Jurors heard a scintillating portrait of a romantic connection between murder defendant Karen Read and ATF Agent Brian Higgins that was crowned with a kiss in front of victim John O’Keefe’s house two weeks before he would die.
“You’re hot,” Read texted Higgins on Jan. 12, 2022, after some flirtatious back and forth, as shown in screen captures of the pair’s text message exchange. When he questioned her, she added “No I’m serious.”
Higgins said, “Feeling is mutual. Is that bad? How long have you thought that???”
Sometime between 12:30 and 1 a.m. the following day, after a get-together at O’Keefe’s house, Read escorted him to his car and, Higgins testified, “The defendant kissed me … Not like a friend.”
Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces charges including second-degree murder for the death of John O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer and her boyfriend of about two years when he died at age 46. Prosecutors say the pair argued and she killed him by backing her Lexus SUV into him, leaving him to die in the cold outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton during a snowstorm.
The extra-long trial day Friday, in which lunch was curtailed by 15 minutes and testimony extended 30 minutes more than usual, still wasn’t enough to fit Higgins entire cross-examination, which will continue Tuesday morning. He’s one of the key witnesses in the case. The defense named him in pre-trial hearings as one of three alternative killers.
The defense alleges that either Higgins, his friend and Fairview Road homeowner Brian Albert or Albert’s nephew Colin Albert or a combination of any or all of them, beat O’Keefe to death and framed Read.
Texts, romance and death
Higgins testified that his relationship with Read was not physical beyond that kiss, though he was sexually attracted to Read.
“I was interested but I don’t think I was at the romantic phase,” he said, adding the whole situation had “a weird vibe.”
But Jackson recalled some texts in which Higgins told Read he was looking for “the real deal,” and Jackson wanted to know what that meant. Higgins admitted that “the real deal” would be a romantic relationship.
The texts occurred over nine non-consecutive days between Jan. 12 and Jan. 23, 2022, revealing a burgeoning connection that was at times bold, at times philosophical and at times confused. For his part, Higgins testified, “I was trying to suss out what her intentions were.”
There were two texts on the night in question, Jan. 28 into 29, 2022, which Higgins said he remembers “like a nightmare.”
Higgins said the texts were “sporadic” but disagreed strongly with Jackson’s characterization that he ever felt “ghosted” or “ignored” by Read.
At the Waterfall Bar and Grill in central Canton, the pair were part of a large group, including O’Keefe, and had decided to accept the open invitation to go back to the Albert residence to continue the party into the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022. About 25 minutes before the party set out, Higgins sent her a text he described as “flirty”: “Ummmmmm Well.”
He received a response from Read, the last between them, at 11:54 a.m. the next morning: “John died.”
Motive: Kids and jealousy
Higgins advanced the state’s theory that Read and O’Keefe were on the outs. In fact, Read texted Higgins at one point indicating exactly that.
“I just thought you were happy with your situation?” Higgins texted her one day, adding during testimony that he was confused about what her intentions were with him.
“I was,” Read responded in the texts shown in the courtroom, “but things have deteriorated.”
Her primary complaints were taking care of the niece and nephew that O’Keefe had taken custody of when their parents died and her allegations that he cheated on her in Aruba.
“It’s just a very very complicated dynamic with the four of us. … And the kids present constant issues,” Read wrote, adding later that having the responsibility of these children was a bigger issue than her jealousy.
In a group trip to Aruba at the beginning of the year, Read accused O’Keefe of making out with one of his longtime friends, Marietta Sullivan. Sullivan testified Wednesday that she did not make out with O’Keefe and sees him as an older brother figure.
Cross talk and butt dials
The afternoon was dominated by Higgins’ cross-examination, in which defense attorney Jackson questioned his relationship with the local police and whether he was conniving with others to bury a murder and frame Read.
A lot of the questions had to do with Higgins’ testimony to a federal grand jury — it’s a topic attorneys are barred from directly referencing, so when they do they have used euphemisms like “the other proceeding” or testimony “without the state prosecutor present.”
Of paramount importance to Jackson was who Higgins was talking to and when: like how his phone records show two calls within the minute of 2:22 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, hours before O’Keefe would be found. While Jackson questioned how Higgins could have returned a phone call he missed from Albert if he was asleep Higgins said, “I have no recollection of answering the phone or calling anyone back.”
The call that would wake him came from his friend and then-Canton PD Chief Kenneth Berkowitz, one that Higgins ignored. Then he took the next call, from Albert, reporting O’Keefe was dead. He then drove to the Albert home because, he said, “It was important to support the people that were there.”
Jackson questioned why he was allowed to interact with other witnesses without an investigator present. He also questioned Higgins’ access to the police station and whether he was getting tipped off to the state of the investigation and sharing that information with the Albert family — charges Higgins denied.
Jackson also questioned Higgins destroying his cell phone, which Higgins said he wouldn’t describe as destroying but also taking place after an order to maintain it had ended. He also used a “kiosk” in a federal building to extract his text exchanges with Read and O’Keefe to, he said, hand over to law enforcement. Jackson said he did that rather than hand over the phone so he could control what they had, and also that he broke federal law by using the kiosk “for personal gain.”
