John O’Keefe /// Part 1 /// 762 | Forensic Files

n [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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[Music] hundreds of Boston police officers standing in solidarity as they made their way into St Francis of AI Church
in brain Tre [Music] Sunday all to show their respect for Boston police officer johon O'Keefe who
died last week it's such a tragedy what can you do this is probably one of the worst things I've ever heard happen
police say officer O'Keefe was found dead during the blizzard last weekend in Canton a few days later his girlfriend
was arrested and charged with manslaughter in connection to his death prosecutors believe she hit him with her
SUV and drove off but her attorney says she didn't know she struck him it's just
like literally the worst situation I could ever ever think of Tiffany Logan went to high school in college with
o'keef she was among hundreds who came out for his wig lining Washington Street for hours salt of the earth he was the
best guy ever I went into high school went to Northeastern for criminal justice um he became a cop I became a
lawyer Melissa Jones grew up next door to the o'keefes the family has gone through a tremendous loss um he lost his
sister then his brother-in-law and the kids have been without parents and then they had Johnny as their guardian and
it's just it's unfortunate it's sad O'Keefe was the guardian for his niece and nephew after his sister died from
cancer now so many people are showing up to support this family grieving once again he is just literally the nicest
guy and it was a terrible tragedy and I would love to know exactly what happened
that [Music] [Music] night this is a case that has seemingly captivated hundreds of thousands of
people a case that has captured the attention of so many that it's often reported that if the Donald Trump trial
was not going on at the same time that this would be the top news story on every news show every News website and
newspaper this is the murder case the vehicular homicide case regarding the yet to be explained death of John
O'Keefe John O'Keefe was a 46-year-old man living in Canton Massachusetts John was killed in January of 20 20
22 this very much a headline grabbing story and for many many reasons but I truly believe one of those reasons is
because of the victim at the center of this she said they said confusing story John was a good man a police officer and
a man who adopted his niece and nephew after the passing of their parents John was well-liked and a man who should be
looked up to respected and remembered fondly among the many reasons that this case has so many people talking is the
person accused of killing John the accused is his girlfriend Karen Reed Karen is a successful woman she had her
own place but to add some perspective to this relationship of John and Karen Karen spent most nights at Jon's house
in fact it's often reported that she lived there John was born December 8th 1975 5 he grew up in brain tree
Massachusetts he earned a master's degree in criminal justice from UMass LOL and lived in Canton since
2014 where he was raising his niece and nephew following his sister and brother-in-laws passing O'Keefe was a
16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department prior to his death he was recently assigned to the sex offender
registry unit with BPD Karen a reed was in her early 40s at the time of John's death she was born
1979 she graduated from Bentley University with a Bachelor of Science degree and a master's of Science in
Global Financial analysis she had been a financial analyst at Fidelity Investments and was an Adjunct professor
at Bentley University the two had been dating since 20 20 this incident leading to John's death occurred in 2022 some
reports do say that they had been dating since 2019 and as we said they were practically living together at the time
of John's death at John's house with the two youngsters for those not following this case at the time of this recording
there is an ongoing trial which of course does make our telling of this True Crime Story difficult so note that
as details and testimony continues at this trial there could be more information or even better information
but longtime listeners of the garage know that we are well versed in covering unsolved and yet to be adjudicated cases
well we had no choice in the matter we had to cover this case we were receiving dozens of emails every day saying when
are you going to talk about the Karen Reed case it was an outcry a public uproar as some would say they demanded
you demanded it and so we are delivering it Karen Reed is accused of running over
John o'keef for at the very least hitting him with her car and causing his death now please note that just a minute
ago I said True Crime case and True Crime Story and yes there is a trial that is ongoing in fact the court will
be in session today but to be perfectly clear as far as the courts are concerned
not only did a crime take place but several crimes took place with the worst of those being a homicide because as it
stands today no one is arguing in court that this was any kind of accident no the state of Massachusetts has charg
Karen Reed with second deegree murder motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision Karen
Reed and her defense team has alleged that she did not hit John O'Keefe with her car and that this was a frame job
she alleges that John O'Keefe attended a party at another police officer's home where Jon was attacked beaten and tossed
out in the freezing cold and that several persons were either involved in causing his death or at the very least
were aware of what happened and now the group has conspired against Karen to cover up what they did this again
according to her defense team to give a little bit of a background here Captain I want to read something
that is taken from the Boston Globe this is from February of 2022 so shortly after John's death and
portions of this article read Karen Reed says her and two girlfriends found Reed's boyfriend Jon O'Keefe dead he was
face up and unconscious according to the affidavit Reed lay on top of him and attempt to warm his body and
administered CPR the affidavit said John O'Keefe was pronounced dead hours later
at Good Samaritan Hospital John was a police officer with the Boston police department since it has been alleged
that John's girlfriend Karen Reed ran over or at least struck John and she left him to die in the snow O'Keefe's
