America’s “happiest murder defendant” Karen Read has said she is willing to testify as she is accused of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Read, 44, has long denied having any role in the death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe in January 2022; Instead, she claims that the police are framing her in a huge conspiracy.
Now she says she would like to prove her case herself.
“I’d like to fill in some holes and correct some lies,” Read told reporters Tuesday outside Norfolk County Superior Court, dressed in a black blouse and a white patterned scarf as her hair blew in the wind.
“But it’s up to the lawyers and they will make the call, probably at the last minute.”
“I’m either there or I’m not,” he continued. “I refer to them.”
Karen Read, 44, told reporters Tuesday that she is willing to take the stand in her murder trial.
Smiling, Read continued to explain why he would like to take the stand.
“I am an outspoken person and have never been able to speak for myself in my defense except when it is most important,” she said.
“I have to trust them and their experience,” Read said of his defense team. “I will refer to lawyers.”
Read’s appearance outside court Tuesday came as attorneys for both sides argued over whether certain defense witnesses should be allowed.
They subjected potential witnesses to questioning without a jury, as the trial will continue and the prosecution will conclude its case on Thursday.
But Read scoffed at the arguments the prosecution has made so far, telling reporters Tuesday: “There’s no case against me.”
“After eight weeks, it’s all smoke and mirrors, and they’re going over my private life and trying to come up with a reason that was never there.”
John O’Keefe, a 16-year-old Boston police officer, was found dead around 6 a.m. on January 29, 2022, outside a house where Read dropped him off for an after-party around 12:45 a.m.
Prosecutors have claimed that Read and O’Keefe’s relationship was in trouble at the time.
O’Keefe was found unconscious in a snowbank outside a house where Read left him the night before, with skull fractures, swollen eyes and hypothermia around 6 a.m. on January 29, 2022.
He and Read had previously gone out to celebrate his niece’s acceptance into a private school, and footage from one of the bars, C.R. McCarthy’s in Boston, showed her hugging O’Keefe, hugging and kissing the man who is accused. to kill just a few hours. later.
But prosecutors claim Read and O’Keefe’s relationship had been in trouble amid accusations that he was cheating and tensions over the two children in O’Keefe’s care: his orphaned niece and nephew.
They claim he then hit O’Keefe outside the house party with his SUV that night and left him to die, pointing to fragments of his car left at the scene.
The two had gone out drinking at a Boston bar before she left him at the party.
Prosecutors have also claimed that witnesses at the scene heard Read shout “I hit him!” when she and two friends found her body, along with ‘this is my fault’. I did this.’
Read’s defense, however, got the officers to acknowledge that they never actually heard her say she had hit O’Keefe, who was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department.
Defense attorneys also refuted the idea that there were problems with the relationship, and O’Keefe’s friends at the bar testified that the couple seemed happy that night.
Instead, they claim O’Keefe was beaten by people at the party and thrown outside, where he died on the grass.
They argue that police failed to adequately investigate O’Keefe’s death and have singled out Massachusetts State Police Lt. Michael Proctor for his close relationship with several authorities involved in the case, including the owner of the home where O’Keefe Keefe was found, Brian Albert.
Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor admitted last week to sending derogatory text messages Read
Proctor, who led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death, has since admitted in court to sending text messages disparaging Read and denying that Albert would face repercussions.
He called Read a ‘wacko’ and a ‘pussy’ and referred to her as a ‘babe’ with no ‘ass’, while also downplaying her ‘Fall River accent’ in some text messages to friends, while in others he joked about searching his phone for nude photos during the course of the investigation.
In other messages, Proctor texted friends telling them that “some serious charges will be filed against the girl,” referring to Read.
He claimed in the messages that Read ‘set him up’ and that ‘she hit him with her car.’ according to the Boston Globe.
“Let’s close this crazy thing,” he wrote in one of the messages.
On the stand last week, Proctor repeatedly apologized for the text messages, calling them “poor language” that was “unrelated” to the investigation.
He said “these juvenile and unprofessional comments had no impact on the facts, evidence and integrity of the investigation.”
