cover of episode The Night of the Nor'easter

The Night of the Nor'easter

2024/10/22
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Dateline NBC

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The episode begins with the mysterious death of Boston police officer John O'Keefe, found in the snow after a night out with his girlfriend Karen Read. The narrative explores the immediate aftermath and the initial questions surrounding his death.
  • John O'Keefe's body was found in the morning.
  • He was described as 'one in a million' by his friend.
  • The officer identified himself and expressed the need for an attorney.

Shownotes Transcript

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Tonight, time date line.

I looked on at my phone in in a matter of second, I look up and he's not there. My friend.

john's body was found in the morning.

He was one in a million.

The officer identified himself, fears a detected with a massachusets to state police. I said, dad, I need attorney.

The video shows nine drinks being consumed by the defender.

Witnesses said that they heard care and say I had .

him totally false.

Maybe somebody else had a motive. There just too many things here that don't add up.

Conspiracies do exist.

If you believe the conspiracy, you'd have to think that all of these people are complete sociopaths.

Either think he was framed, or you think john key was the victim of Carry being drunken hating him.

I've never heard of a criminal case where the victims family is harassed on their way to court.

No matter what, we have to deal with justice for joining. I felt .

like I living in a nightman. What the hell happened? How did the night end up like this?

Boston police officer left to die in the snow. Was he killed by his lover or his friends? I'm lester hold, and this is deadline.

Here's Andrew accounting with the night of the northeast.

IT was just after four. I am snowing hard. john. O, keep still wasn't home.

Nobody's heard from him. I haven't heard from him. And it's bad weather .

had the worst happened.

You're just sitting there thinking, is this real life .

was SHE to blame?

I felt like I was living .

in a nightmare. His death, a mystery, her case, a cause. As all eyes focused on the spectacle outside of massachusetts .

courthouse .

and a bitter battle within.

you don't ever, ever look the other way.

The stakes are as high as they get for current read, as high as they get the victim's family victimized.

We would have to walk through these people screaming at us.

The memory of the man who died, almost lost in the world of words.

There is an anybody. That new journey will keep that doesn't feel his loss.

We began covering this case in early twenty twenty three. That's when my colleague denis Murphy SAT down with Karen, read the story SHE told of one awful night in january twenty twenty two, launched a drama that indoors, a norrie was blowing into town Karen met her boyfriend, boston police officer jono key, for drinks at a bar in the suburb of canton that's Karen greeting john on security video .

and john got up, uh, game off the seat to me and I said, understands that john stood with me and um we were happy having fun laughing, very Normal.

So that comes a point where you how to that place yet we left.

After about ninety minutes.

they crossed the street to the waterfall barren grill. There they are walking in, joining some .

acai tanks. And of one of most a boston cop, uh another cup federal bo alcohol, tobacco and fireroom we walk in and hey, here I was going and and you walk around, you say, hi everyone.

the five, the vives .

good yes.

other we get there .

at about ten.

five and you're there for how .

long you think till midnight, just after midnight .

taught closed, john Karen were invited to a small party by jan mccain, a friend of jon, who'd been at the bar with them. There is john living with a drink in his hand. The party was at jane, sister and brother and lows house. You'd also been .

at the bar her brother in law was a more senior boston police officer who ironically um you know lived in kent in his whole life h two ha miles from john house yet we never socialized with and his name is what his name is brian Albert.

Any work with john?

He worked on the on the job but they didn't really cross past I don't think professionally.

So it's closing hours and you're .

on your way to yet we're going to yeah which i'd never been to driving. I'm driving .

what vehicle .

I have a lexus, alex, which is the false. Yes, yeah.

Had several.

you probably. But I felt fine. I know I felt like I had d had .

a couple drinks, but I I you didn't say i'm lucky. No.

I didn't feel impair.

The Albert house was about two miles from the bar.

So you get to the address.

You get to the house. I didn't look like I was busting at the themes with people. And there was maybe one or two cars in the driveway. And i'm still on street, and I have the passenger side facing the driveway and said, junk, can you just want in there and like, you know, make sure where we're welcome here and it's somewhere we want to be. He said, yes, i'll be right back and he got out of the car.

goes to the front of the house. Yes, did you see him go in the house?

Yes, I saw, approached the front door and put his hand on the door and your .

memory he's going towards the front has how far do you see him go?

I see him go to the door and start to cross the threshold. And i'm thinking, all .

right.

look at my home. I see him in the door and put his head inside and am my god, he's not. He's going to yell to me or he's gona come out and get me.

And I looked down at my phone in a matter of seconds. I look up and he's not there. And then I waited from to reemerge, which I assumed was gonna in moments, or that he yelled to me from the front to ark.

But that never .

happened. He didn't come back and IT hissed me off because when I didn't really want to be there too, I had to go to the bathroom.

But where is? Yeah.

it's twelve, thirty, and i'm waiting here in the snow and the darkness. I don't know these people well. And what did you stated to have a beer? Why you signal to me so soon thereafter, within Dennis, probably two full minutes, I start calling him.

Are you take.

yeah, I am ticked at him at this time. Yeah.

what happens next? I left you in your car.

Would you say i'm out of here? No, like I kind of a slow rolled off the of the street um and i'm hoping that as I slowly edge my way down the streets gonna .

where you going oh.

I went home within probably seven .

minutes home was john's place and what do you do?

I laid on the couch inside the front door and I just called him. I call them just over fifty times.

fifty times.

Yeah, you and they would just go in a voice. Mel.

it's getting very early in the morning at this point.

Yeah, I fell asleep. Um when I woke up after four, I knew I knew something was wrong.

Where in the world was john o key?

I didn't know what the hell, what the hell happened? how? How did the night end up like this?

A monster storm had rolled into canton massachussetts and Karen reads boyfriend jono key was missing. SHE says SHE dropped him off at a party and now in the early morning hours, he wasn't home and he wasn't answering her calls. Karen n picks up her story with Dennis Murphy.

I'd never been more friend, and it's it's blustery, it's blowing snow outside. And I I called john closest friends in the area, and most people weren't answering their phones.

But at four fifty three, I am jan mckay answered hers. Je had invited the couple to the party at her brother in law, brian Albert place theyd all gone there after the bar.

and I said, jen, where is john and he said, I don't know what's going on. I said he didn't come home. And SHE said on, let me up with you and call my sister. This is brain Albertz wife, the homeowner of the property .

where I like she's in house.

just she's home. And SHE calls me back in a few minutes and he says, I talked in a coal. SHE said, you guys never came in. SHE said, what? He said, you guys never came in .

your john never came in the door.

Yes, SHE.

you're hearing the twilight ts .

on music at this. Yeah what hell happened did was that somebody else involved would did did somebody to go pick him up another body so um SHE said, one of you come get me and and we'll go searching for him in the meantime, I called another a friend of johns and he picked up and I said, and names Carrier and Carry um you know and i'm not saying at this calmly but I don't aweer john is and I can't find them and i'm worried and SHE hung up with me and started calling around.