death was publicly mourned by Police Superintendent Chief Gregory long long is also the Department's acting
commissioner and he said quote John was a kind person dedicated to his family and will be greatly missed by his
co-workers and anyone who had the privilege of meeting him we are stunned and saddened and offer whatever support
we can to Jon's family a Boston officer who declined to provide his name in this
news report said that O'Keefe and Reed had dated for the past couple of years the death of O'Keefe and the
circumstances of how he died raises more questions than answers the officer told
the globe quote he was the best person on the planet he said of O'Keefe Reed's defense attorney David Yanti said his
client was in shock and mourning quote manslaughter is a tremendous Reach In this case I don't see any Criminal
Intent this was my client's boyfriend somebody with whom she was in love I am disappointed in the rush to judgment
against my client yti said my client has no Criminal Intent she loved this man she is devastated she is innocent and
that will come out at trial okay and here we are at trial now Captain well this case is very complicated because
it's not just as simple as did Karen do this or did she not do this then you got
to throw in did something happen to him at the party and then the other aspect of this case is is it possible that
there was an accident that nobody was involved in and then on top of that was there an accident where Karen hit JN
with the vehicle but didn't know that she did so there's all these different angles here where normally it's like
this person is either innocent or guilty I think there's a lot of great areas in
this case and that's that's exactly why I wanted to clear that up and point out True Crime right I know it's in the name
the title of our show but for the purposes of telling this story the captain and I did not go into the
research of this case leaving out the possibility that this simply could be a vehicular accident I think that is still
on the table but I'm pointing out to all of the listeners out there especially the ones that are not
following the day-to-day on this case that as far as the trial goes both neither side is arguing an accident the
prosecution is saying Karen Reed is responsible for killing John and Karen Reed and her defense team they are
saying not just that Karen Reed is not responsible but that the people hosting this party somebody there is respons
responsible for what happened to John and I think that a lot of that has to be based off
of the number of injuries inflicted on Jon prior to his passing and that's that's going to be
just one of several key elements in this case that's going to raise a lot of questions for both
arguments as far as I'm concerned and I'll just say upfront I think this investigation was shitty and it's
actually really pathetic because you're investigating the death possibly the murder of one of your own and I just
think they dropped the ball You could argue conspiracy sure but I think there's no argument that these that the
investigators dropped the ball and that's that's very pathetic let me highlight what you just said there
because I agree with a lot of what you said and look we're not trying to turn this we're not trying to turn this on
the cops right out the gate I am it it's more of what the captain said if there ever was a time to get it right it's
when you are investigating the death of one of your own right if there and so we
highlight that because of several reasons but one of them for me Captain is that this I think even if the
investigation was 100% spot on yeah it's still a confusing case and because I think and agree with you that there were
some lackluster moments in said investigation that it has made it far more complicated than it started off to
be when you're going to charge somebody with murder that's serious charges that has serious consequences to somebody so
maybe you should have a serious investigation and the victim deserves that exactly and so does the defendant
and and all of the persons involved here because while we lost John O'Keefe and we've already just tip of the iceberg
talking about what kind of guy he was standup guy but on top of that when you are when
we're talking about second deegree murder charges the defendant could face up to life in prison so there's a lot at
stake here and and it's it's double sad right we we lost a really good guy a good police officer
but then on top of that to see that the the investigation was not up to Snuff now let's we'll we'll quit uh harping on
that let's get into some of the information let's go through the timeline and description of the
information that we have the short description is that on January 29th 202 to off-duty officer John O'Keefe was
found dead outside a home that belonged to a police officer in Canton Massachusetts John was dropped off at
the home by his girlfriend Karen Reed after a night of drinking this was in the early hours of the morning to join a
gathering hosted by fellow police officer Brian Albert then hours later Jon's body was
discovered in the yard by his girlfriend and two other women he was transported to a local hospital where cause of death
was listed as blunt force trauma and hypothermia so let's start at the beginning of the evening we are going to
we're going to go back to the night of January 28th 2022 this is a Friday John O'Keefe and Karen Reed visited two bars
in Canton Massachusetts These Bars SL restaurants are CF McCarthy's and waterfall Bar and Grill
we have boyfriend and girlfriend out on a Friday night having drinks and they are there drinking with friends there
are those who will say that the relationship was quite strained by this time that the couple that they were
having some kind of trouble right and some even saying that John was thinking about ending the relationship or was
planning to end the relationship now this is going to be a key item and it's also let's keep in mind here while this
is going to go toward motive in the case or a possible motive this is also something that I think is left open to
interpretation and is wildly speculated about and I say that not just from the persons like us watching this with the
bird's eye of you from a th000 ft away right but from those who knew the two individuals so it seems to be captain
that they they had some trouble or it's been reported and testified to in court so far that they took a trip to Aruba
with a bunch of friends and this would have been right around New Year of 2022 John was according to the testimony
