DEDHAM — The second week of testimony in the trial of Karen Read, the Mansfield woman accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, continued on Tuesday.
Prosecutors allege that Read, 44, drunkenly backed her SUV into O’Keefe, 46, and left him for dead outside a Canton home during a blizzard in 2022 after a night of drinking.
She has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury or death.
Read’s attorneys maintain that she was framed and that O’Keefe was killed inside the Canton home, where a fellow Boston officer was hosting an afterparty.
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The trial is expected to last up to two months.
Here are some of the people who have testified so far. Here is a recap of Monday’s testimony.
Here are highlights of Tuesday’s testimony.
12:45 p.m. — Canton police lieutentant Charles Rae takes the stand
Rae said he was working the day shift when he began work at 7:45 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 29. He said he learned that earlier “there was an unresponsive man found in the snow on Fairview Road.” [Sean] Goode told him that and and that O’Keefe was a Boston officer, Rae testified. He said he was told Read was taken to the hospital as well.
“I was made aware that [O’Keefe] was the guardian of two young children,” Rae said. He said officials decided to do a well-being check on the children at O’Keefe’s house on Meadows Avenue in Canton.
He told Lally he pulled into the driveway around 8:23 a.m. Read’s SUV was also in the driveway. Lally asked Rae if he didn’t “have any occasion” to inspect “the right rear passenger side” of the vehicle.
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“Correct,” Rae said.
Testimony ended for the day at 1 p.m.
12:30 p.m. — Lank testifies on redirect
Prosecutor Adam Lally asked Lank to explain what happened during the 2002 fight. He said he had left an establishment with a patron he had been asked to give a ride home. At that time, Chris Albert told him he had been in an altercation with a group that threatened his family. When members of that group approached, Lank said he tried to deescalate the situation, but one person said “I know who you are, I don’t give a [expletive],” and Lank was punched.
He said he yelled across the street to bystanders to call the police and they called 911. Asked what about that incident was relevant to the O’Keefe case, Lank said “absolutely nothing.”
He said he never saw O’Keefe’s body at the scene or any time thereafter. Lank also said his educated guess would be that he was speaking on the phone at the scene with Lieutenant Gallagher, who hadn’t arrived.
Lank said the first time he went inside the home, Brian and Nicole Albert were on the stairs, and Jennifer McCabe was to his right. The second time, the positioning was the same and Matthew McCabe was also present. The third time he went inside, “Brian and Nicole were definitely there” in the general vicinity of where he was. He reiterated that nothing appeared askew in the home.
”Everything looked to be in order,” Lank said.
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12:15 p.m. — Jackson asks Lank if securing a crime scene minimizes the possibility of evidence tampering
”State Police said they weren’t responding,” Lank said. “So that was no longer an area to preserve at that point.”
Jackson also asked about a white bag from Stop & Shop photographed inside Read’s vehicle at the police station. Lank said the bag resembles what police use to store evidence.
”So that’s what I thought it was, at first,” Lank said.
Jackson also noted that six solo cups, similar to the ones from the crime scene, were in the Stop & Shop bag in Read’s vehicle in the sally port at the police station. Jackson asked if the photo of the bag was taken at “some point after State Police had seized the vehicle” and after he had deposited the cups at the station.
“Correct,” Lank said.
”In fact, these were taken on Feb. 1, when the Massachusetts State Police crime lab finally took possession of these items of evidence, correct?” Jackson asked.
”I was not in the police station for those two days,” Lank said.
12:05 p.m. — Jackson asks Lank whether he secured any cell phones from witnesses
Jackson asked Lank if electronic devices are critical to investigations and he agreed that they were.
Lank said he didn’t try to secure any witnesses’ cell phones on Jan. 29 or ask for permission to review their contents. Jackson asked Lank if he ever notified his superiors or other authorities that he had a personal relationship with the Albert family.
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”I did not,” Lank said.
He said he did not record his conversation with Brian and Nicole Albert. Jennifer McCabe was also present at the time.
”You interviewed them together,” Jackson said. Lank said that he did.
