Prime Crime: Boston Cop Found Dead Outside Sergeant’s Home After Night of Partying

on Prime crime 911 what's emergency there's a guy unresponsive in the snow don't know if she's breathing a house party with friends becomes a real life murder mystery it's very similar to the the game of Clue we have all these pieces and all of the players but we're not yet sure who did what was this a crime In the Heat of the Moment or a cold blooded cover up you knew at that time triple Proctor that this was not going to implicate in any way shape form or fashion another cop correct correct and will a storm on social media and even outside the courthouse change the outcome [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hey there everybody I'm Jesse Weber and welcome to Prime crime where we break down the most compelling and memorable True Crime cases from across the country when 46-year-old Boston police officer John o'keef turns up dead on the lawn of another brother in blue figuring out what happened becomes a national Obsession can't please s good hi um my name is Carrie I'm calling because my friend boyfriend and not come home last night they were at waterfall and now she is calling me hysterical because she doesn't know where he is you didn't pick anybody up by the name of John o'e did you John o'keef yeah he's a Boston cop no we didn't lock anybody up or anything like that so this all started on January 28th 2022 Karen Reed and her boyfriend John O'Keefe went out to the waterfall bar in grill a small bar in Canton Massachusetts drinking with some friends it's about 15 miles south of downtown Boston it has a very kind of small town feel to it it is a lot of Public Service people cops firefighters EMTs John O'Keefe is a 46-year-old police officer with Boston Police Department uh well-liked well respected in the community he took over guardianship of his niece and nephew when his sister and brother-in-law passed away people describe John as the type of guy that would literally give you the shirt off his back Karen Reed is a 44-year-old equity analyst and Adjunct professor living in nearby Mansfield she was highly educated um you know certainly presented well in terms of you know appearance and how she carried herself they met a couple decades ago kind of went their separate ways uh during covid they get back together and there's some rocks in the relationship now let's fast forward to the Fateful night of January 28th 202 22 they go out by all accounts they have a lot of drinks uh they are both fairly intoxicated there's surveillance footage from the bar that kind of shows them drinking having a good time nothing really out of the ordinary Reed and o'keith leave the waterfall Bar and Grill around midnight to travel to the home of Brian Albert where there's an Afterparty partygoer see Karen's SUV arrive at the Albert's home around 12:15 she leaves around 12:30 but nobody ever sees Karen or John go inside the residence it was snowing that night and it was snowing pretty hard at some point it was blizzard conditions visibility was poor Haren Reed drives ostensibly from the Albert's house back to joh O'Keefe's house where she's staying that night and between basically 12:40 is and 5:00 she calls him 53 times John I'm going home I cannot be you sit you need I need to go home she leaves him eight voicemails you another Girling next to me loser the niece then makes a phone call first to Carrie Roberts a friend of both John O'Keefe and Karen Reed saying John didn't come home Karen's really upset and Karen Roberts heard um Karen Reed sort of in a heightened state in the background of that call [Music] Carrie Roberts meets Karen at John's house where she calls 911 they were out having drinks and then she left and expected him to come home at some point and he never did he just didn't come home last night is this is this common sometimes never with him no no no no that's kind of why she's more freaking out and along with Jennifer McCabe the trio of women go out looking for joh O'Keefe on the morning of January 29th the three of them end up together in a car Jen and Carrie in the front seat Karen in the back seat they drive to 34 Fair View and as they're pulling up to the house um Karen Reed starts screaming and kicking the door and runs out of the car and runs to what Carrie Robert said was a snowbank and then Carrie Roberts said this woman is crazy what is she doing and then realizes that in that snowbank is John O'Keefe um she said he was buried under inches of snow how did Karen Reed know exactly where to look maybe at some point she had a flash of memory for whatever reason that's where she went she's kind of in hysterics Jen mccab calls 911 911 what's emergency I need someone to come immediately to 34 fa Road campon MK what's going on there's a guy unresponsive in the snow I just pulled up and found him Karen Reed started um lifting up her shirt to do skin to- skin to try and warm him up started performing CPR I know I know I'm on the phone with the ambulance I know I know I know I know honey I know Carri you got to get off him honey car you got to get off of him is there any bleeding or anything maybe hit his head hit his head out yes possibly there seems to be bleeding in the face okay bleeding from the face all right one of the women is doing CPR it doesn't seem to be breathing just give us a call back if he becomes response right but we're on the way he is in dire condition by the time EMTs arrive a number of EMTs arrive at 6:23 