Expert in Karen Read retrial testifies John O'Keefe's injuries are dog bites

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Jun 2, 2025

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DEDHAM, Mass. — A medical doctor testified in the Karen Read murder trial that she believes wounds to John O’Keefe’s arm were “inflicted by a dog.”

“There are multiple groupings of wounds,” Dr. Marie Russell said as she used a laser pointer to indicate on a photograph of O’Keefe’s arm each wound grouping: to the upper arm, to the elbow and to the forearm. “These multiple groupings are patterns and are, in my opinion, inflicted by a dog.”

Russell was the third witness the defense called on Monday and was the first defense witness called so far who testified at the first trial last year. Her testimony remains the same as it was last year, though the defense spent roughly an hour establishing her bona fides as a medical doctor and canine bite expert before asking her particular questions about this case.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death. She’s accused of killing John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer she had dated for about two years at the time of his death on Jan. 29, 2022.

Prosecutors say that Read slammed into O’Keefe with her Lexus LX570 SUV just ahead of a major snowstorm, and following a night of heavy boozing and yet another argument in a deteriorating relationship, and left him to freeze and die on a Canton front yard.

The defense counters that “there was no collision” and that instead O’Keefe was beaten inside that home, 34 Fairview Road, by others, possibly including homeowner Brian Albert, who was a fellow Boston cop; or ATF Agent Brian Albert, who had a romantic interest in Read; as well as Albert’s dog, a German shepherd named Chloe. They say Read was framed by corrupt law enforcement.

Russell had just testified to the dog bite analysis when the court took a break for lunch. She was preceded on the stand by Boston Police Officer Kelly Dever, who was a member of the Canton Police Department at the time of O’Keefe’s death.

Dever’s testimony was very tense, with defense attorney Alan Jackson asking her at one point whether she even wanted to be there.

“I am put on the stand in a murder trial. I don’t know why I’m here. I have no connection to this case,” Dever answered.

The basis for bringing Dever to the stand, revealed through Jackson’s questioning, is that she initially told agents from “a law enforcement agency” that she saw Higgins and then-Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz enter the police department garage and spend a “wildly long time” with Read’s SUV. This would give credence to the defense’s theory that police meddled with the evidence, including the busted taillight whose pieces were later found at the crime scene.

She said she later recanted this statement as a “false memory” after being shown a timeline of events that proved that wasn’t possible. She said that she was told by the legal department of the “law enforcement agency” that what she said was made in good faith and thus was not a lie.

The “law enforcement agency” is a euphemism for the FBI, needed since attorneys are not allowed to directly reference the federal probe into the investigation which has since ended.

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