So I didn’t really learn much.
I’m less a True Crime Guy than I am a product of television.
So I always preferred my court proceedings to be filled with madcap hijinks.
A wizened, wisecracking judge who’s seen it all.
A bailiff who doesn’t put up with any guff.
At least one, “That’s highly unusual, but I’ll allow it.”
And surprise witness that turns the case on its head as hilarity ensues.
That’s the little fantasy bubble I’ve always tried to keep myself in to whatever extent possible.
The Karen Read case has none of that.
It’s real life.
A law enforcement veteran of 16 years has lost his life.
That’s the gravity of the situation.
And bringing the person(s) responsible to justice is the grim task at hand.
In other words, this isn’t that other trial that’s beginning this week.
That might be American history unfolding before our eyes.
Something we can tell our grandchildren we witnessed.
But solving the case of Officer O’Keefe’s killing actually matters.
The shortest SparkNotes version of the prosecution and the defense is this.
And that O’Keefe was killed in a fight inside the home.
Its pretty crazy and yet the Norfolk DA is going ahead with the trial and no ones stopping it.
To me the [prosecutors] are on a suicide mission.
She tried calling him, then phoned McCabe who claimed to have never seen OKeefe arrive at the party.
When no one had answers, Read says, she went to Jennifers house in hysterics.
…
She was arrested on February 2, four days after OKeefe was found, and charged with manslaughter.
Four months later, the charges were elevated to murder.
Today is the start of jury selection.
But by no means does that mean everyone agrees.
The first time I wrote about this, I got a hundred messages each from two different attorneys.
One who insists the defense hasn’t made a single useful argument on Read’s behalf.
So get comfortable; we’re gonna be here a while.
Which include the admonishion that the proscutors and defense will each make opening arguments to lay out their cases.
But those arguments are not evidence.
Neither are the questions they ask witnesses, “no matter how artfully phrased.”
Read was drunk as he she drove there.
She dropped O’Keefe off on the street outside Albert’s house.
And while turning around, backed into him and drove home, leaving him to die.
O’Keefe never entered the house, no one in the house saw him or knew he lay dying outside.
The next morning, Read was heard by first responders saying “I hit him!”
And pieces of her broken tailight were eventually found at the scene.
The defense:Read dropped O’Keefe off and drove home to go to bed.
He went in the house.
At 2:22am, Albert and Higgins talked on the phone.
O’Keefe was found dead three hours later.
Read’s damning “I hit him!”
were, in fact, her asking, “I hit him???”
The State Police were brought in, and Trooper Michael Proctor became the lead investigator.
Because of this, the whole matter is being investigated by the FBI for widespread corruption.
Now even as I say this, I know it’s barely scratching the surface of the surface.
Some of my best friends have been following this since Day 1 and can site chapter and verse.
And the case has opened up a thousand social media rabbit holes.
There are accounts that have turned the investigation into a lifestyle.
But there are just too many layers of this onion to unpeel it any further.
And the actual practicing trial attorneys I talk to on a regular basis.
Which is actually the beautiful thing about our criminal justice system.
It’s why, for all its flaws, it is still the best one ever devised by humankind.
And unswayed by public opinion and anything the rest of us are screaming about on the internet all day.
Regardless of what actually happened to Officer O’Keefe on 1/29/22, let justice be done though the heavens fall.
Now let’s get this thing started.