a.m. joh O'Keefe is transported to receive medical attention he has uh minor abrasions he has a bruise on the back of his right hand um but mostly what we're looking at is uh multiple skull fractures he also has two black eyes and those can be consistent with head trauma John O'Keefe was transferred to the hospital and he was declared dead now law enforcement has to figure out what on Earth happened to him police officers arve the snow is really coming down now it's really a blizzard now uh and it's just kind of this frantic scene over the course of those frantic several minutes Karen Reed said some version of the words did I hit him could I have hit him plus they had confiscated her car and she had a broken tail light and there were pieces of tail light found on the ground near John's body and so that seems to be the evidence early on that made them say Karen Reed was their suspect on February 1st Karen Reed is arrested and charged with second deegree murder manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene where personal injury or death occurred Karen pleads not guilty to these charges but could something else have happened to John O'Keefe other than Karen Reed hitting him with her car and leaving him to die in the snow really in this case we're left with more questions than answered uh first of all was this an accident or a homicide and what was it that O'Keefe actually went through was he struck by a vehicle were his injuries the result of some type of altercation what's the motive here we don't really know at this point up next we'll take a closer look at what might have happened in a case filled with twists and turns did you hear my client repeating the phrase I hit him I hit him I hit him I hit him no I I didn't hear that part if you had heard that statement you likely would have written it down wouldn't she [Music] yes the fendant responded you're hot I responded are you serious or messing with me theer responded no I'm serious I responded failing is mutual is that bad how long have you thought that Karen Reed has been charged with the murder of her boyfriend Boston police officer Jon O'Keefe but there are multiple theories as to what actually happened on the night of January 28th 2022 after Reed O'Keefe and their friends left the waterfall bar and grill for the home of Brian Albert one theory is that Karen Reed struck Jon O'Keefe with her Lexus SUV at the home of Brian Albert and then fled leaving JN O'Keefe in the snow if Karen has in fact hit Jon or struck him with her vehicle these are blizzard like conditions out uh was this intentional or could it be an accident as we explore these theories we need to get a better idea of what was happening in the Albert home the Alberts were having a party so the party has a number of friends and family there it was kind of going on throughout the night people were kind of coming and Jennifer McCabe is Nicole Albert the homeowner's sister so she and her husband Matt were out that night with everybody and then also back at the Afterparty Brian Albert Jr the son of the homeowners was celebrating his birthday the night of the Gathering Colin Albert he is Brian Albert the homeowner's nephew Colin went back to the house to wish his cousin Brian a happy birthday and then got a ride home on the morning now of January 29th John O'Keefe and Karen Reed they get into Karen Reed's car and she apparently drives over to the home of Brian Albert that's kind of where the story gets a little bit murky because according to Karen Reed she drops him off O'Keefe goes inside the house but nobody ever um saw Jon O'Keefe actually enter the home she returned to johon O'Keefe's residence um and went to sleep uh woke up around 4:30 or so in the morning and realized he was wasn't there she then um panics that he's not there Karen Reed called Jen McCabe and Carrie Roberts and the three of them decide to drive back over to 34 Fairview to see if they can find John and sure enough she finds him at 34 Fairview in a snowbank basically in the throws of hypothermia maybe she accidentally backed into John O'Keefe and knocked him out and he died they are both fairly intoxicated but what if it wasn't an accident you have some people that said Karen Reed and johon O'Keefe are on the outs they their relationship is falling apart and at that point she's made the decision it's over she's furious at him they're done she calls John multiple times throughout the evening doesn't answer and she leaves a series of angry messages John I'm with you nobody knows it's 1 in the morning I'm with we're left wandering would Karen make these calls to cover up her actions of the evening how did she know exactly where to go to find John something else happens at the scene that seems to point to Cameron Reed's guilt so there's this Google search Jennifer McCabe's phone shows that she Googled has long a body to die in the cold you clearly written very quickly with typos um in a Google Search and Jennifer mccab says I Googled that at 627 after we found John O'Keefe's body because Karen Reed asked me to did Reed strike O'Keefe with her vehicle leaving him there in the snow hoping that police would assume that he'd stumbled out there and succumbed to hypothermia however there's another theory of how Johan O'Keefe died that night the second theory on this case is that Karen re did not strike John o'keef that it was actually an altercation in the home so does O'Keefe come to the Albert residence make it inside without being seen and have