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Karen Read trial: 3 from State Police testify about physical evidence collected
Three Massachusetts State Police witnesses testified Monday about the physical evidence in the case, from pieces of broken taillight to the hair allegedly found on Karen Read’s SUV.
On the stand Monday:
Judge Beverly Cannone ended Monday’s court session with Vallier on the stand. Read’s trial is not in session Tuesday; Vallier’s testimony will resume Wednesday.
4 p.m. update: Apparent red and clear plastic found in debris from John O’Keefe’s clothing, forensic scientist testifies
Pieces of what appeared to be red and clear plastic were present in debris from John O’Keefe’s clothing, according to Ashley Vallier, a forensic scientist with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab.
Vallier was assigned to perform physical match analysis on various pieces of evidence in Karen Read’s case and explained that the task involved “looking at two or more items that have broken or irregular edges and seeing if they fit together, sort of like a jigsaw puzzle.”
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Vallier testified about examining debris from O’Keefe’s clothing and shoes under a microscope and finding “apparent dirt debris; many black, gray, blue, and orange apparent fibers; several pieces of red apparent plastic; several apparent hairs; one piece of green material; and one piece of clear apparent plastic.”
The lab also received “many pieces of apparent plastic and apparent glass and one drinking straw” from 34 Fairview Road, Vallier said. Prosecutor Adam Lally showed jurors several photographs of the broken glass and plastic shards.
Vallier testified that many of the smaller pieces of plastic fit together into a larger section that was a physical match for the taillight housing taken into evidence from Read’s SUV.
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At that, Lally wrapped up his questioning for the day. Vallier will return to the stand Wednesday morning.
3 p.m. update: No DNA testing done on Solo cup swabs, forensic scientist confirms
Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab forensic scientist Maureen Hartnett continued to testify after lunch Monday, telling the court she saw “visible red-brown stains” on John O’Keefe’s sweatshirt, T-shirt, and jeans.
Hartnett said she screened the stains for blood and also performed confirmatory testing. She added that one stain on O’Keefe’s sneakers “screened positive” for blood.
As defense attorney Alan Jackson began his cross-examination, Hartnett confirmed she examined Karen Read’s SUV at the Canton Police Department on Feb. 1, 2022 — not Feb. 2, as she had previously testified.
Hartnett said earlier on Monday that she received several Solo cups “filled with frozen red-brown stains” while at the police station that day. Answering a later question from Jackson, she confirmed she took two swabs from just one of the cups, rather than collecting evidence from all six.
“It was reported to me [that] those cups came from the same area of red-brown staining, so … you make an assumption that they’re all related,” Hartnett explained. “From what I was told, it came from one area of red-brown stain at the scene.”
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She testified that DNA testing was not conducted on the swabs she collected from one of the Solo cups.
“So as we sit here now, there’s been no DNA confirmation of who … that blood relates to?” Jackson asked.
“There was no testing done on it at all,” Hartnett replied.
“And so therefore we would not know if there were multiple contributors to those stains or that swab that you took from that single Solo cup?” Jackson pressed.
“That’s correct,” Hartnett said.
Later on, Jackson turned his attention to the hair Hartnett found on the back of Read’s SUV.
“How exactly was that hair secured to that vertical panel, if you can explain that?” he asked.
“It didn’t appear to be secured in any way,” Hartnett replied. “It was just on that quarter panel.” She confirmed the hair wasn’t glued, taped, or affixed to the car in any way.
“So that hair potentially would have had to make that same 60 mile round trip in the same blizzard?” Jackson asked, pointing out that the car was recovered in Dighton, where Read’s parents live, and towed back to Canton.
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“I don’t know when that hair was deposited on the vehicle,” Hartnett testified.
“Right,” Jackson replied.
1 p.m. update: State Police forensic scientist testifies about search for ‘biological material’ on Karen Read’s SUV
As she examined Karen Read’s Lexus SUV at the Canton Police Department on Feb. 2, 2022, forensic scientist Maureen Hartnett said she noted damage on the car’s rear passenger side.
“There was a dent in the trunk door,” said Hartnett, who works in the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab. “There were scratches on the rear bumper, and there was a broken taillight.”
She testified that she saw what appeared to be a hair on the car’s rear quarter panel, as well as apparent glass shards on the rear bumper.
“I was informed that this vehicle may have been involved in a hit-and-run, so I was requested to examine it for biological material,” Hartnett testified. She said she learned that Read’s car had been towed through a blizzard and that the victim in the alleged crash, John O’Keefe, had scratches on his arm.
Hartnett said she performed blood screening tests on the car’s undercarriage, the edge of the bumper, and the exhaust pipe.
“Those were negative,” she added.
Hartnett testified that she collected the apparent hair and glass shards from the vehicle, as well as the broken taillight housing and some paint samples from the areas of damage on the rear bumper and door.
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During her time at the Canton police station, Hartnett said she also received other evidence in the case, including a broken drinking glass reportedly recovered from the scene at 34 Fairview Road and several Solo cups “filled with frozen red-brown stains.” She said she packaged the drinking glass and allowed the Solo cups to thaw before collecting samples.
Hartnett testified that she did not perform any testing on Read’s taillight due to the limited surface area, lack of visible red-brown stains, and the car’s journey through a blizzard.
“So given the fact there was potentially very limited material on the taillight, if any, any type of testing that we do would remove additional material,” she explained. “So I made the conservative decision to take a swabbing of the item and send it forward for DNA.”
