Attorneys for Read insist she’s being framed and maintain that O’Keefe entered the Fairview Road home, where he was fatally beaten in the basem*nt before his body was planted on the lawn.
Advertisem*nt
On Thursday, State Police investigator Yuri Bukhenik testified about pieces of taillight that were collected from the area where O’Keefe’s body was found and that video from two bars showed that Read consumed nine drinks before driving O’Keefe to the Canton home.
The defense has asserted that Read’s taillight was damaged when she struck O’Keefe’s car as she pulled out of the driveway to look for him shortly after 5 a.m. on Jan. 29.
Here’s a quick primer on some of the key witnesses who’ve testified so far in the high-profile trial.
Follow updates from the trial below.
Noon — Lead State Police investigator continues his testimony
Michael Proctor said authorities sealed off the SUV with yellow police tape in the garage, and from there troopers had a “debrief meeting” to exchange information at Canton police headquarters.
Only troopers were involved in that meeting since Canton police had recused themselves from the probe at that time, Proctor said.The brother of Brian Albert, who owned the house where O’Keefe’s body was found in the front yard near the road, is a Canton police detective.
He said he filled the role of “case officer” in the Read case. The case officer is not “the sole decision-maker” but more like a facilitator and record keeper, he said.
Advertisem*nt
”When it comes down to decision-making time, it’s a group effort,” Proctor said. During the meeting, he said, troopers discussed the taillight pieces found at Fairview Road, as well as interviews conducted during the day. The meeting lasted roughly a half hour to an hour, Proctor said. He said he and Bukhenik took O’Keefe’s clothing, his phone, and Read’s phone to their Canton office.
Proctor said he gave the two phones to another trooper, and clothes were placed on butcher paper to dry out while the pieces of the broken taillight were set aside in an evidence processing area.
”It’s the evidence officer’s responsibility to process that material when they see fit,” Proctor said.
On Feb. 1, 2022, Proctor said that authorities processed Read’s SUV “pursuant to a search warrant.”
He told prosecutor Adam Lally he was not in the police garage at any point between leaving it on Jan. 29 and the search on Feb. 1.
The taillight was “still broken” with “large pieces missing from it,” but it had no new broken areas, Proctor said.
He said a State Police chemist removed the taillight housing unit with the assistance of a Canton police officer. Proctor said he did not personally touch the taillight at any point on Feb. 1.
Lally then played video footage of the processing of the SUV in the garage on Feb. 1. The video clip shows law enforcement personnel photographing the SUV’s interior and exterior.
”The timestamp on the video tends to pause, indicating it’s motion-activated,” Proctor said. He then displayed the taillight housing unit for jurors from the witness stand.
11:40 a.m. — Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, continues his testimony.
Advertisem*nt
After the sidebar, Proctor testified that in previous pedestrian crashes he had investigated, “one if not both pieces of footwear remained at the point of impact.
”There was just one of O’Keefe’s sneakers in the hospital room, Proctor said. Proctor said he and Bukhenik were told O’Keefe’s other shoe had been found at the Fairview Road scene. That shoe was found buried under snow flush against the curb, according to prior testimony. Proctor said Monday that O’Keefe’s clothing at the hospital was “pretty well saturated” with blood and some vomit on it. The right sleeve of his shirt had some tearing on it, Proctor said.
Proctor said O’Keefe’s clothing was secured in his unit’s evidence office. He said neither he nor Bukehnik had access to the area where the clothing was stored.
After the hospital, Proctor said he and Bukhenik went to Read’s parents’ home in Dighton to speak with her. Proctor said authorities knew that because of the snowstorm they would need a plow to access Read’s SUV in the driveway. The drive from the hospital to Dighton took almost an hour and was slow going due to the storm, Proctor said. He said he had never met Nicholas Barrows, the Dighton officer who was at Read’s parents’ home, before that day.
Proctor said he observed “a broken taillight on the right side” of Read’s SUV as he made his way up the driveway toward the front door. The taillight had “large pieces missing from it,” he testified.
