The Karen Read murder trial resumed Friday after a day off, and this could prove to be another key day of testimony.
Karen Read's defense team promised "fireworks" when Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives special agent Brian Higgins took the stand. Higgins was the only witness to testify on Friday, spending hours answering prosecution questions before a lengthy cross-examination. Read's attorneys have previously said Higgins had the motive, opportunity and means to attack Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe the night he died.
Court is only scheduled to be in session in the Read case for one day next week, on Tuesday.
Watch the Karen Read trial live on nbcboston.com, NECN, NBC Boston streaming platforms (including Roku, Peacock and Samsung TV) and NBC10 Boston's YouTube page. Every night of the trial at 7 p.m., come back for analysis and more.
On Wednesday, we heard from several witnesses, including Kerry Roberts, as she recounted the frantic search for O'Keefe that ended with a harrowing series of events when Roberts, Read and Jennifer McCabe pulled up to the Fairview Road home in Canton, Massachusetts.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, O'Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow on Jan. 29, 2022. She has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges, with her defense team claiming that state and local law enforcement officials framed Read and allowed the real killer to go free.
O’Keefe’s body was found outside the home of another Boston police officer, Brian Albert, and the defense argues his relationship with local and state police tainted their investigation.
Brian Higgins testifies
Higgins was the first witness to take the stand on Friday, shortly before 9:15 a.m.
He is a friend of Albert and was present at the party at Albert's home on Fairview Road hours before O'Keefe was found dead outside, according to court filings and witness testimony. He had previously exchanged flirtatious text messages with Read, according to court filings from the prosecution.
He is one of three men that Read's defense team has said had motive, opportunity and means to attack O'Keefe that night.
Prosecutors have said the defense's statements about Higgins lack evidence and make for a "fanciful" story.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally started by asking Higgins about the events of Jan. 28-29, 2022.
Higgins spoke of how he, Brian Albert, Kevin Albert and another officer had been in New York City on Jan. 28 to attend a police officer's funeral and drove back to Massachusetts that day ahead of an impending blizzard.
He said upon returning to Canton that night, he went to the Hillside Pub, where he was scheduled to meet Brian Albert. He said he drove his Jeep, which had a plow attached, to the bar, arriving there sometime after dark.
Higgins said Albert arrived around the same time, but he couldn't recall whether it was before or after him.
He said he spent about an hour there, having something to eat and drink, and Albert left about 15 minutes before him to go to the Waterfall Bar & Grill to meet his wife and family and possibly some other people. Higgins said Albert invited him to join them, and he did, arriving sometime around 9 p.m.
Higgins said O'Keefe and Read, both of whom he considered friends, were among the people at the Waterfall that night.
Higgins said the group eventually left the bar, and he and others were invited back to Brian Albert's home, where people were gathering for Albert's son's birthday. He said he wound up leaving the Albert home between 12:30 and 1 a.m. on Jan. 29, and said he was one of the first people to leave the gathering.
He testified that he never saw O'Keefe or Read at the Albert home. He said at one point he texted O'Keefe, "Where are you?" but never received a response.
After leaving the Albert home, Higgins said he went to the Canton Police Department, where he had an office and stored his ATF vehicles. He said he went there to move his work vehicles to a different area of the parking lot so the lot could be plowed that night.
From there, he said he went home and had something to eat, had a couple of drinks and went to sleep.
Higgins said he woke up that morning around 6:30 to his work and personal phones going off. He said Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz and Brian Albert were both calling him. He said he blew off Berkowitz's call given the early hour but then became a bit concerned when he saw Albert calling so early after being up late the night before.
He said after learning that O'Keefe had been found on the Alberts' lawn, he went straight to the Alberts' home on Fairview Road. He also detailed his interview with state police investigators looking into O'Keefe's death, including how they looked through his past texts with O'Keefe.
Higgins also testified about the only time he visited O'Keefe's home, on Jan. 16, 2022, for the end of a New England Patriots' game. He said he arrived well into the second half, and O'Keefe and Read were both there.
"I felt bad I had never been over there," he said. "I had been asked repeatedly. I knew it was probably going to be the last game of the season."
While he was there, he said he played video games with O'Keefe's nephew.
Higgins became emotional during this portion of the testimony, tearing up as he recalled the encounter.
After the morning break, Higgins testified that on Jan. 12, 2022, he received a text from Read. It was the first time she had ever texted him, he said.
