Opening Statement - Commonwealth

MR. BRENNAN: Thank you, your honor. At 6:04 a.m. on January 29, 2022, the alarm bell sounded in the Canton Fire Department. Firefighter paramedic Timothy Nuttall knew what that meant. His heart skipped a beat. He raced to his equipment and he picked up his bag, which was meticulous. There was a sign and a signal and then there was a voice commanding that there was cardiac arrest. The most serious of calls for a firefighter, and cardiac means that a person's heart has stopped. He didn't know who it was. He didn't know where it was. He took his bag. He had just gotten to the station and he rushed to the ambulance. He was one of the most senior paramedics that morning. Another paramedic, Anthony Pomatti, would be running this mission, jumped in the back of the ambulance.

MR. BRENNAN: The door shut and they headed off to 34 Fairview Road. As they drove, firefighter Nuttall could not see anything. He couldn't hear anything other than the engine of the ambulance. He could feel it sliding across the road. It was near blizzard conditions. He calmed himself. He steadied himself. This is what the firefighters and paramedics are trained to do, to focus. And he focused on his task. He looked around the back of the ambulance to make sure all the tools were in place. The ambulance was meticulous as well. This was Anthony Flatley's ambulance and it was well-stocked. He calmed himself and he thought about what was going to happen. What should he be looking for? What are his next steps? He played the scenarios through his mind and an eerie calm was over him.

MR. BRENNAN: As the car pulled up to 34 Fairview Road, he stood at the back door and the doors opened and he stepped out into the cold. He could hear a woman screaming and shrieking, the cold hard air slapping his face and the wind, blizzard conditions swirling around him. You will hear him tell you how he walked towards those screams in the darkness through the snow. And when he got there, he saw everyone surrounding a man lying, not moving on the ground. He walked up to the man and he reached down and he tried to find any signs of life, pulse, anything. And he found nothing. And he got up and he walked over to the woman and he walked over to that defendant Karen Read and he told her that he thinks that that man is gone.

MR. BRENNAN: And then he heard the yell from Anthony — the chief — and he said come back, let's go, because you'll learn that in the cold, even if somebody's heart stops, even if they're presumed to have passed, sometimes you can still save a life. So you'll see on a dash cam video, you'll hear through testimony. He went back to that man who was John O'Keefe. He went back to him and that crew coordinated effort. They did everything they could to save his life. They got on their knees. They began CPR and firefighter Nuttall will explain as he knelt over John O'Keefe. He looked up and the defendant approached him and you'll see it on the video. He wanted any information because when you're trying to save someone, you want to know, "Are they on drugs, medication? Do they have a heart condition?"

MR. BRENNAN: And he looked up at Ms. Read and he said, "What happened?" And you'll hear her words to firefighter Nuttall — she said, "I hit him. I hit him. I hit him." And it was at that time through the words of the defendant that she admitted what she had done that night — that she hit John O'Keefe. Now those words didn't mean anything to firefighter Nuttall. They weren't in context. They didn't reconcile with the injuries. It didn't help him in his treatment. So he ignored it. Now firefighter Nuttall is not a police officer. He is not an investigator. He is not a detective. He's a first responder. And so he takes that information. It was useless to him. He continues to work on John O'Keefe, trying to save his life.

MR. BRENNAN: You'll see the team put him on a stretcher and when they lift him from the ground, even though there is snow accumulating, underneath John O'Keefe it's simply grass — hard, brown, frozen. And beneath his body lays his cell phone. They bring him to the ambulance. You'll either see them bring him to the ambulance or see on the videos that other first responders will speak to the defendant. One first responder — and for that she will say, "I hit him. I hit him. Oh my god, I hit him." And then she was interviewed or asked questions for background information — not a criminal investigation, just background to try to help John. And she was asked questions about his background.

MR. BRENNAN: And during that conversation, you won't hear — you'll see the defendant with a person by the name of Jen McCabe and a firefighter, and she tells McLaughlin, the third first responder. They bring Mr. O'Keefe to [unintelligible] Hospital and his body is cold. The doctors work feverishly. They treat him, try to save him. They try to warm his core. And unfortunately, firefighter Nuttall's first instincts were accurate. John O'Keefe --. So why are we here today? We are here today because John O'Keefe was killed by the actions and conduct of that defendant, Karen Read. You will learn through this case through facts, science, and data. You will learn that on January 29th, 2022, when the defendant and Mr.