some sort of altercation with a partygoer Brian Higgins was an ATF agent who was close personal friends with John O'Keefe Karen Reed and the Alberts Higgins also had somewhat of a history with Karen Reed so Brian and Karen had had this um texting flirty relationship in that month leading up to John O'Keefe's death this may have led to some kind of um um heated altercation after a night of drinking Higgins is at the Waterfalls Bar and grill that night and he's encouraging O'Keefe to come to Albert's house later maybe he's trying to move in on Karen Reed maybe he's there because if John O'Keefe is out of the way it kind of paves the road for him to get involved maybe it escalated other questions surround the members of the Albert household could have O'Keefe had an altercation with the Alberts and Colin in fact Brian Albert's nephew Colin was photographed with injuries on his knuckles less than a month after Jon's death that may indicate he was in a fight and an unexpected player emerges out of this fight Theory some of O'Keefe's injuries on his right arm look consistent with that of scratches or bites from a dog and the Alberts have a German Shepherd mix named Chloe that has a history of attacking strangers and for whatever reason was rehoused couple months after this incident took place Chloe is just out of the picture if the altercation occurred inside the home it is possible that John O'Keefe was uh pulled out through the basement there was an egress from the basement and then pulled around to the front of the house and ultimately left in the driveway where he died once outside more questions arise about the pieces of tail light some say were found at the scene and whether they came from Karen's SUV when she allegedly hit joh O'Keefe or did someone put those pieces there doorbell camera video captures Reed backing into John O'Keefe's vehicle in their driveway this was at 53 a.m. before John's body was found uh is this where the damage to the tail light occurred uh if so does this prove that law enforcement planted tail light at the scene so there's a unique element of this case with which is that this is all just a big police cover up um that they are fabricating evidence that they are planting evidence that she is being framed that this is really all uh a police kind of orchestrated conspiracy to protect their own um and that the police are really at fault here part of that is the perfect storm of a a lack of evidence in this case no video of an incident outside the house that night many witnesses who had been drinking all night this case it's very similar to the the game of Clue was it the Alberts in the basement that killed John O'Keefe or was it Karen Reed with the SUV we have all these pieces and all of the players but we're not yet sure who did what Karen Reed's trial for the alleged murder of her boyfriend Boston police officer John O'Keefe begins on April 29th 2024 in DEA Massachusetts a trial followed and watched by many across the country the defendant is charged with second deegree murder she's also charged with manslaughter while operating Under the Influence and leaving the scene after causing personal injury or death stated repeatedly I hit him I hit him I hit him the only true and just based on that is that the defendant car his guilty murder in the second degree striking the the victim is Jo with her car knocking him back onto the ground and then leaving him there for several hours in a bliz the temperatures in the team wind swirling around snow piling up on his b until she comes with Mrs M and Mrs Roberts just after 6 mon Karen Reed was framed her car never struck John o'keef she did not cause his death and that means that somebody else did you will learn that it was no accident that joh o'keef was found dead on the front lawn of 34th Fair viiew Road you will learn that at that address lived a well-known and well-connected law enforcement family in C the Alberts because the Alberts were involved and because they had close connections to the investigators in this case Karen Reed was framed for a murder she did not commit coming up Karen Reed's trial gets people talking and taking sides inside the courtroom and in the court of public public opinion Karen Reen re said she H and I believe I I [Music] believe hey thanks so much for watching the Karen Reed case we're going to get right back to it but you might not know this but one of the tools we use in producing our content is something called truthfinder it's one of our sponsors and it's one of the largest public record search services in the United States and you can use it to look up a lot of helpful information about people it's not just for those of us in True Crime it can be an extra layer of security for any of you because you go on their website truthfinder.com you type in a name and within minutes at a paid subscription purchase you can access unlimited reports that could include information like phone numbers location history criminal and traffic records also if you type in an address within a report it can show you registered sex offenders that live in an area which is just kind of wild to see and right now you can get 50% off of confidential background reports just go to truthfinder.com /lc Prime [Music] crime we know who did it we know and we know who spearheaded this cover up you all know I tried to save his life I tried to save his life at 6:00 in the morning I was covered in his I was the only one trying to save his life the prosecution in Karen