I have heard and and that's where I'm going to kind of lean on a lot of this information because if you start to
research this case there's a lot of good networks and a lot of people focusing and covering this case yeah a lot of it
is their thoughts opinions and even speculation that they're offering up as well so when available I'm going to try
to rely on what was what somebody was willing to testify in court to what were the what was somebody willing to put
their hand on a Bible stand in front of a judge and a jury and a room full of people and say this is what I witnessed
some of the testimony in this regard Captain was that John was falsely accused by Karen Reed on that Aruba trip
so they go with a group of people this was a group trip a bunch of friends at least one of the friends testified to
that he was falsely accused of kissing another friend that was along on the trip and that Karen Reed was upset with
him jealous maybe even telling people that she had feared that John had cheated on her right there's been other
reports too that the couple that they were kind of it was it was a relationship from both ends right like
it where you get you have the moments of where they're lovey-dovey and they look
very much love and very much together and then there are other people that say no they argued and they fought a lot and
we don't mean physical fights there's nobody saying that but that's the word that's being tossed about there's other
people that just say no it's it was your standard relationship not not everybody
gets along together all the time I think that there's a lot of debate here again
if you are in the camp or you want to try to drive home the idea that she may be guilty of something well with that
comes the idea that this relationship might have been ending now there are other people out there that say that if
it were ending their perception was that Karen agreed that they were not getting
along and that maybe both of them mutually thought the best thing to do would be to part ways well we have to
bring up the fact that they actually dated years and years before this and I always tell people don't do it just cuz
it worked you know how it worked out before it it makes as much sense as taking a shower and putting back on
dirty underwear but the people that think that Karen is innocent will say well we have surveillance footage of
them at the bar I've seen that footage to me they look lovey-dovey yeah but we don't know what took place from the time
they left that bar to the time they arrived at the party we don't know if a fight broke out we don't know if uh this
oh well you want to go to this party but I don't want to hey make sure you don't
kiss anybody because we don't have to deal with that again we don't know because we're not privy to that
information what happened between the bar and the party that furthers the issue with some of this information you
actually get varying opinions from the persons hanging out with them that night right
they're they there are people in that group that night that were drinking and hanging out together that say oh they
were lovey-dovey they look great together they they were a fantastic couple and then there's at least one
person that says that she had a conversation with Karen Reed and Karen said something to the effect of
well if or and here's here's a lot of problems with this case Captain is the subtlety of some of the words and the
importance of a of one word in particular when people were describing these things right so one person says
that she had a conversation with Karen Reed and Karen Reed expressed to her that if John and I break up and let me
phrase it two different ways because I've heard it two different ways the other way is when John and I break up
yeah the second part of the sentence Remains the Same and both telling of this story and the second part is Karen
expressing to this person that she hopes the two of us can stay friends so the person that she's having this
conversation with is somebody that she met through John and became friends with and she's according to this person said
either if or when we break up I hope that the two of us can still be friends so that would be a very different
opinion I believe from what others saying that oh they look to be lydy and let me throw this out there anybody
that's been in long-term relationships or even just just multiple short-term relationships I think would agree with
this statement it's very easy for people that are not getting along to have the appearance of getting along or getting
along and having a great time in the moment when there's a good time to be had right if you're at a concert if
you're at a party if you're out drinking with friends you might look a little more together than you would when no one
else is around and that's what the captain's pointing out so absolutely let's continue on here so
John O'Keefe was at CF McCarthy's Bar in Canton he's drinking with some friends when Karen Reed joined the group the
couple and the friends then decided to go to another bar so from my understanding Captain McCarthy's Bar was
the kind of place that maybe they closed down a little earlier than some of the businesses they're
pretty strict on closing time and it sounds like the group was still to continue hanging out and my
understanding is that this waterfall Bar and Grill was just across the street like within walking distance
so they just kind of all kind of make their way over from one bar to the next and then while they're at the waterfall
around midnight and this is from the state police affidavit they decided that they were going to head to an Afterparty
if you will that's yeah let's not stop the party let's keep going at the second bar the two of them with the other
friends now we have several acquaintances including fellow police officer Brian Albert shortly after
midnight or around midnight Albert invited a group of people the the whole group including the couple Karen Reed
and John O'Keefe back to his home located on Fair viiew Road in Canon Karen Reed and John O'Keefe and Friends
they're all invited to this after part party at 34 Fairview Road Karen Reed drives John
O'Keefe to Fair viiew Road now there's been a lot of speculation a lot of talk about how much people were drinking at
these two bars John from everything I've seen is reported that he was drinking beer for the majority of the evening
yeah and that Karen was drinking a clear some some sources will say straight up say it's vodka she was drinking