SHE called the police. My, I am calling because my friend, boyfriend did not come right. I think SHE met to call the couple hospitals and I started feeling like he had to have gotten hit by a car by a snowplow. And he had, no, no, he never work out.

Just after five A M, Karen drove to jans house and picked her up together. They went back to johns to make sure he wasn't there. That's the two of them on ring video and Carry Roberts joining them.

But john wasn't there. So the women got into Carry's car with Carry in the back seat and drove to the party house. Six A M.

Blizz conditions in the dark. They crapped toward the house. Karen was the first to spot join.

and we turn a corner, and I seem immediately, I see his body immediately. And I was a windswept of lawn, and there was just a heat.

And this is on the front of the afterparty house.

on the parameter, uh, it's on the front one of the Albert, but it's very close to their neighbors is a cluster of trees. And he's in there that 这样 didn't look like john。 I mean, I couldn't see his his face was her. I knew with him, I knew was something that didn't belong on long.

He's a big guy.

Six two two is he said he's right there and cherish where .

and janes .

I don't seem because current your historical I said he's right there and they don't know we're going to slow. It's bad weather but SHE doesn't Carry, doesn't stop the car. So i'd jump out out of the passenger side, and I fell on the street, and I ran over to him, and his eyes was swelling shut. He had blood dripping out .

of his nose. Was he alive?

He seemed like he could be. I'm only out there for a minute or two and then Carry runs over and then Carry. I take turns between mul multis and chess compressions.

Jemy cave called nine one one.

Is a guy and responded in the snow and maybe within fifteen minutes, I don't know. Whole right. First, a latter choker, i'm not sure, but they were that pretty, pretty short water.

This dash camp deo, from one of the first responders vehicles, shows Karen running back and forth. Clearly agitated, john was rushed to the hospital. I actually text .

my my father and I said, I think john's did um and he he called me and I said, dad, I I, I don't anna be alive like I don't want to live and I didn't know what the hell, what the hell happened how how did the night up like this?

Karen was also taken to the hospital that morning.

and I am a put under a psychiatric watch. Uh, just two two vest bills down from where they working on john's body, uh and then eventually just noon, my a my father comes into the room. That man and I said, dad, how is he and he said, he's gone. John gone. Karen and I just collapsed on the floor.

A sixteen year veteran of the boston police department dead, his family reeling, and asking one question that would unravel into countless others. Why.

thinking about john y is no longer here. You know, how does this happen?

In the days, weeks and months that followed, everyone had questions, starting with her.

Could I have done something that not come out? And in drinkin' and in the coal didn't come to again, what would you .

say to care and read?

I just wish you you would admit what you did.

The evidence shows that this was A A huge cover up.

Either think he was framed or you think the geno, he was the victim of Carry being drunk, hitting him.

SHE has put my family through how .

to save herself.

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We now know the name of the boston police officer whose body was found out the awful news was spreading that winter morning in twenty twenty two, police officer jono kef was dead. Find out how one of their own, john y, to his family and friends, only forty six years old, his body discovered lying in front of another officer's house. IT made no sense.

We didn't know if he had, you know, passed out in the snow. And you at at that point, we didn't know what had happened.

Death is part of john's extended family. SHE didn't want her last name used. It's like .

that's not possible. IT was unfAiling. I couldn't even think that this could potentially .

be happening. How did you hear about .

john's death? I got a call from john y's. Brother, uh, he told me, said we lost john him, I kind of you, I knew what he meant, but I didn't really know what he meant. You know, if I didn't want to know you, man.

tom hubbard and john had been best friend since first grade. You obviously thought very highly of john mean, being friends with him for that long.

Yes, so he was just a just a great, great guy and you know, a great friend when we were six. He was a great friend when were forty six.

So you also say that he really connected people. He kept everyone together.

Yes, he would text me you around all the time. You'll go have a beer or go get some to eat. And um you I think it's very easy as as you get older that people don't kind of take those. But he always, always did.

John always knew what he wanted to do with his life.

I don't remember a time where he didn't want to be a police officer. He was set on. He want to be a police officer. That's that's all he cared about .

and a big part of being a police. This officer, of course.

is helping people. Yeah the way he Operated his life was he always kind of put other people for .

us when tragedy struck. That's exactly what john did. In two and thirteen his nine year old sister Christian learned SHE .

had brain cancer. Christian was um diagnosed in may of two thousand thirteen and um passed away the children's day of two thousand and thirteen.

Oh my god, so fast.

IT was just a few months, and Johnson spent a lot of time at the hospital with her.

Two months later, another death, this one almost incomprehensible Christian husband had a heart attack. How does your family deal with that?

Too deaf, so close together. IT was a, IT was a lot. IT was a lot.

And just the shock of the two of them passing so quickly, both under forty. And then IT was after the shock wore off. IT was the children. The children, what are we gonna do?

The Young couple left behind a six year old girl and a boy, almost three. So john stepped up. He took a desk job at the police department and move from boston into his sisters s. House and cantina to raise his nephew. Why did IT go to the the bachelor police officer who had never been apparent?

He, he was very, he was pretty insistent.

the beginning of, like A T V drama, right? Because the bachelor takes in the kids.

yes.

a life strugling work and kids, they call them J, J. He was up for anything tiktok chAllenges, silly dances and ninja warrior games.

He was the the fun al goal. You know, he was always making jokes and trying to make the time really fun for them.

In twenty twenty, when the pandemic struck, john reconnected with an old girlfriend, Karen. They're briefly dated in their twenties. This time I felt right.

I found him to be a very different person, but in a very interesting way, was more debt there. After what he had been through.

Karen had been through her own chAllenges, including a diagnosis of, like john, she's never married. SHE worked as an equity analyst and taught college courses in finance as an adjutant professor at john's house. SHE was the fun .

bonus parent. We had theme nights, so we'd have like a few tonight. We, we had a formal night where we all dress and the dining room table with the fancy china.

How do the kids .

take to Karen know they liked her?

They liked her a lot. But all that ended on a cold january morning. Johns family went to the hospital and identified his body. Karen was there, too, under a psychiatric watch.

He was screaming down the hallway. You, is he dead? Is he dead? Screaming, screaming, erratic to the point that they sewed her bio because he was threatening to to harm herself.

The OK f's left went to john's house to tell the kids by then fourteen and eleven. And then Karen arrived. That's her on the ring video. Sh'd been released from the hospital into her parents care and wanted to see the children.

I wasn't there, but I I do know that he had SAT with the kids for you for a short time. And then SHE and her father went upstairs a to the bedroom, gathered A, A N of her belongings, and Karen walked out the door with her father .

and her brother.

SHE just left. SHE just left. Never said oodbms e. And that point that had been almost two years that SHE had been in their lives.

what did the kids think as SHE disappears?

So the kids, again, the kids at that point were so lost.

the whole family was, they .

couldn't .

figure out how john ended up dead on a one. And Karen seem to be acting strAngely. That sister eron later told investigators about a troubling call she'd with Karen after Karen left the OK ve home.

