The Latest: Retrial of Karen Read begins in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — The second murder trial of Karen Read, whose case has sparked a national debate on police accountability and won her legions of supporters, began Tuesday, with prosecutors and defense lawyers presenting theories during their opening statements about how her Boston police officer boyfriend ended up dead.

Read is accused of striking John O’Keefe with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party in Canton, a town about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Boston. She is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.

During the first trial last year, prosecutors said Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense said she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.

A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile. A new prosecutor, Hank Brennan, is heading the state's case for the retrial. Attorney Alan Jackson presented the defense's opening statement.

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Read briefly spoke to reporters while leaving court, taking the opportunity to again say she isn’t guilty.

She also praised her legal team.

“I can’t be prouder and I’m fortunate to have them,” Read said. “We’ve got the truth.”

After her remarks, Read entered a black van and that drove off.

Testimony is set to resume on Wednesday.

The first day of Karen Read’s retrial has ended.

O’Keefe’s friend Kerry Roberts was testifying when the judge called the day to a close. She is expected to resume testifying on Wednesday.

The trial is expected to be lengthy, and attorneys were able to get through opening statements and two witnesses on Tuesday. The judge reminded jurors not to discuss the case outside court and not to follow news reports about it.

Kerry Roberts testified about receiving an early morning phone call from Read and that Read told her, “Kerry! Kerry! Kerry! John is dead.”

Read also said, “I think something happened to John. I think he got hit by a plow. He didn’t come home last night,” Roberts testified, describing her friend as “hysterical” during the call. She said Read also told her that “We drank so much that I don’t remember anything from last night.”

Roberts said she assumed at first that O’Keefe had been out drinking and had probably spent the night on someone’s couch.

The state has called a new witness in Kerry Roberts, a close friend of O’Keefe who was present at the scene when O’Keefe’s body was found.

Roberts has previously spoken about finding O’Keefe’s body in the snow. She described herself Tuesday as helpful to O’Keefe when he first started caring for his sister’s children.

Roberts said she became closer with O’Keefe after he assumed care of the children.

“I jumped in because he was a friend I knew from high school,” Roberts said. “We were just friends. Very close friends.”

The paramedic who was called to the scene where O’Keefe died testified that after Read told him that she had hit O’Keefe with her SUV, he heard her repeat the claim “several other times” in the background.

Jackson pushed back against Timothy Nuttall’s assertion, suggesting that the paramedic was changing his testimony.

“You didn’t clarify that she was running around like a chicken with her head cut off screaming I hit him to everybody else,” Jackson said.

Nuttall acknowledged that he wasn’t focused on what she was saying at that point, since he was providing “patient care.”

Read’s lead attorney pressed paramedic Timothy Nuttall about details from the scene of O’Keefe’s death in an attempt to portray his recollections as unreliable and fuzzy.

Nuttall provided details about Read’s appearance and statements at the scene during the investigation.

Jackson also pressed Nuttall over what the attorney described as his “inconsistent testimony.”

Some of Read’s supporters spread out a picnic blanket covered in free snacks outside the courthouse.

Dina Warchal of Waltham said she is fighting for Read’s freedom and improvements in police operations.

“I’m out here to show her support and to keep protesting because this movement has no quit, and we want changes in everything that has to do with this trial as far as police procedures and an innocent woman being framed for a crime she didn’t commit,” Warchal said.

“We just want the corrupt police officers held accountable for what they’ve done," she said.

Jackson described paramedic Timothy Nuttall’s testimony about the scene of O’Keefe’s death as inconsistent.

During cross-examination, the defense lawyer noted that during Read’s initial trial, Nuttall testified that Read told him twice that she “hit him.” But on Tuesday, Nuttall said she said it three times.

In response, Nuttall told Jackson that Read said it three times. He said Read made the statement when he arrived at the scene and found O’Keefe in the snow.

Read had blood on her face at the scene of O’Keefe’s death and said “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” paramedic Timothy Nuttall testified.

During opening statements, the jury was told to expect to hear Nuttall testify that Read used the words “I hit him.” The defense, though, denies that the statement is incriminating.

When Read made the statement, she had blood on her face, Nuttall told the court.

Police testified during Read’s first trial that she had blood on her face from attempting to perform CPR on O’Keefe.

The paramedic who responded to the discovery of O’Keefe’s body said O’Keefe was “very cold” when he arrived at the scene.

Timothy Nuttall told the court that he checked O’Keefe for signs of life but found none. He said the death was a “cardiac arrest in a hypothermic setting.”

