A Massachusetts State Police sergeant, crucial to the inquiry leading to Karen Read’s initial mistrial over murder charges, testified Thursday, revealing he had informed fellow authorities early in the case that John O’Keefe might have been struck with a bar glass, resulting in facial and head injuries.
Nonetheless, investigators ultimately claimed that Read hit her Boston police officer boyfriend with her Lexus SUV’s rear, abandoned the scene, and left him to perish in the cold on January 29, 2022. She was apprehended on hit-and-run manslaughter charges days after discovering him deceased outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, with prosecutors later obtaining a second-degree murder indictment.
During Thursday’s proceedings, defense attorney Alan Jackson had State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik admit that he informed the medical examiner’s office about the potential that O’Keefe was struck in the face by a cocktail glass.
“Knocked out of your shoes,” Bukhenik said.
Another component to that theory was Read’s broken taillight. Brennan played Ring camera video taken from O’Keefe’s driveway that showed the light was cracked when she left his house around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
Bukhenik said he questioned Read about the broken taillight later that morning and quoted her as saying, “I don’t know how I did it last night.”
O’Keefe had significant injuries to his face and head as well as cuts on his right arm by the time Bukhenik saw him at Good Samaritan hospital, he said.
Bukhenik, who moved to the U.S. from Ukraine when he was 9 and joined the Marine Corps after 9/11, is expected to return to the witness stand Friday morning when court resumes at 9 a.m. ET.
