Brian Higgins

“To be honest with you, I — I guess you could view it as a flirty text.”

Higgins acknowledges sending a flirtatious text to Read while at the Waterfall, establishing the nature of their communications.

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

Higgins states O'Keefe and Read never arrived at 34 Fairview Road while he was there, central to the disputed facts of the case.

“I was but things have deteriorated.”

Read's own words about her relationship with O'Keefe, used by prosecution to establish motive through relationship dissatisfaction.

“Yes, 100%. I'm not hiding that fact.”

Higgins's prior testimony admitting he relayed information about the taillight discovery between Chief Berkowitz and Brian Albert, suggesting coordination among key figures.

“A human being can't have a conversation in 22 seconds.”

Higgins's attempt to dismiss the 2:22 a.m. phone call with Brian Albert, which Jackson uses to highlight Higgins's evasiveness about this contact hours before the body was discovered.

“I threw the phone away... I had every right to do that.”

Higgins admits destroying the phone from which he had selectively extracted only two text threads, despite a court preservation order, raising questions about what other data was on the device.

“Correct.”

Single-word admission to the culminating question about knowingly destroying evidence of Albert family communications

“I was a little embarrassed — wasn't really proud of it — kind of maybe didn't show me in a good light, with respect to the fact that I was John's friend.”

Explains why Higgins never told anyone about the text messages with Read, framing it as personal embarrassment rather than concealment.

“No, I did not.”

Flat denial of ever speaking with Brian Albert at 2:22 a.m. on January 29th — directly contradicting the call log evidence raised on cross.

“In July of 2022, I had a target of an investigation I was working who alleged that he — he called me on my personal cell phone. And when I questioned him as to how he obtained my personal telephone number, he told me that his girlfriend had obtained it off of open-source internet.”

Prosecution's alternative explanation for phone destruction — security compromise from undercover work, not evidence destruction.

“If I had seen John O'Keefe on the side of the road, I would have done something to make a difference.”

Emotional closing statement reinforcing that Higgins did not see O'Keefe when leaving Fairview Road, and would have helped if he had.

“Well, I told her about the kiss.”

Contradicts the embarrassment narrative — Higgins shared details with his supervisor, undermining his claim that privacy motivated keeping texts confidential.

“I got the preservation order on the 30th. That's correct.”

Higgins confirms the damaging timeline without offering an alternative explanation.