And what Karen said to her was, will probably never see each other again. And you know, aron said, where what do you mean were friends? And so SHE didn't really have an answer to that. So I started to feel like something had happened.

But what the massachuset state police opened an investigation, and they began to develop an unsettling theory. That current was to blame for john's death. So what's not like as that sinking in.

the only word that can come to mind is just complete. You're just sitting there thinking, is this real life?

The meeting with the okee s took place only hours after john had been declared dead. Karen remembers IT differently than the family sh'd been alarmed by the mood at the house. I felt .

intention with Jones mother SHE seemed to be keeping her distance and I felt uncomfortable. SHE wasn't really addressing me, and he did not see no, what the kids know me.

Karen says. That's why SHE left and went strait to her parents house. Later that afternoon, the lead investigator, master huat, state trooper r. Michael proctor, arrived with a colleague to question her.

I wasn't asked about what happened at that house. Nothing about where did he go to the entering um how did I come to find him? Who did I call IT was how much should I have to drink and could you've done a three point turn? And before they left, they took my phone and they asked for my car keys.

The troopers took her SUV, and Karen called a lawyer. Boston attorney David unity SHE said that Young.

to me, my first thought was, this is A A teenager. I'm going to have to talk to the parents. But then SHE started to tell me the situation. He was. I was thinking that the, you know, she's probably going to need some help.

He was right. Two days later, seven thirty P. M. Police swarmed kranz house.

There was a good eight to ten cops. They went all around my house, shining lights in and started banging on the doors, and then they all just flooded my house.

SHE was charged with jon's death, three crimes, manslaughter, negligent motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. Karen spent the night in jail.

The nightmare i'd begun read .

as Karen brother.

someone was gonna a cost for john losing his life. And so was I surprised that they were charged? No, I wasn't surprised.

The next morning, minutes before her raiment, Karen met her lawyer in person for the first time.

and David had one copy of the charging documents, and he helped them through the bars, and we read them together. And there are a few things in there that stood out right away to me that worried me.

At the arrangement, prosecutor atom lally laid out a daming case, the prosecutor said troopers noticed something when the impounded Cameron's S. U. V.

The rare right passed, the tail light was shattered, pieces missing from the red and clear areas.

And at the scene, investigators found plastic taillight pieces on the lawn where Johnny body was discovered.

also consistent with the broken tail lize on the lexus S. U. V.

The states theory of the case was simple. John and Karen arrived at the party house following a night of heavy drinking. John got out of the car. SHE backed into him, then drove off, leaving john lying there, badly injured .

approximately six blooded lacerations wearing in length on his right ARM the cuts extending from his forearm to his bicep. Both of the victim's eyes were swaling shut in black and blue proxy twin laceration to the back of his head.

Initial reports indicated john died from blunt force trauma to the back of the head and typosperma Karen pleaded, did not guilty and was released on bail .

and former assets te.

its prosecutor, Katherine loved us, followed the story, but wasn't involved in the case.

So I think when he was initially charged, those seemed like the appropriate charges issue .

at that time. So family's reaction to the arrest and finding out that there's .

been an arrest of Karen read relief, if he did this, she's going to she's going to be held responsible for IT. And and at this point, we didn't think that I was necessarily on purpose. We just know something happened. SHE hit him and he left.

It's hard to imagine that any family would have to go through something like this.

Yes, you know, john y died on saturday and then can caren is arrested on tuesday night, and there are at court on wednesday. There is zero time to grieve.

Days after the arrangement, jono key was laid to rest.

The line to get into the church was probably about a half a mile down the street.

says so much about john.

but IT does. The police .

marched in kind of two by two to salute the casket. And that was an incredible moment. And you know you could hear pin drop when I was going through that that line lasted. I don't know if there was a thousand police officers in that. I was just went on forever.

And then the procession to the graveside was was long you know we took a route through a brain tree, uh, where joining grew up, and then made our .

way to the .

grieve.

Very hard to say goodby.

E very hard.

Karen wasn't at the funeral. He knew he was in a world of trouble. Then a stranger called with a story that would turn the state's case on its head.

Maybe somebody else had a motive, and maybe somebody else would have caused the death of joining keep.

IT wasn't looking good for Karen read. SHE was facing prison time for manslaughter, but her case was about to take a DIY in turn after a man called her attorneys office.

And he had a very distinctive voice, very gravely voice. He said, you, dave, you don't know me. I want you to know your client is innocent.

In tried, David unity listened as the tipster, a former sherifs investigator turned private eye, described a plot completely at odds with the state theory of the crime.

I didn't know what he knew or didn't know. I didn't know how he knew that he was coy about that. Um but there's something else going on here pointing to a potential other suspect.

That potential other suspect was the man who d hosted the party.

You should be looking at the homeward who is a boston cop.

He was talking about sergeant detective brian Albert, a thirty year veteran of the boston police department. The tipster r. Said john had been beaten by people at the party .

inside Albertsons house. He believed that IT was a brian Albert who had tuned up.

John Karen says when he found john in the snow, IT didn't occur to her. He could have been beat.

I had seen john and he was bloodied in the face, and he had cuts that we're bleeding on his face and his eyes were purple. But I didn't know when I saw him that he look like he got be in up. I mean, I was just focused on trying .

to revive him. A tough to, at that point in at .

least three conversations, spending more than a month. Karen and her attorney said the tipster portrayed brian Albert as someone who like to fight, confirming their findings. They've been working with their own private investigator who turned up this youtube clip of A T N T show called boston's finest.

But right now, what was on a reality show, the profiled, his fugitive unit in boston, is in a boxing club and with other cops and he's lacing up and he's getting in the boxing gering and he's fighting.

The tipster also seemed to have detailed knowledge of john's injuries, details that hadn't been made public.

He said his injuries don't coincide with a car accident, and that added some validity. And IT was inside information can .

knew what the body look like.

the feet. He got a nervous, I was taking notes, and he did not like that. He started to a back off sort of his basis of knowledge.

And when police eventually interviewed him, he disputed Karen in unity story. The tips are said he learned details about the case from talking to them and insisted he had no inside knowledge.

He's recanted.

The tipster might have abandoned his own tips, but Karen, her attorney, did not.

I just had the feeling he knew more than he was telling us, and he didn't want to tell us how or why he knew that. I still feel that way.

They had no idea if any of the tipster story was true, and he didn't provide any proof. However, the information he gave them became the beginnings of the defense .

we were often running.

yeah, we were often running. This man, who knows what he knows. Somehow he Crystalized and confirmed our suspicions that .

changed everything.

But the case against Karen read was about to take a big turn. The state had convened a grand jury and heard from john ney and affix that Karen and john argued frequently and that john wanted to end the relationship. The prosecutor also presented toxicology evidence indicating Karen was drunk when SHE allegedly backed into john. In june twenty twenty two, he was arrested again on upgraded charges, including manslaughter while driving under influence and second degree murder.

