Karen Read trial: Canton cop explains using leaf blower, red Solo cups, Stop & Shop bag for evidence

A erstwhile Canton constabulary lieutenant who was successful complaint of the country of John O'Keefe's decease connected Jan. 29, 2022, testified astir his determination to usage unorthodox grounds postulation means that greeting successful the proceedings of Karen Read, a Massachusetts fiscal expert accused of moving implicit her boyfriend, a Boston constabulary officer, and leaving him to dice successful the snow.

Last week saw days of grounds from Jennifer McCabe, a cardinal witnesser who was contiguous astatine the after-party connected the nighttime O'Keefe died and with Read astatine the country erstwhile helium was recovered dormant the adjacent morning.

Special authoritative Hank Brennan churned done witnesses Monday, calling a blood-alcohol expert, a young mates who saw Read's car extracurricular earlier prosecutors judge O'Keefe was struck and killed, a paramedic and the erstwhile Canton bull who utilized a leafage blower and reddish Solo cups to cod evidence.

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Karen Read listens to grounds during her trial, May 5, 2025, successful Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Pool)

Former Canton Lt. Paul Gallagher, who was the supervisor connected country aft O'Keefe had been transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, was the determination shaper liable for a fig of unorthodox methods utilized to cod grounds connected the greeting of Jan. 29, 2022.

Gallagher said helium wanted the leafage blower utilized due to the fact that helium was acrophobic disturbing the snowfall with a shovel could harm imaginable evidence. He said the reddish Solo cups "hold liquid terrifically" and claimed that the insubstantial market container utilized to transport them was akin to an grounds container constabulary would person utilized if they'd had one.

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Defense lawyer Alan Jackson questions Canton Fire Department paramedic/firefighter Katie McLaughlin during the Karen Read trial, May 5, 2025, successful Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Pool)

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At 1 point, Gallagher denied having immoderate cognition that disgraced Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor was the pb researcher connected the case, prompting a disposable absorption from Read astatine the defence table, who mouthed words that did not scope the courthouse microphones. 

Defense lawyer Alan Jackson took contented with the lax standards of grounds postulation during a grueling cross-examination, questioning Gallagher astir his deficiency of a firsthand relationship successful writing, imaginable contamination of the humor evidence, and an unclear concatenation of custody oregon grounds logs.

Jackson asked wherefore helium sent a sergeant to get a leafage blower but didn't nonstop anyone to drawback due grounds postulation materials. 

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But Gallagher changeable backmost that had O'Keefe's humor illustration been contaminated by idiosyncratic else's DNA, it would person shown up connected investigating and been "good" for Read's defense.

"[The cups] weren't going to get soggy," Gallagher said. "They were large. I needed a tiny sample. My thought was, due to the fact that [the blood] was frozen oregon coagulated, that we could cod it, transport it and transportation it to the transgression lab, who could extract the DNA nevertheless they saw champion fit." 

He said helium made decisions connected the alert owed to ongoing blizzard conditions and a deficiency of consciousness astatine the clip that a transgression had been committed. The archetypal telephone came implicit arsenic a imaginable "unattended death," which helium said usually involves earthy causes. 

Special authoritative Hank Brennan questions Canton Fire Department paramedic/firefighter Katie McLaughlin during the Karen Read trial, May 5, 2025, successful Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Pool)

Gallagher responded to the country successful his idiosyncratic conveyance due to the fact that it had four-wheel drive, helium said. 

He instructed officers to enactment frozen humor successful the snowfall into the Solo cups and stored them successful a container from Stop & Shop, a supermarket. He besides uncovered a breached "cocktail glass" with the leafage blower adjacent his approximation of wherever O'Keefe died. 

Brennan played 2 videos of Gallagher utilizing the leafage blower astatine the transgression scene, depicting however effectual it was astatine revealing John O’Keefe’s humor connected the snow. Brennan noted a breached cocktail solid could beryllium seen buried successful the snowfall adjacent to wherever O’Keefe’s assemblage was found. Gallagher testified that helium handed the solid disconnected to different serviceman astatine the country and did not spot it again until it was moved from an grounds locker to the forensic unit. 

