The Karen Lees The trial begins its seventh week on Monday and the jury has yet to hear from the case’s lead investigator, Trooper Michael Proctor.
Defense attorney Peter Elikann said it is highly unusual for a lead investigator not to testify, or even to withhold testimony for so long. But, he said, there is a reason for that.
Video Video, updates: New evidence shown as detective testimony continues in Karen Read trial
“He is seen as not being particularly impartial, and probably should have recused himself from the investigation to begin with,” Elikann said. “When he personally knew so many people in that house and was so connected to him.”
“That house” is said to be 34 Fairview Avenue in Canton, previously owned by now-retired Boston police officer Brian Albert. Prosecutors allege Karen Read committed second-degree murder when she resisted her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, after dropping him off at that home on the night of January 29, 2022. Prosecutors say Read left O’Keefe to die in the snow – after the two had an argument.
The defense wants to prove that O’Keefe was actually killed by someone at 34 Fairview Avenue and then thrown into the snow.
Elikann said the defense has done a good job so far in creating reasonable doubt about Read’s guilt. That was on display last week when Proctor’s supervisor, State Police Sergeant Yuri Bukhenick, testified for two days. (He may also continue testifying on Monday.
“He was a pretty good, articulate spokesman,” Elikann said. “At the same time, all these people testify that there are two sides to it. There’s a kind of pro-prosecution, pro-defense side to it.
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