This is big. It's big because what we've gone from is essentially the commonwealth alleging that this woman hit her boyfriend drunk by accident to a completely different theory that he has intentionally murdered at him.

He did this on purpose .

is the accusation. Yeah, up to that point everybody had been kind like he was an accident. And then this just kind of took IT to whole, whole different level. Now was.

but why would Carry murder, john?

My heads spinning like, what possibly could they have that would justify that charge?

Narrative was that I just became enraged and decided to nail him in snow.

He was now looking at the very real possibility of spending the rest of her life behind bars.

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In june twenty twenty two, nearly six months after john o.

Kef staff is come, the wealth versus Karen.

His family was joined by the news that Karen read had been charged with his murder is the anger .

building IT is IT is because I didn't have to happen. Karen insisted .

IT didn't happen at all, but he wanted a fresh take on the facts so he called called local law professors and got this advice from .

one and he said one case that made some headway and was able to get charges dismissed was, uh, Kevin spacey. And then ticket. The cell data was key.

SHE learned that the actor was represented by a high powered criminal defense attorney out of los Angeles, a guy with a huge rap named alan Jackson. Harvey wednesday had also been a client, and years earlier, as a prosecutor, Jackson won the murder conviction of music producer phil spector. Karen reached out to him.

SHE had not held out complete hope that I would make contact, whether, but in point of fact, I I was very interested.

That's how this connection was made for alan Jackson. Join David unity on carr's team. You come in as an outsider into this tight nc.

community. Hy powered lawyer from los Angeles. Do you thread lightly?

Yeah, I don't know how to tread lightly. I tread toward the truth period. And if that ruffles feathers, so be IT. If that pieces people off so bit get over.

Jackson did his signature deep dive into the digital data. And an early twenty twenty three, he struck gold on a cell phone that belong to the mccane. Remember, je mccain was one of almost a dozen people at the party that night.

He turned her sell over the police in the initial days of the investigation. A google search on that cell made early morning got Jackson s. attention. At two twenty seven, he did a search saying, has long to die in cold.

Presumably how long to die in cold, right? This is well before john's body has been found that jane told investigator SHE didn't know john was missing until Karen called her around five A M. Jackson believe the timing of the google search undermine that claim.

It's hard to oversell this. Is that dramatic.

The defense team met to discuss the finding. They speculated that jane knew something happened at the party and started googling. As soon as he got home.

SHE walked in, walked upstairs and started googling to try to figure out like what is going to happen or we're going to get implicated in the murder of a, of a boston police officer.

Jackson said they found the search in a deleted file on gene cell.

SHE really turned IT into that tells me, thought, thought that I was .

going IT was clean and one hundred percent.

But at the heart of the case, the right tail light on carr's S. U, V. IT had been damaged.

But how the states that IT shattered when Karen hit john around twelve thirty A. M, the offense had an entirely different take. The taillight was cracked, not hatred.

Hours later, when Karen went out looking for john, they said they had evidence to support that claim. Video showing Karen backing up that morning. k. Dennis Murphy, what happened?

I have seen what looks like surveilLance video of that car.

I think the ring .

video backing, backing out of your parking space.

backing out of a garage.

out of a garage.

Joon jang, in backing up.

did you bang into his car?

Yeah, I did. Did you feel that you here? Yeah, I thought the little. Um and I I on .

your back right.

on my passenger back right. Yes, I hit johns back left. Okay.

so this is obviously not, Karen reads S. U. V, but this is similar, similar tail light.

So what similar size? There is a different making model, but a similar size and similar situation for the tail light. One of the things that we noted right up front was how a tail light like this is manufactured on a late model.

S, U, V. This is all convex, and it's hard and plastic. You not, you not going to break this easily. You could pound on this all day long, and you're not going to be able to break this with your hand, with your fist. You will break your hand before you will break this.

When I came to john injuries, the defense concluded they were not consistent with a car accident.

You cannot ignore the the plaza of evidence that establishes that john was not struck by a car and left to die at twelve thirty one am or twelve thirty four am. It's just not there. He had to have been killed in another way. And the only other reasonable weight for him to have been killed and suffered those injuries is for him to suffer a beating inside the house.

The defense team concluded that people at the party, all connected to long enforcement in some way, inspired to cover up the beating and frame Karen for john's death. Karen, father bill and brother Nathan.

This just too many things here that don't add up.

You need a handful of .

powerful.

influential individuals in key positions to get this done.

The Albert, along with .

other party goers and the OK family, called the defense theory crazy. It's hard to keep a secret of that magnitude.

It's hard to keep any seat that many people. You know, if that was one person, that would be one thing. But if the way we're looking at this conspiracy IT is everyone in the house, so it's just, you know, sometimes the truth is just the truth.

But the conspiracy theory caught hold, and before long, people were turning out in droves to support Karen read buying into this man's unrelenting cruse sade. Let me down.

By the spring of twenty twenty three, more than a year after jono keef s. Death, Karen reads, lawyers were pushing their conspiracy theory at pretrial hearings.

JK was inside the house and .

prosecutors were fighting back.

There's absolute evidence mister keys ever entered a the residency at fair view.

That's when the case exploded out of the courtroom and into the social media feeds of thousands. Thanks to this guy. What's up? loses.

Has everyone doing tonight? Eight, ten? Corney A K, A turtle boy. Big day. He's a former high school teacher turned blogger, part reporter, part showman, part instigator. We got, we got.

Me, he told N, B, C, ten boston that he stumbled on the current story in April twenty twenty three. IT wasn't get a much coverage. And then I was just blown away that night when I read all the court documents, and I just couldn't believe this really happening.

He posted immediately, and he's been added ever sense, amplifying the defense theory like a relentless human bullhorn to frame an innocent woman and come up for the murder of the boston police officer. Seo conal is a commentator for N. B. C. Ten boston, the social media on this case was off the charts, including you, of course, the main player who seem to be turtle boy.

There's never been, I think, a situation like this, a in the greater boston or new england area where you have turtle boy ate in carney, who is a blogging r who doesn't Operate by any regular standards of what you would call journalism carefulness.

That's what they are.

They are calculating.

Before long, turtle boy created his own series about the case called canton cover up, racking up tens of thousands of use, holding nothing back, portraying current read as the real victim. What we know for sure, one hundred percent, was he did not run him over. He vows his followers, urging them to join protests about his is out enthusiasm, his passion.

We would not be here, here. And every other single person in the house who remains quiet to this day and participated in life, a local murder story went national. Why do you think this story, this case, has grabs the attention of so many people?

We think all the questions to this are what make IT really intriguing. Is that a romance that went wrong? Is that a night of parting that went wrong? Or did something else happened?

So we are here to make our voices heard in the the movement has .

grown as a result of that.

and that's not all that grew. A defense fund for Karen read, fuelled by turtle boys cci, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars. The o keeves watched the growing franzy with horr, and they became targets themselves, revealed on social media by turtle boy and his supporters, often forced to run a gotland when they went to court.