"Hey Brian, it's the weedwhacker," Read's text read.
Higgins responded with a question mark.
He said the text from Read was based on an interaction he had with her, "kind of a nickname that she adopted."
Higgins said one day when he was leaving his home in Canton, traveling down Pleasant Street, he saw Read along the side of O'Keefe's house, using a weed trimmer. He said he beeped the horn, and she gave him the finger, apparently not recognizing him. So he spun the vehicle around and pulled up to roll down the window.
He said she told him to "Get the (expletive) away from her," and that her boyfriend was a Boston cop. At that point, she then realized who it was, and Higgins said the "weedwhacker" comment became a running joke of sorts.
Higgins then went over several other text messages between he and Read, where Higgins asked how she got his phone number.
The text conversation continued, with the two of them talking about Higgins possibly joining Read and O'Keefe on a vacation to Florida, and Read and O'Keefe possibly joining Higgins on a trip to Nashville.
At one point, Read said to Higgins, "You're kind of a loner. Which I used to be."
"Not really, I have a ton of buddies but I only let a handful of friends in that I am tight with," Higgins said. "So you think you got me figured out?"
The text exchange continued, with Higgins and Read discussing how Higgins' dad died of cancer in 2020.
They also spoke about a former girlfriend of Higgins, and he told her they had broken up a while back.
At one point Read invited Higgins to hang out with her and O'Keefe, but he said he didn't want to intrude on their couples' night.
"Just stop being so anti-couples," Read responded. "Most couples don't even like each other."
"Name a few," Higgins said.
"Name a few? I don't know...all of them? They all want to hang out w single ppl," Read said.
At one point during the conversation, Read texted Higgins, "You're hot."
He responded. "Are you serious or messing with me?"
"No I'm serious," Read said.
"Feeling is mutual," Higgins said. "Is that bad? How long have you thought that???"
Read than asked if Higgins was OK driving, saying she'd rather he stay at the house where she and O'Keefe lived.
Higgins said that text exchange occurred on a night when he had visited the O'Keefe home. On that evening when he left the house, he said Read "planted a kiss" on his lips. He described it as a romantic kiss, "Not like a friend."
Going back to the text exchanges, Higgins said, "I wish. I think you're messing with me."
"Where did these feelings come from?" he asked Read.
Higgins said his entire text communication between he and Read took place between Jan. 12 and Jan. 29, 2022, the day O'Keefe died.
"I was basically trying to sus out what the intentions were of the defendant. Was the defendant interested in me, was she at the end of her relationship with John, was she trying to weaponize me against John and put me in the middle? There was numerous things going on... I was having a hard time accepting what was happening."
Read then asked if Higgins liked her, and he said he did.
"You think you can handle me? I thought you were happy," Higgins said.
"How do you know if I'm happy??" Read asked.
"I just assumed," Higgins replied.
He told Read he had always thought she was attractive, smart and witty, but he didn't think she was interested.
At one point, Read said, "Hey-- we're single and we don't have kids. We can do whatever we want."
Read then asked Higgins to come over to her house in Mansfield.
"What do you want Karen. You looked great tonight," Higgins said.
At one point in the text exchange, he asked if Read and O'Keefe were breaking up or staying together.
"I don't know. He hooked up w another girl on vacation. I am very close to his niece.. it is a very (expletive) up situation."
"We went away for New Years. The four of us. I put the kids to be and found him in the lobby of our hotel all over one of our friend. whatever. It doesn't matter," Read added.
Higgins said he continued to be suspect of whether Read was really interested in him, if her relationship with O'Keefe was over or what the status of the relationship was.
"What do you want from me?" Read asked Higgins at one point
"What's on the table?" he replied.
"What do you want ideally?" she asked.
"The real deal," he replied.
"Doesn't exist," Read said.
"I thought you were in this happy relationship," Higgins said later.
"Everyone is happy at the Hillside!" she replied, referring to the bar.
"It's just a very very complicated dynamic with the four of us. He isn't cut out for what he's doing. And the kids present constant issues," Read said.
Higgins talked about how he was once married to someone with a young child, but was now divorced.
"I try very hard but they are very spoiled. And they're not my family," Read said. And she said O'Keefe got "drunk and sloppy" on New Year's Eve while they were away, "and that has really affected me."