Turning her attention to the apparent hair recovered from Read’s car, Hartnett testified that the strand was about 7/8 of an inch long. She said she “determined the hair was consistent with a human hair with a root.” Prosecutor Adam Lally previously said at a pre-trial hearing that a partial DNA profile generated from the hair was consistent with O’Keefe’s DNA.
On the stand Monday, Hartnett also spoke about the stains and damage she found on a sweatshirt O’Keefe had been wearing the night before he died.
Hartnett’s testimony will resume when jurors return from their lunch break at 1:30 p.m.
11:20 a.m. update: First State Police trooper takes the stand, testifies about search for evidence outside 34 Fairview Road
Combing through heavy snow, Massachusetts State Police investigators found a discarded sneaker and several pieces of broken taillight outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022, State Police Lt. Kevin O’Hara testified Monday.
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The team commander for the State Police Special Emergency Response Team (SERT), O’Hara testified that he received a call from State Police Lt. Brian Tully shortly after 2:30 p.m. that day asking for a search outside 34 Fairview Road. Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe had been found cold and unresponsive on the home’s front lawn hours earlier.
O’Hara said seven SERT members arrived at the scene by 5:41 p.m. He described the team’s “slow, methodical” search through poor weather and lighting conditions.
A man exited 34 Fairview Road at one point and “asked us if we were here for ‘what had happened earlier,’” he recalled. “We said yes, and he walked back inside the house.”
O’Hara said Tully filled him in on some of the details surrounding O’Keefe’s death.
“Lt. Tully had informed us that the victim in this case was struck by a vehicle,” O’Hara recalled. “He believed there would be broken pieces of taillight in the area. He also stated the victim was missing his sneaker, so he asked us to search for both of those items.”
O’Hara said investigators used various tools to sift through the snow, including shovels, a rake, and a push broom.
“It was very difficult to clear the snow,” he recalled. “I don’t think we had very good visibility in what we were moving, even with the push broom and the rake. It was very difficult to definitively say we had cleared the lawn properly.”
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He testified that the SERT members found multiple pieces of red and clear plastic on the street between a flagpole and a fire hydrant. They also found a sneaker “completely buried” in the snow in the same area, O’Hara said.
After further search efforts turned up no additional evidence, he said he touched base with Tully once more.
“He was very satisfied that we had found everything we were going to locate at that time, and we decided to suspend the search,” O’Hara said. He said the SERT members started to wrap up their search and clear the area by 6:15 p.m.
O’Hara also testified that he told Tully there was a “good chance” the team hadn’t found all the evidence at the scene and offered to conduct a second search in the daylight, once the snow had melted a bit.
Defense attorney David Yannetti listed six dates in February 2022 and asked O’Hara whether State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case, called him back to the scene on one of those dates for another search. O’Hara said Proctor did not.
At a September 2023 pre-trial hearing, Read’s lawyers alleged that Proctor conducted several undocumented searches of 34 Fairview Road that purportedly resulted in the recovery of taillight shards. During the same hearing, Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally cast doubt on the defense team’s claims.
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O’Hara testified Monday that a supervisor sent out an alert to SERT members shortly before 3 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, to see who would be available to respond to Fairview Road. Yannetti pointed out that the supervisor wrote in the alert, “We do not have the green light yet.”
“We weren’t authorized to respond yet,” O’Hara confirmed.
O’Hara also said he and Tully “never discussed searching inside of the house.” He testified that Tully “gave us the best idea for the search area.”
Livestream via NBC10 Boston.
Court is back in session Monday for the Karen Read murder trial, which saw only one day of testimony last week.
Several witnesses took the stand last Tuesday, including Brian Higgins, who exchanged flirty texts with Read during her relationship with Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Higgins went out drinking with Read, O’Keefe, and others on Jan. 28, 2022, also attending a subsequent house party at 34 Fairview Road in Canton — the same home where O’Keefe was found unresponsive the following morning.
More on Karen Read:
Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of backing her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at the afterparty. However, Read’s lawyers say she was framed, alleging that O’Keefe entered 34 Fairview Road and was assaulted by other guests, possibly attacked by the family dog, and dumped outside. Higgins is one of three men the defense has sought to implicate in their coverup theory.
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As he concluded his multi-day testimony, Higgins confirmed he threw his cellphone away at a military base on Cape Cod in late 2022, though he pushed back on the defense team’s efforts to cast that decision in a nefarious light.
O’Keefe’s adolescent niece and nephew followed Higgins on the stand. The children lived with their uncle following the death of both their parents, and they recalled frequent arguments between O’Keefe and Read. Prosecutors have suggested that the couple’s increasingly strained relationship could have been a motive in O’Keefe’s murder.
Jurors also heard from doctors at Good Samaritan Medical Center, where O’Keefe and Read were treated the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. Dr. Justin Rice recalled futile efforts to resuscitate and warm O’Keefe, who arrived at the emergency department with a core body temperature of 80.1 degrees.
Rice testified that O’Keefe had a cut on the bony ridge above his right eye, as well as swelling and bruising of the surrounding area. He said O’Keefe also had “superficial abrasions” on his right forearm.
Read was brought to the same hospital for psychiatric evaluation after allegedly making suicidal statements following the discovery of O’Keefe’s body. Rice and Dr. Garrey Faller, a pathologist and laboratory medical director at Good Samaritan, testified that Read’s blood alcohol level registered at 93 mg/dl by mid-morning on Jan. 29, 2022.
Nicholas Roberts, who previously worked in the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab Toxicology Unit, testified that Read’s test results would put her blood alcohol content between 0.135% and 0.292% at 12:45 a.m. on the 29th.
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