MR. BRENNAN: O'Keefe were in front of 34 Fairview Road, all the way to the left side in a dark corner near a flag pole. You will learn that Mr. O'Keefe got out of the car. He got out and he stood by the side of the road after an argument with the defendant. That argument, that anger fueled by heavy intoxication — you'll learn from the science and data — as he stood by the side of the road, the defendant in her SUV drove away. She drove at least 35 feet away — argument over, it had ended — but then she stopped. She stopped. She put the Lexus into neutral and she waited. And the facts and the science and data will tell you that despite the fact the argument is over, she then put the Lexus into reverse, put her foot on the gas pedal, and began to press. Not 25%, not 50%, up to 75% acceleration.

MR. BRENNAN: There was a light dusting of snow. The Lexus tire spun backwards. She went backwards at least 70 feet. She clipped John O'Keefe. He fell backwards, hit his head, broke his skull, and there he lay at the corner of Fairview Road on the ground lying on top of his cell phone alone. And then the defendant will later tell that when she left, he didn't look mortally wounded, yet he was. And she simply drove away. Now, before I tell you about the data and the facts and the science and I walk you through that, I'd like to tell you a little bit about John O'Keefe. John O'Keefe was a young man, a local kid, very well-liked, loved. John O'Keefe is the son of Peggy O'Keefe and Donald O'Keefe Senior, and the brother of Paul O'Keefe. He grew up in Canton, worked hard. He became a police officer.

MR. BRENNAN: But what you're going to learn — the fact that he worked as a Boston police officer was just a fraction of his life. It was a small, really unimportant part because the biggest part of John O'Keefe is he was a family man. Not in the traditional sense. You see, John O'Keefe never had biological children. John O'Keefe was never married. But John O'Keefe had a sister and she had two children. And when the children were six and three years old, his sister unfortunately died. And shortly after, the sister's husband died. A lot of people -- to help. He didn't sit by. He saw these two recently orphaned children and he stepped in and he said he was going to raise them. So he put aside his career. He put aside his job and he moved in with the children. He raised them up. They were his home.

MR. BRENNAN: They were his passions, his love. He was a new parent — successes, failures, like all parents. And he raised the children with the help of people in the community, with the help of his brother, with the help of his family. And they led a good life. Enter Karen Read. Around COVID, the defendant and John O'Keefe reacquainted and they started a relationship. And you'll hear that even though the defendant had her own home, she was staying with Mr. O'Keefe a lot — four, five, six times a week. And to most of the world, it was a pretty good relationship. They spent time together. They did activities with the children together. She helped with driving the children, feeding the children. It was a steady relationship until about the beginning of 2022. And then things began to unravel.

MR. BRENNAN: There was tension. There were arguments. In fact, just a few days before this incident, you'll hear that Mr. O'Keefe asked her to leave, but she wouldn't. You're going to be able to read text messages of their conversations on January 28, 2022. You will see the tension and the unraveling of the relationship. You will read about the discord between the defendant and Mr. O'Keefe. You will see that when he would ignore her calls, they would become incessant. When he would try to push away, she would come closer. You will read those text messages and you will realize that this was the beginning of the end of this relationship. That night they decided they would go out together. I want to tell you something about data and science before we get to that night.

MR. BRENNAN: I mentioned that underneath John's body was a cell phone. A cell phone is an amazing piece of technology. It is like a computer. It carries extraordinary data. And when they found the cell phone — the only companion that night — they studied the cell phone and there'll be some remarkable data that you will use in this case to find the truth. I want to mention three different things you will find in a cell phone that's critical to this case. The first is called location data. Waze — we've all heard of Google Maps. Well, at some point that night, John put his Waze on, and Waze is like a breadcrumb. It will show exactly where the phone goes second by second. It is the strongest, most accurate location data that you can have. And that night, John was using Waze.

MR. BRENNAN: It also will have healthcare data. Healthcare data will show when somebody is moving. Sometimes it's qualified as steps, but it doesn't necessarily mean somebody's stepping — moving their arms, walking, turning. It doesn't show what direction or how far, but it shows movement of a person. Okay. And the third thing, remarkably, there'll be an expert in this case who found a data file on the phone and it tracks the temperature of the cell phone battery. That will be critical to your analysis in this case — the temperature of the cell phone battery. And so with that, I want to take you back to the timeline of that night. After the discord, both the defendant and John O'Keefe decided they would meet at a bar called McCarthy's.