He identified RMV documents indicating the vehicle was registered to Read, beginning in 2021.
Proctor said he and Bukhenik entered a side garage door at the invitation of Read’s father.
Advertisem*nt
Proctor said he and Bukhenik spoke with Read inside the home for about 30 to 40 minutes. Her vehicle and phone were both seized, Proctor said.
Proctor said they told Read they would be seeking a warrant to search her phone. The device was put in airplane mode to prevent any deletion of the data from another device, Proctor said.
He said the SUV arrived in the Canton police garage just after 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
”It was my understanding that it was a heated facility,” Proctor said, adding that the State Police barracks in Milton wasn’t big enough for an SUV of that size and was not heated. He said they needed a heated facility because Read’s SUV was “covered with snow and ice” when it was seized.
”Sgt. Bukhenik and I never touched any part of that vehicle” in the garage, Proctor said.
11 a.m. — Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, takes the stand
Proctor described the training he has received in homicide and drug investigations with the detective unit of the Norfolk district attorney’s office. He said he was on call on Jan. 29, 2022. Yuri Bukhenik of the State Police called him around 6:48 a.m. indicating that a “male party was discovered in the snow,” but he wasn’t certain what occurred.
In March, State Police said Proctor was the subject of an internal probe “for a potential violation of department policy.” The agency declined to say whether the violation was related to a specific case.
Through his lawyer, Proctor defended his work on the investigation.
Advertisem*nt
“To be clear, Trooper Proctor remains steadfast in the integrity of the work he performed,” his lawyer said in March.
In March, Read’s lawyer Alan Jackson said Proctor had recently testified before a federal grand jury about his connection to Julie Albert, Brian Albert’s sister-in-law.
At the time, Jackson said that text messages discovered by federal investigators reveal that 10 days before O’Keefe’s death, “Michael Proctor texted his own family members discussing the specifics of having Julie Albert babysit for his toddler child.”
“We should all let that sink in for a second. There’s a level of closeness that cannot be overstated,” Jackson said at the time. “Michael Proctor is so connected to the Alberts that he was entrusting, and willing to entrust, the Alberts to be caregivers for his toddler child.”
In court on Monday, Proctor said he was initially told there was a possible “medical situation” at Fairview Road. Proctor said a Canton firefighter told him John O’Keefe had injuries to his right arm, eyes, and a cut to his nose area.
”He put a 10 percent chance of survival for Mr. O’Keefe,” Proctor said, adding that he advised Bukhenik that it sounded like “more than a medical situation.”
Proctor said he and Bukhenik arrived at the Canton police station around 10 a.m. At the station, they spoke with Canton police Sergeant Sean Goode, he said. Before that morning, he said he had never met O’Keefe, Read, or the two women with her when she found his body, Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts.
Proctor said he remained with Bukhenik as they went from the Canton police station to the home of Matthew and Jennifer McCabe, the sister-in-law of Brian Albert, who owned the Fairview home. The three interviews were conducted separately, Proctor said.
Before the Jan. 29 interviews, Proctor said he had never met Albert, then a Boston police officer.
He and Bukhenik then went to Good Samaritan Hospital in Brockton where O’Keefe’s body was and where Read had been taken after voicing thoughts of self-harm. Proctor said he and Bukhenik arrived at the hospital around 1 p.m.
O’Keefe had abrasions on his right arm, and “both eyes were swollen and black and blue” with cuts to his nose and left eye, he said.
”Those were the injuries that ... jumped out to me,” Proctor said. “I did observe blood” on the back of O’Keefe’s head as well, he said.
He and Bukenhik saw O’Keefe’s clothing on the floor of the hospital room. Proctor, a 10-year State Police veteran, said he had previously worked cases involving pedestrians being struck by vehicles. Judge Beverly Cannone then called the lawyers to sidebar
10:35 a.m. — Dighton police Sgt. Nicholas Barrows takes the stand.
Barrows was among the officers present when authorities seized Read’s SUV from her parents’ home in Dighton on the afternoon of Jan. 29, 2022.
