Karen Read trial: State Police sgt. testifies about Read’s broken taillight, O’Keefe’s injuries, and the couple’s bar tab (2024)

Crime

Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik testified about the early days of the investigation into John O’Keefe’s death, showing jurors several items of clothing O’Keefe was wearing when he died.

By Abby Patkin

updated on June 6, 2024

On the stand Wednesday:

• Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, Massachusetts State Police

Judge Beverly Cannone dismissed jurors around 4:20 p.m. Bukhenik’s testimony will resume at 9 a.m. Thursday.

• Christina Hanley, Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab
• Ashley Vallier, Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab

4:30 p.m. update: Read had several alcoholic beverages hours before O’Keefe died, sgt. testifies

Interviewed at her parents’ home in Dighton just hours after John O’Keefe died, Karen Read told investigators her boyfriend didn’t get into any verbal or physical altercations during their time at two Canton bars the night before, Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik testified.

Bukhenik recalled that he and State Police Trooper Michael Proctor arrived in Dighton around 2:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, and saw Read’s black Lexus SUV parked in the home’s driveway.

“I observed a damaged rear right taillight fixture on the vehicle,” he said. “I also told Trooper Proctor to approach the vehicle closer and confirm what I was seeing, which he did.”

He denied touching the vehicle at any point while he was there and said he didn’t see Proctor touch the car, either.

According to Bukhenik, Read’s father answered the door and invited the troopers inside, where Read was sitting in the living room. Read’s parents were present as she spoke with investigators, Bukhenik said.

The conversation with Read “was polite, courteous,” he added. “She had just went through a traumatic event, so we were considerate of her losing her boyfriend. … We were in the information gathering, fact-finding portion of the investigation. We simply wanted to collect her recollection of events that she remembered.”

What Read told State Police

Though she was hesitant to go into much detail throughout the interview, Read told the investigators she had gotten into a fight with O’Keefe the morning of Jan. 28, 2022, “over what [O’Keefe’s] niece and nephew were being fed for breakfast,” Bukhenik recalled. The children lived with O’Keefe in Canton after their parents died.

O’Keefe had gone out drinking with a couple of friends at C.F. McCarthy’s in Canton the night of the 28th, and Read told Bukhenik and Proctor she met up with her boyfriend at the bar.

“She stated the gentlemen were drinking, consuming beers, Bud Lights, and she was drinking vodka soda,” Bukhenik said.

The couple later joined a group of people at the nearby Waterfall Bar & Grille, and Read “confirmed that Mr. O’Keefe did not have any injuries on him when she interacted with him at C.F. McCarthy’s or the Waterfall,” Bukhenik said. “He did not get into any verbal or physical altercations with anyone to have sustained those injuries.”

According to Bukhenik, Read told investigators she dropped O’Keefe off at another location in Canton after the group at the Waterfall was invited to an afterparty. Witnesses previously testified about gathering at 34 Fairview Road following the bar outing. O’Keefe was found unresponsive on the home’s front lawn hours later.

Read “was asked if she saw Mr. O’Keefe walk into the home at 34 Fairview, and she stated that she did not,” Bukhenik said. “She stated that she made a three-point turn after dropping him off and left.”

Asked how she learned of the damage to her car, Read allegedly stated, “I don’t know. It happened last night.” She told investigators she didn’t go into 34 Fairview Road because she was “having stomach issues,” Bukhenik said.

He said he asked Read for a step-by-step recollection of how she made her three-point turn and left Fairview Road.

“And at that point, was the interview terminated?” prosecutor Adam Lally asked.

“Yes, it was,” Bukhenik confirmed.

What happened to Read’s car?

Bukhenik said he and Proctor seized Read’s phone and followed the tow truck hauling her SUV to the Canton Police Department, where the vehicle was processed in the station’s sallyport garage. He testified that he escorted the vehicle to the State Police barracks in Milton a few days later, on Feb. 2, 2022.

Lally played surveillance video of Read’s SUV backing out of O’Keefe’s garage into the snowy driveway around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. Bukhenik pointed out that the video shows “a missing, damaged rear right taillight.”

“Earlier in that video, did you observe the defendant’s vehicle coming close to or coming into contact with Mr. O’Keefe’s vehicle?” Lally asked.

“Yes, I did,” Bukhenik confirmed. He said he observed “no damage” to O’Keefe’s car in the video, nor did he see anything scattered on the ground around the vehicle.

How many drinks did Read have?