"He was a puddle all day and then disappeared," she added when Higgins asked her what O'Keefe had done. "Then I found him all over friend's sister in the lobby of our hotel. And she's gross, which I think may actually be worse. Not sure."
Read then asked Higgins if he wanted to meet for a drink. But he said he had his work truck with him and couldn't meet up. Higgins said Read extended similar invitations on other occasions as well.
Read also told Higgins that O'Keefe suspected that something might be going on between them, saying he had even showed her Ring camera footage of when Read walked Higgins out of the house.
Higgins also testified about how eventually, he and Read met up for a drink at his house in West Roxbury. He said she wasn't there long.
"It was, it was kind of more of this. It was kind of a... it wasn't an interrogation, it was a face to vace version of trying to sus out and vet like, what this was all about," Higgins testified. "I'm not proud of these text messages. It is what it is. I'll take responsibility for them, but John was a friend... If they were at the end of the relationship, they were at the end of the relationship, but I wasn't going to have someone utilize me, weaponize me against someone I liked. It was a weird experience."
Lally finished his questioning just before 12:30 p.m., and defense attorney Alan Jackson began cross-examining Higgins.
Jackson asked about the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, when O'Keefe's body was found on the Alberts' lawn on Fairview Road in Canton, and about his friendship with the Albert family and other powerful people in town.
"It's fair to say that you know the Albert family fairly well," Jackson said.
Jackson also asked Higgins about the Jan. 16, 2022, date when Higgins went to O'Keefe's house to watch the Patriots game, the day that Read gave him a kiss as he left the home.
"After that incident, it's safe to say you exchanged flirtatious texts with Ms. Read, correct?" Jackson asked.
"I did," Higgins said.
Higgins said he never had any other physical, intimate contact with Read. Jackson asked if Higgins had romantic feelings for Read, but Higgins wouldn't agree to that.
"I was attracted to her. I thought she was an attractive woman," he said.
Higgins also acknolwedged that Read never expressed any hatred toward O'Keefe.
Court broke for lunch around 1 p.m., with Higgins expected to return to the stand after the break.
After the lunch break, Jackson zeroed in on a series of texts between Higgins and Read on Jan. 23, 2022, where Higgins was asking why he hadn't heard from her in a while.
After several texts back and forth that day, Higgins acknowledged that he didn't hear from Read again until he saw her at the Waterfall on Jan. 28, 2022. He also said he shared with a work supervisor that Read had once kissed him.
"What I shared with my boss was the fact that she kissed me, that was it," he said. But Higgins said he never discussed his interest in Read with Brian Albert.
"It's just something I wouldn't talk about," he said.
Jackson also asked Higgins about the night at the Waterfall, specifically whether Read greeted her when he walked in.
"In my opinion, she was working the room, saying hello, catching up," Higgins said. He acknowledged that Read didn't say hello to him but said it didn't upset him.
Higgins did say, however, that he texted Read that evening saying, "Um, well..." but she never responded.
The defense moved on to a line of questioning about Higgins time in the Albert home, including what spaces he’d been in and the layout of the house.
Jackson then pressed Higgins on previous testimony he made concerning the night of O’Keefe’s death, focusing in on testimony Higgins gave about a male who showed up at the house. Higgins maintained that he wasn’t sure if the male he saw – who he described as tall and dark haired – actually entered the house. The defense pushed this point, trying to get Higgins to give a yes or no answer about whether the man came inside, apparently trying to call his previous testimony into question. The judge eventually shut the line of questioning down.
Jackson then began asking questions about the time Higgins left the Albert house on Jan. 29. Higgins said he left between 12:30 a.m. and 1 a.m., and went to the Canton Police Department to move vehicles around. He said he never saw a body on the front lawn at 34 Fairview as he was driving off.
The defense then began a line of questioning concerning Brian Albert's activities when he returned home. Specifically, pointing to phone records that show a 1 second phone call made from Brian Albert to Higgins at 2:22 a.m. and a follow up call immediately afterward from Higgins to Albert, lasting about 22 seconds. Higgins testified that he did not recall making that phone call and claimed there was no conversation.
Jackson honed in on this point, saying that in previous testimony Higgins suggested it may have been a "butt dial."
“Did you ever previously testify that you did in fact make the call but you did not have a conversation during the call?”
“What I think I testified was something must have happened, but I didn’t make any phone call," Higgins said.
Jackson tried to paint this as an example of Higgins lying under oath, which he denied.