Barrows said Read’s father called 911 on the morning of the 29th to request a ride to a Brockton hospital to meet “his daughter due to his daughter’s boyfriend passing away.”
Barrows said he spoke to Michael Proctor, a State Police investigator, later in the afternoon, telling him “a resident” had called to ask for a ride to the hospital.
Barrows said troopers asked him to meet them at the address of Read’s parents. He said he called a local towing company and asked them to go there as well. Barrows said the troopers flagged him down from a black pickup truck at the home and showed him their badges.
”We walked up to the residence” amid the heavy snowstorm, Barrows said.
“It was about a foot of snow in the driveway,” he said. “It was untouched.”
Barrows said he saw Read’s black Lexus SUV in the driveway. He said he called the highway superintendent to plow the driveway so the tow truck could access the vehicle.
”I was looking at the left side of the vehicle,” Barrows said. “I saw that there was some damage to the right rear taillight.”
He said a “piece was missing” and the taillight was cracked but “not completely damaged,” and there was also a dent near the taillight.
”I walked up to the vehicle,” Barrows said, coming five to 10 feet from it. He said there was snow on the SUV.
”I guess you could say caked on, correct,” Barrows said.
He said the troopers remained inside the house for “less than hour” but more than 30 minutes. Asked if he saw anyone on scene touching or manipulating the rear right taillight, Barrows said, “I did not.”
Barrows stepped down without any cross-examination, and Judge Beverly Cannone called a brief morning recess.
10:30 a.m. — Investigator Yuri Bukhenik continues testimony on redirect
Bukhenik told prosecutor Adam Lally he had told the medical examiner’s office on the morning of Jan. 29 that O’Keefe may have been the victim of a possible domestic assault. Bukhenik testified last week that he told the medical examiner’s office that John O’Keefe may have been hit in the face with a co*cktail glass.
”Based on the physical evidence, and the statements made by the defendant to the first responders at the scene, at that point in time I had communicated those facts to the medical examiner’s office,” Bukhenik said Monday.
When he went to the Brockton hospital where O’Keefe’s body was taken, Bukhenik said “I could tell that the glass [found at the scene] was most likely not the weapon which was used to cause the injury to the back of Mr. O’Keefe’s head.”
Jackson noted on recross that Bukhenik reported to the medical examiner’s office that O’Keefe may have been struck in the face, not the back of the head. Bukhenik told Jackson he received the police garage video in late April or early May.
”I just was asked to review it,” Bukhenik said, adding that he didn’t know who initially secured the footage.
Bukhenik stepped down and Lally called Dighton police officer Nicholas Barrows as the next witness.
10 a.m. — State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik continues his testimony under defense questioning
After brief break Read lawyer Alan Jackson played a portion of the garage video that was not inverted. The footage showed an officer walking toward the passenger taillight and then disappearing out of the frame. Jackson asked if the person appears to be carrying some sort of “black portfolio” and Bukhenik said “that’s correct.”
Bukhenik said the timestamp on the non-inverted footage “appears to be backwards.”
Jackson asked about another camera in the police garage that is “grainy” but could capture the right rear portion of the SUV. The time stamp was 5:50:46 on that camera, Jackson said.
”It appears that this video of about 15 seconds jumps 42 minutes to the 5:50 mark, correct?” Jackson asked.
”I don’t know how much it jumps,” Bukhenik said.
On redirect, Bukhenik told prosecutor Adam Lally that “there was no manipulation, alteration of the video” between the time it was turned over to State Police and when it was played for jurors.
Bukhenik told Lally the cameras were motion-activated and so were not on all the time.
Lally asked if the video skipped more than once and Bukhenik said it was “consistently happening when there’s a lack of motion.” Lally then asked Judge Beverly Cannone for permission to play the entire five minute and 51-second clip from the garage for the jury. She granted the request.
Bukhenik watched the footage from the witness stand of officers clearing out snow from around the SUV, as multiple people are seen milling around the rear of the vehicle.
At one point, the State Police investigators appear to shake hands with some Canton police officers, and authorities later place yellow tape around the SUV.