vodka they're basing this off of camera footage at the two establishments yeah and I also think uh
the bar tab as well the bar tab but on top of that you I like I prefer the reporting that says she's seen consuming
several clear drinks clear liquid drinks right well and John leaves the bar carrying a cocktail glass and he's seen
on on video footage look we we're idiots that drink in the garage but you should not be intoxicated
and being on the roadway and that's not for your safety it's for the other people's safety you shouldn't have your
bad decision disrupt somebody else's life and I think it's very irresponsible and these again Boys in blue not not
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and drive I'm I'm sending cheers to everybody I know and usually I'll say something like tall cans in the air but
it doesn't doesn't seem very appropriate I am a hypocrite I'm idiot drink more Gatorade
there make sure you hydrate remember you had the purple purple drink the purple drink well purple vodka uh with a vodka
with purple Gatorade yeah regular vodka with the purple Gatorade that's that is a a party drink of mine especially when
it's hot late summer you know late night summer that's that's a good one no and I
understand people want to go from a bar back to a house and party I think there's a way to do it responsibly and
they didn't and I think this also is why we have conflicting stories whether there's a cover up or
not there's conflicting stories because people were intoxicated yeah yes that's going to add to it and you're going to
have a differing of opinion and the opinions are certainly skewed by the consumption of alcohol I've heard it
reported that Karen Reed consumed three likely vodka drinks at the first bar I've heard it reported that she consumed
nine maybe the truth is somewhere in the middle I don't know I wasn't there that
night but most of the reporting will say that it's believed that she consumed too
much to be driving that evening right if she's driving and police officer John O'Keefe is not my assumption would be
and I I come from a law enforcement family my assumption would be that John O'Keefe did not possess the ability to
drive safely either or or at least enough that he let Karen Drive yeah or he thought if I get caught I might lose
my job but that didn't stop him from having a traveler I mean he had a cocktail in his hand the whole time that
they were driving to this party but that's neither here nor there so he has a cocktail with him they are driving out
to this Fair View Road I have seen some reporting where it says that it's uncertain if they were invited now maybe
that is part of the art what could have been an argument a closed door argument inside that vehicle on the way there but
everybody else is saying no they were invited the couple was invited they were asked if they want to come in fact we
gave them directions a lot of the reporting will say that again much debate on this detail here but saying
that Karen Reed decided I'm just going to drop Jon off at the party because she was having not feeling well or having
stomach issues the debate being that the two were arguing and she decided she didn't want to go anymore and he he
wanted to go right my understanding here Captain is Jon's house from this Fair viiew Road location would be about 3
miles so not that far away yeah it would be it would be believed that JN would have no
trouble finding his way home after this gathering at this acquaintance's home I I I hesitate to say the word friend yeah
or it's not that far to pick him up in the morning but either way he's supposed to go to this party we have a
destination for our victim this is where we have the big fork in the road right because if John O'Keefe made it into the
house there's no debate that Karen dropped him off the debate then becomes did he make it into the house because if
he made it into that home she she couldn't have been responsible for his death well with cell
phone technology and with eyewitnesses at the party they did see Karen there to drop him off there's debate on whether
they saw John o'keith and there's also a lot of debate on if he made made it into
the house yeah the ones that say that Karen is not guilty say that JN absolutely made it into the house the
persons that say that she is guilty say that JN did not do want to point something out though what's so
fascinating to me as far as the True Crime World Spectrum if you will think of a case that you first heard DNA OJ
Simpson Tri at least for me it was a big deal on that case and then you look at that ad Sayed case what was a big deal
on that case cell phone ping technology this case is the case that we're going to hear so much about cell phone data
information I think this is going to change the way a lot of people try to prosecute cases and how they try to
defend cases because based off the data on j o Keith's phone after the time Karen dropped him off his phone recorded
him going up three different flights of steps Karen's data information says that
she didn't do that she drove home went to sleep that's what the cell phone data information tells us and some have some
have stated that it could be a I don't the glitch is not a right word not the right word but some are saying
that because it's a hilly area this neighborhood is is hilly that uh it could have recorded him going up and
down steps or a flight of stairs because of the way that the vehicle was traveling on the road to the house and
also we don't know how a cell phone is going to react to blunt force trauma and the death of an individual
and again what is not in dispute is Karen dropped him off there that night and like the captain said there are
people that spotted her vehicle there that was a black Lexus SUV fancy so what's not in dispute is
that she dropped him off what is Up For Debate is did he make it into the house because as I just said had if he did
make it into the house Karen cannot be responsible for what happened to John now a snowstorm hit Canton in the early
morning of January 29th and that's going to be key here too Karen Reed reported that when she woke up the next day
she discovers John O'Keefe had not returned home so I have in my notes Here captain that around I don't know why I
put a around because it's pretty precise 4:53 a.m. Karen Reed who spent most nights at John O'Keefe's Canton home
called and text him and when he failed to respond she became worried yeah she she also text him on the way back just
to you know basically let me know how everything's going you know because he he was in