Nuttall said hypothermia doesn’t constitute a medical diagnosis in that context, but that it makes clear that O’Keefe had been in the snow for some time.

Timothy Nuttall is the first witness called to the stand. He is a paramedic who treated O’Keefe at the scene that night.

The trial is expected to last several weeks, and both sides have warned jurors that they might need to sit through a long and difficult stretch of witness testimony and evidence. Investigators and acquaintances of O’Keefe and Read are expected to take the stand.

The judge earlier reminded the jury to give all witnesses equal weight.

The trial took a brief recess after prosecutors and defense lawyers concluded their opening statements.

The two sides painted very different pictures of the night of O’Keefe’s death. Read’s attorneys portrayed her as a victim of a police cover-up, while the state described Read as guilty of killing a beloved family man after their relationship soured.

The case will resume with testimony shortly.

As he did during the first trial, Jackson said Read’s taillight was damaged that morning as she clipped another vehicle at O’Keefe’s house, where she was staying, not from hitting O’Keefe after she dropped him off at the party.

He said the defense will introduce a video to show how the taillight was damaged.

“During the course of this trial, the commonwealth is going to desperately claim that Karen Read taillight was actually damaged by hitting John O’Keefe,” he told jurors. “They’ll have no evidence of it mind you. None. But they’ll make the claim.”

Jackson called the case “the very definition of reasonable doubt” and said prosecutors can not meet their burden of proof “when every piece of this case was handled by a disgraced investigator with a motive to protect his friends”

“By the end of this trial, you’ll conclude that Karen Read is not guilty of hitting John O’Keefe with her SUV. There was no collision,” he said. “She’s the victim of a botched and biased and corrupted investigation that was never about the truth, folks. It was about preserving loyalty.”

Jackson said O’Keefe’s injuries do not suggest he was hit by a car at all.

“Not a bruise,” the defense lawyer said.

Jackson told the jury that they will learn O’Keefe had abrasions consistent with being bitten by a dog. He said the injury to O’Keefe’s head was also not consistent with falling backwards onto the ground, as prosecutors alleged.

Jackson said medical evidence will also establish that hypothermia was not a factor, as prosecutors alleged. He said O’Keefe was injured somewhere warm and then moved, and that establishes reasonable doubt.

Jackson described the state’s case as hinging on fired state trooper Michael Proctor, whom he described as a “cancer.”

Proctor was the lead investigator in the Read case. Jackson said Proctor is the key to the state’s case and is also its “Achilles heel.”

Jackson listed a litany of failures in the investigation, including that investigators didn’t search the house, secure the crime scene or properly collect evidence. He then touched on sexist and crude texts about Read’s family and colleagues that surfaced during the first trial and eventually led to Proctor’s firing.

Jackson characterized Read as victimized by a police culture that sought go protect fellow cops.

Read’s defense team used its opening statement to describe her as a victim of a cover-up and to stress that she didn’t kill O’Keefe.

“At the end of the day folks, there was no collision with John O’Keefe,” Jackson said.

The defense attorney said the case will show that O’Keefe wasn’t hit by Read’s car. He acknowledged that O’Keefe’s death was a “tragic loss,” but said the investigation was corrupted by bias and deceit.

“The evidence in this case will establish ... above everything else three points — there was no collision with Jon O’Keefe. There was no collision. There was no collision,” Jackson said. “John O’Keefe did not die from being hit by a vehicle. The facts will show that. The evidence will show that. The data will show that. The science will show that and the experts will tell you that.”

Read and O’Keefe were headed to the end of their relationship before O’Keefe died, Brennan said.

He described how the couple’s relationship was faltering before O’Keefe died. They were arguments a few days before O’Keefe was killed and that O’Keefe had asked Read to leave, he said.

Brennan said text messages will be presented showing the tension between the couple and how Read would become irate when her calls weren’t returned.

“You will read those text messages and you will realize this was the beginning of the end of this relationship,” he told the jurors.

Brennan told the jury that O’Keefe was a “family man” who was a pillar of his community and was much more than just a police officer.

O’Keefe was a single parent of two children whom he adopted when his sister and her husband died within months of each other, Brennan said. Brennan said he cared for the children as if they were his own and provided them stability and love.

O’Keefe’s tumultuous relationship with Read changed all that, Brennan said.

“They led a good life,” Brennan said. “Enter Karen Read.”

Brennan began opening statements by describing the scene where O’Keefe was found dead.

