Testimony in the Karen Read trial pivoted Wednesday from Canton police recalling the investigation after Read's boyfriend, Boston police Officer John O'Keefe, was found dead to friends of O'Keefe recalling their relationship and the night before O'Keefe died.
Read is charged with second-degree murder in the 2022 death of O'Keefe, her boyfriend. He was found in the snow outside fellow Boston Police Officer Brian Albert's home in Canton. Prosecutors say Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, while Read says she has been framed in a wide-ranging coverup, claiming the Albert family — which includes a Canton police officer and current selectman — and the state's lead investigator, a family friend, put the blame on Read.
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Read has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
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Watch Karen Read trial Day 7 testimony (May 8, 2024)
Michael and Katherine Camerano, whose kids were close friends with O'Keefe's niece and nephew, were called to the stand in Norfolk Superior Court.
Michael Camerano testified that he spent a lot of time with O'Keefe, including most Fridays, and the night before O'Keefe's death they were getting together to celebrate their 16-year-old girls both being accepted into a private high school.
"We were both excited that they both received acceptance letters and we wanted to get the kids together," Camerano said.
Camerano went on to describe the the night he, O'Keefe, Read and others spent at Canton bar C.F. McCarthy's.
The Cameranos both recalled the painful morning that O'Keefe's body was found, with Read reaching out to both as she searched for him before 5 a.m. that morning.
"She was just like, frantically screaming, just screaming, 'where's Mike?'" Katherine Camerano recalled.
At 6:34 a.m., after driving around Canton with two other women, Karen Read would send a text to Katherine Camerano, who read it in court: "He's dead."
Read said they'd found him "in the snow," Camerano said.
After the Cameranos, Curt Roberts took the stand. He was at C.F. McCarthy's as well.
Following Roberts was a bartender for Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton, where the group went later that night.
Police Lt. Charles Ray was briefly on the stand Wednesday morning, the start of a full day in the trial. The day before, Sgt. Sean Goode completed his testimony, before Lt. Michael Lank and Ray were brought into Norfolk Superior Court.
The defense has hammered away at the relationship between the parties involved in the investigation and the family that owned the home outside of which the body of O'Keefe was found Jan. 29, 2022.
The trial is expected to last up to eight weeks, with full days on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
More on the Karen Read trial
Michael Camerano's testimony: 'A good friend'
Michael Camerano said he met John O'Keefe about seven years ago, at first through mutual friends — the Roberts family — and then their kids became close.
The Cameranos have a 16-year-old daughter and a 13-year-old boy; O'Keefe was the guardian of his 16-year-old niece and 13-year-old nephew after their parents died. On Jan. 28, 2022, the two girls had gotten acceptance letters for the school, and prosecutor Adam Lally had Camerano read to the courtroom text messages of O'Keefe and the Cameranos congratulating each other.
Asked about Read, Camerano said he became friends with her through O'Keefe, and that he would see her a couple of times a week — she would stay over at O'Keefe's house some nights, and was active in the lives of O'Keefe's neice and nephew.
Lally turned to the their plans to go to C.F. McCarthy's, playing video of cars being moved around outside. "I backed up so John could move his car out of the way so Karen could pull her car into the garage because of the snow storm," Camerano explained.
There was laughter in court as Camerano recalled saying O'Keefe preferred visitors not to wear shoes in the house. He also recalled that O'Keefe, despite being out in the cold, rarely if ever wore a coat.
Lally played the surveillance video from inside the bar, showing Camerano and O'Keefe walk inside, and later their friend Curt Roberts and then Karen Read. Camerano said she was drinking some kind of clear liquid, with a straw, from a glass, which might have been vodka, though he wasn't sure.
Camerano left about 15 minutes after Curt Roberts left in an "Irish goodbye," having just gotten a call that his son, a hockey player, was hit in the face with a puck while skating and lost a tooth. He testified that he went back to O'Keefe's house to pick up his daughter around 11, then went home.
He woke up, he said, to the sound of phones ringing around six. He had a lot of missed calls from Read and called his wife, a nurse, who was working at the time. She told him to go get O'Keefe's niece, who was home while Read was out looking for O'Keefe, Camerano recalled.
While back at O'Keefe's, Camerano noticed the garage door was open and cleared some snow out — "I figured John would go crazy when he came home and all the snow was in his garage," he said — and then took the girl back to his house.
Later, he got a call from John O'Keefe's brother, Paul, informing him that O'Keefe had died, so he took her back to be with the family.
Lally finished there, and defense attorney Alan Jackson got up for cross-examination.
They established that Camerano considered O'Keefe "a good friend" who took their own kids on vacation, and whom they trusted. His own daughter spent lots of time with Karen Read, whom Camerano did recall getting into some arguments with O'Keefe, over her spoiling the kids. He couldn't recall any hint of O'Keefe wanting to break up with her.
Jackson also asked Camerano to confirm that Read and O'Keefe appeared happy to see each other in the surveillance video from C.F. McCarthy's, kissing when she walked in.
Katherine Camerano's testimony: 'She was just screaming, "Where's Mike? Where's Mike?"'
Next to the stand was Katherine Camerano, who also testified to the prosecution that her kids would go to the O'Keefe house most Friday nights — the girls became best friends, "attached at the hip," by sixth grade.
Of O'Keefe, she said, "He was really good to me and my kids," and that the kids referred to him and her husband as "my two dads." They had fun and were "like a well-oiled machine."
She knew Karen Read for probably two years, once Read and O'Keefe started dating, during the COVID pandemic. They socialized a lot, usually when their kids were around.
Lally drew her attention to the morning of Jan. 29, when Read called between 4 and 5 a.m., while Camerano was working her overnight shift.