MR. BRENNAN: Now McCarthy's is a local bar, a blizzard pending, and people are getting together in a celebratory mood. They go to McCarthy's and you'll see a video of McCarthy's and you will watch friends and the defendant drinking alcohol and you will count eight vodka drinks that the defendant drank. They arrive at 8:50. They stay till 9:45.

MR. BRENNAN: She consumed at least seven of those drinks in less than two hours. The last drink — you'll see when they leave the bar — she puts it under her jacket, and they walk out and go to another bar to meet other friends called the Waterfall. They reach the Waterfall sometime around 10 p.m.

MR. BRENNAN: step by step through the entire night to the death of John O'Keefe. And so they leave the Waterfall bar at 12:12 and you'll see that the ignition goes on to the defendant's Lexus and both John and the defendant in the car, and they decide that they're going to go back to 34 Fairview Road that we talked about earlier. They're going to go there for a get-together for one of the homeowner's sons who's having a birthday party. And so as they drive back, we'll be able to follow them with this location data when they go back to Fairview. They don't know exactly where it is and they get lost. And so John O'Keefe makes a phone call, has a phone call with one of his friends, Jen McCabe.

MR. BRENNAN: And during that phone call, which the defendant listens to because she recounts it in trying to get directions, Jen McCabe tells John it's near Bella's mom's house. You'll learn that Bella or her mom was somebody that John had dated. And so as they make their way through Fairview, you will see there's a road that comes down like a loop and that leads to Fairview. They take a wrong turn on the loop and then they do a three-point turn in the driveway. You can see the exact precise driveway they turn into because some type of acceleration movement triggered that black box in the Lexus. And that's important because that's seven minutes before it. And you'll see from Waze exactly where the car was.

MR. BRENNAN: You'll see from the black box the event of the three-point turn in the driveway and then a return down to Fairview. Before they get there, at 12:23, a truck is coming the other way. And the witnesses in that truck will say they blinked the lights. One of them saw a man and woman in the car — John — and then they followed the Lexus because they were going to the same house. The truck stopped at the driveway and the Lexus — the defendant's car — because of Waze, and he counted second to second, never stops. It goes very slowly all the way to the end of the yard in the corner where there's a tree line and a flag pole. And they reach that location at 12:34:33 and they're in the car and they stay there. The truck waits. Somebody in the house is coming out.

MR. BRENNAN: The person goes back in the house and they're there about five minutes. We're now down to two minutes before the collision. The truck leaves and now it's just the defendant and John. And while they're waiting outside, 12:27, John gets a text from Dave: "Park behind us in the driveway." 12:29, text again: "Are you coming in?" You'll hear that Dave and others look out the window and see the defendant's Lexus in front of the flag pole at the far end. It's snowy. It's dark. It's windy. They're waiting. You will know that John O'Keefe was in that car, that Lexus, and didn't move, because his health data is not moving. It's not moving until 12:31:56. At 12:31:56, he begins to move. He will have 20 seconds before he falls. 20 seconds.

MR. BRENNAN: He gets out of the car, exits the Lexus, and in that 20 seconds you'll hear that user-initiated — he looks at the phone at the text message he read. It is now 12:32:00. He closes the phone the last time. It will be the last time he uses that phone. From the Waterfall bar, you see that. And at that time, 12:32:00, last user — he has seven more seconds. He will move and then lie dormant the rest of the night. We'll also have the information from the Lexus black box. The clocks run differently. There's a 30-second offset, but it's right in the heart of that time.

MR. BRENNAN: And you will see through the data that at that time, when he makes his last movements with the phone, is when her car leaves 34 Fairview, at least stops, neutral, and then shoots into reverse with the tires spinning right toward — right out. You'll know they're arguing because the next morning she tells the firefighter, "I'm sad because our last moments were fighting." She drives away. He made later statements that when she left, he didn't look mortally wounded. He lay on the ground on top of his phone like a dusting of snow, the snow now picking up, and he's just there. It's 12:37 now. When he was in the car before he gets to Fairview, the battery temperature of that phone is 77°. 77° in the warm car.

