She's accused of murder in boyfriend's death. Coverup claims abound. Here's the latest

DEDHAM − Opening arguments in the murder trial of Karen Read, who is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, began Monday morning in Dedham Superior Court.

The prosecution argued that Read struck O'Keefe with her SUV after a night of drinking and arguing, leaving him to die in cold and blizzard-like conditions. Prosecutor Adam Lally said DNA evidence, crash reconstruction analysis and Read's own statements prove her responsibility for O'Keefe's death.

The defense claimed Read has been framed, focusing attention on Boston police officer Brian Albert and his friends and family. O'Keefe's body was found on the lawn of Albert's Canton home. Defense lawyer David Yannetti focused on the alleged prosecutorial misconduct of lead investigator Michael Proctor, who he said has close ties with the Albert family.

The prosecution's opening arguments

Prosecutor Adam Lally said that Read and O'Keefe met in 2004 and dated briefly at that time. The two reconnected in March 2020, Lally said. Read would spend several nights a week at O'Keefe's Canton home, helping to take care of O'Keefe's niece and nephew, whom he adopted after both of their birth parents died.

Lally said their relationship had soured. Text messages and witness testimony will show the level of acrimony between Read and O'Keefe, he told the jurors.

This includes what Lally called a "20-minute shouting match" in an Aruba hotel room in front of the niece and nephew, after Read interpreted a hug between O'Keefe and another woman in the hotel's lobby as a sign of infidelity. The children are expected to testify.

Lally narrated the night preceding the discovery of O'Keefe's body on Albert's front lawn at 34 Fairview Road. He said that Read, O'Keefe and several friends spent a night drinking at two Canton center bars before gathering at Albert's house after midnight.

Several witnesses who attended the party observed Read parking her black Lexus SUV in the spot where O'Keefe's body was discovered later that day around 6 a.m. None of the witnesses saw O'Keefe go into the house, Lally said.

Citing an expert collision analyst, Lally said that around 12:45 a.m., Read's SUV travelled about 60 feet in reverse at 25 mph. O'Keefe's injuries – a radiating skull fracture and a brain hemorrhage causing swelling of both eyes – are consistent with blunt-force trauma, said Lally.

Lally also emphasized a cracked rear right taillight on Read's SUV. He said investigators found pieces of the taillight in the area where Read had parked and O'Keefe's body was found later in the day on Jan. 29, 2022. In the following weeks, as temperatures rose and the snow melted, investigators found additional pieces of the taillight on the front lawn and street, Lally said.

A lab analysis found DNA consistent with John O'Keefe's on the pieces of the taillight recovered from the scene, Lally said.

Pieces of a broken cocktail glass O'Keefe was seen carrying out of the Waterfall bar were recovered from the bumper of Read's SUV and outside the Albert residence, Lally said.

Lally said that Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert's sister-in-law, who had been part of the drinking party on the night of Jan. 28, received a call at 4:30 a.m. from John O'Keefe's 14-year-old niece, who then turned the phone over to a frantic Read.

At that point, Read told McCabe that O'Keefe had not come home. She claimed the last time she saw O'Keefe was at the Waterfall bar in Canton center, Lally said, though witnesses saw her car at the Albert residence.

Around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, Read joined with McCabe and a woman named Kerry Roberts to look for O'Keefe, according to Lally.

In the course of their search, the three women eventually came to Albert's home, driving through a blizzard. Roberts was driving her vehicle with McCabe in the passenger's seat and Read in the rear passenger seat. Lally said only the defendant saw O'Keefe's body as they approached. The other two women didn't see the body even after they exited the car. Read "made a beeline towards him," Lally said.

At 6:23 a.m., Read asked McCabe to search on her phone for how long someone can survive when left out in the cold, Lally said. Read's defense argued that McCabe made this search at 2:27 a.m., hours before anyone supposedly knew he was missing.

Emergency responders arriving at the scene overheard Read say, "I killed him. I hit him. I hit him," Lally said.

The defense's opening arguments

"Karen Read was framed," Read's defense lawyer David Yanetti said at the beginning of his opening statement.

Yannetti argued that the Albert family was never investigated because of their extensive connections with Canton police and lead investigator, State Trooper Michael Proctor.

Yannetti targeted Proctor throughout his opening statement. He said Proctor shared a close family relationship with the Alberts and consequently focused his investigation exclusively on Read, whom he called "the outsider."

After he was assigned to the case, Proctor texted his friends about the investigation, Yannetti said.

"Lead investigator Michael Proctor called Karen Read names you would only reserve for your worst enemies," Yannetti said of the texts. He alleged Proctor told his friends he wished Read would kill herself, and that he was disappointed he hadn't found any nude photos of Read while searching her phone.

When a friend texted Proctor that Brian Albert would likely "catch grief" because a body was found on his front lawn, Yannetti said that Proctor texted in reply, "Nope," because Albert was a Boston police officer.

Yannetti told the jurors to consider the value of any DNA evidence presented by the prosecution "in light of who controls the evidence."

Yannetti suggested that pieces of Read's taillight were planted at the Albert residence. He said the initial search by four officers on the morning of Jan. 29 turned up zero pieces of the taillight, even though it was already light out and not much snow had yet accumulated.

It was only later in the day, Yannetti said, when the snow piled up and after Proctor had seized Read's car, when pieces of the taillight began to turn up.

No evidence proves that the taillight was broken at the Albert house, Yannetti said. Rather, when Read left O'Keefe's home at around 5 a.m. to go to McCabe's, she backed into O'Keefe's car parked in the driveway. Yannetti said video footage from O'Keefe's home confirms this.

A snowplow driver passed by the Albert home on Fairview road twice on Jan. 29, once at 2:30 a.m. and again an hour later, Yannetti said, though Proctor filed a report claiming the Canton DPW Director Michael Trotta said the road had not been plowed that night.

Yannetti said his own investigator interviewed the plow driver, who said he carefully plowed the street twice. The driver said at no point did he see a body outside the Albert home. He also told Yannetti's investigator that at around 3:30 a.m. he saw a Ford Edge parked outside the home in the area O'Keefe's body was later discovered.

Members of the Albert family are known to drive a Ford Edge, Yannetti said, but Proctor never investigated it.

Another main thread in Yannetti's argument was the condition of O'Keefe's body when it was found. He said it looked like it had been attacked and beaten up rather than struck by a car.

"No part of his torso was injured," Yannetti said. "His chest and hips and legs were pristine, despite the Commonwealth's claim he had been hit by a 6,000-pound vehicle."

Yannetti then focused on O'Keefe's right arm, which he said showed signs of an animal attack, including claw marks. He suggested that the Alberts' German Shepherd "Chloe" caused the injuries, noting that the family "rehomed" the dog in April 2022, despite its being a beloved family pet for seven years.

The defense lawyer concluded that someone "ambushed" O'Keefe. The assailant didn't mean to kill him, but "went too far," Yannetti said.

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This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Karen Read murder trial: Opening arguments, first witnesses