Lally later showed surveillance video of Read and O’Keefe drinking at C.F. McCarthy’s, and Bukhenik testified that the footage shows Read receiving six alcoholic beverages in the span of less than two hours. (Lally, however, put the total at seven drinks.)

Bukhenik confirmed the couple’s receipts from the bar reflected charges for Tito’s vodka. He also testified that later surveillance video from the Waterfall shows Read sipping from a co*cktail glass that was “shorter, fatter” than the tall, cylindrical glass she took with her as she left C.F. McCarthy’s.

O’Keefe was captured on surveillance video leaving the Waterfall at 12:11 a.m. on the 29th, a co*cktail glass in hand, Bukhenik said.

1 p.m. update: State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik recalls early investigation into John O’Keefe’s death

Taking the stand Wednesday, Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik recalled his early investigation into the death of John O’Keefe, starting with a 6:44 a.m. call from the State Police metro Boston headquarters on Jan. 29, 2022.

“They advised me that there was a body in the snow bank in Canton,” Bukhenik testified. He said he proceeded to call State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the on-call detective that day for the agency’s unit within the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office.

“I was advised of the circ*mstances under which the body was located and what was transpiring, and I told Trooper Proctor that I would start shoveling out during the blizzard and then proceed to meet him in Canton to begin our investigation,” Bukhenik said.

He testified that he and Proctor met at the Canton Police Department around 9:15 a.m., obtained some background information on the case, and headed over to the Canton home of witnesses Matthew and Jennifer McCabe. McCabe’s sister and brother-in-law, Nicole and Brian Albert, owned the home where O’Keefe’s body was found.

Bukhenik testified that he and Proctor conducted separate interviews with each of the McCabes and Brian Albert, who was visiting the home. The investigators then continued on to Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, where O’Keefe and Read were taken by ambulance earlier that morning.

Bukhenik said O’Keefe had bruising on his eyelids, as well as cuts near his eye and on his nostril and right arm. He testified that the injuries he observed on O’Keefe were consistent with what he’s seen during previous death investigations involving subdural brain hemorrhages.

After viewing O’Keefe’s body, Bukhenik said he and Proctor placed the victim’s “soaking wet” clothing into evidence bags. The clothes were sitting in a pile on the floor at the hospital, and “I also recognized due to the aroma and visual observations traces of vomit on the clothing,” he said.

Donning gloves, Bukhenik held several items of O’Keefe’s clothing aloft in the courtroom, including stained and torn shirts and jeans. He also briefly walked jurors through State Police practices for secure evidence storage.

“Within our office, we have two troopers that are designated as evidence officers,” Bukhenik explained. “Those individuals have access to the secure rooms designated strictly for evidence storage. Those rooms are inventoried and kept under not just lock and key, but also digital access control and alarm systems.”

He clarified that neither he nor Proctor has access to that evidence storage area.

According to Bukhenik, he and Proctor tried to speak with Read at Good Samaritan, but she had already left the hospital. He said they learned she was at her parents’ home in Dighton.

12:15 p.m. update: Glass from bumper did not match broken cup, forensic scientist testifies

Bits of red and clear plastic found in the debris from John O’Keefe’s clothing were consistent with the plastic from Karen Read’s taillight, Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab forensic scientist Christina Hanley testified.

She said she observed the miniscule pieces of plastic in “scrapings, trace material recovered from the victim’s clothing.” Both types of plastic were consistent with Read’s taillight, meaning the pieces found on O’Keefe’s clothes could have originated from Read’s taillight “or from another source with the same characteristics,” Hanley concluded.

She also recalled examining several other items of evidence in Read’s case, including a “clear apparent drinking glass” and pieces of clear glass recovered from the rear bumper of Read’s SUV and from the crime scene outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton.

Hanley confirmed that the drinking glass was a physical match for six of the glass shards recovered from the scene. One piece of glass from Read’s bumper was also consistent with a shard found on the ground at the scene, she said.

On cross-examination, defense attorney Alan Jackson confirmed that the broken cup did not match the shards Hanley analyzed from Read’s bumper. However, Hanley testified that she did not use some of the glass from the bumper in her physical match examination “due to size and condition.”

“So as you sit here, none of the items on the bumper were deemed to match the cup, correct?” Jackson clarified.

“Correct,” Hanley said.

She confirmed one piece of glass from the bumper was consistent with a shard State Police Trooper Michael Proctor recovered at the scene. Yet Jackson pointed out that the piece of glass Proctor found matched neither the cup nor the other pieces of glass another trooper found at the scene.

