A longtime friend of former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, a former Canton police officer, and a dog bite expert were called to the stand Monday on Day 25 of Karen Read’s murder retrial as the defense continued to build its case.
Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party in Canton at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking.
WATCH LIVE: Witness testimony resumes at 9 a.m.
NOW ON THE STAND: Dr. Marie Russell, Los Angeles-based emergency physician and defense’s so-called “dog bite expert”
PREVIOUSLY ON THE STAND: Kelly Dever, former officer with the Canton Police Department; Jonathan Diamandis, childhood friend of Michael Proctor
FOLLOW TED DANIEL’S UPDATES FROM COURT:
DOG BITE EXPERT SHARES OPINION
During Read’s first trial, Dr. Russell testified that the holes found in O’Keefe’s hoodie and the wounds to his arm were from a dog. Russell’s opinion is that O’Keefe’s injuries do not appear to have been caused by a vehicle.
When shown an image of the injuries to O’Keefe’s arm, “Those wounds were inflicted as the result of a dog attack,” the Los Angeles-based emergency room doctor testified Monday.
“The teeth made these abrasions,” Russell told the court as she examined the photo and cited “multiple groupings of wounds.”
PROCTOR’S CRUDE TEXTS READ IN COURT
Proctor, who served as the lead investigator in Read’s murder case, was fired in March for a series of disparaging texts he sent about Read, which he read aloud in court during witness testimony at her first trial. He admitted on the stand that the texts were “unprofessional.”
While Proctor played a big role in Read’s first trial, we learned on Friday that he won’t be called by the defense this time around. On the way out of court on Friday, defense attorney David Yannetti said it was a “team decision” not to have Proctor take the stand.
Instead, the defense plans to use people whom Proctor messaged as a way to introduce his crude texts in the trial.
Jonathan Diamandis, who attended middle school with Proctor and has remained friends with him for 30 years, was in a group chat that the defense wants the jury to know about.
In court on Friday, Diamandis was asked to confirm he was on that chain, where Proctor sent offensive messages about Read while investigating her for murder. He again authenticated those texts while on the stand Monday.
‘She’s a whack job’: Texts Michael Proctor sent about Karen Read allowed as evidence in retrial
Diamandis said he was uncomfortable reading all of Proctor’s messages, which included coarse and vulgar descriptions of Read. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan read them instead.
“From all accounts, he didn’t do anything wrong. She’s a whack-job,” one of the texts stated.
Jonathan Diamandis
Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan had fought to keep Proctor’s texts out of the retrial altogether. He had argued that if the defense wants the jury to hear Proctor’s texts, then they should call him to the stand.
However, before the start of testimony on Monday, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone ruled that Proctor’s texts can be presented as evidence without Proctor present.
FORMER CANTON OFFICER QUESTIONED
Kelly Dever, a current Boston police officer who was working as a Canton patrolman at the time of O’Keefe’s death, was then called by the defense after Diamandis was dismissed.
Dever was working patrol the night O’Keefe died and was asked to take over dispatch. On Monday, Read’s defense team tapped Dever to testify about statements she had made about what she saw inside the sally port, a garage area attached to the Canton Police Department.
The exchange quickly turned tense as Read’s attorney Alan Jackson asked Dever if she wanted to be in court testifying. Dever responded that she had “no idea why I’m here,” and later made several comments about Read’s legal team mispronouncing her last name.
Dever said she could see the video feed inside the sally port garage while working dispatch, but when pressed about what she saw the day she ended up working late due to O’Keefe’s death, she said, “I’m telling you, I did not see anything.”
Read’s team has long argued that Read was framed and suggested that investigators planted evidence against their client, including possibly Read’s vehicle, that was brought into the sally port garage.
Dever said that she told federal agents in August 2023 that she saw ATF agent Brian Higgins and former Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz inside the garage. While Dever said she made that comment “in good faith,” she told the jury that she later realized she couldn’t have seen them because the two went into the garage after she had finished her shift. Dever attributed the “false memory” to multiple media reports surrounding the case and said she retracted her statement.
Under cross-examination, Dever told the prosecution that she was confused why she was on the stand and said someone on Read’s legal team threatened to charge her with perjury for changing her testimony on who she saw in the sally port.
“They wanted me to say that statement, although I knew at that point it was not an accurate statement given the timeline,” she said.
DEFENSE’S CASE COULD TAKE TWO WEEKS
Read has estimated that it could take up to two weeks for her team to present her case.
The defense’s first witness was Matt DiSogra, director of engineering at DeltaV, a motor vehicle accident reconstruction firm.
DiSogra testified that the prosecution’s timeline of events before the death of O’Keefe is wrong.
A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.
Get caught up with all of the latest in Karen Read’s retrial.
Reporting from the Associated Press was included in this article.
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