Northeast
Probe of town police in Karen Read case finds no sign of 'conspiracy to frame' slain officer's girlfriend
An independent agency found no evidence of a cover-up by the police department in Canton, Massachusetts, in the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe as part of an audit into the department ordered last year.
Town residents demanded an outside review in November 2024 to probe the police department’s response to O’Keefe’s death. Officials chose a firm called 5 Stones intelligence (5Si) to conduct it between Nov. 18, 2024, and March 30 this year.
The 206-page report was unveiled Tuesday, the same day as the start of jury selection for the second trial of Karen Read, O’Keefe’s girlfriend who is accused of killing him in a drunken hit-and-run after an argument.
KAREN READ AND JOHN O’KEEFE: INSIDE EVOLUTION OF BOSTON MURDER MYSTERY SINCE JULY MISTRIAL
Karen Read exits Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Dario Alequin for Fox News Digital)
Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial after her defense alleged bias against her from the lead investigator, missteps at the crime scene and a potential cover-up.
The auditors addressed allegations of a cover-up specific to Canton police – but members of several different law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation or as witnesses who were with O’Keefe that evening.
“Our team has not discovered any information that would indicate that any actions by Canton PD officers or detectives were a part of a conspiracy to frame any individual for the murder of Mr. O’Keefe,” 5Si found.
GO HERE FOR FULL COVERAGE OF THE 2ND KAREN READ TRIAL
Karen Read and John O’Keefe (Courtesy of Karen Read)
KAREN READ JURY SELECTION: DOZENS IN POOL ALREADY HAVE AN OPINION ON THE CASE
The 5Si report found a number of faults within the department, including:
- The first officers on scene should have photographed O’Keefe’s body before he was placed in an ambulance and rushed to the hospital.
- Witness interviews should have been conducted at the Canton police headquarters.
- Police should have secured the crime scene outside the home of Boston Police Officer Brian Albert.
- Canton police have an “inconsistent” internal affairs process.
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They recommended that Canton detectives undergo “advanced training” on crime scene investigations and that all patrol vehicles should be equipped with crime scene kits and evidence collection bags. They called for an increase in the police department’s budget.
John O’Keefe (Boston Police Department)
They also found that department-issued radios don’t have full coverage of the community and that officers are not given work cellphones. They recommended giving all officers work phones and rewriting department policy to have them use their work phones to take crime scene photographs, never their personal phones.
Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as Turtleboy, walks toward court prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Charles Krupa/AP)
Auditors also referenced the Sandra Birchmore case, recommending that supervisors review all death cases for accuracy.
“A Canton PD detective wrote that Sandra Birchmore died of a suicide in the initial report,” auditors wrote. “It was later determined that she had been killed by strangulation.”
Ex-Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell is charged in Sandra Birchmore’s murder. (AP | IMAGN)
A suspect in that case was indicted in August, and he was a police officer in the nearby town of Stoughton, another Boston suburb. Matthew Farwell, 38, is accused of strangling her after she told him she had become pregnant with his child and then staging the scene to make it look like she had killed herself. He has pleaded not guilty.
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Read’s retrial began with jury selection this week after the first fell apart, arguably due to the defense’s ability to attack investigators and the way they handled the investigation, experts say.
“Sloppy investigation [or] a rush to judgment argument is defense lawyer 101,” said Neama Rahmani, a Los Angeles-based trial attorney and former federal prosecutor who is following the case. “They use it in almost every murder case where they don’t argue accident or self-defense.”
In Read’s case, the lead investigator had a tough time on the witness stand as jurors were seen shaking their heads during a reading of his text messages in which he joked about searching her phone for nudes and called her a “c—.” State police fired him last month after a months-long review of his conduct.
“The investigation was botched beyond belief; evidence, witnesses and the entire crime scene was mishandled,” Rahmani told Fox News Digital. “Throw in Michael Proctor, the worst law enforcement witness I’ve seen since Mark Fuhrman in O.J., the defense is having a field day with this case.”
Read the full report:
As of Thursday afternoon, eight jurors had been empaneled, according to WCVB-TV, a local station. There will be 12 sitting jurors and four alternates selected before opening statements kick off.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
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FSU softball focuses on rival Florida. Here’s its approach on Wednesday
Here’s how Lonni Alameda and Florida State softball are preparing for its rivalry matchup against Florida. First pitch is at 6 p.m.
Jazzy Francik returned to the site of one of the toughest outings of her career and delivered a dominant performance.
The Florida State sophomore tossed her third career no-hitter and powered the Seminoles to a 10-0 win over Boston College in six innings Saturday at Harrington Athletics Village, moving FSU within one win of clinching the ACC regular-season title.
Francik (19-2) was in control from the first pitch, striking out six and allowing only one baserunner on an infield error in the fifth inning. She needed just 67 pitches to complete the no-hitter, the third of her career and one of the most efficient outings of her season.
