Things to know about the retrial of Karen Read in the killing of her police officer boyfriend

May 12, 2025, 7:15 PM ET

A defense attorney in Karen Read’s second murder trial questioned a police investigator Monday about the behavior of one of his subordinates following the death of Read's boyfriend, a Boston police officer.

Prosecutors say Read, 45, backed her SUV into John O’Keefe, 46, and left him to die on a snowy night in the front yard of another officer's home after she dropped him off at a party there in January 2022. Her lawyers say she was framed in a police conspiracy and someone inside the home that night must have killed him.

A mistrial was declared last year. Read's second trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene has so far appeared to follow similar contours to the first.

Defense focuses on trooper search for naked pictures

Much of the second trial has focused on Read’s broken taillight. Prosecutors have argued it was broken after Read backed into O’Keefe while dropping him off at the party.

But Read’s attorney, Alan Jackson, on Monday pressed one of the investigators, Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, about the behavior of one of his subordinates, Michael Proctor, the disgraced state trooper who led the investigation. Jackson cited a text message chain with Bukhenik in which Proctor said, “I hate that man, I truly hate him” about David Yannetti, an attorney for Read.

Jackson also cited text messages in which Proctor used a slur for people with disabilities to describe Read and said he was going through her phone looking for naked pictures. Jackson said Bukhenik showed approval of the slur by “liking” it in the text chain, though Bukhenik said Monday he was merely acknowledging it.

Bukhenik said he had no comment about Proctor's texts that said he was looking for naked pictures. He did agree with the defense that Proctor's texts were unprofessional.

“The fact that he wrote 'No nudes so far' I cannot comment on,” Bukhenik said, adding that the investigation at large was handled ”with integrity and honor."

The defense has also recently focused on Ring surveillance videos that showed Read’s car leaving O’Keefe’s driveway that appeared to touch another parked car around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, several hours after Read dropped off O’Keefe at the party.

Jackson also pointed out Friday that Bukhenik had previously said in a report that Read’s vehicle “came near” the other car in the Ring video and asked him if he still felt that.

“Logically speaking, the two vehicles had to have come into contact for the tire to move,” Bukhenik said.

More questions raised about taillight

Jackson also continued to press Bukhenik on Monday about how evidence including pieces of Read's taillight were processed.

Jackson has repeatedly suggested the evidence was collected at the scene by Proctor. Bukhenik has said he wasn't sure who did what.

The prosecution and defense both focused Monday on video of Read's vehicle in a sally port, a garage area attached to the Canton Police Department, from January 2022. The video was played during the first trial and it was found to be inverted. Jackson played a corrected version Monday.

Jackson made the case that the video was taken before taillight pieces were located during the investigation. The corrected video shows Proctor near the location of the broken taillight. In the first trial, the defense claimed police tampered with the taillight and placed broken pieces at the scene of O’Keefe’s death.

Prosecutors cast doubt on that claim Monday. Bukhenik told prosecutors investigators located evidence of the broken taillight at the scene of O'Keefe's death.

“A large piece of red taillight was also located,” he said.

The defense’s questioning of Bukhenik was a shift in strategy from the first trial, in which Proctor took the stand to speak for himself. Proctor is on the witness list for the second trial as well.

Proctor was suspended for sending sexist and lewd texts about Read soon after the first trial and subsequently fired in March. The State Police Trial Board also found Proctor guilty of providing sensitive and confidential information about the case to people outside of law enforcement and consuming alcohol while on duty.

Bukhenik was disciplined but not fired for failing to reprimand Proctor for offensive text messages, some of which were read aloud on Friday and Monday.

Prosecutors filed a motion Monday seeking to exclude some of the defense's evidence about the police investigation as hearsay.

Read's flirty text messages

The defense on Friday also had Bukhenik read aloud text messages between Read and Brian Higgins, a special agent with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

The large stack of text messages presented to Bukhenik prompted Judge Beverly Cannone to ask the defense, “You’re certainly not asking him to read this whole document?”

Ultimately, Bukhenik did read them all. They showed that Read initiated the conversation with Higgins, calling him “hot” and saying she liked how much they were alike.

“We're single,” Read texted. “We can do whatever we want.”

Higgins also called Read “hot” and asked, “where did these feelings come from?”

The two also talked about sharing a kiss and at meeting up for a drink.

Additionally, Read told Higgins she was discontented with her relationship with O'Keefe. Read shared that O’Keefe had cheated on her during a recent New Year’s Eve getaway.

“I have issues with John and things are far from perfect," Read texted Higgins.

During the initial trial last year, Jackson suggested Higgins lured O’Keefe to the house party, where the two got into a fight. Jackson appeared to be returning to the argument on Friday, pressing Bukhenik about why he didn’t confiscate Higgins’ phone during the investigation and replaying footage of Higgins pointing to O’Keefe’s direction when leaving the bar.