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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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.”

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.