John O’Keefe’s niece testified on Tuesday that Karen Read said to her on the night of O’Keefe’s death, “What if I hit him?”
The Karen Read trial went offline for two hours on Tuesday as the niece and nephew of victim John O’Keefe took the stand. Cameras were not allowed to record the two, who were 14 and 10 at the time of the O'Keefe's death. but a WCVB reporter was in the Massachusetts courtroom for their testimonies.
O'Keefe was an officer with the Boston Police Department and had been raising his niece and nephew for eight years at the time of his death, gaining custody of the two in 2014 after they lost their mother, O'Keefe's sister, to a brain tumor, and their father to a heart attack over the span of just a few months.
The testimony of O’Keefe’s niece could be crucial to the case as she testified on Tuesday that Read said to her on the night of O’Keefe’s death, “What if I hit him?” That comes after multiple witnesses at the scene of O'Keefe's death testified that Read admitted to hitting O'Keefe with her car.
“She was just pacing down the hallway, asking what could’ve happened,” the niece testified in court. “She said, ‘Maybe I did something.’ Later, she said, ‘Maybe a snowplow hit him.’”
Read woke the niece on the night O’Keefe died and asked that she contact people to inquire about O’Keefe’s whereabouts. In an interview with Norfolk Advocates for Children, the niece "indicated ... that the defendant changed her story several times while speaking to Ms. McCabe on the phone, with initially the defendant stating that she and the victim got into an argument and she dropped him off," said a statement of case filed in the case and obtained by Inside Edition Digital. The niece also said Read was “screaming and acting frantic” that morning.
On the stand Tuesday, the niece said she saw Read when she came to pick up some things after O’Keefe’s body had been discovered. The niece testified that Read said "she was living a nightmare." Read then left the home and never saw or contacted the nephew or niece ever again, both testified on Tuesday.
The siblings also said that Read and O’Keefe had been fighting and arguing more in the days and weeks before his death, with the niece recalling one incident that ended with O'Keefe telling Read to leave the house. "She said no. She was swearing. She got very loud," the niece testified.
Read's trial is now in its fifth week in Norfolk Superior Court, where crowds of supporters gather each day to support the defendant. Meanwhile, O'Keefe's family members said they are being constantly harassed, including his mother, who lost two of her three children in the past 10 years. Prosecutors also accuse some Read supporters of witness intimidation.
Prosecutors allege that Read, 44, drunkenly backed into O’Keefe, 46, with her car outside the home of Brian Albert and then fled the scene, leaving him for dead. The defense attorneys representing Read claim that O'Keefe was actually killed in a fight inside Albert's home and his body was then planted outside to frame Read in a cover-up involving Albert and multiple members of law enforcement. Albert has not been charged with any crime and testofoed that O'Keefe never entered his Canton home on the night in question.
The only thing that both sides agree on is the fact that Read and O'Keefe were both out drinking on the night of Jan. 28, 2022, and that the couple was invited to have a nightcap at Albert's home.
The prosecution claims O'Keefe never made an appearance at that party. The defense claims O'Keefe was killed while at that party.
Read, an equity analyst and college professor at Bentley University, has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has maintained her innocence ever since the day a grand jury first indicted her on these charges.
Her initial defense attorney, David Yannetti, is now her second attorney, while her lead attorney in the case is Alan Jackson. Jackson served as the Assistant Head Deputy for the Major Crimes Division at the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office and has previously represented high-profile defendants including Harvey Weinstein, Kevin Spacey and Phil Spector.