Florida State’s offense gave its ace plenty of support, collecting 12 hits and scoring 10 runs. After a scoreless first inning, the Seminoles broke through in the second with three runs on RBI doubles by freshmen Haley Griggs and Makenna Sturgis.
FSU added four more runs in the fourth inning behind a two-run double from Jaysoni Beachum and an RBI single by Ashtyn Danley. The Seminoles put the run-rule into play in the sixth, scoring three times on an RBI single from Sturgis, an RBI double by Isa Torres and a sacrifice fly from Danley.
Beachum, Torres, Sturgis and Danley each drove in two runs as Florida State continued to pressure Boston College despite several highlight-reel defensive plays from the Eagles.
Francik and the Seminole defense sealed the no-hitter in the bottom of the sixth to end the game early.
Florida State is one win away from securing at least a share of the ACC regular-season championship. A sweep of Boston College on Sunday would clinch the title outright.
How to watch FSU vs. Boston College Game 2
- Date: Saturday, May 2
- Time: 4 p.m.
- Where: Harrington Athletics Village, Brighton, Massachusetts
- TV/Stream: ACC extra
Peter Holland Jr. covers Florida State athletics and Big Bend Preps for the Tallahassee Democrat. If you like to pitch a story on a high school athlete, don’t hesitate to get in touch with him via email at PHolland@Gannett.com or on X @_Da_pistol.
Outrage is building in a quiet Pittsburgh neighborhood.
Residents say they were blindsided by a plan to convert the former Fraternal Order of Police lodge on Banksville Road into a reentry center. The building could be turned into housing for up to 100 federal inmates, officials said.
Dismas Charities, an organization that operates federal halfway houses across the country, is behind the proposal. But neighbors say this isn’t the place.
“What will these people be doing when they’re not in the halfway house? Will they be law-abiding citizens and respect our community and its members?” questioned Judi Perry, a Shady Crest resident.
Concerns range from safety to proximity. Some fear the risk of repeat offenses, even though the facility is designed for rehabilitation. Residents point to past incidents tied to similar programs, including a case in Kentucky where an inmate left a facility and killed a police officer.
“We need to be better educated about how this facility would operate, what the parameters are for the people who stay there, and maybe, if we had more information, it would comfort us,” Perry said.
Inside a recent Pittsburgh Planning Commission presentation, Dismas Charities pitched the facility as a second-chance model.
“Over the past five years, we’ve had almost 40,000 residents participate in our programs nationally, and the rate of recidivism is .08 percent,” a Dismas Charities representative said at the meeting.
But that message isn’t landing here. Petitions are already circulating with hundreds of signatures collected. Neighbors say this fight is just beginning.
“We have preconceived notions about these people who were convicted and committed a crime. We don’t know what their crime was, and so maybe our concerns are exaggerated. But in general, you don’t like the idea of that facility being so close to our community,” Perry said.
A decision could come soon, as the commission is set to take this up in the coming days. If approved, it would still need additional sign-off before any inmates move in.
A strongly worded memo raised new questions about how much work Department of Children and Families (DCF) staff were doing from home, and whether that level of teleworking was hurting child protection.
Telework expanded during the pandemic and later became part of the state’s labor agreement, allowing some DCF employees to work remotely up to 80% of the week.
While social workers continued to handle court appearances, home visits, and foster placements in person, they were allowed to start and end most workdays at home. Staff must reapply for telework permission every six months and face losing that privilege if performance slips.
Concerns over the workflow quickly followed. The state’s Office of the Child Advocate (OCA) warned that extensive teleworking could be undermining case practice and supervision inside an agency already struggling with high turnover and many inexperienced workers.
In a critical letter sent Thursday, the Child Advocate suggested that telework should be limited unless workers met specific, data‑driven performance standards, citing the loss of in‑office collaboration, supervision, and real‑time support.
NBC Connecticut Investigates also spoke exclusively with a longtime former DCF employee who remained in the child welfare field. That former worker said telework simply did not function on multiple levels at DCF, describing widespread belief among current staff and those in the judicial system that bringing people back into the office was a necessary step toward restoring the agency.
Lawmakers from both parties echoed those concerns. House Minority Leader Vincent Candelora (R) said staff working remotely were missing daily interaction, training, and support, instead operating in silos. House Speaker Matt Ritter(D) said the newly formed oversight committee was expected to examine the policy.
Those warnings were backed up by troubling findings. According to the OCA’s report, a review of in‑home cases in 2024 and 2025 found face‑to‑face interactions did not happen in about 40% of cases—something the OCA called alarming and in need of urgent attention.
As scrutiny over DCF intensified, teleworking became the latest flashpoint in a broader debate over accountability, supervision, and whether the systems meant to protect vulnerable children were being stretched too thin.
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