I’m just glad I went against my instinct to give this whole topic a good leaving alone.
The public has spoken.
There’s a term you hear a lot in the course of a proceeding in any court.
A sort rhetorical gear for framing a legal theory.
It is, “In the light most favorable to …
Essentially, it’s lawyerspeak for “Just for the sake of argument …
In your own life, this would work like this.
I did literally hundreds of OUI trials.
So finally the prosecution brought a little forensic science into the proceedings.
Both of the DNA kind, and the phone records variety.
Which a lot of the pro-Commonwealth people were celebrating as victories.
:
Which is the lede of this story.
And we’ll get to shortly.
But this is still a tabloid world.If it bleeds, it leads, and all that.
… Because you were out to quote ‘Make this cut and dry.'”
And if I can pivot from leaky poo talk to Shakespeare for a second, therein lies the rub.
That quote is really the crux of the whole #FreeKarenRead movement in less than 10 words.
I started this trial seven weeks ago trying to be a neutral.
But 34 Fairview was immediately ruled out as being even remotely involved.
Not even as a Home of Interest.
That the fact he also just happens to be a Boston LEO is just an incredible, unrelated coincidence.
There would still be scoffers, to be sure.
But at least the Commonwealth could argue they were investigated and found not at all suspicious.
But the investigation ruled them out before ever ruling them possibly in.
It went out of its way to not go out of its way.
They began with a presumption of Read’s guilt, and worked backwards from there.
As has been widely reported, almost with spinning newspapers emblazoned with “ALIENS DECLARE WAR!!!”
The dramatic, third act “Aha!”
plot twist that wraps this case neatly up for the jurors to come back with a Guilty.
That is, until you look just under the surface of the surface.
This evidence raises more questions than it answers.
First, none of the forensics experts testified it came from Officer O’Keefe’s blood.
Instead, it’s so-called “Touch DNA.”
It was from him coming into contact with the cover of the taillight at some point.
Besides, he was found wearing a hoodie.
Albeit one with puncture holes all over the sleeve where his arm wounds were.
Just that it gave his skin a much, much smaller strike zone.
The key question raised by the DNA tests has to do with O’Keefe’s clothes.
Which were, in fact, stained with his blood.And that of two other individuals.
Two dudes had their skin opened up enough to bleed into John O’Keefe’s clothes.
Unless, as the laundry detergent ads always suggest, he was using an inferior brand.
But once again, un-inquiring minds at the Mass.
It also bears repeating for the 510 nonillionth time, this evidence came from the prosecution’s experts.
Circling back to the investigation, Proctor was followed by one of his team, Lt. Brian Tully.
Who may or may not have helped the prosecution’s case.
Leaving a couple of things unsaid.
As my sainted mother always said, “Good manners cost you nothing and go a long way.”
(In my experience, she was generally wrong on this.
But it wouldn’t have hurt this investigation any.)
Here again, Tully never bothered to find out.
A cynical person might convince themselves there’s almost a pattern here.
Lucky is the guy who Turtleboy tracked down who said he never saw a body.
Pray for the repose of the soul of Officer John O’Keefe.
And pray for us all.
