State trooper points to possible weapon in John O'Keefe death – and it's not Karen Read's car

A Massachusetts State Police sergeant who played a key role in the investigation that led to Karen Read's original mistrial on murder charges testified Thursday that, early on, he told other authorities that John O'Keefe may have been hit in the face with a bar glass, causing injuries to his face and head.

Investigators, however, ultimately alleged that Read struck her Boston cop boyfriend with the back of her Lexus SUV and fled the scene, leaving him to die in the cold, on Jan. 29, 2022. Police arrested her on hit-and-run manslaughter charges days after she found him dead outside 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts, and prosecutors secured an indictment for second-degree murder months later. 

Defense lawyer Alan Jackson got State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik to concede on Thursday that he called the medical examiner's office and said there was a possibility that O'Keefe could have been hit in the face with a cocktail glass.

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"At 10:41 a.m., you called the medical examiner's office to inform them that Mr. O'Keefe quote, was struck in the face with a cocktail glass, or at least appeared to be, correct?" Jackson asked.

"That is in part what I advised the medical examiner's office," Bukhenik began. "Where they are, responsible for the medical portion of…"

Jackson cut him off, objecting during his own line of questioning. After a brief sidebar, Judge Beverly Cannone told the witness to do his "best" to answer the questions he was asked.

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"Did you contact the medical examiner's office at in (sic) the morning of … January 29th, 2022?" Jackson asked.

"Yes," Bukhenik replied.

"And did you state to them that there was a possibility that the decedent, John O'Keefe, was struck in the face with a cocktail glass?"

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"I don't recall my words exactly, but that sounds accurate to what I might have said," the sergeant replied.

Jackson pressed him about what he did to secure the house, a potential crime scene.

Nothing.

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Jackson also asked if key witnesses, such as fellow Boston Police Officer Brian Albert, his sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, and her husband, Matt McCabe, could have lied from the start about whether O'Keefe entered Albert's home at 34 Fairview Road hours before he was found dead on the front lawn.

Of those three, only Jennifer McCabe has testified as of Thursday in Read's second trial. She told jurors she saw Read's vehicle outside the house shortly after midnight but never saw either Read or O'Keefe come inside.

Outside court Thursday, where she was not speaking under oath, Read told reporters in plain words that she saw him go inside.

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"I saw him go in the house," she said.

When she was asked if she could describe the "how and when," she said no but said she has in the past and believes special prosecutor Hank Brennan may play a clip at trial.

Investigators recovered a broken glass and black straw separately from the scene, as was O'Keefe's missing sneaker, evidence that Bukhenik said supported investigators' ultimate theory that the victim had been struck by a motor vehicle.

Brennan, on direct examination, asked Bukhenik if there was a phrase about that in law enforcement circles.

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"Knocked out of your shoes," Bukhenik said.

Another component to that theory was Read's broken taillight. Brennan played Ring camera video taken from O'Keefe's driveway that showed the light was cracked when she left his house around 5 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.

Bukhenik said he questioned Read about the broken taillight later that morning and quoted her as saying, "I don't know how I did it last night."

O'Keefe had significant injuries to his face and head as well as cuts on his right arm by the time Bukhenik saw him at Good Samaritan hospital, he said.

Bukhenik, who moved to the U.S. from Ukraine when he was 9 and joined the Marine Corps after 9/11, is expected to return to the witness stand Friday morning when court resumes at 9 a.m. ET.

Letitia James town hall derailed by Trump supporter’s question: ‘Will you apologize?’

A town hall being held by New York Attorney General Letitia James on Thursday night was briefly disrupted when an apparent supporter of President Donald Trump stood up to challenge her to apologize to the president.

Though panelists mainly voiced leftist talking points throughout the night and the room primarily consisted of anti-Trump individuals, one apparent supporter of Trump stood up to ask James a question.

"My question is for Tish James. Will you apologize to President Trump for wasting millions of dollars and the state of New York for a witch trial?" asked the man, adding, "And how does it feel to know that you are [going to] prison for mortgage fraud?"

The crowd erupted with boos and the man was escorted out.

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Though she did not directly respond to the man, James did shout "thank you for coming" over the crowd.

James, a Democrat, is best known for filing a lawsuit against Trump and several of his family members, as well as associates and businesses, alleging "numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation" regarding financial statements.

Though Trump was ordered to pay $454 million in civil damages, the fine was later reduced significantly.

In response, Trump has called James’ case part of a "witch hunt" against him on the taxpayer’s dime.

The Department of Justice has since opened a criminal investigation into James.

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News of the federal probe follows a criminal referral from the Trump administration's Federal Housing Finance Agency Director, William Pulte. He requested the DOJ investigate James over accusations that she misrepresented a single-family home in Virginia as her primary residence to obtain more favorable loan terms.

She's also accused of misrepresenting the number of livable units in a multifamily Brooklyn house to obtain better loan terms. 

In April, NYC attorney Pierre Debbas told Fox News Digital that the criminal referral targeting James likely wouldn't have happened if she hadn't spent years going after Trump in court.

"The attorney general's case that was brought against Donald Trump was honestly a pure manipulation of the legal system, and it was laughable," he said.

"To be perfectly frank, this is a retaliatory case brought by the president for what the attorney general did to him over the last several years," he went on. "Something that's never taken place in the history of New York that was isolated at one particular person for a politically driven purpose."

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