Karen Read’s defense opens door for ‘domestic violence’ evidence in murder case

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Karen Read’s defense team opened the door to new evidence from a fight she got into with boyfriend John O’Keefe in the month before she allegedly killed him in a drunken hit-and-run that prosecutors say could illustrate the slaying as a “domestic violence homicide” and that she couldn’t accept the victim’s attempts to break up with her, according to a new court filing.

Alan Jackson, one of her lawyers, had Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik read a string of text messages between the suspected killer and a potential romantic interest, ATF Agent Brian Higgins, who was present at a bar and after-party that Read and O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, visited the night O’Keefe was last seen alive.

“Where the defendant has opened the door, it is especially significant for the jury to understand that it was the defendant who repeatedly refused to accept the victim’s desire [to] terminate their relationship, the defendant’s made repeated hostile accusations that the victim was having an affair, and that there was an established pattern of hostility, occurring in the weeks and days preceding the murder,” special prosecutor Hank Brennan wrote.

KAREN READ DEFENSE FLOATS THEORY THAT ‘JEALOUS’ BRIAN HIGGINS FOUGHT JOHN O’KEEFE BEFORE DEATH

Karen Read is shown during her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, May 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Because the texts discussed claims directly made by Read about O’Keefe in Aruba, Brennan is arguing that prosecutors now have a right to rebut her with evidence and witness testimony that contradicts her story.

In the texts, Read flirted with Higgins behind her boyfriend’s back, referred to herself as single, complained about O’Keefe’s adopted children and claimed he “hooked up” with another woman in a hotel lobby.

Without mention of the Aruba incident, the prosection wouldn’t have had a chance to bring it up at trial.

Read the motion:

“Four weeks prior to the murder, the defendant became enraged at the victim for speaking to a female friend who was on their group vacation in Aruba and accused the victim of having an affair,” Brennan wrote in court filings Monday. “This incident was observed by numerous individuals who will testify to their personal observations of the incident as well as to statement of the defendant in the immediate aftermath.”

Brennan wrote that he expects this testimony to prove Read had intent, opportunity or preparation ahead of O’Keefe’s death.

KAREN READ’S GOOGLE TIMELINE DERAILED AGAIN AS 2ND EXPERT DISPUTES DEFENSE CLAIMS

John O’Keefe (Boston Police Department)

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Read faces charges of second-degree murder, drunken driving manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a deadly accident for allegedly ramming her then-boyfriend with the back end of her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die during a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022.

“Evidence of the ‘Aruba incident’ was proffered by the defendant through a series of text messages between the defendant and Brian Higgins, thus opening the door for the Commonwealth to rebut the defendant’s misleading and inaccurate claims about what had occurred weeks prior in Aruba,” Brennan wrote.

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Karen Read and John O’Keefe (Karen Read)

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“This incident in Aruba seems to also be the turning point in the relationship as the defendant told Brian Higgins that her relationship with the victim was a ‘very f—ed up situation’ as she had observed the victim ‘all over [a] friend’s sister in the lobby of our hotel’ and accused the victim of ‘having hooked up with another girl.’”

Brennan said he plans to call four witnesses to the Aruba incident to testify.

Karen Read, front left, joins attorneys for a sidebar with Judge Beverly J. Cannone, right, during her murder retrial on May 12, 2025. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

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“In a domestic violence homicide, evidence such as prior disputes are relevant to show the ‘volatile nature of the relationship,’” Brennan wrote.

He added that he expected their testimony to show Read’s “intent and state of mind toward the victim.”

“Brennan is smart,” said Linda Kenney Baden, a high-profile defense attorney who squared off with Jackson in 2007 when he was the lead prosecutor in the murder trial of music producer Phil Spector. “You don’t get to represent Whitey Bulger for eight years if you’re not.”

Still, she said, Jackson may have been prepared for it.

“I think even if the judge allows him to bring it in, Jackson is ready for it,” she said. “That’s why he had the Aruba text read in the whole Higgins outline.”

Read has pleaded not guilty, and her attorneys deny she ever struck O’Keefe with her vehicle.

Four weeks into the trial, prosecutors have yet to show O’Keefe’s autopsy findings to the jury or allege specifically how she intended to kill him.

“This feels desperate to get the intent,” said Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts defense attorney who has been following the case. “I don’t think the jury will care to hear more evidence that there were issues. No relationship is perfect.”