”When you got this chronological layout of the night before from Jennifer McCabe, Brian and Nicole were both listening,” Jackson said.
“Yes,” Lank said.
Lank told Jackson that when he interviewed Jennifer McCabe a second time on the morning of Jan. 29, the Alberts were present then as well. Jackson also asked about Lank’s testimony that wind was blowing the crime scene tape down and whether police could have gotten stakes to put in the ground to secure it. Lank said no.
“After 8 a.m. that crime scene is completely open,” Jackson said.
“Yes,” Lank said.
”Unsecured and available to anybody who wanted to access it,” Jackson said.
“Correct,” Lank said.
11:55 a.m. — Jackson asks Lank whether he searched the basement of the Albert home
Jackson referenced McCabe’s statement to Lank that O’Keefe had been invited back to the home but never made it. Asked if witnesses had ever lied to him before in the course of his duties, Lank said yes.
Lank said he agreed that he “needed to speak to the people in the home” but that he has to announce himself and that residents don’t have to let him in without a warrant. Jackson asked Lank whether he looked for signs of a struggle in the basement.
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”I never made it past the front foyer area,” Lank said. “The only area I was able to observe at that point, everything appeared to be in order.”
He said he didn’t have probable cause to seek a search warrant for a thorough search of the property.
Lank told Jackson he “didn’t observe any animals” in the home and did not have the residents come outside.
He said Matthew McCabe entered the home after he left. Jackson asked if he separated the witnesses before he could interview them, and he said he did not.
”I have no idea what they were doing,” Lank said when asked whether he had any idea what was occurring inside the house outside his presence.
He said he didn’t photograph the house, diagram the interior layout, or note the positioning of the furniture. Lank said he learned “much later” that O’Keefe was found at the scene with one shoe. He said he didn’t search for any missing clothing inside the home.
11:45 a.m. — Jackson asks Lank whether he thought O’Keefe might have been involved in a fight
Watching a video clip, Lank said “it appears there’s now a light on inside the home.” At that point, Jennifer McCabe had been in the house for “maybe three minutes,” he said.
”I can’t tell if I’m still on the phone at that point,” Lank said. “I know that right around that time is when I ended up speaking to the [State Police] unit.”
Lank said he didn’t recall whom he spoke with at the State Police unit when he contacted dispatch there.
Jackson asked ”at some point did you indicate ... ‘I’m responding to 34 Fairview, we have a Boston police officer who was just found.’ ... And you said, ‘I’m not sure if he’s been in a fight or whatever, paramedics don’t believe he’s going to make it.’“
”Correct,” Lank said.
Jackson pressed him on the fight comment.
”I stated that he had some trauma to his head,” Lank said. “And I said, ‘I don’t know if he has been in a fight.” He added that he described the scene as chaotic.
”At that point in time I didn’t know what it was,” Lank said. “It could have been a multitude of things.”
Jackson asked Lank if he thought there were any indicators O’Keefe had been in a fight.
”It’s a possibility, yes,” Lank said.
Asked if it was the “premier possibility,” Lank said it was only one possibility.
Given that possibility, “Did you logically think ... it possibly could have started in the house?” Jackson asked.
“If it had been a confrontation it could have started anywhere,” Lank replied.
11:30 a.m. — Lank cross continues
Lank told Jackson he spoke with McCabe behind a vehicle at the scene.
”I had said to her at some point, ‘we’re going to need to speak to Brian and Nicole [Albert],” Lank said.
He said McCabe had told him the intention had been for O’Keefe to join people at the house, so he wanted to speak to those inside.
”She identified herself as a friend of Mr. O’Keefe,” he said.
Jackson asked if he thought he should have “separated” the witnesses and not let McCabe talk to them.
“No,” Lank said.
Lank identified a person in video footage who appears to be walking toward the house but said he couldn’t say for certain if it was McCabe. The moment in the clip came after the two of them had spoken. Lank said another figure in the video appears to be Kerry Roberts, and he identified himself leaving the frame to take a call. He said he didn’t recall who the call was from.
Lank identified himself and Goode returning to the frame.
”It appears that I’m pacing,” Lank said, adding that he was still on the phone.
