Karen Read retrial hits Day 9 with the fateful night in question

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on May 5, 2025

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DEDHAM, Mass. — Two witnesses who say they visited 34 Fairview Road in Canton at around the time Karen Read allegedly struck and killed John O’Keefe testified that they didn’t see the victim in or near the vehicle at the home.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, faces charges including second-degree murder in the death of O’Keefe, a Boston police officer and her boyfriend of roughly two years at the time, sometime after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors say she struck him with her Lexus SUV leaving him to freeze and die on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road.

There have been five witnesses on the stand so far on Monday, the ninth day of the trial, by 11:50 a.m. The fifth witness is Canton Fire paramedic Katie McLaughlin, who testified in the first trial that she heard Read say “I hit him” at the scene. It’s sure to be a long and contested testimony.

Ryan Nagel testified that he was out drinking with friends at the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton when he got a text from his sister, Julie Nagel, asking to be picked up from 34 Fairview Road, where she and others were celebrating the birthday of their friend Brian Albert Jr., who lived there.

Ryan Nagel set out with his friend Ricky and girlfriend at the time, Heather Maxon, in Ricky’s truck. On the way to Fairview Road the truck encountered “a black SUV” at an intersection, and Ricky flashed his lights for the SUV to go first. Context clues imply this “black SUV” is Read’s Lexus LX570, the alleged murder weapon. He testified that the car was operated normally, at normal speed, staying in the lane and using the blinker.

He said he wasn’t paying attention to the occupants of the SUV as the truck also turned in behind it but that it stopped at 34 Fairview ahead of them. When Ricky parked his truck in the driveway, Julie Nagel came out maybe two minutes later, Ryan Nagel said, and invited the three in for drinks, which they declined. Julie Nagel was close enough, her brother testified, that he “could have bopped her on the nose if I wanted to,” and she’d been drinking.

Upon leaving he saw a woman in the driver’s seat and nobody else inside or outside. He also testified that the taillight, the area of the vehicle prosecutors say would strike O’Keefe, was intact at this time.

Heather Maxon, Ryan Nagel’s girlfriend at the time who was also in the truck, provided very similar testimony. She testified she did see the car when it turned and that she saw a woman driving and a man in the passenger seat.

The party

Brian Albert Jr. had friends over on Jan. 28 to celebrate his birthday the next day. Those included Julie Nagel and Sara Levinson, who took the stand after morning recess Monday.

Levinson testified that the mood inside the house was “light, celebratory.” She said adults including homeowner Brian Albert came home “around midnight” and joined in the festivities.

When prosecutor Hank Brennan asked if anything “extraordinary or remarkable” happened while she was in the home she said no.

Levinson testified that the plan was that Ryan Nagel would come and take his sister and Levinson home, but that after Julie Nagel went out the plan was different because she wanted to stay.

Instead, Jennifer and Matt McCabe took the two young women home.

In cross she said she didn’t see anyone in the front lawn, which was “relatively” lit by the windows casting interior light as well as exterior lights on the home.

Blood alcohol

The day began with continuing cross examination of Hannah Knowles, a forensic scientist with the Massachusetts State Police crime lab who testified Friday that Read’s blood alcohol content was between 0.14% and 0.28% at around 12:45 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. That is well above the 0.08% legal driving limit.

Defense attorney David Yannetti continued challenging the report she used to provide this retrograde extrapolation to arrive at these numbers. The materials she was given was a report by the lab of Brockton’s Good Samaritan Hospital, which had performed a serum test a little after 9 a.m.

Yannetti had Knowles admit that serum testing provides for a higher alcohol content than whole blood testing. Knowles said that she first converted the serum results to a rough equivalent of a whole blood test and then worked backward from that number to arrive at the BAC range for 12:45 a.m.

That time was selected because it was based on when Read’s BAC was likely highest based on when she likely quit drinking. She admitted on the stand that if this assumption is incorrect, like if Read continued drinking at O’Keefe’s house later in the night, then her results would not be accurate.

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