Among key arguments in Read’s defense is that the injuries on John O’Keefe’s arm were marks from an apparent animal attack. Read’s team says a dog that belonged to another Boston cop attacked O’Keefe.
Karen Read’s second murder trial begins with new jury
Karen Read is starting her second trial after being prosecuted for the 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, last year.
Among potential witnesses in the trial of Karen Read, a Massachusetts woman accused of murdering her cop boyfriend John O’Keefe, there’s one witness who won’t be called to the stand.
That’s because she can’t speak.
Chloe, a German Shepherd who lived at the property where O’Keefe, 46, was found unconscious lying in the snow back in January 2022, is a wildcard in the whodunnit case heating up in New England. Prosecutors argue Read, 45, deliberately hit the Boston police officer with her SUV and left him for dead in the snow. Read’s lawyers have long argued that the former finance professor was framed by cops who beat O’Keefe to death.
Chief among evidence in Read’s defense was a series of marks on O’Keefe’s arm that appeared to come from an animal attack. David Yanetti, Read’s lawyer, argued at a trial in 2024 that the dog did it. The 2024 Karen Read trial ended in a hung jury.
“It’s obviously important to the defense because if a juror believes a dog played a part in killing Mr. O’Keefe, then that runs completely counter to the narrative from prosecutors,” Renato Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor and longtime criminal defense lawyer, told USA TODAY. “It provides an entirely different narrative that’s contrary to the picture prosecutors are trying to paint.
The question of Chloe’s potential role in the trial comes as prosecutors recently put a star witness on the stand who testified that she heard a bombshell admission from Read: “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.”
Jennifer McCabe, a close friend of the couple who testified Read made the confession the morning O’Keefe’s body was found, was the first of prosecutors’ key witnesses to take the stand. She delivered hours of testimony about drinking with the couple the night before O’Keefe died, taking a frantic 4:53 a.m. phone call from Read the following day and then finally discovering the body of one of her “closest friends.”
Read’s lawyers continued their strategy of pointing out inconsistencies between testimony given by the prosecutors’ witnesses with an aim of sowing doubt about their testimony overall. On Wednesday, Read’s lawyers handed McCabe a transcript of her words to the grand jury to show that previously – according to McCabe – Read said, “Did I hit him?”
The dog is part of the same strategy of sewing doubt among jurors, according to Mariotti, and could take enough of a bite out of prosecutors’ attempts to prove Read’s guilt for the case to end in another mistrial.
“All you need is one juror to conclude that there’s enough reason to doubt and then that means there’s no conviction,” said the Chicago-based attorney. “The defense’s job is not to put forth its own theory, it’s to punch holes and the defense has done a good job of raising all kinds of questions.”
Will the dog be key to the trial?
Chloe can’t speak but experts can weigh in on what the evidence shows about whether the German Shepherd was involved in O’Keefe’s death.
Read’s lawyers and prosecutors will call on their own dog experts to take the stand in the courtroom in Dedham, Massachusetts.
Beverly Cannone, the Norfolk County judge presiding in the case, ruled in January that Dr. Marie Russell, an emergency room physician, can testify in Read’s second trial that marks on O’Keefe’s arm were dog bites, not caused by being hit by an SUV.
Prosecutors were aiming to bring their own expert: Dr. James W. Crosby, a retired sheriff’s lieutenant and canine behavior consultant.
Massachusetts prosecutors hoped to have Crosby testify that based on an analysis he did, measurements taken from Chloe’s jaw compared to the wounds on O’Keefe’s arm demonstrate they weren’t from a bite.
But Cannone ruled he can only testify generally about the “anatomy of a canine mouth or of Chloe in particular.”
Cannone also rejected prosecutors’ attempt to have an expert witness in Read’s defense barred: Lieutenant Garret Wing. The longtime K-9 unit officer is expected to testify about injuries on O’Keefe’s arm.
Where is Chloe?
After O’Keefe was found dead in January 2022, Chloe was sent away to live on a farm, literally.
Chloe’s owner, Nicole Albert, testified at Karen Read’s trial in 2024 that the German Shepherd lives on a farm in Vermont. Nicole Albert is Jennifer McCabe’s sister.
The day O’Keefe died, the dog belonged to Nicole and former Boston police officer Brian Albert. O’Keefe was found dead outside their house in Canton, Massachusetts. Among injuries found on him were what appeared to be marks from an animal attack on his arm.
Chloe had lived with the Albert family for about seven years then and was described as a beloved family pet, according to Read’s attorneys at trial in 2024.
McCabe, who knew Chloe and testified briefly about her on Wednesday, didn’t argue with Read’s lawyers who described the German Shepherd as a “big dog.” Read’s lawyers said the dog was 70 pounds.
Read’s lawyer also argued the dog “wasn’t good with strangers.”
McCabe said, “It wasn’t good with other dogs is what I knew, so I could never bring my dog over there.”
The morning O’Keefe was found, McCabe testified that she entered the unlocked door of the house to wake up the Alberts to alert them to their friend’s body in the front yard. She said she didn’t notice the dog in the house.
“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t there or it was there, I just don’t remember seeing it,” McCabe said.
How to watch Karen Read trial
Judge Cannone dismissed the jury until Friday when McCabe is expected to take the stand again.
Read’s attorneys told the court that he expects to cross-examine McCabe for roughly two more hours. Prosecutors said their questioning would take 20 minutes or less.
CourtTV has been covering the case against Read and the criminal investigation since early 2022, when O’Keefe’s body was found outside a Canton home.
You can watch CourtTV’s live feed of the Read trial proceedings from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. Proceedings begin at 9 a.m. ET
Contributing: Jessica Trufant, The Patriot Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network
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