"She was just screaming, 'Where's Mike? Where's Mike?' Camerano said, telling the prosecutor it was not typical behavior.
Read told her that O'Keefe hadn't come home, which was not normal. She could hear O'Keefe's niece in the background of the call, and kept up with Read for the next roughly two hours, as she went out to search for O'Keefe.
Camerano also talked to Kerry Roberts, Curt's wife and a friend since high school, who was driving around with Read and told Camerano that O'Keefe was going to the hospital.
Lally's questions ended with Katherine reading their last text exchange, culminating with Read saying O'Keefe was found out in the snow.
For cross-examination, Jackson only had two questions for Camerano, whether she reached out to Read herself after that morning and whether she was aware that Read had her phone seized soon afterward. Camerano's answer to both was no.
Curt Roberts' testimony
The night he joined O'Keefe at C.F. McCarthy's, Roberts explained, he'd wanted to stay inside because of the coming storm, but Michael Camerano goaded him to. The men in the group were drinking Bud Light, he recalled, while Read appeared to be drinking a vodka tonic, though he wasn't sure what it was.
Roberts thought he left about 10 p.m., explaining that he left without saying goodbye because he didn't want a hard time for leaving. He was in bed, with his wife, by 11:30 p.m. or midnight.
He was woken up by a voice on his wife's phone yelling frantically — Karen Read. His wife went out to help, despite Roberts telling her not to, because of the storm, but she said, "John's missing and I've gotta go."
Later, Roberts said, his wife called to say that O'Keefe was in an ambulance and that she was going to get O'Keefe's parents.
On cross-examination, defense attorney David Yannetti asked if Roberts saw O'Keefe in a puffy jacket at the bar, which he did not, and whether Roberts thought Read appeared to be slurring her words, had bloodshot or glassy eyes, was swaying or stumbling, appeared confused or anything else that made him believe she was under the influence of alcohol. Roberts did not.
Roberts also said it seemed to him like Read cared about the kids in O'Keefe's care.
Rebecca Trayers' testimony
A bartender in Canton for over 10 year, Trayers said she knew of O'Keefe and some of the other members of the group that was at her bar, Waterfall, by name. That included Chris Albert, Brian Albert, Brian Albert's wife and Brian Higgins.
She confirmed to Yannetti that she grew up in Canton and knows of the Albert family, which is well-known in town.
He also confirmed that Brian's daughter, Caitlin, was there.
Caitlin Albert has come up previously in the trial — Canton firefighter/paramedic Katie McLaughlin has acknowledged being acquainted with her, though the defense contends that they are close friends.
Nicholas Kolokithas' testimony
Nicholas Kolokithas, an attorney who has known John O'Keefe for about 9-10 years and was at the Waterfall on the night of Jan. 28, 2022, testified that he remembered O'Keefe drinking beer at the bar that night. He said it was a fun atmosphere, with live music, and he didn't observe any arguing or disputes of any kind.
The prosecution also showed surveillance video from inside the Waterfall, showing the tables where the group had assembled. Kolokithas can be seen in the video standing next to O'Keefe.
Under cross-examination by Jackson, Kolokithas reiterated that he first met Read around 2020, when he was dropping his daughter off at O'Keefe's house. Kolokithas' daughter is a friend of O'Keefe's niece and played on the Canton High School basketball team together.
Kolokithas said he recalls dropping his daughter off at O'Keefe's house for a birthday party Read had scheduled for O'Keefe's niece. And he said he had no qualms about having his daughter watched by O'Keefe or Read.
He also testified that he and his wife probably spent time with O'Keefe and Read on a handful of occasions, and never noticed any tension between them. He said they seemed like a normal, loving couple and showed no outward signs that they weren't getting along.
Kolokithas said he spoke with O'Keefe and Read at the Waterfall, and heard from O'Keefe that the couple were planning vacations in the future.
Jackson also asked Kolokithas to identify the people in the surveillance video from the Waterfall who he could recognize, including himself, O'Keefe and Read. He said there were two other people who he met that evening, Brian Albert and Brian Higgins. In the video, they can be seen squaring up and appearing to play fight.
Karina Kolokithas's testimony
Karina Kolokithas, Nicholas Kolokithas' wife, was next to take the stand. She also testified about that same night, saying she went to the Canton Junction to grab a bite to eat with other members of her older daughter's Canton High School basketball team.
After that, she said she went to Canton High School to watch her daughter play in a basketball game. Afterward, around 9:30 p.m., she said she met her husband at the Waterfall.
She testified that she knew O'Keefe threw her daughter's friendship with his niece.
"He was a great guy. We saw him all the time," she said.
Prior to that night, Kolokithas said she had never been around Read in a social setting. She said O'Keefe was very happy and excited that his niece had just gotten into a private high school.
She said she observed nothing out of the ordinary in the interactions between O'Keefe and Read on the night in question.
"Everybody was having a great time," Kolokithas said.
She described a conversation she had with Read about how much she looked up to O'Keefe for how he cared for his niece and nephew.
"She started talking about how much he sacrifices, how he unconditionally puts all his time and effort into his kids... and how she wished some of the other family members would take on some of the burden."
Lally again showed surveillance video from the Waterfall, seeking to get Kolokithas to identify the area where she spoke with Read. The video showed three women leaving the bar around 12:20 a.m., including herself, Read and Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert's sister-in-law. O'Keefe can be seen exiting the Waterfall about 20 seconds later.
Exterior surveillance video was also shown, where Read and O'Keefe can be seen meeting up near the front door and walking toward Washington Street. McCabe can also be seen in the area of the back parking lot of the Waterfall.
Court adjourned for the day around 3:45 p.m. Thursday will be a half day.
