Judge blocks Sandra Birchmore murder reference in Karen Read’s second trial

A decide in Massachusetts has agreed to the reasons of a non -related, failed homicide investigation within the second strategy of Karen Examine homicide and different costs within the demise of her demise of the Boston police, John O’Keefe.

The police in Canton, a suburbs about 20 miles south of Boston, sure inaccurately the demise of 4 February 2021 of Sandra Birchmore, 24, a suicide earlier than federal researchers mentioned she had been strangled and accused a Stoughton officer of her homicide.

The FBI arrested former Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell, 38, in August within the homicide of Birchmore.

Karen Learn Protection defects Concept that ‘jealous’ Brian Higgins fought towards John O’Keefe for demise

Karen Learn attends her second homicide course of in Norfolk Superior Courtroom Monday, Could 12, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe Through AP, Pool)

He’s accused of taking good care of her since she was a teen, have been sustaining a sexual relationship for years after which killing her when she instructed him she had develop into pregnant and would manage the homicide to appear to be a suicide.

Canton’s police was additionally the primary to reply after O’Keefe not responded outdoors the home of one other Boston police officer on January 29, 2022, throughout a snowstorm.

Native police collected bloody snow certificates in crimson solo cups and positioned them in a cease and store bag. A Canton -Lieutenant used a leaf blower to maneuver snow from the place the physique of O’Keefe was discovered. Witnesses had been interviewed informally, outdoors the digicam and never on the police station.

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Public Prosecutor Hank Brennan ask Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik learn through the Karen course of in Norfolk Superior Courtroom 8 Could 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Charles Krupa, AP Pool)

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O’Keefe was discovered useless on the Entrance Garden by Brian Albert. Albert’s brother is a police detective from Canton.

The State Police took over the investigation later that day. However their involvement was not with out controversy. The principle detective was fired earlier this yr after an inside investigation into unprofessional SMS messages in court docket revealed through the first strategy of Learn, that ended in a mistrial.

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State Trooper points to possible weapon in John O’Keefe Death – and it is not Karen Read’s car

Lawyer Alan Jackson Cross-Ross-Examines Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Yuriy Bukhenik learn through the trial towards Karen learn in Norfolk Superior Courtroom 8 Could 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Charles Krupa, AP Pool)

“Gov. [Maura] Healey ought to have ordered the renewal of police coaching within the state within the state after the debacle in Karen 1.0 had learn, “mentioned Joseph Giacalone, a retired NYPD sergeant and professor of prison justice to Penn State Lehigh Valley.” Every little thing of response to the scene by Patrille by defending patrol by defending Patrill by Patrille to determine the right proof materials, the right proof, the right proof, the right preset materials, the right proof, the right proof, the right proof, the right proof, the right proof supplies Proof materials, the best proof, the right proof, the right proof, the right proof, the right proof, the best proof, the best brewing materials, the right proof, the right proof. ”

The 2 circumstances led the inhabitants of the town to demand an audit in their very own police, and the town administration has employed an organization known as 5 Stones Intelligence or 5SI.

The Google Tijdlijn van Karen Learn once more derailed because the 2nd skilled disputes of protection claims

Officer John O’Keefe (Boston Police Division)

The corporate printed its findings in a report of 206 pages on April 1, on the identical day that the jury choice began in Learn’s.

It discovered no proof that the Canton police had labored collectively to border learn, however the auditors ordered to evaluate all demise circumstances by supervisors sooner or later.

The report made 5si that Canton detectives endure “superior coaching” into analysis into crimes and that every one patrol automobiles are outfitted with kits for crime scene and proof. They known as for a rise in police funds.

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Karen Learn and John O’Keefe pose on an undated photograph. (Karen Learn)

There was additionally a federal investigation into the therapy of O’Keefe’s death. Learn stays the one charged particular person.

She is confronted with accusations of second -degree homicide, drunken floating manslaughter and flees a deadly accident resulting from alleged hanging O’Keefe together with her Lexus SUV throughout a battle and leaves him round 12.30

She and two buddies got here again at 6 am and located O’Keefe on the ground, lined with snow that was intensified all day lengthy. An post-mortem found that his reason behind demise was trauma on the head and hypothermia. The way in which was indefinite.

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Ex-Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell, left, was accused of the homicide of Sandra Birchmore. (AP/imagn)

Learn has denied a hanging O’Keefe in any respect, didn’t argue and steered that she was framed by the native police and their allies.

She was tried for the primary time final yr, however jury members had been caught and Choose Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial.

Till now, not less than one proof appears to be incorrectly labeled within the introduction, and one other had extra items of damaged rear mild than anticipated. Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik was additionally grilled a few lack of pictures for any proof and a delay of lots of of days earlier than some stories within the examine.

“If there may be nothing else, they need to study documentation, documentation and documentation,” Giacalone instructed Fox Information Digital. “These aren’t small errors. These are errors that can price you’ll trigger lawsuits within the state of Massachusetts and it makes everybody within the prison justice system out of it.”

Karen learn in a reserving photograph after her arrest on the demise of her Boston Police Officer -Buddy, John O’Keefe, in 2022. (Massachusetts State Police)

“If Massachusetts has this downside, what about different states?” Stated Giacalone. “That is the time to nip them within the button earlier than we drove one other trial catastrophe in Karen.”

Particular public prosecutor Hank Brennan, a controversial lawyer whose shoppers have recorded the Mobster Whitey Bulger, was introduced in to guide the second course of.

He requested Cannone final week to dam the protection to throw up the Birchmore case, whereas Learn’s Legal professionals paint the analysis as unreliable and corrupt. She agreed, until the “door is opened” by officers of justice.

“They don’t seem to be going to open that door,” mentioned Linda Kenney Baden, a excessive -profile lawyer who led to a mistrial in a mistrial within the sq. of the lawyer Alan Jackson, a public prosecutor, in 2007.

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Nonetheless, she mentioned, she believes that there’s sufficient room for jury members to seek out affordable doubt.

“They must show that she hits him,” she mentioned. “It is actually that straightforward. It’s a drunken driving hit-and-run.”

Learn’s SUV has a damaged rear mild and witnesses of the police described discovering matching items on Albert’s entrance garden.

However the protection additionally performed a surveillance video of O’Keefe’s storage that appears to indicate her that she supported her SUV in his parked car shortly earlier than she discovered his stays along with two different girls, Kerry Roberts and Jennifer McCabe.

Nonetheless, the veteran course of lawyer Brennan’s therapy praised and the way he has omitted vital witnesses who could have transported the persecution within the first course of and gave the protection much less room to maneuver.

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“The way in which Brennan tried this case is that he doesn’t let any of the dangerous issues in, so when Alan Jackson goes to the issues that basically harm them, he has no place to go there,” she mentioned.

First, he left former Massachusetts State TPR. Michael Proctor of the witness checklist of the persecution. Proctor despatched a collection of impolite, lusty and unprofessional SMS messages about studying and the analysis, which led to his resignation.

He’s nonetheless on the witness checklist of the protection and might be known as to the place later.