His followers have got into all of our faces prior to for hearings. We would have to walk through these people screaming at us. We have all been called idiots and stupid for not believing her conspiracy theory.

Turtle boy called the family maggots. Yes, IT was .

because he .

knew the trolls could come after her. That death asked us not to use her last name. How do you all feel about .

for a lack of a Better term of vile human being? That's how we feel about him.

They go outside and long .

like crash for the things .

that he has .

said and continue to say, and got his mob to say with this .

mob .

mentality. It's vio.

You are a disco.

Rather do a disGrace.

You are a disGrace. I whatever, i've never .

heard of a criminal case where the victims family is harassed both online but on their way to court.

Johnny is where the focus should be and not on the blogger and not on the defendant. IT should be about the fact that john y died.

Regardless of what you think happened, the fact that these parents and siblings and friends and family of john key for not embraced in a way a borders on criminal.

the okee s believed Karen and her lawyers were in on the act. John brother, he's essentially accusing you of producing, in his words, the Karen read show.

That's a joke. And when you have nothing else to say about the evidence, you just attack the person who's presenting the evidence.

Did you bring total boy into all of this?

absolutely.

If they didn't bring him in, they certainly helped him along. Caroline meant SHE and turtle boy spoke on the phone one hundred and eighty nine times in the year leading up to the trial.

IT was almost every day for like twenty minutes. Like what do you make of this or what do you think we talk about after core? Oh, my god, can't believe the judge said this.

The state, for its part, believed its case was being hijacked. The district attorney went on camera to condemn turtle boy's tactics.

The harassment and of witnesses in the murder prosecution of career is absolutely baseless. IT should be an outrage to any decent person, and he needs to stop.

In late twenty twenty three, prosecutors charged turtle boy with multiple accounts of witness intimidation. He pleaded not guilty. As the Karen retrial approached, the judge ordered demonstrators to stay two hundred feet from the courthouse that didn't end their enthusiasm.

We just care that you roll over and let them just do this to an .

same person is the biggest cover up, I think, that we've ever seen.

This is country.

Finally, April twenty twenty four, the trial was set to begin with a prosecutor determined to prove krens guilt by using her own words against term.

SHE said, I hate him. I hate him.

I hate him.

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In April twenty twenty four had had been more than two years since jono key was found dying in the snow and Karen reach trial was about to begin. How anxious were all of you with this trial starting so intense?

It's so intense. It's the wanting to get IT done with, to be able to again, start the grieving process, start to move on with, you know, with our lives, and to be able to scribe john y in private, you know, not in front of .

everybody. But at north fox prior court, a carnival of supporters.

Was there a great .

caren going to support by travelled just under .

fifteen hundred models to be here?

I thought somebody coming from alabama was pretty extraordinary.

Someone came from london, england.

australia, new zealand, russia. Because this, this case has really struck accord.

Jono kev had done nothing wrong and wild up dead and on a regular basis a he was just left out of this conversation, and, you know, Karen would arrive and people had pm poms. They would cheer .

her on morning. Inside the cramped courtroom, prosecutor adam li opened with his long health theory that cain read was amped up on alcohol and anger and intentionally backed her S. U. V. And to john to keep leaving him to die in the bitter cold.

The defending carrey is guilty murder in the second degree.

he argued the crime happened as john Karen relationship was fAiling.

The evidence definitely suggest that things were rocky. I mean, there definitely was A A roiling in the relationship.

One of the struggles likely arose around some jealousy issues when they were in a ruba, Karen accused john, i've cheating on her.

that a ruba group vacation happened about a month before john's death. A family friend testified that john hugged her in a hotel lobby, and Karen freed .

doubt and SHE very loudly, told me to go myself, cross the lobby, and I said, yeah, you too, and walked away.

And just a couple of weeks after that trip, the prosecutor or said Karen had been coming on to another man. He was atf agent brian higgins, and he read their flotations ous text messages in court.

The fan that responded your heart, I responded, are you serious a messing with me? Defend responded, not serious. I responded, fAiling as mutual. Is that bad?

Hagans testified that as he was leaving john o. Kef house one night after I get together, Karen did something that stunned him.

the defending kiss me and how he is not like a friend.

He says Karen is the one who initiated contact with him.

Karen is definitely pursuing him. And there was definitely a plan in Karen texting that they would have some relationship. And I might guess, an off rap from her relationship with john okie.

Then the prosecutor turned to that january night. Suspense gripped the courtroom when the man who hosted the party, brian Albert.

took the stand.

The prosecutor tried to preempt the defense's allegation that Albert was involved in johna keepers death.

How would you sort of describe in your relationship with with johna keep? Although I didn't know well, I consider him to be a friend in our relationship was was very, very good.

Albert, who had also been at the bark, testified he never saw john after they all left.

John never came into my house that night. He would have been welcomed, and the defendant would have been welcomed with open arms had they comment, and I wish they had, I really do.

The people in the house said, john never came in the house. Karen never came in the house. They were outside in a vehicle with. The witnesses say that they saw the vehicle was close to where junk body was found.

John's family looked on as the prosecutor hammed home. A fundamental point in this case, if john didn't go into the house, then there was no murder there.

If you believe the conspiracy that he walked in the door was in, was hit right away, and then all of a sudden everyone's back home an hour and a half later, resting comfortable ly, you know, you'd have to think that all of these people in this house are complete sociopaths. If you try and sit there and put together a timeline of this conspiracy, he can.

And I would say that they are all lying, that they're all in on IT and no one's taking no one's turning on anybody exactly. The prosecutor argued that there was no conspiracy that IT was Karen, who was lying and trying to cover IT up. Some of the strongest evidence in the prosecution case came from john mccain, who d invited john care into the house. SHE recounted the dramatic phone call from Karen just before five A M. When john was missing.

he tells me that john didn't come home, they gotten into a fight and that he left him at the waterfall jemy cave.

had to remind her, know, you are actually in front of the house, but then you .

left and I say, Karen, we saw you outside of my sisters.

And what was her responsible?

He told me that he didn't remember going there.

He said. Karen went further, apparently implicating herself in john's death.

And then he was saying, did I hit him? Could I have hit him? And then he proceeded to say that he had a crack taillight.

If that's true, then that really puts into question that he broke her tail light or SHE bumps or hits john's car, right?

I think it's, you know, pretty strong evidence against Karen that her tail light was likely damaged beforehand.

John friend kerry Roberts testified about the friend to call SHE, too, got from Karen just after the called agent vab. And SHE said, john's dad, Carry, Carry, Carry. And then he hung out. He said, Karen called back about five minutes later with a more nuances story.

