Karen Read’s defense calls its first witness, marking a new phase in her retrial
ByDakin Andone, Jean Casarez, CNN
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The prosecution in the second trial of Karen Read rested Thursday after about a month of testimony.
BOSTON — Karen Read’s defense called its first witness on Friday, marking a new phase in her retrial in the killing of John O’Keefe, her off-duty Boston police officer boyfriend whose body was found buried in the snow outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts, in January 2022.
Read – whose first trial ended with a hung jury – has already promised a “more robust” case than the one her attorneys put on last year, when they called six witnesses for less than two full days of testimony. Their case this time is “broader and deeper,” Read told reporters last week, saying it will include “more witnesses” and last at least a week.
Prosecutors have accused Read of putting her Lexus SUV in reverse and striking O’Keefe with her vehicle just after midnight on January 29, 2022, after the couple went out with drinking with friends who were gathering for an after party at a home on Fairview Road.
But Read’s defense argues she has been framed by other off-duty law enforcement who were inside that home, alleging they killed O’Keefe and conspired to frame her. She has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death.
Read’s defense team’s first witness, accident reconstruction expert Matthew DiSogra, testified Friday that O’Keefe’s last recorded interaction with his phone – its manual locking – was more likely to have happened after Read’s vehicle stopped going in reverse in front of the home at 34 Fairview.
The manual phone lock happening after the “trigger event” of the Lexus goes against the theory previously laid out by the Commonwealth, with prosecutors claiming O’Keefe’s phone was locked right at the time Read began driving in reverse – which ended with her sideswiping O’Keefe with her vehicle.
A key question is whether Read will take the stand. She did not testify in the first trial.
RELATED: Prosecution rests in trial of Karen Read who’s charged in death of Boston police officer boyfriend
But jurors in her retrial have already heard from the defendant: Throughout their case, prosecutors – led by special prosecutor Hank Brennan – have played numerous clips taken from interviews Read gave reporters or documentary film crews, working to use her statements against her.
“This is my version of testifying. Doing this film is my testimony,” she said in Investigation Discovery’s “A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read.” (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)
“I want to say what happened,” she added, “exactly as it happened.”
ALSO SEE: Karen Read retrial: Things to know as defense prepares to make its case in killing of police officer
The last thing played for the jury by the prosecution before it rested its case Thursday was a clip from the documentary showing Read telling the film crew her attorney informed her, she may have “some element of culpability.”
“I thought could I have run over him? Could he have tried to get me as I was leaving, and I didn’t know it? The music was blasting, it was snowing, I had the wipers going, the heater blasting. Did he come and hit the back of my car, and I hit him in the knee, and he’s drunk and passed out and asphyxiated or something?” Read says in the clip.
Read then talks about hiring her attorney, David Yannetti, and asking him those questions. “I said ‘David what if … what if I ran his foot over? Or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out?’ and David said, ‘Then you have some element of culpability.'”
Prosecutors for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rested their case in chief on Thursday after calling 38 witnesses over more than 20 days of testimony, including the victim’s friends and family; members of state and local law enforcement who played a role in the investigation; and experts who analyzed a raft of digital and physical forensic evidence.
Notably absent from the prosecution’s case was Michael Proctor, the former Massachusetts State Trooper who led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death but was dishonorably discharged from the agency earlier this year for sexist and offensive text messages he sent about the suspect.
Proctor apologized for the texts during his testimony in the first trial, but Read’s defense attorneys used them to paint a picture of a flawed and biased investigation – a strategy they have so far echoed in the retrial.
Proctor is included on the defense’s list of prospective witnesses, but whether he will testify again remains to be seen.
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NYC socialist mayoral candidate Mamdani’s 911 plan called ‘worst idea’ by former NYPD
Former ‘defund the police’ advocate now says dispatchers should determine if violence indicated before sending officers
Mamdani calls for ‘reorganizing’ NYPD 911 response
During a mayoral debate Wednesday night, front runner Zohran Mamdani said he would reorganize the NYPD and “trust” dispatchers to “make the determination as to whether there was any indication of violence.”
New York City’s socialist mayoral candidate and Democratic nominee Zohran Mamdani said he wants to overhaul how police in the city respond to 911 calls, giving dispatchers more discretion before police are sent to respond to calls for help.