“In other words, it stands alone?” Jackson asked.

“That’s correct,” Hanley replied.

10:45 a.m. update: Yannetti questions State Police forensic scientist on chain of custody for taillight shards

Jurors on Wednesday saw photos of Karen Read’s reconstructed taillight, the broken pieces of plastic seemingly fit together and held in place with tape. On the stand, forensic scientist Ashley Vallier testified that Read’s taillight and the plastic shards allegedly recovered from 34 Fairview Road in Canton “were, at one time, together as a larger unit.”

Vallier, who works in the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab, previously testified about finding bits of apparent red and clear plastic in the debris from victim John O’Keefe’s clothing. Answering questions from defense attorney David Yannetti Wednesday, however, Vallier denied examining O’Keefe’s clothing directly.

“I examined the debris from the shirt,” Vallier testified. “I don’t know what the person who packaged it did to collect that.”

“OK, and so it goes without saying that you never saw those pieces on either the orange shirt or the gray long-sleeved shirt, correct?” Yannetti asked.

“I did not,” Vallier confirmed.

“And you obviously had no control over how the evidence was handled before it came into your possession, correct?” Yannetti continued.

“We have a chain of custody in the laboratory, but I did not follow the evidence as it went through the chain,” Vallier answered.

Vallier further denied having knowledge of who might have handled or had access to the evidence before it came into the lab’s possession.

Yannetti drew attention to State Police Trooper Michael Proctor’s role in collecting pieces of plastic from 34 Fairview Road and submitting them to the lab in the days and weeks after O’Keefe died. Proctor, who led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death, has been a frequent target of the defense team’s conspiracy and coverup claims.

Yannetti specifically pointed to the larger size of the taillight pieces Proctor collected, versus the smaller shards other investigators found earlier on in the case.

“In addition to collecting those plastic pieces on all those different days, Michael Proctor was also the person to hand deliver those last three evidence bags — all on March 14 of 2022, correct?” he asked.

“Correct,” Vallier confirmed.

“And you do not know what Michael Proctor did or didn’t do with those evidence bags of pieces of taillight prior to March 14 of 2022, when your lab received them, correct?” Yannetti pressed. Judge Beverly Cannone sustained an objection from prosecutors, preempting Vallier’s answer.

Pointing to a picture of Vallier’s final reconstruction of Read’s taillight, Yannetti noted that one section of plastic was “missing completely.”

“To this day, you do not know where the pieces that make up that hole are or what happened to them, correct?” he asked.

“I do not,” Vallier confirmed.

Livestream via NBC10 Boston.

Jurors in the Karen Read murder trial will hear additional testimony Wednesday from a Massachusetts State Police forensic scientist who purportedly pieced together shards of plastic found outside 34 Fairview Road and matched them to the taillight housing from Read’s SUV.

Ashley Vallier, who works in the State Police Crime Lab, also testified Monday about finding pieces of what appeared to be red and clear plastic in the debris from John O’Keefe’s clothing.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of backing her SUV into O’Keefe outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors allege she was driving drunk following a night out at local bars and deliberately struck O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years.

However, Read’s lawyers say she’s been framed in a widespread conspiracy among law enforcement and witnesses. They allege O’Keefe entered 34 Fairview Road for a house party and was beaten, possibly attacked by the family dog, and left to die in a blizzard.

State Police Lt. Kevin O’Hara testified Monday that investigators dug through the snow outside the house the evening of Jan. 29, 2022, and found a sneaker and several pieces of broken taillight.

“It was very difficult to clear the snow,” O’Hara recalled. “I don’t think we had very good visibility in what we were moving, even with the push broom and the rake. It was very difficult to definitively say we had cleared the lawn properly.”

State Police Crime Lab forensic scientist Maureen Hartnett testified about inspecting Read’s SUV and finding what appeared to be a hair on the back of the car, as well as apparent glass shards on the rear bumper.

Hartnett told jurors she “determined the hair was consistent with a human hair with a root.” In a pre-trial hearing, prosecutor Adam Lally previously said a partial DNA profile generated from the hair was consistent with O’Keefe’s DNA.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson confirmed with Hartnett that the hair didn’t appear to be secured to the car in any way.

“So that hair potentially would have had to make that same 60 mile round trip in the same blizzard?” he asked, noting that the car was towed back to Canton from Dighton, where Read’s parents live.

“I don’t know when that hair was deposited on the vehicle,” Hartnett replied.