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Prosecution plays Karen Read’s voicemails to John O’Keefe during trial
Prosecutor Hank Brennan plays Karen Read’s voicemails to John O’Keefe from the morning of his death during her murder trial on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Pool)
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“John, I f—ing hate you,” Karen Read allegedly told her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, a minute after walking into his house without him.
It was the morning he died, and she had just driven there from the crime scene, according to Massachusetts investigators.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan played a series of voicemails that Read allegedly left after authorities said she struck him with an SUV and left him to die in a blizzard.
Massachusetts State Trooper Nicholas Guarino returned to the stand Tuesday to read through text messages and phone calls between Read and O’Keefe from the evening of Jan. 28, 2022, into the following morning, when Read was among three women who found him.
Records show Read’s phone connected to the Wi-Fi at O’Keefe’s home at 12:36 a.m. on the 29th, Guarino said. Read made more than 50 calls to O’Keefe that morning but did not leave a voicemail every time.
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Karen Read is shown during her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, May 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)
At 12:37 a.m., she left the first of eight voicemails for O’Keefe.
“John, I f—ing hate you,” she said, in a recording played in court.
By then, prosecutors allege O’Keefe had been mortally injured by the rear end of Read’s Lexus SUV and left for dead as a blizzard picked up strength.
At 12:41 a.m., she left a second voicemail that included no spoken words. Guarino said it may have been a “butt dial.”
She texted him twice, “I’m going home,” and “see u later.”
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Karen Read and John O’Keefe (Courtesy of Karen Read)
In a third voicemail at 12:59 a.m., Read said “John, I’m here with your f—ing kids, Nobody knows where the f— you are, you f—ing pervert.”
O’Keefe adopted his niece and nephew after their parents, his sister and brother-in-law, died within months of one another.
A fourth voicemail, left a minute later, was one second long and included no words.
She then texted that she had returned to Mansfield, where she lived at the time, and that his children were “alone.”
She appears to have been lying about leaving his house, however.
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Evidence video of Karen Read being interviewed by a TV station is shown during her trial, May 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)
At 1:10 a.m., she left a fifth voicemail.
“Yeah, it’s 1 in the morning. I’m with your f—ing niece and nephew, you f—ing pervert,” Read said in a fifth voicemail. “You’re a f—ing pervert.”
At 1:17 a.m., she accused him of cheating on her with another woman.
“You’re a f—ing loser, go f— yourself,” she said.
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LISTEN: Karen Read’s voicemails for John O’Keefe
She stopped calling him between 1:18 a.m. and 4:38 a.m, when unanswered calls picked up again.
Grace Edwards, an Essex County-based criminal defense attorney who has been closely following the case, told Fox News Digital that the calls paint Read as someone who was unaware of O’Keefe’s death at the time.
“They are of a hysterical girlfriend, frantic,” she said. “She doesn’t know what happened.”
At 5:23 a.m., she left him a seventh voicemail. She kept calling until leaving an eighth voicemail at 6:03 a.m., around the time Read, Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts found O’Keefe unresponsive outside 34 Fairview Road.
This view shows 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Mass., where former Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe’s body was found in January 2022. His girlfriend at the time, Karen Read, is on trial for his murder. (Richard Beetham for Fox News Digital)
“I think there’s a ton of holes in the prosecution,” said David Gelman, a Philadelphia-area defense attorney who has been following the case. “Tons of reasonable doubt.”
The calls indicate that Read didn’t know O’Keefe was dead until she arrived at the scene, which is a boon for the defense, he said.
“Devil’s advocate, though, is that she was covering her tracks by doing this and is calculated,” he said.
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Brennan introduced the voicemails after court started Tuesday with former Canton Police Lt. Paul Gallagher on the stand for a second day of grueling cross-examination.
Read’s lead defense attorney, Alan Jackson, grilled him about routine investigatory steps that were not taken on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, including searching the house and canvassing the neighborhood for surveillance video. The house across the street belonged to another Canton police lieutenant who had an Arlo home security camera over his front door.
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Massachusetts State Trooper Lt. Kevin O’Hara testifies during the Karen Read trial on May 6, 2025. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)
Gallagher authorized the use of red Solo cups to collect blood evidence, which were then stored in a paper bag from a supermarket. He testified that he could not verify the chain of custody of the evidence.
When Read’s SUV and the Solo cups were given over to state police, Jackson pointed out, the unsealed bag was just inches from the damaged taillight.
He also used a leaf blower to move snow that had fallen on top of O’Keefe’s blood and a broken cocktail glass on the lawn.
Gallagher testified that he has both a professional and personal relationship with Brian Higgins, a member of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who was at the Alberts’ home for an after-party around the time of O’Keefe’s death.
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Karen Read is shown during her trial on May 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)
Also taking the stand was Massachusetts State Police Lt. Kevin O’Hara, whose search team recovered O’Keefe’s shoe from the scene after 5 p.m. on Jan. 29. They also found a half dozen pieces of broken taillight, he testified.
O’Hara’s team prioritized searching the street, worried that a plow could come by and disturb evidence. They left without searching the lawn due to weather conditions and other factors, but he offered to return later. He did not receive a callback, he said.
Under cross-examination, O’Hara testified that the scene was not secured at the time he arrived and that members of the Canton Police Department arrived during the search. However, he said they did not take part.
John O’Keefe (Boston Police Department)
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Robert Gilman, a forensic meteorologist, explained the blizzard conditions and heavy snowfall recorded between Jan. 28 and Jan. 29.
Canton Police Lt. Charles Rae testified as Brennan played dashcam video from a wellness check he performed at O’Keefe’s address around 8:23 a.m. on Jan. 29; it appeared to show damage to Read’s taillight, which was parked in the driveway in front of his marked vehicle when he arrived.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, manslaughter and fleeing the scene, and she has denied striking O’Keefe entirely. She could face life in prison if convicted.