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The 2022 death of Boston policeman John O'Keefe may be the result of a violent love triangle involving ATF agents and his girlfriend, alleged killer Karen Read, who began texting each other a few weeks before they were last alive, and her defense was placed in a courtroom in Dedham, Massachusetts on Monday.
Read was accused of killing her 46-year-old boyfriend, Boston Police, on January 29, 2022.
Read pleaded not guilty and completely denied O'Keefe through her attorney.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson asked Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik of the Massachusetts Police Department. "I'll ask you a different question. In your opinion, after reading these words, did you think of Brian Higgins' motivation, perhaps wanting to face John O'Keefe because of jealousy?"
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Judge Beverly J. Cannone heard the testimony of the Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik of Massachusetts Police was retried on May 12, 2025 at the Norfolk Superior Court in Didem, Massachusetts. (PAT Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Swimming Pool)
"If you want my opinion, my opinion is that he doesn't need to face Mr. O'Keefe," Booknick said. "Mr. O'Keefe is not the one who pursues Mr. Higgins. It's the one who your client pursues Mr. Higgins."
Last Friday, Jackson flirted with Read and Higgins a few weeks before O'Keefe's death, flirted, invited each other, discussed kisses outside O'Keefe's house and often brought in plenty of drinking.
Red began the conversation, and Higgins' answer was to ask her how she got his phone number and why she wanted to contact him. Read stopped responding a few days before O'Keeffe's death. Higgins, Read and O'Keefe all appeared at the Falls Bar and Grille on January 28, 2022, and Jackson asked Bukhenik if the surveillance video showed Higgins was aggressive to O'Keefe.
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Karen Read's attorney Alan Jackson was during the Norfolk Superior Court trial Tuesday, May 6, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)
The same night, Higgins sent two unresolved texts to read.
After weeks of communication, reading in a romantic way, then…saw her walking at the door with John O'Keefe and texting, 'Hmm. 'Um.
"It's possible there, but I didn't see it," Booknick said.
"Have you explored this possibility?" Jackson said.
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The video frame shows murder victim John O'Keefe, top center, on January 29, 2022 in the Falls Bar and Grille in Canton, Massachusetts. (Mark Stockwell/Sun Chronicle via AP/Pool)
Bukhenik testified that he did not say he relied on "the overall investigation", which led to allegations against Red.
Bukhenik returned to the third day of his testimony and spent hours answering questions. His testimony ended at the end of the day, and Judge Beverly Cannone told him he didn't have to return on Tuesday.
Bukhenik testified that the green mark on the back of O'Keefe's jeans looked like a grass stain he guessed, and that O'Keefe fell to the ground after O'Keefe was hit.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Alan Jackson asked if the grass stain could have come from someone being dragged.
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Massachusetts Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik wore pants during the Karen Read trial on May 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa/Pool)
"My common sense shows that this is not a trace of resistance because it will have linear characteristics, and both hips are in contact with the ground when they are dragged," Bukhenik said.
Earlier in the day, Bukhenik read a text message from former state policeman Michael Proctor, and he was fired for his off-get off work behavior during his initial investigation.
During Jackson's inquiry, Bukhenik confirmed that Proctor called Read "Mentally Retarded" and that he hated David Yannetti, her other defense attorney, and wrote about searching for nude selfies on mobile phones.
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John O'Keefe (Boston Police Department)
Jackson also played the video, about an hour after prosecutors said O'Keeffe's death, showing Brian Higgins at the Guangzhou Police Department headquarters.
Higgins was seen on January 28 in surveillance video of a group of people in the Falls Bar and Greer.
O'Keeffe was found dead the next morning.
Several witnesses testified that they had heard and read several times, saying, “I hit him,” and read in the morning that two former friends found O'Keeffe dead under a pile of snow on Albert’s lawn.
Karen Read sat on her defense team with her defense team during the May 8, 2025 trial in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Charles Krupa/AP Pool)
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After sending jurors to deliver lunch on Monday, Canno held a quick boring hearing and eventually said she would not allow Jackson to ask Booknick about his knowledge of the relationship between Proctor and Albert's relatives, including one of his brothers, Chris, who was also on the Falls on January 28.
If convicted of the highest charge, second-degree murder, reading may face life. She was also charged with manslaughter and left the scene of the fatal accident.
Police did not accuse Higgins of the crime, and prosecutors said Red was the only suspect in O'Keeffe's death.