe and left the scene because he didn't look "mortally wounded."
A few minutes later, he played a video of an interview she gave to Dateline that aired on Oct. 18, 2024, where she said:
Read: I mean, I didn't think I hit him, hit him. But could I have clipped him? Could I have tapped him in the knee and incapacitated him? He didn't look mortally wounded as far as I could see. Or could I have done something that knocked him out and in his drunkenness and in the cold, didn't come to again.
Interviewer: This would have been the moment you dropped him off at the party?
Read : Yeah. Yeah. It would have had to.
Then, later on Monday, after a back-and-forth cross-examination of Canton firefighter Timothy Nuttall, where lawyers argued about whether he really heard Read say, "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him," Brennan rolled the tape.
This time, from Read's interview with ID Docuseries, dated June 15, 2024. In it, she says she did say, "I hit him."
Read: I remember it, but I question do I remember it because it's been relived so much?
I mean, when I see the video of me driving from the Waterfall, like what I just described — tapping the brakes when I crossed the intersection, Washington over Sherman street — do I actually remember that I kind of slowly proceeded through that green light? No, I don't actually remember that, but I've seen the video so many times that you then question, did I remember on my own, or was my memory jogged?
But I also wondered, did I say that I hit him? Or was it told to me that I said I hit him? And I knew I never could have said that, so the closest I must have said was, did I hit him? I know I said I hit him, but did I really say it as many times as law enforcement's claiming I said it?
On Tuesday, Brennan played audio from an interview with the journalist Gretchen Voss dated June 20, 2023.
In it, she described what she saw the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, before she and two other women discovered O'Keefe's unconscious body in the snow:
KR: When my car was seized, there was a few small pieces of tail light missing that I had picked out at John's at quarter of six before we drove over to Fairview. I'm showing to Kerry, look what I just did to my light. And I'm worried that it's gonna — there's gonna be some kind of electric short circuit. The bulb is showing and some of the red plastics missing. So I picked pieces out of the light housing that had kind of collapsed within the light and dropped them in John's driveway.
He played that video after O'Keefe's close friend, Kerry Roberts, testified about meeting up with Read before they found his body in the snow.
The timing of when that taillight was cracked, where it was cracked and when the taillight pieces were found at 34 Fairview Road is a huge contention point in the trial.
The second video played on Wednesday came after emotional testimony from O'Keefe's mother, Peggy O'Keefe.
She recounted what happened the morning she saw her son at the hospital, and she said Read and her father visited John O'Keefe's house briefly, but that Read never gave her condolences.
In an interview with 20/20, aired on Sept. 27, 2023, Read talked about when she went to John O'Keefe's house on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, after he died.
Peggy O'Keefe and her grandchildren were in the house:
Read: They had pulled into the driveway before me. So I was presuming she saw my cracked taillight and was thinking, did you hit my son? I could sense from her that she was looking at me very warily. And then when John's nephew came along, I just wanted to see him and squeeze him. It was quite uncomfortable. I sit down upstairs in the master bedroom. I said, I think I need to leave because I think John's mother thinks I did something to John.
Brennan said in court that the video goes to his argument that Read showed a consciousness of guilt the morning that O'Keefe died.
Alan Jackson, one of Read's lawyers, said he disagreed with the characterization, but did not object to having the video shown to jurors.
A fifth video that Brennan plans to show jurors was not allowed on Wednesday, and Judge Beverly Cannone said she would decide Thursday morning whether it will be played for jurors.
Jackson objected to this video, however, and argued it would "villify" Read if allowed.
Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death in connection with O'Keefe's death.
Norfolk County prosecutors say Read struck with her SUV while driving intoxicated and then fled the scene in January 2022.
Read's lawyers have contended for years that her SUV never struck O'Keefe, and on Tuesday, Jackson said, "There was no collision," and repeated it three times to emphasize for the jury.
Read's trial continues Thursday with testimony.
Here's a recap of Wednesday's testimony.
More about the case
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