Karen's account he was waiting at that door for a time period so she wanted to make sure did you get into the house and
when she was texting him during that time before she went to sleep he wasn't responsive she wakes up he's not being
responsive and there's other cell phone information that we can get into as we go or or maybe we'll save space for it
designated spot for it here in the telling of the story so after John does not respond to calls and text what we do
know happened is Karen Reed contacted someone who's listed as an acquaintance Jennifer
McCabe and this is interesting to me because what I one thing we've not seen yet at the trial captain and this very
likely will happen I'm really curious how this is going to play out but there's one 100 witnesses that
will be called at some point during this trial now that doesn't mean people that
were there that night people that hung out with them that night it could be we're talking about the medical examiner
we'll be called at some point we'll have experts paid experts for both sides of the
table and so on but one of the people that I believe will be called will be the niece John's niece because the way
that it's reported is that Karen wakes up and she does she she's simply an acquaintance of this Jennifer mob and so
she doesn't know how to get a hold of Jennifer she ask her niece who knows Jennifer's
daughter if she can get in contact with her mom yeah and the way that The Story Goes or is being told is that Karen woke
up on the couch at John's house spoke with John niece and then was able to get in contact with Jennifer through John's
niece Jennifer agrees to join Karen with another woman and This Woman's name is Carrie Roberts the three
are going to go out and look for John so the three women returned to Fair viiew Road in Carrie Robert's
vehicle where they saw O'Keefe lying unresponsive in the snow there are as one would imagine we got three women in
a car together and I the way that I it hits my ears Captain is it sounds like three different tellings of the same
story right like it it it's three different versions slight all kind of slightly different from one another
there there are some details that match up some that do not well you're seeing a
dead guy in the road what what do you expect you're not going to get great eyewitness testimony here right cuz this
is a TR tragic event whether they knew he was out there or not this is a tragic event there's a lot of moving pieces
here again I just don't think you're going to get a solid story out of all three of them okay so let's go through a
little bit of this one piece at a time Karen Reed exits the vehicle she as we already said
she runs over to John attempts to perform or does perform CPR on him Jennifer calls 911 one this is at
approximately 6:04 a.m. and now we have Canton police fire and EMS responding to the scene a short
time later O'Keefe was transported to Good Samaritan Hospital where he was pronounced dead a medical examiner later
reported that O'Keefe had abrasions to his right arm several lacerations to his face two black eyes a skull fracture
which would con which would have contributed to brain bleeding they determined that
hypothermia was a contributing factor to O'Keefe's death I want to say this yeah
there's been a lot of people reporting on this and I'm not going to single anybody out because as said this is a
difficult story and sometimes we're stupid too but I've seen this reported a whole bunch of
different ways right like we went through a fairly descriptive reporting of what the
medical examiner said there's been people that have given a very shorten version of that there's been some
reputable news outlets that report that he died from hypothermia which not true it looks to me based off of the more
detailed accounts that hypothermia was a contributing factor to O'Keefe's death everything I've seen from the credible
sources have been he died of blunt force trauma and again I guess I'm going to be
talking [ __ ] get ready put your boots on because when an officer is dead because of blunt force
trauma outside a police officer's house you better do a thorough investigation you better cross your tees and Dot your
eyes the prosecution alleged that Karen Reed dropped off John made a three-point turn
to reverse Direction and in the process ran Amed into J O'Keefe or ran him over and then drove away defense and Karen
Reed theorized that J O'Keefe was beaten inside attacked and beaten inside the home and his body was then left
outside yes and he passes away however there are 11 witness statements that say John O'Keefe never entered the home
let's discuss the scene a little bit here at some point and I'm I'm choosing to use that phrase at some point because
there's varying descriptions in telling of when this occurs but at some point a broken rear tail light is discovered on
Karen Reed's black Lexus SUV right in some tellings she discovered it and points it
out to other people and other tellings other persons discovered it and again the time frame on when this was
discovered we do know that it was broken what we don't know what we don't have I
don't have a clear understanding of because there's been too many different people too many cooks in the kitchen as
they say captain with an opinion on when this tail light was broken because the state is going to allege the prosecution
is going to allege that the tail light was broken when she hit John O'Keefe there are others that will say it was
broken at another time maybe another accident where she bumped a vehicle in Jon's driveway that had nothing to do
with Jon's passing and then there's others that say no maybe it was broken on purpose by
somebody else to make it look like like she hit John yeah Karen hit Jon to to be
kind of the icing on the cake to seal the deal on that story on that narrative yeah just real quick too many cooks in
the kitchen to me seems like a good time I think we should should use the phrase
too many Cowboys on a donkey or too many fat kids on a tricycle one of the persons that we talked about Karen
Roberts told police quote she believed Karen was still intoxicated in the morning this is when they're out
searching for John and said that Karen Reed had told her quote she did not remember last night so that's going to
be a very different version than Karen Reed saying no I I saw John get out of the car and
he walked up toward the house this person saying Karen expressed to her I don't remember last night have you ever
had a friend that has blackouts because I've never experienced one myself or that that I guess I could