MR. BRENNAN: Now that he's been outside for five minutes, she calls again at 12:36:03 and leaves a message. You'll hear it. And you will hear the anger and rage in her voice. She leaves a message: "John, I'm fucking —" [unintelligible] Cell phone drops almost 60°. [unintelligible] But then she wakes at 5:00. She is frantic. She wakes up John's niece and she is incoherent — she is yelling, she's screaming. She asks her niece to call Jen McCabe. She calls Jen McCabe. And you'll hear Jen McCabe recounts: in deep sleep, she wakes up and she hears, "Jen! Jen! Jen!" — screaming Jen's name. "John's dead." Hangs up the phone. Jen calls back: "What's going on?" And she said, "I left him at the Waterfall." She tells her, "I left him at the Waterfall."

MR. BRENNAN: Then Jen calls back and says, "We saw you go up front — you didn't leave him at the Waterfall." She hangs up. Then minutes later she calls another person, Kerry Roberts, a friend of John O'Keefe, someone who's not friends with the defendant, but they know each other because they helped raise the kids and they interacted. She had nothing to do with the night before, wasn't at the bars, was home with her family. She calls her and says, "I think John got hit by a plow. I think he's dead." Now, Kerry with that information calls 911. She calls hospitals. You can hear her voice — she's concerned, not [unintelligible]. And then she gets another call from the defendant. And she tells the defendant, "Come to my house. I will help you look for him."

MR. BRENNAN: And the defendant says, "I was so drunk last night, I don't remember anything." Waiting for her to arrive, she learns she doesn't arrive. Instead, the defendant goes to Jen McCabe's house. Kerry Roberts, the other friend, then goes to Jen's house, pulls behind the car. When she does, she's in the lot. She can hear the defendant say, "My tail light's broken. My tail light's broken." And she looks and the snow pack and the right tail light — she can see a piece of the tail light missing. The defendant desperately wants to go to 34 Fairview Road, but Kerry Roberts takes over and says, "We're going to go back to John's house. He's in the house and you didn't see him." So both cars — driven by Kerry Roberts and then Jen McCabe with the defendant — go back to John O'Keefe's house.

MR. BRENNAN: You'll see a ring video where you see them go into the house and they look around, and you'll hear about the women Jen and Kerry enlisted into this task to look for John O'Keefe. They cannot find him. And then when Kerry Roberts comes into a room, rather than looking, the defendant is simply standing there staring at the wall. At that point, the defendant insists they've got to go back to Fairview Road. They decide they'll take one car. Kerry Roberts is taking charge. She's going to drive. They leave this dark driveway and they drive back towards 34 Fairview Road. It is blizzard-like conditions. It is dark. They can barely see a thing. And when they get close to

MR. BRENNAN: They just know that John somehow ended up here with the broken glass and the blood. And so that morning, you can see [unintelligible] and they go to the hospital. They go to the Good Samaritan Hospital and Kerry Roberts is walking and Peggy O'Keefe is going to go receive her son from her husband. And as she walks down the hall, Karen Read is also at the hospital. There were some reports of maybe she was upset or suicidal. So they sectioned her. They put her in for evaluation to make sure she was safe. [unintelligible]— she stopped and she said, "Karen, what happened?" And you hear that Karen was excited and yelling [unintelligible]. Doesn't say a word. Peggy pays respects to her son. Then she has to go back home because she has to tell the children.

MR. BRENNAN: Now, while she's out, the Canton Police Department send an officer to the house to make sure the children are safe because they're alone at their home. And when the officer pulls in, he doesn't notice anything, but you'll see on the dash cam because this dash cam video notices something. That tail light has a big missing piece to it. They can't find the children. Ultimately, Peggy comes home. They are trying to calm him down. And they bring the nephew home and he is distraught. And then Peggy hears a knock on the door. It is the defendant and her father. They want to come in. They come in, open doors, and they ask, "Will you go upstairs to John's room?" and she's busy tending to her grandson. They go upstairs for about 15 minutes. They come down quickly. They leave.

MR. BRENNAN: Now, they got there— [unintelligible]— to that house. But when they leave, they take two cars. They take the broken tail light with them back to the defendant's father's house. And you will learn that when police start getting some of the information, they learn about the broken tail light. They learn information that she had told people that she had clipped him. They went down to see her. And on their way down, they decided they would get a warrant to take the Lexus. When they get down, you'll hear from Trooper Bukhenik who took a look and you can see the missing piece. They went in and spoke briefly to the defendant. They took the car. They brought it back to Canton.