Reed's trial for the murder of her Boston police officer boyfriend John o'keef begins with Witnesses testifying about the couple's relationship I witnessed uh you know one intense U fight U between the two of them alcohol had been involved um I recall her complaining that you know he wasn't nice to her or you know something to that effect and um I was kind of the referee in that uh entire situation many people have described that it was tumultuous towards the end of their relationship a lot of fighting um a lot of fighting that had been induced by alcohol but interestingly enough according to the defense Karen Reed and him are fine when this Reed actually walked into the location how Miss Reed and Mr oi greeted each other it appeared that that was quite an affectionate greeting did you agree they kissed so Keith put his right arm out and this Reed sort of nestled into his Embrace okay and that's when he kissed her yes as you see in the waterfalls video there's no big fight there's no throwing drinks on somebody there's no clapping there's no shouting at the table there's nothing it's just looks like a group of friends having fun having drinks together and then they leave it doesn't seem like the relationship is bad enough to prompt Reed to deliberately hit O'Keefe with her car but could something have happened in the past that came to a head that night now Mr Higgins these are text messages between yourself and Miss re is that correct yes the fendant responded you're hot I responded are you serious I'm messing with me the fender responded no I'm serious I responded failing is mutual is that bad how long have you thought that you have this kind of subn narrative of Brian Higgins and so he's kind of a player in this even though his role depending on who you ask is very different but it's it's very much alluded to in the way the defense is weaving the case my question is were you or were you not sexually attracted to my client yes romantically attractive I'm not going to go there no I don't I don't agree with that of course you're not going to go there because that would put you in a very awkward position wouldn't it sir the defense seems to suggest Brian Higgins may have been so attracted to Karen Reed that he lured John O'Keefe to the Afterparty planning to get him out of the way but was O'Keefe even at the party John o'keef or Karen Reed that you saw at the bar earlier that night at any point in time on the evening of the 20 or the early morning of the 29th did either of those people come into no they never came into my home at any point time did you see John O ke at that house come into that house around that house at any point in time never in fact GPS tracking of Jon O'Keefe's Phone supports the idea that he was never inside the house there's there was no GPS points ever showing inside the home the backyard of the home in your opinion sir at any point in time uh from the data that you reviewed uh did Mr o'keef Enter 34 Fairview Road no not at all nobody saw John o'keef enter that home nobody can place Jon O'Keefe inside the home on January 28th but then nobody sees them on the front lawn lying dead either and you looked out that window with that clear and good view there was no body was there I never saw a body thank you I wish I had joh O'Keefe according to the prosecution is there from about 12:30 onward just laying in the snow for between 5 and 6 hours all these people leave the party at some point and they just managed to walk right by where John O'Keefe was laying and nobody saw him David yannetti one of the defense attorneys contacts the sanitation department and he actually finds out that there is plowing that's done that night he tracks down the actual plow driver when you made that first pass by that Residence at 245 in the morning sir with your headlights on what if anything did you see on the front lawn in the area of the flag pole I saw nothing if there had been a 6'2 200 lb man lying in the snow there would you have seen it yes yet the prosecution points out that Karen Reed spots joh O'Keefe's body as soon as she and her friends drive up to the Albert's house around 6:00 a.m. we drive past the um flag pole area and all of a sudden Karen starts screaming there he is there he is after the officer arrives what what happened Karen just ran around screaming is he dead is he dead it was on repeat um could I have um did I hit him why is Kieran Reed why is she asking it is she asking it because she's admitting that she hit him and and trying to piece it together in her own head or is she you know such a State of Shock trying to wonder when this could have happened how this could have happened and who could be responsible so she said I hit him she repeated it and there was a police officer who was in that vicinity kind of with us who replied you what she repeated it one more time while you were on scene at 34 Fairview for an hour and 40 minutes did you ever once hear Karen Reed say I hit him I hit him I hit him I hit him I did not all and you wrote a report regarding this correct I did how many pieces of tail light did you find on or around that property that morning none the COC tail light really became another hyperfocused piece of this case and the fragments from that tail light became really critical evidence uh later on as the investigation unfolded and then the investigation takes a bizarre turn Canton police officers they then pull out a leaf blower to start trying to clear off pieces of snow to see if they can