remember but I used to have a roommate that would go drinking and let's say we went to 10 bars well he'd wake up the
next day and go hey uh what did we do last night well what point do you you stop remembering well I remember we went
to this bar and then you have to tell the guy we went to nine bars after that and the person was walking around having
a good time was very Smiley if if there's no way if you asked me was he black blackout drunk at that point I
would have said absolutely not he seemed like he was having a great time so it is
possible that maybe if she had nine big vodka that she doesn't remember everything
exactly the way she is remembering it that's that's where I was going to go too that if if she did in fact consume
nine vodka drinks at that first bar then I I would be of the belief that it's it
stands to reason that she may not remember portions of the night yeah the other thing too with drinking there
there's a lot of complicated things about drinking and managing one's drinking and and I don't want to sound
like an alcoholic managing one's drinking but what I mean by that is well you are what you are look I go out I
like to go out a lot and I will tell you and I know that many people back me up on this the drinks are are the strength
of a drink varies depending on where you go and some places they get they're a little heavy-handed and give you a big
pore and other places they are uh tight with the purse straps and and they they want to charge you for an expensive
drink but only put a little alcohol in that drink so but also depends sometimes on the sex of the client oh a pretty
lady comes up and wants to drink well we make it a little little more boozy for her well body type too it it plays a big
factor in it but again yeah and Karen's very small from being a former bartender
drinks or po differently at different establishment seasoned Veterans of drinking fail to
recognize this the drinks always hit you later right you can consume them now they're going to hit and affect you
later they'll catch up to you she may have felt one way when she left the bar and felt a completely different way at
some point during that drive over to the house let's fur let's go further along on some of Carrie Roberts statements so
again from the affidavit she says that Karen Reed allegedly told her I wonder if he's dead it's snowing
he got hit by a plow now mind you she's saying this is while we were out we we we're venturing out to look for him
we've not located him yet and she's saying that Karen Reed is already talking about JN potentially being dead
or what could have happened to him the three women drove to Fairview Road this is like white out conditions yeah
this is a powerful snowstorm you can tell by the surveillance footage of Jon o'keith leaving the bar you can't make
out what the vehicles are because they're completely covered in snow and the snow didn't stop once he got to that
party at some point the three women spot John O'Keefe in the snow now again we have Jennifer who will say it's her
opinion today that she believes that Karen already knew where they would find J and
that she believes Karen was directing them to John and that Karen spotted Jon before the other two women
did and jumped out of the vehicle that again that's Jennifer's opinion of the story JN has cuts on his face and arms
when they find him he's got blackened eyes some Reports say the blackened eyes were swollen shut there 's Blood Stained
snow a broken cocktail glass was discovered near O'Keefe's body with some person's alleging that at the scene
Karen Reed said I hit him I hit him I hit him I hit him all right this port this has been a big big big part of the
trial and to be perfectly clear from the testimony that has taken place so far there are persons that say they did not
hear her say that and there are other persons that have very ing accounts descriptions of what she said accounts
of what she said some saying I hit him some saying that she repeated it she was hysterical we do have some of the First
Responders saying that she has said some suicidal type statements made suicidal type statements that they
put her in I believe it was it's called a section 12 it it varies depending on jurisdiction but I believe that's what
it's called in this location but other people said that she wasn't saying I hit him I hit him she was asking it like a
question did I hit him did I hit him and she yes and that's what Karen is saying
in her defense she says that yes I said I hit him but that's the sentence started with a did I hit him yeah and if
you could see my my sentence on on paper it would have ended with a question mark
and that would make some sense if she if she accidentally hit him or if she has no idea what happened to him you were
there on the scene with First Responders who unfortunately have seen things like
this before or are at least expected to get to the bottom of things and it would
not be out of question for someone who does not know what happened to go did I hit him because if she was sitting there
yelling I hit him I hit him then you lock her up right then in there and they didn't do that so I think it's pretty
clear that she was saying or I think it was pretty clear that she's asking the question did I hit him because if she's
sitting there screaming I hit him I hit him I hit him why wouldn't they put her in handcuffs right then and there and
well and I didn't put this in my notes the what it's believ that she said as far as the suicidal remarks go but I
believe it was something like she says well I could just die or I should just die or something of that nature now not
Suicidal Thoughts well again I don't know I don't know that that's what is reported I'm just I'm going off of
memory here but let's point out here there have been many there I at least four First
Responders that not involved in this situation right these are just people that are offering up their opinions but
at least four First Responders that I have heard and two that I spoke to directly that said look if you find a
loved one if you're if you're showing up at a scene and you find someone that you love
and truly care about and they're they've just they're they have died yeah it's it's not uncharacteristic of the person
that found them to a be in shock B be hysterical and see say things that they may or may not mean that you you could
lose touch with reality and all of those First Responders have said and the two that I spoke to said the same thing so I