He opened by describing how firefighters and paramedics got a call about a cardiac arrest. They jumped into the ambulance and headed out in near blizzard conditions. Their ambulance was sliding along the road and they couldn’t hear anything beyond the sound of the siren.

Arriving at 34 Fairview Road, they came upon a chaotic scene.

“He stepped out into bedlam,” Brennan said. “He heard a woman screaming.”

They came upon Karen Read, who he said told paramedics, “I hit him, I hit him.”

“It was at that time in the words of the defendant that she admitted what she had done that night, that she hit John O’Keefe,” Brennan said.

The judge addressed the heavy public interest in the trial before opening statements began.

Judge Beverly Cannone told the jury to ignore public comment about the trial while it is going on. She also told jurors it’s important not to conduct independent research or look at news coverage of the trial.

“You will decide what the facts are, where the evidence is contested, you will determine where the truth lies,” she said. “This trial will be decided by you, an independent jury.”

Cannone also told the jury not to use social media during the trial.

The jurors have entered the courtroom and received their instructions for the trial.

After giving them the instructions, the judge asked if they had refrained from discussing the case or doing any independent research about it.

The court also heard the charges against Read.

Judge Beverly Cannone said she received four motions over the weekend that need to be addressed.

She ruled that the defense can’t mention a consulting firm in their openings, which led the defense to request to be heard. They then entered into a sidebar with the defense arguing the firm should be mentioned.

The courtroom is packed, with little room for anyone other than essential court personnel and media.

The trial seats about 10 people on both sides. Read’s family is on one side and the O’Keefe’s are on the other – about 10 on each side.

Read could be seen chatting and smiling with her attorneys Alan Jackson and David Yannetti. Reporters are behind them, sitting on stools.

Barriers are set up on both sides of the street in front of the building. Several state troopers and police officers are also positioned around the courthouse.

Police ordered a truck driver who slowed down to yell “Free Karen Read” to move along, and also chased off someone who was shooting video with their phone.

Read arrived at court just before 8:50 a.m. to some cheers from assembled supporters.

Family members from both sides also arrived just before 9 a.m.

Read smiled briefly as she entered the court. She did not answer a question about whether she was ready for her second trial.

The court had a police presence to try to maintain order as supporters gathered outside.

Supporters of Karen Read have assembled outside court in advance of her new trial.

The scene among supporters is similar to a reunion, with people hugging one another and calling out their names.

Ashlyn Wade, a Read supporter from Canton, where John O’Keefe was killed, said she was there to hopefully see Read cleared of charges.

“I’m here for justice,” she said. “The murderer going to jail and Karen being Exonerated — that would be justice.”

Dennis Sweeney, dressed as the judge in the case and wearing a pink T-shirt emblazoned with the word “assassin.” which was inspired by Read’s defense team, said he returned for the second trial because: “Karen Read is factually innocent and we want her freed.”

Karen Read, left, returns to court following the lunch break with her defense attorney Robert Alessi at her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read returns to court following the lunch break with her defense attorney Robert Alessi at her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read returns to court following the lunch break with her defense attorney Robert Alessi at her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read chats with reporters while returning to court following the lunch break with her defense attorney Robert Alessi at her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Supporters of Karen Read gather outside a buffer zone and watch Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan gives his opening argument at Karen Read's second murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Supporters of Karen Read gather outside a buffer zone and watch Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Supporters of Karen Read gather outside a buffer zone and watch Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Attorney Alan Jackson gives his opening statement at Karen Read's second murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan gives his opening argument at Karen Read's second murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Karen Read listens during opening arguments at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Supporters of Karen Read gather on the steps at Norfolk Superior Court prior to Read's trial, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Supporters of Karen Read gather on the steps at Norfolk Superior Court prior to Read's trial, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Supporters of Karen Read gather outside Norfolk Superior Court prior to Read's trial, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read arrives with her lead defense attorney Alan Jackson, left, for her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Prosecutor Hank Brennan arrives for the trial of Karen Read at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Judge Beverly Cannone listens in Norfolk Superior Court during Karen Read's trial on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Karen Read and her defense team appear in Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Supporters of Karen Read gather on the steps at Norfolk Superior Court prior to Read's trial, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read arrives with her defense team for her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read arrives with her defense team for her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read arrives with her defense team for her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

The Karen Read defense team and prosecutor face off in Norfolk Superior Court for final motions before the start of Read's second trial for the 2022 death of her boyfriend John O'Keefe on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Karen Read sits with attorney Victoria George, who was a juror on her first trial and now part of her defense team, during Read's second trial for the 2022 death of her boyfriend John O'Keefe on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Karen Rad listens to prosecutor Hank Brennan during her second trial for the 2022 death of her boyfriend John O'Keefe on Wednesday, April 16, 2025 in Dedham, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

ACERRA, Italy (AP) — Pope Leo XIV on Saturday greeted one by one families who lost loved ones to illegal toxic dumping in an area near Naples, tied to a multi-billion criminal racket run by the mafia.

