BOSTON — A highly anticipated trial in Massachusetts involving a woman accused of striking her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a snowbank is finishing its third week on Friday.

The case has garnered national attention because the defense alleges that state and local law enforcement officials framed Karen Read and allowed the real killer to go free.

Karen Read listens to testimony during her trial at Norfolk County Superior Court on Friday in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor’easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. Charles Krupa/Associated Press pool

John O’Keefe died in the Boston suburb of Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. His body was found on another officer’s front lawn, and the defense argues the homeowner’s relationship with local and state police tainted their investigation.

A look at the facts and legal arguments:

THE PROSECUTION: A TUMULTUOUS RELATIONSHIP TURNS DEADLY

Read, 44, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, has been charged with second-degree murder, among other charges, in the death of O’Keefe, 46. She has pleaded not guilty. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer.

After a night out drinking at several bars, prosecutors say Read dropped O’Keefe off at a house party just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.

Prosecutors have put up witnesses who testified the couple had a stormy relationship before O’Keefe died and several first responders who recalled hearing Read say she hit O’Keefe.

On Friday, jurors heard from Jennifer McCabe, whose sister and brother-in-law were hosting the party. She said Read asked frantically and repeatedly, “Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?” even before O’Keefe’s body was discovered.

McCabe said she saw Read’s SUV outside the home around midnight, but O’Keefe never came inside. Read called her the next morning, hysterical, and then showed up at her house, McCabe said. Together they went to McCabe’s sister’s home, where Read immediately ran over to O’Keefe’s body, McCabe said.

McCabe called 911 and one of the first responders asked what happened.

“I hit him. I hit him. I hit him,” McCabe said Read told him. “Earlier it was, ‘Could I? Did I?’ When she spoke to the paramedic it was crystal clear: I hit him.”

THE DEFENSE: POLICE ARE FRAMING THE SUSPECT

Read’s lawyers have alleged that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home, bitten by a family dog and then left outside. They have portrayed the investigation as shoddy and undermined by the close relationship investigators had with the police and other law enforcement agents at the house party.

They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider other suspects.

The defense said police have not searched the house where they say the crime happened and that forensic teams never looked for trace or physical evidence there.

This week, they have tried to raise doubts about the integrity of the investigation, showing that many of the investigators and prosecution witnesses came from the suburban town where the crime happened and were either close friends or related.

They challenged Colin Albert, a witness who is the nephew of the homeowner and had been at the gathering, about his relationship with Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was investigating the case. Proctor interviewed Albert, despite the fact that they had known each other for most of Albert’s life and Albert had served as ring bearer at a Proctor family wedding.

WHO ELSE COULD HAVE DONE IT?

Through their questioning, the defense has started hinting that at least three people — Boston police detective and the homeowner where the body was found, Brian Albert, Colin Albert or Brian Higgins, a special agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, who was with the group drinking that night — all had a motive and means to kill O’Keefe. They successfully argued ahead of the trial they should be able to present what is called third-party culprit evidence.

The defense tried this week to show that Brian and Colin Albert had the means to kill O’Keefe. They pressed Brian Albert on his past boxing experience and brought up the fact he was play fighting at the bar that night with Higgins – suggesting he was capable of actually fighting. They also questioned late night phone calls between Albert and Higgins that were made before the body was found. Albert said he must have “butt dialed” Higgins and does not remember a phone call that lasted for 20 seconds less than a minute later.

They also questioned Colin Albert about cuts on his hand that he said resulted from a fall on an icy driveway and from hitting a punching bag. They were also allowed to introduce videos showing Albert making unrelated verbal threats directly into a camera when he was a teenager. Albert said the threats involved a beef with a group of boys over girls that never resulted in a physical altercation.

WITNESS INTIMIDATION?

At least two witnesses this week detailed the toll that harassment from supporters of Read has taken on their family.

Allison McCabe, a good friend of Colin Albert, testified about text exchanges with him before she picked him up from the party. She also broke down as she explained that her family endured harassment in the months leading up to the trial from people online.

Albert also said his family has endured harassment for the past year mostly from people on social media calling his family murderers.

Neither witness singled out any person or people responsible for the alleged harassment.

Aidan Timothy Kearney, a blogger known as “Turtleboy,” has been charged with harassing, threatening and intimidating witnesses in the case.

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A recent report by the social media site Stacker appears to confirm what anyone who’s tried to buy a house in Greater Boston over the last year or so already knows: There’s so little stock, and prices are so high, that many folks are looking beyond the Bay State’s borders for their dream house.

With mortgage rates high, and hybrid work and work-from-home an option that’s undeniably on the table, potential buyers are expanding their searches “outside costly urban cores,” Stacker’s analysts noted.

Stacker’s analysts said they “examined data from Realtor.com’s Cross-Market Demand Report to see where people in Boston are looking to buy homes,” adding that the “view share is based on page views of active listings during the first quarter of 2024 on Realtor.com. It does not include international viewers.”

Here, then, are the top 10 most-viewed communities, according to Stacker, with additional analysis from Niche:

10. Lebanon, N.H., 2.6% of views: Lebanon, which is just about two hours from Boston, was ranked the second-best place to live in Grafton County, according to Niche. It scored an A-grade overall on Niche’s report card.

9. Miami, Fla., 2.7% of views: The South Florida art deco mecca finished 34th among the nation’s top retirement destinations, according to Niche. It scored a B-Plus overall on Niche’s report card. But caveat emptor: Housing scored a D-Plus, and it nabbed a C-Minus for crime and safety, according to Niche.

8. Springfield, Mass., 3.3% of views: Springfield finished 205th overall nationwide among the best cities for young professionals, according to Niche. It scored a C-Plus overall on Niche’s report card, nabbing a D-Plus for crime and safety.