think I think we got to treat this as gospel here Captain when when that many people say the same thing they Al they
all said if she said suicidal remarks or not that is not an indicator of guilt or
an indicator of innocence in their opinion that they they've lived through experiences like this and unfortunately
that just kind of comes with the territory absolutely what we do know though Captain is Karen Reed was arrested and
then released on $50,000 cash bail the Fair viiew Avenue is a residential street lined
with single family homes on sizable Lots the Avenue is mostly quiet the home where John was found is a large gray
Colonial set back from the roadway and as we have already talked about a little bit John's death came as
Massachusetts was hit with a powerful nor Easter a storm that dropped a reported 20 in of snow in Canton and
drove temperatures as low as 12° police say they found a broken cocktail glass and pieces of a tail
light at the scene a forensic toxicologist estimated that Karen Reed's blood alcohol content BAC
would have been around .13 to. 29 around 1245 am so this it's believed that that
if if she did strike John with her vehicle that it happen sometime around 12:45 12:30 somewhere in that time frame
and that they're Bas they they're basing this off of information that they get on
the 29th right at a later time she takes a test a blood test based off of the results of that test later that day
they're saying okay well at the time of when this may have occurred yeah her blood alcohol level
would have been 0.13 to possibly as high as. 29 so just to give a little bit of cross reference check here in
Massachusetts it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle with the blood alcohol content of
08 or greater so she's she's wasted according to a Google search which I don't like this because we've already
kind of we've we've already danced on this a lot alcohol affects different people differently and drinks can be
prepared differently um but a quick Google search would tell us that Google believes that four standard drinks would
put you at 08 now what what is not included in that statement would be how quickly one consumed them or how long it
took for one to consume them well like we said she's a petite female she she isn't that tall and she isn't that big
she's she's a tiny person so that could affect her more so than somebody bigger but you
know I'm a I'm a cheap date get get a couple on me I'm feeling good well and we're talking about a night out this is
not a whole day of events right this is a night out now on January 31st an autopsy was completed on John
prosecutors said that the medical examiner ruled the cause of death was blunt impact injuries to the head and
hypothermia being a contributing factor to his death they say that the medical examiner did not find quote any obvious
signs of an altercation or a fight what we should we we really need to hit this home because this is a case that I've
heard so much talk and speculation about this autopsy yet none of those people have
seen the autopsy it's been sealed and while some people say that's the state's way of trying to cover this up or you
know that that just fuels the coverup talk or the conspiracy talk but the reason why we have so much information
about this autopsy even though that it's been kept from the public is it's been openly discussed in newspapers and news
outlets but on top of that there's been some Court hearings since January of 20122 leading up to the trial that we're
at today and there's been there's been the defense team and the prosecution referencing this autopsy frequently at
some of those C Court hearings also showing pictures of injuries to John this will lead us to
February 2nd when Reed appears in a district court this for the first time she pleads not guilty the charge in
February of 2022 that she was facing she plad not guilty to manslaughter motor vehicle homicide and leaving the sign
leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing a death so note that when she goes back to court this will be
in June of the same year we have a Norfolk County grand jury that indicts Karen Reed on charges of second degree
murder manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of a personal injury
and death so those charges are upped right from her pleading not guilty to manslaughter to now she's facing charges
of second deegree murder and it sounds to me this case was made in front of the grand jury who then agreed that that was
the more appropriate charge was second deegree murder question for you do you find that strange because to me it seems
like they were going to give her look slap on the wrist right she's going to do a little bit of time she'll be on
probation uh plead guilty but once she says well I'm not going to plead guilty then it's almost like they up the
charges to make it more severe to try to get her to plead guilty and then I think
that goes to people that argue that there's some kind of conspiracy here because it seemed like they just wanted
this case to go away and when she wasn't going to cooperate with law enforcement
and the prosecution that they they try to make it go away by taking the charges and
upping the charges yeah so that again that's the that's the problem with the the telling of the story we we do not
know obviously exactly what has happened especially behind closed doors and so this
case is fueled by what persons believe as a collective so you have persons out there that believe that she's innocent
and this is conspiracy and some kind of cover up a frame job and those persons that camp would tell you well this is
more proof right everything's more proof that it's uh conspiracy or coverup for those that share that opinion and and
they're stating here look manslaughter vehicular manslaughter as I understand it I don't live in
Massachusetts I've been there several times I would love to go back but I've never lived there as I understand it
Captain carries a mandatory sentence of five years in prison so at the least she's going to
get five years in prison for a manslaughter charge plus you know you're going to get probate and probably lose
your license for a very long time second degree murder carries a potential life sentence I don't think it's mandatory
potential life sentence and we do know that the early I believe you can get probation or paroled after 15 years one
five years so that is you're right that's a big jump between the two charges now now the people that say that
this is a frame job will say look what they were hoping is you charge her with something like