Lank also identified an SUV with Roberts and Read inside leaving the scene.
”At this point are the lights at 34 Fairview on or off?” Jackson asked.
”They appear to be off,” Lank said.
11:20 a.m. — Lank continues testimony on cross-examination
Lank testified Monday about a 2002 incident in which he fought a man who had an earlier altercation with Chris Albert, Brian Albert’s brother. Lank told Read’s lawyer Alan Jackson that he took part in the fight after “being struck.”
“We were wrestling, yes,” he said. The fight was broken up, Lank said.
While one of Chris Albert’s antagonists was handcuffed at the scene, that person was ultimately allowed to leave without arrest. Members of the other group later went to the Canton police station to file a complaint for being attacked, Jackson said.
”Only after that complaint had been sought, the police reports were dated and filed against the two brothers” who had targeted Chris Albert, Jackson said.
Lank confirmed the chronology but said he didn’t know if any charges were ever brought against Chris Albert. In 2002, Lank said “it was me coming to the aid of a citizen who was terrified and scared for him and his family on that night.”
Asked if there was a perceived bias or conflict of interest between the Albert family and Canton police on Jan. 29, 2022, Lank said, “Yes, there was a perceived bias.”
When he arrived, “I knew that was Brian Albert’s house, yes.”
11:05 a.m. — Lank testifies about police chief Ken Berkowitz
On Feb. 4, 2022, Lank said he got a call from Lt. Paul Gallagher instructing him to return to Fairview Road, where Chief Berkowitz had “possibly discovered more evidence” at the scene. He said Berkowitz brought his attention to a piece of red glass near where O’Keefe’s body had been found.
”I photographed the piece of plastic as it sat,” Lank said. He said no one touched the glass and he contacted the State Police unit to respond. A trooper arrived on scene and “secured the item into a evidence bag,” Lank said.
10:55 a.m. — Lank’s testimony continues
After he spoke with the Alberts, Lank said he spoke with Lieutenant [Paul] Gallagher about next steps at the scene.
”We had put up some crime scene tape to try to protect the scene but it was a futile effort because of the wind,” Lank said. But marked patrol cars kept the scene secure. He said he saw Gallagher use a leaf blower to clear snow in search of evidence.
”Sergeant Goode was able to take video while Lieutenant Gallagher used the leaf blower,” Lank said. The purpose was “to reveal what was underneath” and preserve potential evidence. Police then saw drops of blood in the snow as well as a cocktail glass, he said.
He said he did not speak to Read at the scene and did not recall seeing her there. Matthew McCabe, Jennifer McCabe’s husband, arrived after Lank left the home the first time, Lank said.
He and Matthew McCabe later spoke for about five minutes inside the home, Lank said.
”Everything appeared in order” inside the house, Lank said. Prosecutor Adam Lally asked if anyone inside the house tried at any point to keep police from entering the home. Lank said they did not. Lank said the blood drops were secured in six solo cups.
”We did the best we could with the situation,” Lank said.
Lally presented Lank with a box of evidence on the stand. Lank, wearing gloves, took out the broken cocktail glass and displayed it for jurors. He said he spoke to McCabe between five and 10 minutes at the scene before he returned to the station.
10:50 a.m. — Lank tells Jennifer McCabe “we were going to need to speak with the homeowners.”
McCabe, who came to the scene with Read that morning, said they were “probably sleeping,” Lank said.
He said he then saw a light come on inside the home and he later went into the home through the front door. Lank said he spoke to Brian Albert and his wife Nicole Albert that morning.
”I knew him as the oldest of the Albert brothers,” Lank said, adding that he grew up in Canton. Lally asked Lank what else he does in town and he said he coaches youth sports, something he has done for “at least nine or 10 years.”
Lank said before Jan. 29, 2022, he and Brian Albert were “civil” but weren’t friends. On that morning, “they appeared, especially Mr. Albert, disheveled” as if he had just woken up.
10:40 a.m. — Canton police officer Michael Lank testifies about scene
Lank said he arrived on Fairview Road around 6:25 a.m.