MR. BRENNAN: And so what you'll learn from [unintelligible] is that help with the science and data— not only was the cell phone left behind, but also around that area broken tail light was littered around John's body. Littered around that area. When they got to the hospital, they noticed there was a shoe missing. As time went by, snow melted. They did an excavation. They found his shoe on the border between the street and the grass. You'll learn days later when they did a planned excavation, they found it frozen to the ground over the course of that— the broken tail light in that area, the sneaker, the glass. When the defendant left [unintelligible] the trace evidence— [unintelligible] on the back of her car around the tail light area, DNA stuck to the side, grasping one last piece of John.

MR. BRENNAN: Now, John O'Keefe fell backwards and hit his head after he was clipped by the car. And you're going to hear from a very renowned doctor and neurosurgeon who has treated thousands and thousands of head injuries. And the wound on the back of the head— when he fell backwards from the cracked skull— it's called a basilar fracture. It created an injury called contrecoup. After he was hit by a car and fell backwards and hit his head on that hard rock ground. Remember there's no snow. It's just a dusting at this point. The back of his brain hits the back of the skull and bounces on it.

MR. BRENNAN: When it bounces on these marks showing that impact, this neurosurgeon will tell you— treated thousands of patients— that this injury, reasonable to a degree of medical certainty, is contrecoup, caused by falling backwards and hitting your head. When the medical examiner for the state looked at it, they generally said one force and it is undetermined. So we brought it to the renowned neurosurgeon who does exactly this. You're also going to hear from an accident reconstructionist. They will come in and explain to you exactly what I talked about— how the data from that black box coincides with the cell phone and the movements of the car the moments before, during, and after the defendant's maneuver. There are three charges against the defendant in this case.

MR. BRENNAN: The first one: second-degree murder. When most people hear murder, they think of instantly shooting somebody, stabbing somebody— no deliberation or premeditation. I'll start on the law. I'm not going to trample in that area. But I can tell you clearly, we are not going to try to prove that Karen Read tried to kill John O'Keefe. We're not going to try to prove to you that she intended or wanted him dead. That's not second-degree murder. What we will prove to you is she engaged in an intentional act. Driving back at him at that speed in the storm in the darkness knowing that he had just gotten out of her Lexus. She intended that act would cause a plain strong likelihood of death. That's what second-degree murder is.

MR. BRENNAN: Also, operating under the influence of alcohol causing manslaughter— we will prove to you that she drove her Lexus recklessly. She hit John O'Keefe and because she hit him and he fell back, she caused his death. The third charge is leaving the scene after knowingly causing death. Again, she hit Mr. O'Keefe with a car. She knew he was injured. She left him behind and he died. That's the third charge. This case will come down to the science and the data. The science and the data— that cell phone— it is the best of historians. It doesn't suffer from intoxication. It doesn't suffer from memory loss. It doesn't suffer from emotion, pride, or bias. It is facts. It is data. And those facts and data will lead you to the truth in this case.

MR. BRENNAN: But after Miss Read was charged, she began what you'll learn as a campaign— a campaign to make public statements. 2020 Nightline, [unintelligible], a documentary. And we've had an opportunity to get many of her statements in the footage. And we're going to show you her statements to you, which will confirm what you already know from the science— what you will already know from the facts independently about what she did that night. Her words simply confirm it. In many of her statements: her admissions to extraordinary intoxication, her admissions to driving [unintelligible], her admissions to being angry at John that night. And I'd like to share her admissions. I'd like to play you clip one. You're going to hear the first of the statements that she made after she was charged.

MR. BRENNAN: [video clip - karen read]: I mean, I didn't think I could hit him, but could I have clipped him? Could I tag 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 his drunkenness and the cold— he didn't come to again? And this would have been the moment you dropped him off at the party. Yeah. I would have had to know. Ladies and gentlemen, I simply ask you to follow the evidence, follow the science, follow the data, ignore speculation, surmise, conjecture, stay true to the evidence. It will lead you to the truth that on January 29th, 2022, a very intoxicated defendant was angry and arguing about the relationship with John O'Keefe.

MR. BRENNAN: And after the fight was over, she left, but she brought the fight back to him in the form of her SUV. She clipped him. He fell backwards. He broke his head. And then this man who dedicated a lifetime of service was left at the corner of that yard. Left to die with no help. The facts, the data, and the evidence will bring you the truth. And the defendant's own words will confirm everything you've already concluded.