manslaughter mandatory five years if she pleased guilty maybe she works a deal and gets two or three years and she
takes the fall and this all goes away and it's JN was killed we cover it up and then she's not this poor woman her life
is turned upside down but but she's not locked away and throw away the key situation they'll say they up the
charges because she didn't play along she pled not guilty she was going to she was going to put up a fight and
say no I didn't do this the other thing here too it's really tough to dissect what happens at a grand jury hearing
because they're very they're very secretive they're not allowed to discuss a lot of the details a lot of times
we're not even allowed to know who testified who was involved in in giving statements to the grand jury so my
question to a legal expert from the state the great state of Massachusetts would be how does it work there is this
a recommendation by the prosecution to the grand jury or can the grand jury say oh based off what we
heard we think you should up the charges because one part in in this is that in the state of
Massachusetts second degree murder as far as the definition goes includes the statement gross negligence or gross
recklessness and don't quote me on that it's it's one of the two I don't have the information right in front of me but
what that means in its simplest form is to to arrive at the idea of second-degree
murder may not mean that she intended to run him over and kill him it may simply
mean that she was behaving so dangerously so recklessly for such a long period of
time that she she was conducting gross recklessness that it was dangerous for her to drive it was dangerous to
everybody else that she was driving and not only did she do this but she did it over a period of time and it
was excessive that it was excessive so you can look into this any way that you want
right it could be suggestive that she was aware that she ran over over and chose to leave it could also mean that
she decided to run him over and then left but it Al also could mean that this is an
exaggerated excessive recklessness that she was committing and it resulted in the death of somebody else to the new
charges Captain what we do know is she did plead not guilty as well this is in a Norfolk Superior Court in
Dam and she was ordered held on 100 ,000 bail she made bail she was released and
been out since uh that was in June of 2022 Karen Reed's defense claims that she was framed this is from May 3rd of
2023 defense attorneys Allan Jackson and David Yeti alleged that John O'Keefe was
involved in a fight inside of Brian Albert's home they claim John O'Keefe was beaten and his body was later dumped
outside Jackson and Yanti fol focused on wounds to O'Keefe's arms which they said
showed he was attacked by Albert's dog during the fight then on May 24th 2023 during a pre-trial hearing Karen Reed's
attorneys laid out what they alleged to be a coverup by law enforcement saying quote certainly the Massachusetts State
Police is involved there are people that were in that house that are involved this is coming from attorney Allan
Jackson quote Brian Albert is involved Jennifer McCabe is involved the rest of the folks that were in that house there
is some level of involvement by every one of them every single one of them we're not going to rest until we get to
the bottom of exactly who's behind this cover up not only Karen Reed deserves this John O'Keefe deserves this and has
deserved this from moment one and that's why they're not going to rest the attorney Allan Jackson goes on to say I
don't think I've ever seen sort of a more obvious and more troubling set of circumstances that
suggest a conflict of interest or a series of conflicts of interest Allan Jackson is a high profile
attorney from California he became famous or well known because he represented Kevin spacy
that at that trial Kevin spacy was found not guilty what he is alleging here in that statement that I just read is that
the lead State Police investigator on the O'Keefe case has close personal ties to a number
of the people that were at that party where the Fatal incident happened following a dramatic hearing court
hearing Caren Reed spoke to reporters for the first time again this is in 2023 where she says quote we know who
did it we know and we know who spearheaded this cover up you all know she standing on the courthouse steps and
saying quote I tried to save his life I tried to save his life at 6:00 in the morning I was covered in his blood I was
the only one trying to save his life end quote want to thank everybody for joining us
here in the garage polarizing case so much more to get to stick around till part two until then be good be kind and
don't litter [Music] [Applause]

John O’Keefe /// Part 1 /// 762

Part 1 of 2

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This week we respond to the many requests to cover the John O’Keefe case / Karen Read trial with two hours of Garage coverage. John O’Keefe was a veteran officer with the Boston Police Department. Sadly, he was killed in January of 2022. His body was recovered in the snow at the property of another law enforcement officer. John's girlfriend Karen Read is accused of hitting John with her vehicle and leaving him to die. The State says it’s murder. The defense says it’s murder. Now, hear what the Garage has to say.

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Brief Summary

John O'Keefe's suspicious death leads to Karen Reed's murder trial amid conflicting narratives and emotional testimonies.

Key points

Tragic Death of Officer O'Keefe. Boston police officer John O'Keefe died under mysterious circumstances, leading to a high-profile trial.
Karen Reed's Defense. Karen Reed is accused of killing her boyfriend John O'Keefe, but her defense claims it was an accident.
The Afterparty Invitation. John O'Keefe and Karen Reed are invited to an afterparty at a friend's house.
Conflicting Stories. Conflicting accounts arise regarding Karen Reed's drinking and driving.
The Medical Examiner's Report. O'Keefe's death is attributed to blunt force trauma with hypothermia as a factor.
The Broken Tail Light. Discrepancies emerge about when and how Karen's tail light was broken.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This is a case that has seemingly captivated hundreds of thousands of people.

Introduction to the O'Keefe case

4:22WatchMay 28, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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