Lally asked if the police garage footage was after Read’s SUV was seen on video footage from O’Keefe’s home early in the morning on Jan. 29, when she returned to O’Keefe’s home with two other women, and when she returned with her relatives.
Bukhenik said the garage footage came after those earlier clips.
In those earlier clips, people appear to be looking at or motioning toward Read’s taillight. Cannone sustained a defense objection when Lally asked if the police garage footage came after the O’Keefe driveway footage, where Read’s “smashed taillight” was visible.
Lally asked if Bukhenik or fellow investigator Michael Proctor manipulated or touched Read’s taillight in the garage.
”We absolutely did not,” Bukhenik said.
9:30 a.m. — State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik testifies about video of Canton police garage, where Read’s SUV was stored
Read lawyer Alan Jackson said the beginning timestamp on the garage footage was 5:30:23, and the final time was 5:48:15, but less than 6 minutes was captured in the footage.
”It was never recorded,” Bukhenik said. “I can only speak to what was turned over and what we received ... The video that was produced was what we got.”
”You don’t know what may or may not have been recorded without your knowledge,” Jackson said.
“No,” Bukhenik said. He said the “video is triggered by motion to record.”
Asked if knew the inner workings of the video system, Bukhenik said, “I do not know all the inner workings of the system.”
Jackson played a portion of the video showing an officer moving behind the right taillight of Read’s SUV. In the footage another person suddenly seems to “appear out of nowhere,” Jackson said.
”That’s what the footage represents, yes,” Bukhenik said.
9:15 a.m. — State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik returns to stand
After oral arguments, Read attorney Alan Jackson continued his cross-examination of Bukhenik, one of the investigators on the case. Jackson asked Bukhenik about surveillance footage from the Canton police garage where Read’s SUV was taken on the evening of Jan. 29, 2022, after authorities seized it in Dighton, where Read’s parents lived.
He identified himself and Trooper Michael Proctor, lead investigator on the case, in the garage at the time.
”Does that appear to be Trooper Proctor in the back of the car?” Jackson said.
”From where the video’s frozen right now, I cannot tell,” Bukhenik said.
Prosecutors say Read’s taillight was damaged when she struck O’Keefe. Read’s attorneys allege her taillight was tampered with in the garage and that Proctor had social ties with key witnesses in the case. Witnesses have testified that Read pointed out her damaged taillight hours before law enforcement seized her car and acknowledged to investigators it was broken in an initial interview at her parents house before declining to answer further questions.
Jackson noted again that the garage surveillance video was inverted. That means what appears to be the passenger side of the SUV in the footage is in fact the driver’s side, so the right rear taillight, and the activity around it, is not visible.
”It’s an accurate depiction of what is taking place,” Bukhenik said of the footage.
”An inverted video is not accurate,” Jackson said.
”It’s an accurate depiction of the events taking place,” Bukhenik said.
8:45 a.m. — Oral arguments about potential testimony from experts
Proceedings began Monday with arguments about a prosecution motion about expert witnesses Read’s lawyers would like to testify. Prosecutors said information is lacking about the opinions experts would offer about crash reconstruction and dog bite analysis.
Read’s lawyers have said that experts hired by the federal government found that O’Keefe’s injuries weren’t consistent with being hit by a car. Prosecutors have disputed that claim, saying the experts essentially found O’Keefe wasn’t fatally struck in the head, something the government has never alleged.
The defense also wants to call an expert who will assert that cuts found on O’Keefe’s right arm were consistent with an animal attack, records show. Read’s lawyers have argued that a family dog may have bitten O’Keefe inside the Fairview home where his body was found outside near the curb.
Judge Beverly Cannone ordered Read’s attorneys to provide information about data relied on by one of the crash analysts to prosecutors by close of business Tuesday. She said the additional crash analysts will first have to testify without the jury present “well in advance of their testimony” to determine the parameters of what they’ll be able to say.
Cannone said she also wants a voir dire session with the expert testifying about dog bites Wednesday, followed by voir dire with the others “this week as well.”
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com.