And SHE said, i'm afraid john might be dead. He might have gotten hit by a plot soon after.

when the women went to search for john, something else seems suspicious. Carry Roberts and Jennifer mckee testified that as they were driving up to um the house through the blizz in the dark, Karen was in the back seat and managed to spot john's body where both of them couldn't see IT yes.

they couldn't see anything but the Karen immediately saw something ran to where john's body was subsequently discovered .

which could look like he knew he was there. What the .

commonalty wants you to believe is the reason why he knew that john's body was there is because he knew .

that he hit him asked for demi caves, miss belt, how long to die in the cold google search, the prosecutor anticipated the defense would bring IT up, so he asked her about IT. SHE adamantly denied he did the google search at 27AM and deleted IT, insisting SHE did IT after they found john's body, and only because Karen asked her to.

At that point, he grabbed my hands and SHE said, google hyp atherton, a google how long IT takes to die in the cold? I believe I did at multiple times, because as I was typing IT, I don't know what else was coming up. SHE was screaming. My hands were shaking.

By that time, first responders were on the scene, some testified. Karen was not questioning if sh'd hit john, he was alright confessing that he had. So he said, I hit him. SHE repeated IT.

I hit him. I hit him. Oh my god, I hit him.

Je mccain said he was right there and heard the same thing.

That's something that he said .

once in three times. I had him. I had him. I had him.

We have a lot of inconsistently in her statements because if you saw and walk up to the house and into the you left, why would the thought that you hit him ever come into play? As the .

trial unfolded, the prosecutor said IT wasn't just Karen changing stories that proved he was guilty. He also had a trove of data, including voice. Miles, he said, would show Karen read was in a red hot theory when he killed john, your loser itself.

As the weeks went by in that tiny courtroom, everyday was an ordeal for janna keepers family, sitting just feet from Karen read.

And someone has to stare at her face every single day. And we had to sit, and we had to watch the defense table giggling and laughing, you know, at times.

And IT was all Carried live.

IT was somehow lost that this was a murder trial and that IT wasn't a social engagement. People lost the fact that the reason we were there was because Johnson was killed.

But you didn't lose side of that.

Now we never forgot the reason we were there.

As prosecutor adam lily pressed his case, he would rule out piles of physical and digital evidence to show Karen kill john. He said her motive could be found in her phone messages.

So to three, two, P, M, uh, he says that, why would you?

This morning, a state police investigator testified that hours before john Karen went out that night, they exchanged angry text messages.

This says you started a number of lights from your end drawn rights back. I've explained a few times already not doing IT again, you're not into this anymore. And then john says, not need to fighting all the time, correct?

The prosecutor argued, currents turning anger. And those text was the fuel for what happened next.

So this is seconds of data.

A police crash investigator used data recorded by Karen, lexus, S, U, V, to show what followed when john got out of the car.

So it's going to straight and stops and this place universe.

and then goes back. The prosecution took data from the black box that they say shows that Karen are backed up a number of feet.

so the vehicle was travelling in reverse up to twenty four a month power and approached me fifty two feet.

the investigator said. The accelerator pedal was still pushed down when there was a sudden slowdown. And the S, U, V, sterling, wilshere, ID.

what, if any, type of solution is that? Our data sets, he says, with and what yeah, there's a point there there IT pears because this.

And with a pedestrian and strike, the prosecution argued Karen had to know he had john from the onboard cameras. The investigator testified. Johns injuries were also consistent with being hit by Karen n.

Read S. U. V. He pointed to gashes on john's ARM.

the illustrations, the ARM from the tail light, the the dent with scratches, those are something that would be consistent with strike. And alex is, you were also made aware of that there was injury to the back of neural keys, have there was spot curbing, which could have somewhere he could have struggles set in there. He got projected and get spun kind of cocoa zed, due the where you get impact .

to the vehicle. The commonwealth a needed to explain that john o. Kef was struck by Karen reed in her car, pivoting him around, putting him up in the air and having him slam down and banging his head, uh, on the ground, resulting in blunt force trauma as images .

of john's body were displayed in court. IT was especially hard on john's family and friends. Were you in constant contact with with the family during the trial period when you checking in on them and .

yeah to hear IT brought out around his injuries, it's got reaching and they had had to kind of sit there .

seven weeks into the trial, lead investigator trooper Michael proctor took the stand. He showed the jury evidence central to the case that Karen backed her S. U. V. Into john the .

right rare tale. I had large pieces missing from IT over all items that you recovered from the front long area of that correct correct. Essentially the condition that they were in when you recovered them on that on those respective tags. Yes.

there's also pieces of uh, what are believed to be from her taillight micro pieces in in Jones shirt.

So I think that that really was the strength of the because if you don't believe that, that evidence is planted, then you otherwise have to explain, well, harder to get there.

As the trial unfolded, the prosecutor presented damming evidence of what he said was a major factor in the crime. How much Karen had to drink.

SHE would choose to drink from the table and appears to consumer. A police .

investigator described bar security videos showing Karen drinking bod gun sodas before he got in her car and drove john to the party house.

In total, from those two videos, how many drinks did you observe the defendants consuming over her time? The video shows nine drinks being consumed by the defendant .

when he was tested at the hospital that morning, more than eight hours after john got out of our S. U. V. Karen, blood alcohol level was just over point zero nine. The legal driving limit in master hutt is point zero eight.

This is the retrieved s shal tion import.

I did a state toxicologist extrapolated the data to calculate Karen blood alcohol when SHE and john arrived at the house.

With regards to the maximum of what, if any, result that did you get from your mathematical calculations, uh, the result was a zero point two nine two percent.

He figured current blood alcohol level could have been more than three times the legal driving limit when SHE allegedly backed into john.

So you can imagine in a world where you're in a relationship, and by all account, tuban out drinking all night long, and then something happened, some bit of information comes in that sets someone off because an angry exchange. Your argument between two people.

something happened, argued the prosecutor, because soon after john got out of the car, Karen called .

him in a fury of.

We only heard caren reads voice in the courtroom a couple of times. We hear these loud, screaming, chaotic, frantic, vulgar, angry voice mails of parents, uh, that he left for john.

Nobody know the people these voice males .

from caring taste. She's a lot of profanity.

You could see the jurors, I saw the jurors, some of them looking at Karen.

your loser self and .

IT was really a startling .

and start experience for them.

But as strong as the case against Karen reed seemed, her defense team was ready to unleash their story of what happened. Just when you think this case couldn't get any crazier, you find pig DNA right.

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A few weeks into her trial, as Karen read drove to court with her attorneys, the sheer number of prosecution witnesses appear to be taking its tool. More than sixty would testify. I swear.

this is like you do start to think they've really trying to bleed me draw here. What is the point of all these witnesses as .

exasperated that as Karen seem to be? Commentator seo conal says the person SHE saw every day in court was a fighter.

The first thing that struck me about Karen was just how involved SHE was in her own defense .

yeah I mean, Karen read is fighting .

for her life. If you are Karen read and um you are charged with murder, you're going to do .

everything you can or return y emphasize to the jury that this wasn't just about jono key or Karen IT was about overzealous prosecutors, corrupt investigators and people from canton with a lot to hide.

Karen reed was framed. A car never struck journal. Keef SHE did not cause his death.