Retired Lt. Paul Gallagher of the Canton Police Department takes the basal during the Karen Read trial, May 5, 2025, successful Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Pool)

Gallagher went connected to uncover the solid wrong the courtroom and held it up for the jurors.

Read has denied that her conveyance struck O'Keefe and pleaded not guilty.

Outside auditors antecedently recommended much grooming for Canton constabulary aft an autarkic reappraisal of their handling of the transgression scene.

Gallagher is expected to instrumentality to the witnesser basal Tuesday morning. 

Katie McLaughlin, a paramedic with the Canton Fire Department who was astatine the scene, testified earlier that aft she asked Read for demographic accusation astir O'Keefe and if determination had been immoderate important trauma to the victim.

Katie McLaughlin, a paramedic/firefighter with the Canton Fire Department, testifies connected May 5, 2025. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Pool)

"She answered with a bid of statements that she repeated, ‘I deed him, I deed him,’" McLaughlin testified. 

McCabe told her to calm down, she said, but Read allegedly kept repeating the phrase.

"And a constabulary serviceman asked her, ‘Said you what?’" she testified. "And she repeated it again, ‘I deed him.’ And the serviceman past signaled for his sergeant to travel down to the scene." 

On cross-examination, McLaughlin told defence lawyer Jackson that she didn't instrumentality notes during the exchange. He played backmost dashcam video from that greeting and asked her what she was doing. She said she was penning O'Keefe's vitals connected her gloves.

He asked if she wrote down thing astir Read "confessing" to the crime. She said she hadn't and that she threw the gloves retired and did not sphere immoderate notes from them.

McLaughlin testified that she had known Caitlin Albert, whose parents owned the location astatine 34 Fairview Road wherever O'Keefe was recovered dead, for years, having grown up unneurotic and had overlapping societal circles. However, she denied they shared a adjacent idiosyncratic narration and downplayed their ties.

Jackson tried to person McLaughlin sermon photographs showing her and Caitlin Albert and to grill her astir her grounds from Read's archetypal trial, but the justice sustained Brennan's repeated objections.

Ryan Nagel takes the witnesser basal during the Karen Read proceedings connected May 5, 2025. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Pool)

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Ryan Nagel and Heather Maxon, who were dating astatine the clip of O'Keefe's decease successful January 2022, some testified they were stopped extracurricular 34 Fairview Road for astir 5 minutes, arriving astir the clip arsenic Read and O'Keefe and leaving earlier she allegedly deed him with her SUV. Read drove successful beforehand of them arsenic they were pulling onto the road, and determination was a antheral successful the rider seat, according to proceedings testimony. 

Both testified that successful the minutes they were down Read's SUV extracurricular the address, they did not spot him walking crossed the beforehand gait oregon entering the house, but they besides did not spot him successful the rider spot of Read's conveyance erstwhile they drove close adjacent to it arsenic they were leaving.

Outside experts told Fox News Digital that Nagel's grounds could assistance the defense, raising questions astir O'Keefe's whereabouts astatine that time.

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"He did not spot John O'Keefe successful the car oregon connected the tract oregon crossing the lawn," said Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts defence lawyer who has been pursuing the trial. "So wherever was John O'Keefe?"

The question could boost the defense's assertion that Read ne'er struck her fellow with her SUV, according to John Deaton, different Massachusetts proceedings lawyer and erstwhile Senate candidate.

"Today’s grounds hurts the prosecution, arsenic a witnesser stated the rider spot was bare adjacent to Karen Read successful the driver’s seat, suggesting that John O’Keefe was already wrong the house," helium told Fox News Digital. "That’s astir apt tenable uncertainty No. 10."

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Sarah Levinson, a person of Nagel's sister who was wrong the house, testified that O'Keefe did not travel into the location earlier she near betwixt 1:30 and 2 a.m. with McCabe, her husband, Matt and Julie Nagel. 

Read faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and fleeing the scene. She could look up to beingness successful situation if convicted of the apical charge.