BOSTON (AP) � A highly anticipated trial began in Massachusetts last week
involving a woman accused of striking her Boston police officer boyfriend
with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a snowbank.

John O�Keefe died in the Boston suburb of Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.

The case has garnered national attention because the defense alleges that
state and local law enforcement officials framed Karen Read and allowed
the real killer to go free.

A look at the facts and legal arguments:

THE DEFENSE: FAMILY CONNECTIONS UNDERMINED INVESTIGATION
For the past few days, Read�s defense team has focused heavily on
connections between police and the family that owned the home in the
Boston suburb of Canton where O�Keefe�s body was found. They are trying to
argue that these relationships biased the investigation and blinded state
and local law enforcement officials to the possibility that someone else
killed the 46-year-old O�Keefe.

Defense attorneys first went after Katie McLaughlin, a firefighter who
responded to the scene and who had been friends with family member Caitlin
Albert. The house was owned at the time by Albert�s father, Boston Police
Officer Brian Albert.

McLaughlin confirmed on Friday that she and Caitlin Albert went to high
school together, were friends on social media and were photographed
together at a local beach about a decade ago. But she insisted they were
only acquaintances and that she didn�t know it was Albert�s home when she
responded to the call. She also said she hadn�t talked to Albert for a few
years.

Read�s defense attorney Alan Jackson repeatedly tried to show that the
pair were closer than McLaughlin wanted to admit, pointing out other beach
photos in which the two appeared together.

By Monday, he and other defense attorneys were doubling down on that
connection.

Before the jury arrived, the attorneys told Judge Beverly Cannone that
they had received many more photos over the weekend of McLaughlin and
Caitlin Albert together, including at a baby shower. They also learned the
two had been on the track team together in high school. Cannone said she
would address the issue later.

DEFENSE ALLEGES CANTON POLICE BIAS
Defense attorneys also questioned Canton Police Lt. Paul Gallagher, the
first witness up Monday, asking him why he didn�t search the family home
for any physical evidence. They noted that pieces of a broken cocktail
glass had been found outside the house, and indicated that similar pieces
might have been found inside the house with a search.

Did police not conduct a search �because that house belonged to a Boston
police officer?� Jackson asked Gallagher.

Gallagher responded that a search would have required probable cause,
which he said police didn�t have.

Jackson then asked Gallagher if the reason that Canton Police Chief
Kenneth Berkowitz recused himself from the investigation �was because of
the relationship between the Albert family and the Canton police
department?�

Gallagher said no, that it was because a brother of Brian Albert works in
the Canton police�s investigative unit.

On Tuesday, the defense focused on the relationship that Canton Police Lt.
Michael Lank had with Brian Albert�s brother Christopher Albert, a high
school classmate.

Lank said he had been drinking off duty one night in 2002 when Christopher
Albert approached him for help, saying he had been in a scuffle earlier,
and that �some threats had been made to him and his family.�

Defense attorneys suggested Lank helped Albert because of their long
friendship but he denied it.

�It was me coming to the aid of a citizen who was terrified and scared for
him and his family on that night who happened to be Chris Albert,� he told
the court.

THE CHARGES: A TUMULTUOUS RELATIONSHIP TURNS DEADLY
Read and O�Keefe had been to two bars the night of the officer�s death,
and were then headed to a party in nearby Canton, police said. Read said
she did not feel well and decided not to attend, they said. Once at the
home, O�Keefe got out of Read�s vehicle, and while she made a three-point
turn, she struck him and then drove away, according to prosecutors.

Read later became frantic when she couldn�t reach O�Keefe, returned to the
party, and along with two friends found his body covered in snow, the
prosecutors said.

So far, they are leaning into Read�s comments at the scene, including
testimony from several first responders who recalled Read telling them
loudly and repeatedly that she �hit him,� though she never said it was
with her SUV. They also have put witnesses on the stand who have testified
that the couple had a strained relationship.

But on Wednesday, one witness, who was at a bar with the couple the night
that O�Keefe died, said he never saw any body language that would suggest
they were fighting or arguing that night.

�In fact, I noticed the opposite,� Nicholas Kolokithas, a Canton resident
and attorney, told the court. �They were affectionate toward each other,
loving toward each other to the point that my wife even made a comment,
�Why are you not like that with me?��

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