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Here’s what the Canton police audit had to say about Karen Read’s case
The long-awaited audit critiqued the Canton Police Department's handling of the early investigation into John O'Keefe's death.
A long-awaited audit of the Canton Police Department found fault with officers’ handling of the initial investigation into John O’Keefe’s death, though auditors uncovered no evidence to suggest local police conspired to frame Karen Read, O’Keefe’s girlfriend and alleged killer.
In a 206-page report released Tuesday, 5 Stones intelligence offered a top-to-bottom review of the Canton police force and revisited several of the town’s high-profile incidents, including Read’s murder case and the Sandra Birchmore death investigation. Residents voted to commission the audit in 2023 after Read’s lawyers ignited a firestorm with allegations that she was framed in a widespread coverup among law enforcement and witnesses.
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“We appreciate the community’s engagement in this process and will continue to provide updates as we move forward,” Robert McCarthy, chairman of Canton’s Police Audit Committee, said in a statement Tuesday. He noted the town will host a community meeting at Canton High School Saturday afternoon for a recap of the audit’s findings, followed by a question-and-answer session.
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The report arrived on the first day of jury selection for Read’s upcoming retrial, her second showdown in Norfolk Superior Court following a highly publicized mistrial last year.
Prosecutors say Read drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into her boyfriend, a Boston police officer who was found unresponsive on a snowy lawn in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. Read, for her part, has said she last saw O’Keefe as she dropped him off at the home, owned at the time by another Boston police officer.
The audit expressed concern about how Canton police handled evidence collection and witness interviews early on in the investigation, specifically noting the department’s use of plastic Solo cups and a paper grocery bag to collect blood-soaked snow from the scene. Read’s team has also raised questions about documentation and chain of custody, given investigators purportedly found additional pieces of her broken taillight outside 34 Fairview Road as the snow melted.
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While 5 Stones reported “policy and procedure failures” stemming from officers’ crime scene processing, auditors said they “found no evidence supporting claims that any Canton PD officers tampered with evidence located at the 34 Fairview Road crime scene.”
Further, they said, “our team has not discovered any information that would indicate that any actions by the Canton PD officers or detectives were a part of a conspiracy to frame any individual for the murder of Mr. O’Keefe.”
Among the audit’s other findings:
- Canton police who responded to 34 Fairview Road were not properly equipped with crime scene gear like evidence bags, collection kits, or a digital camera.
- Canton police used their personal phones to photograph and video evidence collection at the scene.
- Officers took no photos of O’Keefe where he lay in the snow before first responders rushed him away in an ambulance.
- Witnesses Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts, who were with Read when she found O’Keefe, should have been interviewed at the Canton Police Department after O’Keefe was taken to the hospital, and their interviews should have been recorded.
- Homeowners Nicole and Brian Albert should also have been interviewed at the police station.
- And both Canton and Massachusetts State Police failed to maintain a presence at 34 Fairview Road to ensure the crime scene’s integrity throughout the day.
“It is important to acknowledge that despite the challenging blizzard conditions and the delayed response from the MSP, the Canton PD officers made an effort to uncover and protect evidence,” the auditors noted. “The innovative use of a leaf blower to systematically search through the snow-covered crime scene was instrumental in uncovering evidence near Mr. O’Keefe’s body.”
5 Stones also concurred with the Canton Police Department that probable cause did not exist to obtain a search warrant for 34 Fairview Road, given officers had no information at the time to suggest O’Keefe had ever entered the home.
The audit did, however, determine there was “incomplete” coordination regarding videos Canton police had of Read’s SUV housed at the station between Jan. 29 and Feb. 2, 2022. Jurors in Read’s first trial were shown video of the vehicle in the station’s sallyport garage that was inexplicably flipped, and 5 Stones reported the camera in question “records abnormally in a mirrored fashion” — an issue documented in three of the town’s other cameras and not isolated to the police department.
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The report offered several recommendations for the department. Chief among them: equipping sergeant and patrol vehicles with full crime scene kits and conducting interviews at the station whenever possible. Other suggestions include barring the use of personal phones to photograph crime scenes and increasing training opportunities around evidence documentation, interrogation, and witness interviews.
McCarthy said town officials and Police Audit Committee members are now carefully reviewing the report’s findings.
“The committee is committed to working with all stakeholders, including the police department, town leadership, and residents, to ensure that any recommendations are thoughtfully considered and appropriately implemented,” he added.
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