He said he saw an ambulance, as well as EMTs and other officers, but he did not see O’Keefe in the ambulance.
Officers directed him to the area where O’Keefe was found, he said.
”I observed a flag pole, there was a fire hydrant, and some brush area over there,” Lank testified.
Lank said he spoke to Goode and Jennifer McCabe at the scene. Lank said he later contacted investigators at the Norfolk district attorney’s office, as it appeared O’Keefe would not survive.
Lank said he contacted a State Police unit assigned to the DA’s office, since by law that unit investigates all unattended deaths in the county.
State Trooper Michael Proctor called him back, he said.
”At that point in time Trooper Proctor informed me that they would not be responding,” Lank said. Cannone sustained a defense objection when Lally asked why Proctor said the unit wouldn’t be responding. Lank said the ambulance left within five minutes his arrival.
10:10 a.m. — Goode testifies on redirect
Goode told prosecutor Adam Lally that the snow “continually got worse” throughout the day on Jan. 29.
Lally asked if the narrative in Goode’s police report had ever changed.
“No,” Goode said.
He said the face sheet of the report provides basic information but is not the “meat of the report.” Supplemental reports done after Jan. 29, including photos, were added to the initial report.
Yannetti then asked Goode about a hit-and-run charge brought against Brian Albert’s brother, Tim.
”The evidence in that case ... was strong,” Yannetti said. Goode said it was.
”Despite the fact that he was charged, are you aware that the case was just flat-out dismissed?” Yannetti asked.
Prosecutors objected and Cannone sustained the objection, telling jurors to disregard the question. The lawyers went to sidebar before the next witness was called.
10 a.m. — Goode cross-examination resumes
After a short break, Yannetti showed photos on a projector of the area where he said pieces of Read’s taillight were “allegedly found.”
Yannetti asked if it was true Goode never took a photo of the taillight on Jan. 29 or saw a piece of it that day.
Yannetti asked Goode if he “personally switched the photo on the face sheet of your police report?“
”No,” Goode said, adding that an officer who wrote a supplemental report would have added the photo later.
Yannetti asked if it was “misleading” to include the photo in a Jan. 29 report when it was added later.
Cannone sustained an objection from prosecutors.
”Is there anything ... that indicates it applies to some supplemental report that was later filed?” Yannetti asked, referring to the taillight.
“No,” Goode said.
9:50 a.m. — Cannone admonishes lawyers on both sides
After sending the jury away again to discuss evidence, Judge Beverly J. Cannone admonished both sides’ lawyers for having too many issues with filing and logging evidence. On this occasion, Read’s lawyers had introduced a police report that had too much information the jurors weren’t allowed to see, so they had to cut part of it off with scissors.
”We’re taking an awful lot of these jurors’ time — we’re taking days and weeks,” Cannone said. “Let’s not squander it with repetitive evidence” and evidentiary issues like this, she said. “Let’s move this case along.”
9:35 a.m. — Goode testifies about police report
Read’s lawyer David Yannetti asked Goode if he went over his police report after testifying Monday. He said he did but added that he wasn’t looking for anything specifi.
”I scanned over it,” Goode said.
Goode said he only spoke to Read and two other women who found O’Keefe’s body on the morning of Jan. 29.
”You would agree with me that it is important when you’re writing a police report to be transparent, correct?” he asked.
“Yes,” Goode said.
Yannetti went through the date and time entries on Goode’s report.
9:30 a.m. — Canton police sergeant Sean Goode resumes testifying
Goode is back on the stand and Yannetti is continuing his cross-examination. He’s asking Goode about a “key swipe” system at the police station.
8:40 a.m. — Read arrives at the Dedham courthouse
Read and her lawyers entered the courthouse, followed by her family. “You got this, Karen,” an onlooker holding a small pink flag said.
8:24 a.m. — Read supporters gather before proceedings begin
A group of about 20 Karen Read supporters stood at their usual post at the edge of the court-imposed buffer zone, as day six of the Read trial approached, some waving flags and “Free Karen Read” signs. Tuesdays are half days for the trial, so court will let out around 1 p.m.
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.