During a mayoral debate last night hosted by Spectrum News New York 1, Mamdani said he would reorganize the NYPD and “trust” dispatchers to “make the determination as to whether there was any indication of violence.” He asserted that this approach has been proven to work “elsewhere in the country.”
“That’s probably the worst idea I’ve heard of in a long time,” said Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and adjunct professor of criminal justice at Penn State Lehigh Valley.
“I don’t have a clue what he’s talking about and neither does he,” he added. “My question is, what happens when the dispatcher is wrong and someone dies? Is it an oops? The liability the city would be taking on with this idea will be off the charts.”
MAMDANI DODGES RESPONSIBILITY FOR THREATS TO NYPD IN FIRST PRESSER SINCE DEADLY MANHATTAN SHOOTING
New York mayoral candidate, state Rep. Zohran Mamdani (D-NY), speaks to supporters during an election night gathering at The Greats of Craft LIC on June 24, 2025, in the Long Island City neighborhood of the Queens borough in New York City. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
Mamdani has supported replacing police officers with social workers and “transit ambassadors” on certain 911 calls.
If it’s been done elsewhere, Giacalone questioned where that was, what happened and how that city’s population stacked up against the Big Apple’s.
“This is NYC, not Sheboygan,” he said.
Sheboygan is a Wisconsin city on Lake Michigan with about 50,000 residents. New York has more than 8 million.
Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani (R), Republican candidate Curtis Sliwa (L) and Independent candidate and former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo participate in the second New York City mayoral debate at LaGuardia Performing Arts Center at LaGuardia Community College in Long Island City, Queens, New York, on Oct. 22, 2025. (Hiroko MASUIKE / POOL / AFP)
MAMDANI’S ATTEMPTED POLICE PIVOT CONTINUES AFTER ADAMS ASKS ‘WHERE WAS HE?’
Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to emailed questions about the proposal.
“Zohran Mamdani’s plan to shift the responsibility of determining—over the phone—whether or not a law enforcement response is needed for a 911 call involving an emotionally disturbed person is reckless and dangerous,” said retired NYPD lieutenant and “Finest Unfiltered” podcast host John Macari. “This proposal will not save lives or reduce the workload of law enforcement; it will make their jobs harder and endanger civilians, dispatchers and first responders alike.”
He said anyone who has experience responding to calls involving emotionally disturbed people knows they are both “unpredictable and volatile.”
“I’ve personally responded to hundreds of them during my career, and I can tell you firsthand, no one can safely assess the threat level of an emotionally disturbed individual over the phone,” he told Fox News Digital.
A police officer’s NYPD shoulder patch. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
He said under the stress of making the wrong decision, dispatchers could likely err on the side of caution and send police anyway.
“Mamdani’s idea isn’t a plan, it’s a talking point,” he said. “It appears to have been drafted without any consultation with dispatchers, first responders or the families of those struggling with mental illness. If implemented, it will cost lives and further strain a system already stretched to its limits.”
Macari, who supports Republican Curtis Sliwa in the race, added that he believes Mamdani’s primary win over Andrew Cuomo was the result of voters rejecting the former governor, not widespread support for his agenda.
Mamdani, who this year has insisted he would not defund the NYPD if elected mayor, has previously called for doing so and tearing the department down.
REPLACE COPS WITH SOCIAL WORKERS, ‘TRANSIT AMBASSADORS’ ON SOME 911 CALLS: MAMDANI
“Defund it. Dismantle it. End the cycle of violence,” he wrote on X in December 2020, complaining about NYPD overtime and calling the department “wicked & corrupt.”
Before that, he claimed the department “is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety.” Separately, he has called for taking money from the NYPD budget and spending it on homeless services.
“Together, we can tax the rich, heal the sick, house the poor, defund the police & build a socialist New York,” he wrote.
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Giacalone said that while Mamdani’s rhetoric may have changed, he still views him as a “defund the police” candidate.
“Like the saying goes, when someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time,” he said. “He is a defund the police, abolish the police candidate. Plain and simple. Once again, the people voting for a candidate like this don’t live in the crime areas where things will turn worse.”