find anything and they do not find any pieces of tail light this is all around like 78 a.m. that morning so within the hours of John's body being found the fact that a lot of this evidence wasn't found until many days later supports the theory that there was some somebody else was involved with this that this wasn't Karen Reed and you began the process of uh removing layers of snow in other words dusting the area with a leaf blower that is correct did you ever used a leaf blower in a crime scene preservation effort first time police used a leaf blower to move snow away from the crime scene now the problem with this is you could potentially move evidence away from its position and that's critical in the investigation I'd like to ask you a couple of questions about the collection of the blood you found what you thought was blood initially right that's correct and you indicated your testimony was temporary evidence containers to collect that blood correct yep we utilized U cups plastic cups those were red Solo cups right presp and where did you get those red Solo cups uh we get them from Lieutenant kellerer they end up borrowing Solo cups from a nearby Canton police officer's home because they don't have any evidence collection items on them they scoop up bloody pieces of snow into Solo cups and wrap them in Stop and Shop bags do you think it's standard practice for a police department to borrow red Solo cups from a neighbor to gather evidence of course not nothing about the scene was standard I've often said that every crime scene is a puzzle but what happens when you can't trust the pieces you have we're left trying to determine if the evidence is really showing a true picture of what occurred almost 12 hours after joh O'Keefe's body was found the Massachusetts State Police take the case over from the Canton PD by about 5:00 that night the state police search team they do a more formal search where they use rakes and shovels to turn over pieces of of snow they end up finding multiple pieces of tail light everybody agrees that no tail light was found until the state police team came in I found multiple pieces of red and clear tail light you know approxim how many pie that I believe maybe six or seven pieces a lot of the physical evidence wasn't collected until there had been some snow melting and some snow removal and that's also concerning um particularly when the theory of the case is that Karen Reed was set up for this that she was somehow a scapegoat for something else that happened even experts couldn't agree on what happened to Jon O'Keefe for example a prosecution witness testified that J O'Keefe's injuries were in keeping with being struck by a vehicle based on the evidence from the the vehicle um based on the injuries to to John O'Keefe um the tail light tears be broken and it sharp plastic pieces that could have ripped his arm and also the dent with the scratches above it is consistent with a hand holding a glass smack in the vehicle you can see there's a line between scratches and a dent there but the defense called in their own expert is the injury to the head that you saw consistent with having been struck by a vehicle it is not no sir to get the injury it was a a fracture at the occipital region of the head which is basically on the back bottom part of the head so in order to have that part of the head contacted by the tail light you would somehow have to have a configuration or be standing in in a manner that the rest of your body doesn't get hit because there's no other significant injuries to the body so the fact that we only have that head injury and only damage to the occipital portion of the skull uh is inconsistent uh in this case with being struck by that that tail light the defense pushes the theory that joh O'Keefe was killed or badly injured during an altercation inside the Albert's home they suggest the police tried to protect their own by not investigating it properly you had a an officer Boston police officer who was either dead or dying on the front lawn of a house with a bunch of occupants and you didn't think that it was necessary to investigate or interview those occupants yourself no I did not nobody's going to his door to say hey do you know what happened here did you see anything was anybody in your home this evening was John O'Keefe in your home this evening nobody asked those questions that night at the scene did you look around the house for any sign of a struggle or a fight no did you go to the basement at all do you know did you personally observe whether or not that house has a bulkhead door that Services the basement I have no idea inside the house did you photograph any part of the house no joh o ke's body is found right outside the Albert house and yet no investigation is done inside the house the people at the party are not interviewed for quite some time there's no observations conducted inside the house to see if there are signs of a struggle maybe we want to go in and just take a quick look around see if anything looks out of place and it's just not done searching for answers the defense team calls in an expert to evaluate some Curious injuries on John's arm what is your opinion and conclusion concerning those injuries those injuries appear to be consistent with an animal attack well they are consistent with with a large dog attack and the Alberts have a German Shepherd mix named Chloe that has a history of attacking strangers there's combination of both what I consider bite wounds