“I always tell the truth," Higgins said on the stand.
The cross-examination then continued in chronological order, with Higgins describing going over to the Albert household when he learned of what happened through a phone call from Brian Albert that morning. He described being at the house with Brian and Nicole Albert and Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, and said Julie Albert arrived after he did.
When questioned on whether they discussed the case, he said the group was trying to understand what happened.
“People were in shock at the table trying to figure out what happened. The math didn’t make sense. John and the defendant never showed up. People were in shock.”
Higgins said he left the Albert household at some point later that morning and wound up back at the Canton Police Department. At this point, Jackson brought out a series of card swipe access records from the building, asking Higgins to review various times and spaces his card was used. This was done to establish that Higgins spent hours at Canton PD that day, and had access to the sallyport where evidence from the case, including Karen Read's SUV, was eventually brought in.
Were you in the sallyport at 5:36 when the car was delivered?" Jackon asked.
“I don’t have any recollection of that, no," Higgins said.
Jackson also asked Higgins if he was speaking with Canton police investigators about the case that day and passing information along to Brian Albert, pointing to phone calls with Kevin Albert and Canton Police Chief Ken Berkowitz. Higgins did not deny the possibility that he spoke to the men, calling them friends, but he did deny funneling information about the case.
“I had conversations with Brian Albert. John was found on his lawn. Yes of course I had conversations with him.”
Court ended on the topic of Higgins' actions concerning his phone records. Higgins testified that he asked another ATF agent, who he described as his best friend, the best way to remove a string of text messages from his phone to provide the information to Massachusetts State Police. That friend has some expertise in computer forensics, Higgins said.
He claimed he was trying to help investigators with the information, though Jackson pointed out that he could have provided his entire phone instead of cherry-picking information. After the judge paused questioning to address potential concerns about Higgins' testimony on the subject with his attorney, the jury returned for a few minutes before court went into recess.
The day ended on a tense note, with Jackson drilling down on the point that Higgins ultimately threw away his phone. Higgins claimed there was nothing unusual about it and that he had "every right to do that."
The Boston Herald is reporting that prosecutors put Higgins' medical records into evidence in a strange move. The motivation for that decision did not come to light on Friday.
Looking back at Wednesday's testimony
There was no testimony in the Read case Thursday, as jurors got the day off. During Wednesday's testimony, Read's defense team tried to implicate a key prosecution witness, accusing her of conducting an incriminating internet search hours before the man's body was discovered and then deleting the search to cover her tracks.
Jennifer McCabe, a friend of the couple and Albert's sister-in-law, previously testified that soon after O'Keefe's body was found, Read screamed, “I hit him! I hit him! I hit him!” and frantically asked her to conduct a Google search on how long it takes for someone to die of hypothermia.
But Read’s attorney showed jurors cellphone data Wednesday that suggested McCabe also did an internet search for variations of “how long to die in cold” four hours earlier.
“You made that search at 2:27 am because you knew that John O’Keefe was outside on your sister’s lawn dying in the cold, didn’t you?” Jackson asked McCabe. “Did you delete that search because you knew you would be implicated in John O’Keefe’s death if that search was found on your phone?”
“I did not delete that search. I never made that search,” McCabe said. “I never would have left John O’Keefe out in the cold to die because he was my friend that I loved.”
Jackson said it was “awfully convenient” that McCabe disavowed the search, which he said would exonerate his client. He also pressed McCabe on why she told grand jurors a dozen times that Read said, “Did I hit him?” or “Could I have hit him,” and not the definitive, “I hit him” that she now says she heard.
He suggested McCabe changed her story after experiencing what she has described as “vicious” harassment from Read’s supporters.
“You were upset by April of 2023 that there was public outrage about your family being involved in the death of John O’Keefe,” he said. “And two months later, in June of 2023, for the first time, you testified at another proceeding, and lo and behold, you attributed the words ‘I hit him’ to my client.”
McCabe acknowledged that she first used those words under oath in June but insisted she also had told an investigator the same thing in the days after O’Keefe’s death.
She also described “daily, near hourly” harassment directed at her family, including a “rolling rally” past her home, though the judge warned jurors that there is no evidence Read herself orchestrated it and that it shouldn’t be used against her.
“I was outraged because I am a state witness that is being tortured because of lies," McCabe said. “I am not on trial, and these people are terrorizing me.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