7. New Haven, Conn., 3.3% of views: The Elm City was ranked the 57th best place nationwide for young professionals, scoring a B on Niche’s report card. Caveat emptor: The city got a D-Plus for housing and C-Minuses for schools and safety, according to Niche.

6. Manchester, N.H., 4 % of views: Manchester was ranked the 106th best place nationwide for young professionals, according to Niche. It got a B-Minus on Niche’s report card, scoring C’s across most metrics.

5. Barnstable Town, Mass., 4.4% of views: The Cape Cod community was ranked the 16th best place to live in Barnstable County, according to Niche, netting a B-Plus on its report card. Housing scored particularly poorly, grabbing a C-Minus, from Niche.

4. Portland, Maine, 4.7% of views: Portland was ranked the 14th best place to live, overall, in the Pine Tree State, according to Niche, grabbing an A grade for its amenities and services.

3. Worcester, Mass., 6.1% of views: Worcester was ranked the 103rd best city nationwide for young professionals, according to Niche, netting an overall grade of B for its amenities. The city’s nightlife and diversity both got A grades on Niche’s report card.

2. Hartford, Conn., 6.2% of views: Connecticut’s capital city was ranked the 204th best city nationwide for young professionals, according to Niche. It nabbed an overall grade of C-minus in Niche’s report card, scoring particularly poorly for its safety, housing, and public schools.

1. Providence, R.I., 8.3% of views: Rhode Island’s state capital was ranked the 43rd best nationwide for young professionals, according to Niche. The city “offers residents an urban suburban mix feel and most residents rent their homes. In Providence, there are a lot of bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and parks,” the website noted in its report card.

Like Boston and a number of other cities, Toledo, Ohio, has its tougher and more challenging neighborhoods. Tom Seeman grew up in a family of fourteen in a predominantly black housing project in one of those neighborhoods.

Like so many, Seeman was consigned to a childhood of poverty, dysfunction, and constant turmoil by birth.  The price he paid for being brought into this world was high at times. There were constant challenges and emotional and physical pain both inside his rundown home in the projects as well as waiting for him the minute he crossed the threshold of that home onto the tough and turbulent streets.

But, unlike so many in those neighborhoods and on those streets, Seeman had an inner vision, the intellectual gifts, and the determination to propel himself out of that project, away from the neighborhood, and into a world of success many dream of but few achieve.  A world of earned success which landed him at Yale University; Harvard Law School; McKinsey & Company; and finally corporate boardrooms as a CEO.

But to get to such lofty platforms from the lowest of the lows, one usually needs an epiphany which clears and decompresses the mind just long enough to see an invaluable truth which had always been right before you.  For Seeman, that moment came in the fourth grade.

It was there and then that Seeman made a shocking — but liberating — announcement. When his teacher asked his class to name the greatest thing each of their parents had given them, he stood and said: “The greatest thing my mother has given me is that she’s always there to help me. And the greatest thing my father has given me is an example of what I don’t want to be.”

Simply by vocalizing what had long been locked inside his mind, a tremendous weight had been lifted from Seeman’s shoulders. Replaced by a lightness in mind and spirit that allowed him to focus on escaping the life he was born into.

In a number of ways, Seeman’s escape was the Boston areas gain.

After achieving his goals for success as an adult, Seeman made an inspiring pledge to himself: “Every day, do something kind for a stranger.”  He has fulfilled that pledge and then some.

“Every act of kindness, no matter how small, makes a difference,” said Seeman.  “Some days it’s something small, like letting someone into my lane in traffic, and some days it’s something sizable, like creating a scholarship for underserved kids… Most days, my promise falls somewhere in between.”

One of those “sizable” acts of kindness saw Seeman and his wife Jenny donate one million dollars to the St. Francis de Sales School in Toledo, Ohio for the benefit of economically disadvantaged children.   A school Seeman credits with helping to land him firmly on the path to success, when, as himself an impoverished eighth grader, the school administrator offered him a near full scholarship.

Years after his escape from that tough Toledo neighborhood, Seeman settled in the greater Boston area with his wife Jenny to raise a family.  After doing so, his passion to give back only grew.  Today – among other things — Seeman currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Boston and on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Fine Arts.

Years before coming to Massachusetts and while still at Yale, people began asking Seeman the same question: “How did you get out?”  It is a critically important question.

Statistics about such poor, tough and dysfunctional neighborhoods indicate that it is almost a certainty that one would not “get out.” That one would not choose wisely. That one would fall into a pattern of hooking school, substance abuse and crime.

Later in his life as more and more people learned of his “rags to riches” story, many suggested to Seeman that he tell his inspiring story via a book.  While honored and humbled by the encouragement, Seeman was quite hesitant to do so.  First, because to do so would entail ripping off scabs, reliving pain, and quite possibly hurting or embarrassing family members. And second, because the process can be overwhelming.

For those reasons and more, Seeman rejected the idea of a memoir detailing his challenging childhood.  But then those around him offered up the most important reason of all: “What if your story could not only reach someone going through what you endured — or much worse — but change a life for the better?”

That reasoning made great sense to Seeman.  It was yet another way to fulfill the pledge to himself: “Every day, do something kind for a stranger.”  Seeman came to believe that he could tell his story to further help the charities he so deeply cared about.

So Seeman sat down and wrote that story, titled “Animals I Want to See: A Memoir of Growing Up in the Projects and Defying the Odds.”  A book that is deeply moving, will inspire all who read it, and will create untold acts of kindness.

Douglas MacKinnon – originally from Dorchester — is a former White House and Pentagon official and an author.