Many paused to share photographs and other mementos of children and young people who have died or are battling cancer because of the pollution.

Leo's visit to the so-called Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, came on the eve of the 11th anniversary of Pope Francis’ big ecological encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be), and indicates Leo’s commitment to carry on his predecessor’s environmental agenda.

“I have come first of all to gather the tears of those who have lost loved ones, killed by environmental pollution caused by unscrupulous people and organizations who for too long were able to act with impunity,” Leo said in remarks to family members and local clergy inside Acerra's cathedral.

The pontiff recalled that the area now dubbed the Land of Fires was once called “Campania felix,” Latin for blessed or fruitful countryside, "capable for enchanting for its fertility, its produce and its culture, like a hymn to life.

"And yet — here is death, of the land and of men,'' the pope said.

The European Court of Human Rights last year validated a generation of residents’ complaints that mafia dumping, burial and burning of toxic waste led to an increased rate of cancer and other ailments in the area of 90 municipalities around Caserta and Naples, encompassing a population of 2.9 million people.

The court found Italian authorities had known since 1988 about the toxic pollution, blamed on the Camorra crime syndicate that controls waste disposal, but failed to take necessary steps to protect the residents. The binding ruling gave Italy two years to set up a database about the toxic waste and verified health risks associated with living there.

Bishop Antonio Di Donna estimated 150 young people had died in the city of some 58,000 over the past three decades — emphasizing in his opening remarks that the number didn't take into account adults and victims in other municipalities.

He urged the pope to admonish those who continue to pollute, noting that the dumping of tons of toxic waste was reported a day earlier near Castera. Di Donna said that Italian officials had identified dozens more human-caused contamination sites throughout the country, including the Venetian port of Marghera, and the leaching of PFAS forever chemicals into groundwater near Vicenza.

"We say to those brothers of ours ensnared in evil and seized by a mirage of fabulous earnings: Convert, change your ways, because what you are doing is not only a crime, it is a sin that cries out to God for vengeance,'' the bishop said.

The pope later greeted the mayors of the 90 communities impacted by the toxic dumping, and greeted thousands of people waving yellow flags and chanting “Papa Leone” along the route of his popemobile and in a central piazza.

The victims include Maria Venturato, who died of cancer in 2016 at the age of 25. Her father, Angelo, said he hopes to speak with the pope to explain their reality, “not for me … for the next generation.”

“I’d like to give these young people a future, so I’m asking for the pope’s help with this. That is, I’m making a strong appeal to him to go to those in power and say, ‘Look, let’s heal this land of fires,’" he said on the eve of the pope's visit.

Inside the cathedral, Filomena Carolla presented the pope with a book containing memories from the life of her daughter, Tina De Angelis, who died of cancer at the age of 24.

“I’m just angry at the people who poisoned the soil, because what did our children have to do with it? What did they have to do with it, so young,” Carolla told The Associated Press on Friday.

Francis' plans to visit the area in 2020 were canceled due to the pandemic.

A man presents a pizza with the portrait of Pope Leo XIV during his a one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

Pope Leo XIV delivers his speech during his meeting with clergy, religious and families of victims of environmental pollution in the Saint Mary of the Assumption Cathedral in Acerra, near Naples, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV rides on his popemobile during his one-day pastoral visit in Acerra, Italy, Saturday, May 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)

A man enters a grocery store with posters of Pope Leo XIV ahead of his visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Acerra bishop Antonio Di Donna speaks during an interview with the Associated Press ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit to the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Illegal waste is seen on the side of a road in the outskirts of the southern Italian town of Acerra in the Terra dei Fuochi, or Land of Fires, an area scarred by decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, Friday, May 22, 2026, a day ahead of Pope Leo XIV's visit. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Angelo Venturato talks during an interview with the Associated Press next to photos of his daughter Maria who died at the age of 25 of a cancer he claims to be connected to decades of pollution from illegal waste dumping and burning, much of it linked to organized criminal groups, in the southern town of Acerra, Friday, May 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)