and scratch wounds on the arm there were also some puncture wounds in that shirt Albert you don't have B anymore do you nope in May of 2022 4 months after Mr O's death you got rid of your family dog of 6 years I did not get rid of my dog I rehomed my dog your dog is no longer in the campon area correct no but I know where she is she's in Vermont and that previous testimony that information has all been given so if she was ever needed for anything we know where she is and there's another big question in this case so there's this big kind of dispute between the prosecution and the defense over this Google Search did you in fact use a phrase to Google search how long it takes for someone to die of extreme temperatures I did in the morning at the request of your client you see this first surf says hos long to die in cold I do what's that time 2:27 a.m. M MCC you made that search at 2:27 a.m. because you knew that joh O'Keefe was outside and your sister's lawn dying in the cold didn't you absolutely not the defense wants it to be earlier in the morning because it's before Karen Reed called Jen mccab to say JN didn't come home so that would suggest that Jen mccab and the Alberts knew that Jon's body was out in the cold and that they were sort of like oh let's see how long he can stay out there before he dies kind of thing Mr M the reason you deleted that 2:27 a.m. call because you realized that if you were caught Googling how long it takes for a person to die in the cold 3 and a half hours before John's body was found that would incriminate you wouldn't it finally the medical examiner who conducted John O'Keefe's autopsy takes the stand what did you list as cause of death on Mr with regards to death cause of death was blunt impact injuries of head and hypothermia and with reference to manner of death what if anything did you list on Mr op's death certificate in relation to manner I listed could not be determined the thing that I can't wrap my head around with this case is uh the cause of death so far it's ruled undetermined so how are you if it's his death is undetermined how do we charge somebody for it if it seems like everything about this trial has been confusing and shocking so far coming up lead investigator Michael Proctor takes the stand and takes it to a whole other level you could uh just read number a series of responses from yourself from all accounts he didn't do anything wrong she's a whack job so this these are your words Trooper Proctor yes shirano go ahead and say [Music] them hey as you're watching this Karen Reed case I think it becomes pretty obvious how important great lawyering is and look I can't talk about great lawyers without shouting out our incredible sponsor of prime crime Morgan and Morgan America's largest injury Law Firm look if you're hurt this is a firm you may want in your corner over a thousand attorneys a dedicated team of investigators Specialists paral leals a track record of verdicts and settlements in the multi-millions no upfront fee the whole process can be done straight from your smartphone so if you're injured you can easily start a claim at forthepeople.com Prim crime [Music] what did you tell your colleagues that you were looking for as you sat looking through Karen Reed's phone no nudes so far no nudes so far correct correct you said that to your bosses yes sir several weeks into the trial of Karen Reed for the murder of her boyfriend Boston police officer John O'Keefe lead investigator Michael Proctor takes the stand somehow Michael Proctor who is known to the Alberts for a very long time and they consider him a very good friend somehow catches this case um and he becomes a much bigger part of the investigation than I think he ever really wanted to be the Massachusetts State Police Trooper responds to a series of texts he exchanged with friends family and colleagues and what does he say in that text I'm sure the owner of the house will received some and what is it that you respond uh my first response was nope um homeowner is a Boston cop to what if anything were you saying or what what was the purpose of of that text in regard to the home I was just letting him know that Sally Mr Keef is a Boston cop and the homeowner was a Boston cop as well you knew at that time triple Proctor that this was not going to implicate in any way shape form or fashion another cop correct correct lead investigator Trooper Michael Proctor indicates through a series of text messages from his personal phone that he is in close alliance with law enforcement he's clearly biased against Karen Reed and willing to cover for fellow Law Enforcement Officers then 5051 says oh she's skating right correct and what did you write after that my response was zero chance she skated and then what did you right she's zero chance she skates she's right correct 17 hours into this investigation Trooper Proctor you made the decision that you were going to put it on Miss Reed didn't you put the case on MRE she was going to catch the case correct what you meant by that comment to proactor was I am going to make sure miss Reed doesn't skit Michael Proctor his testimony his conduct in this investigation were incredibly damaging to the prosecution and from all accounts the other decision that you made and the other determination you came to was my client Karen Reed was a whack job right yes what else did you say in response to shead at least question mark So following that text I responded yeah she's a babe we' follow River accent