And that .

means that somebody else to prove .

that the defense pushed back on the prosecution case that Karen deliberately bacher S. U. V.

Into john and left him to die in the cold. On cross, alan Jackson asked the commonwealth's crash investigator why he was so certain. Karen n hit john.

this is ARM.

although took the brunch .

with that entire and left.

I need account.

In fact, we suffer broken bug. I don't know. He got hit in the ARM and somehow got spun around just the ARM, by the way, and spends his entire body around two hundred and seventeen pound men and launches that way. IT made no sense responding .

to another of Karen attorneys, even the state's own medical examiner, or couldn't say if a car or something else caused the gas in the back of Jones head .

could be any blind object.

IT could also be the result of being struck with a large objects, such as a baseball, that for a bar possible. And independent experts in crash reconstruction testified about injuries.

The fact that we only have that head injury, uh, is inconsistent, uh, in this case with being struck by that the tail light. It's inconsistent for a number of reasons.

They said that IT appeared he did not suffered those injuries from getting hired .

a car correct. And conversely, the damage on the vehicle was not the result of hitting a human body.

But the defense still had a problem.

IT was Crystal clear. I had him.

Multiple witnesses said that they heard karren say I had him.

Totally false, one hundred percent false.

Jackson pointed to the first responders dash camp video.

isn't IT interesting that not one second of audio picks up the world? I hit him. Not one. SHE never said that karren .

didn't take the stand, but he gave her own exploit nation to denis Murphy.

I said, could I have hit him? Did I hit him? I don't.

What could .

have been, I thought, did he somehow try to flag me down and maybe tripped? And I ran over his foot and and then he passed out drunk. I mean, I I didn't think I hit him, hit him as to .

whether Karen and john, we're on the outs that night. Denis asked her about that too.

There's a new window here that you guys had really been going at IT. And this was sort of like like a last date element to IT.

Was that going on? That was not not going on. John made IT clear to me. I'm never breaking up with you, you know, not never that we're in this good or bad, but you're the the best person .

i've ever been with your loser itself. The defense argue the reason Karen left those voice mails was because john had abandoned her in her car and he got angry. Then there was what happened at the bar, atf h, and brian higgins was there. Even though Karen had recently been floating with him, he didn't speak with him that night.

Stranger.

I don't feel that way, you know.

I don't know you that he ignored you or didn't pay attention to you.

I did not feel ignored, upset me at all.

He finded do you enough to sider a textile with six ims behind IT OK. And well, correct.

Well, he wasn't .

like that.

I was. Well, that's IT and .

his text to her was, well um as in what about me? What about us? Where do I fit in all this? You walk in here right my face with this guy after floating with me and texting with me.

the defense implied hagans had a motive to hurt john when they all went to the party house. On the fundamental point, whether john went inside, the defense turned to its digital forensic expert and johns iphone health data to suggest john was using stairs inside the house.

This indicates three sets of floors that that represents a elevation change. So IT IT doesn't indicate to us up or down.

That was contrary to a prosecution witness who said the data showed john driving on a hilly stretch of road. Jackson set out to persuade the jury that those inside the house attack john, this retired pathologist, testified for the defense. John injuries suggested a beating. What would their motive be.

though? You don't have to have some deep seated hatred for someone to get into an argument that leads to a fight, especially when people have been drinking.

People such as brian Albert, he implied.

sure you in the marines before you a police office, correct? yes. Did you have any training and hand.

hand combat? yes. The defense attorney .

tried to pin them down. Obviously, any detector .

would be trained in techniques that culprits, tes might use, or suspects used to cover up crimes of investigations. correct? no. Never been trained in the fact that I know you might want to clean up the blood.

C, no. And there was something else. A defense expert in emergency trauma was certain john's ARM had been mold by an animal, possibly a large dog.

There's parallel lines, and those were inflicted by either teeth or clam. X, that's from a dog. That is one nasty dog, from a dog.

What's more, lab text, I found something truly bizarre, john's shirt. Just when you think this case couldn't get any crazy, you find pig DNA right? That plays right into your theory. Jackson theory was that the pig DNA came from a dog treat made from pork chewed by the Albert dog Chloe, a german shepard mix with a mean streak. The dog also played into his thinking that they'd .

been to cover up your family got .

little clock coes rehoboth in may twenty twenty.

whatever words we want to rehab, rehoused, whatever. But you've got rid ever. No longer part of the Albert family.

right?

The defense argued there was more evidence of a cover up from before john's body was discovered. Albert and higgins called each other around two A. M. Albert said they were buddies.

Why was there two twenty two A M called between brian over and brian against? Five minutes later was generate google searching how long IT takes to die in the cold. Why was all this happening? That that is all evidence of a massive cover up. Where were you at six or three? On the morning of the year twenty two.

I was sleeping in my room.

Jackson implied IT was suspicious that even after john's body was discovered, bryan Albert, a trained first responder.

did nothing to help during that entire event. After you were awakened, all that chaos on your t front line, you never came out of your to assist or investigate in any matter what. So ever did you?

Mister elver, no, to john family, to anyone who calls this a crazy conspiracy, what do you say to them?

There's nothing crazy about IT and conspiracies simply mean agreements. There were agreements to hide evidence, to obscure evidence that we're all brought out. During the course of the trial.

Jackson was just getting started. The most dramatic moments of the trial were about to unfold.

You were looking for naked photographs of misr as you SAT in your office at nine forty four pm.

The demonstrators outside the courts treated Karen reed ed in her lawyers like rock stars. What was IT like going in and out of court every day with call those supporters of the the unfair .

that was that was a trip um i've been involved in a few high profile cases here and there where there's public interest but this was truly this is next level.

As the trial went into its seventh week, its most viral moments played out when alan Jackson took game at the police who investigated the death of one of their own. When you think about an officer is dead, I mean, you would think that you would want to go overboard, correct, to make sure that everything was done correctly, properly collect whatever you can in that moment. exactly.

So the the first thing you need to do, uh, is walking and make sure that you lock everything down, you freeze the scene, as IT were the interview of the house and the exterior, the house, none of that was done, and .

investigators didn't protect the evidence, he said.

Do you think it's standard practice for a police department to borrow red solo cups from neighbor to gather evidence?

Just you can .

go head and answer at times.

Of course, nothing about to see was standard.

Those solo cups were put in grocery bags, not evidence bag, not grocery bags. That evidence is is obviously very important. Somebody else is blood might be in that evidence.

When lead investigator Michael procter or took the stand, Jackson rained fire on him, insinuating he was not just incompetent, but corrupt.

This case involves A A boston cop whose family you are actually connected to. Correct loosely.

the tripper .

admitted he'd known members of the Albert family for years. He was friendly with one of brian Albertz brothers and had worked with another.

You further testify that you've never have gone to any supervisor at mass to take police to disclose even a potential conflict of interest in this case, if you might have correct at.