though no ass yeah she's a babe who's the she miss Reed think that's appropriate absolutely not the juror's reactions to Michael Proctor's testimony were visible when he was reading those text messages you could see reactions from jurors to the awful text that he had sent about Karen Reed the rest of the unprofessional and regrettable comments are something I'm not proud of uh and I shouldn't have wrote in uh in a private or any type of setting on June 25th 2024 after 2 months Karen Reed's trial comes to a close ladies and gentlemen there was a cover up in this case plain and simple what evidence do they actually have to prove that that SUV ever hit John the answer is none and Jon's injuries did not come from being hit by a car so how are those injuries properly explained the evidence is simple John got into an alter he got hit and he fell to the ground fracturing his skull at some point during that altercation the dog got a hold of him every single injury is explained by that given what we know about the facts and the physical evidence in this case the actual truth in this case how did this happened how did we end up here we ended up here because of relationships and building a tall blue wall I hit him I hit him I hit him I hit him those are the words of the defendant four times we were testimony from four different Witnesses text messages from triple Proctor are unprofessional they're indefensible they're in excusable however I submit they had no bearing whatsoever or impact whatsoever on the Integrity of the entirety of the investigation what do you not see in those text messages you don't see any discussion or any illusion of any conspiracy of any framing of the defendant of any plan anting of any evidence no evidence whatsoever why because it didn't happen there is no conspiracy there is no cover up there is no evidence of any of that the jury deliberates for more than 20 hours over 5 days then something unusual happens they told the judge they were deadlocked I write this very articulate uh jury note about how they are just at an impass they can not come to a decision judge kenon despite our rigorous efforts we continue to find ourselves at an impass our perspectives on the evidence are starkly divided the Deep division is not due to a lack of effort or diligence but rather a sincere adherence to our individual principles and moral convictions to continue to deliberate would be feudal and only serve to force us to compromise these deeply held beliefs I'm not going to do that to you folks your service is complete I'm declaring a mistrial in this case I wasn't surprised by the mistrial in fact anticipated it and the reason being that this case has been so polarizing uh you people either feel really strongly that she did it or they feel really strongly that it was a cover up what's the vibe like out here today it's hostile I'm here today to stand up for the o' family the mccab family the Albert family and the Roberts family they have become victims in this terrible game that Karen Reed is playing well I was disappointed that the jury couldn't come to a verdict you know based on what I've seen of the trial and watching all the pre-trial hearings and stuff you know it was very evident that Karen Reed did not do this but the Karen Reed story didn't end there in a press release the Commonwealth announced it intends to retry the case and Reed's lawyers announced they were in it to win it I'm not from Texas like my colleague here uh I'm I'm a Boston kid but I'll repeat what he said which is we ain't got no quit and if you thought that was the end of the twists in this case not quite since the end of the trial Massachusetts State Police has issued a statement that Trooper Michael Proctor has been relieved of Duty if this case is retried Proctor continues to be their poison apple he continues to be a real liability to them but at the same time they very much need Proctor because he was the lead investigator on this cas case now two additional Massachusetts state troopers involved in the case are also the subjects of an internal investigation and in a case filled with them there's one more major twist Reed's defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss the case it seems that some of the jurors reached out to the defense attorneys and said well actually we were unanimous on some of the charges just not all of them in fact on the second deegree murder charge and leave leaving the scene of an accident we were all unanimous to acquit and that's very significant because under double jeopardy law in this country once there is a final resolution to a charge you cannot be retried on it led by a new face Martin Weinberg that's exactly what Reed's defense team argued at a dismissal hearing on August 9th 2024 stop her reprosecution because that would be a horror to make her convince 24 jurors of Miss it's a second 12 when she's ready to convince the first 12 but 2 weeks later judge kenon denied the motion to dismiss no matter where this case goes the o'keef family and and the Reed family they are forever changed despite a trial that lasted over two months this case still raises more questions than answers and it likely isn't over yet but the bottom line is a beloved Boston police officer is dead and the children he had been caring for are left without a father figure once again that's all we have for you here on this episode of prime crime everybody thank you so much for joining us I'm Jesse Weber and as always stay safe [Music]