Jackson then urged jurors to look at the state's key evidence. The tail light, he argued, that was only cracked when Karen backed out of the garage, but IT was smashed into pieces after a proper procter impounded her SUV. The evidence, this police, via of the impounded S. U. V, with a trust .

I established, that the video was inverted. We were able to establish that they had manipulated evidence and literally presented IT as true. And IT was not true, was completely backward.

he said. The video told a different story when I was played the right way around.

and what I did show is the person that was told the actual right rear tail light was Michael proctor.

Jackson suggested proctor could have smashed the tail light, but that didn't explain the plastic shards police were finding back at the scene. How could they be there if Karen hadn't IT john? What about all these pieces at the scene.

pieces on the road?

Pieces continue to find over the following days.

over the course of three weeks? Actually interesting. How is that that those pieces, forty six or forty seven pieces of taillight, were found over the course of three weeks?

He suggested IT was prockter who planted the pieces well.

who add access to the tail light. Michael proctor, who add access to the scene. Michael proctor.

proctor denied manipulating evidence. Jackson didn't buy that. He said he was all about one enforcement protecting its own.

I believe that microprocessor a and his cohorts erected a tall blue wall. What I mean by that is the visual of this insular community where they protect themselves, they protect each other. And if you're an outsider, you're not invited in. And Karen read was very much an outsider. You can say that, did you?

Perhaps the most explosive moments in the trial came as alan Jackson got proctored to read text message and he'd sent soon after his .

investigation began. What did you write after you talked about going through the q retarded clients phone?

Jackson.

i'll love IT.

No nudes so far.

No nudes so far. Correct.

correct.

And you said that to your bosses.

Yes, sir.

you are looking for naked photographs of misread on a wednesday night as you set near office in nine forty four pm.

Is inappropriate joke.

Do you believe that your text messages were reflective of an objective investigator?

I believe what jokes have, an unprofessional language, have no bearing the integrity in the facts. And physical .

of this is why out of the g does sy for karren read?

Why did he go so hard at Karen? The more emphasis is on her, less emphasis is on the commoner.

Jackson didn't let up voting more of protest text about current read.

Hopefully he kills yourself. You believed to promoter that your life would be much easier if current read was just dead.

didn't you? Jack.

I like you.

No, not like I said, was a figure of speech. My motion to got the best to me, based on the fact that misread, hit mister rokey with his, her vehicle, left them to die in the side of the road.

She's a bitch.

Jackson, right? yes. A web job. correct? yes. no. correct. yes.

She's according to you. right?

yes.

Would you agree to per process that you have dehumanized current read during the course of your investigation?

They based off of that language? yes.

Could you see how the jury was reacting, hearing those messages that the protector .

sent for me? Watching the jury IT was probably the most compelling days where the visible discussed on many of the jurors faces a was completely apparent.

After eight weeks of testimony, both sides rested. By that point. Karen read had been called nearly every name in the book. All that mattered now was what the jury called her, guilty or not guilty.

June twenty twenty four, IT had been an epic courtroom battle to determine if Karen reed was guilty of second degree murder manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. A guilty verdict could send her to prison for life.

The defendants, dw, for vehicle in reverse, struck mister rock, causing those cats orphic head injuries, leading him and capacity.

The prosecution and defense made their final bids to sway the jury.

He got hit, punched through, and he fell to the fracturing a skull. At some point during that altercation.

the dog god hold of them. Finally, after more than seventy witnesses and theatrics inside and outside the courtroom, you may now retire and deliberate. Your the case went to the jury.

How are you feeling? We were thinking IT would either be um a home jury or we thought that he would be found guilty. We did not think that there was any way that this jury was going to quit her.

I thought for sure that we were born to walk away with the equator.

The jury begins their deliberations. Do you feel detention .

when the jury begins the deliberation and the crowds outside grow even more?

No one should ever have to go to a john supporters also turned out.

I can imagine the level of stress that that that put on the jurors.

The days start to tick by one, two, three.

right?

The jury continued deliberating, but by the end of the week was at an impasse. I'd ask to clear your heads, have lunch and begin your deliberations again. Jurors took the weekend, but when they came back on monday, despite our rigorous efforts, we continue to find ourselves at an impasse. Our perspectives on the evidence are starkly divided.

Their hunt, they can't come to a conclusion.

Your services complete. I'm declaring a mistake in this case, the judge comes back and tells the courtroom that SHE is declaring .

a this trial. We were deflated and we had that hope that this is gna come to an end in we're going to be able to to basically move on. And then there's the thought of ogowe. We have to do this again over just like that.

That switch was thrown, IT was done means that the prosecution didn't win. That win for the defense to a certain degree. I wasn't to win that we were looking for that. We will not stop fighting. We have no quit.

In the days following the trial, Jackson got an unexpected boost. He said five gers approached his team with a startling revelation about deliberations.

Every one of them have indicated that the jury was unanimous for not guilty on count one, count one being the murder charge, and they were unanimous for not guilty on count three. Leaving the scene with with injury or death.

Karen team tried to get those two charges throwing out. Their motion was denied and they are appealing. As for the OK fs, they're regrouping.

John's parents are raising his niece and nephew. The family has sued Karen n. For damages in civil court as they brace for retrial. Did the prosecution talk to the family after this this mistral was reached?

They said, we'll be ready to do this again.

and the family is one hundred percent .

on board with that. We are indeed you again, no matter what we have to deal with justice .

for Johnny ryan. Albert retired from the boston police department more than seven months before the trial. Both Alberta hagans declined to speak with date line through their attorneys.

They denied any involvement in killing jono keep. The state police and the district attorneys office also declined to comment. But before the trial, the D. A forcefully rejected the conspiracy allegations.

There was no fight side at home. Johna keeps to done into the home. These people were not part of a conspiracy and certainly did not commit murder or any crime that .

as for tripper Michael prockter, he has been suspended without pay for his conduct and turtle boy is awaiting trial on witness intimidation and other charges. And Karen, she's hoping her supporters will stick with her at her new trial scheduled for january.

So far, they've raised .

more than a half million dollars for her coins. What would you say to Carry read?

I just wish you would, you would admit what you did through your eyes.

He has put your family through hell.

SHE has put my family through hell. SHE has put other people's families through how to save herself, take accountability and do the right thing.

For now, johns family and friends are holding onto memories and thinking of what might have been he should be with his family.

Yeah, you know, he loved his family. He loved his friends. John, I just loved being there and and being a role model.

Do you ever go to his grave?

I don't you? I guess what I do there is tween me and him.

How much do you miss?

You kind of go your whole life and hope you make a couple good friends. And and he was one of them, and he was one in a million. And yeah, I miss him.

There is an anybody that that new journey will keep that doesn't feel his loss. That's all for this edition of deadline and check out our talking deadline podcast. Andrey accounting and blame Alexander will go behind the scenes of tonight episode available wednesday and the date line feed. Wherever you get your podcasts, we'll see you again next friday at nine eight central, unless to hold for all of us at nbc news. Good night.

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