Karen Read Trial Day 1: Murder or Setup?
Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 23 April 2025
⏱️ 38 minutes
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Summary
Karen Read is once again facing a Massachusetts jury, accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, by allegedly backing over him with her SUV after a night of drinking. But from the very beginning, this case hasn’t followed the usual script. Instead, it has erupted into a legal firestorm marked by sensational headlines, missing evidence, and a trial so tangled it’s divided an entire community and public opinions online.
Karen Read is facing 3 charges: Second-Degree murder, Manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The commonwealth says she hit John O'Keefe with her Lexus SUV in the middle of a snowstorm... then left him to die in the front yard of a fellow former Boston Police Officer’s home on 34 Fairview Rd. in Canton, MA. Karen Read says that house on 34 Fairview Road holds the answers, and that the people inside that house, including cops, are the ones hiding what really happened that night.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi everybody. I'm Ashley Banfield, and this is Drop Dead Serious. And today, we're heading back into the courtroom for what might just be one of the most controversial murder trials in America. The retrial of Karen Reed. And let me be perfectly clear. This is not some quiet small town |
| 0:24.1 | proceeding with a jury that's blissfully unaware of the headlines. This case has been everywhere. |
| 0:30.2 | On social media, on major streaming platforms, on Dateline and true crime podcasts like this one, |
| 0:39.3 | and my News Nation show every night, |
| 0:45.9 | 10 o'clock News Nation. The jury may be under instructions to consider only what is presented in court, but they are not walking in blind, not even close. So let me set the stage for you |
| 0:53.5 | for day one of the evidentiary phase of Karen Reed's retrial for the murder of John O'Keefe. |
| 0:59.9 | You may, if you followed the case last year, you may have watched the, it's like a fashion show almost. |
| 1:06.7 | As Karen Reid arrives to court every day, she's always dressed like impeccably. |
| 1:11.7 | She's got this very, very slight frame and she's got these really great suits. Like I love them. They're power |
| 1:16.1 | suits. She's got a great wardrobe and she's always decked, right? Just decked out when she comes to |
| 1:22.7 | court. She did not disappoint today. She showed up in this really conservative, snug fitting blue suit. |
| 1:31.4 | And she looked, like I said, she looked terrific. |
| 1:33.4 | She looked business-like, like a stockbroker because that was her business before. |
| 1:38.3 | And she looked like she meant business. |
| 1:40.2 | She's flanked by her attorneys. |
| 1:41.9 | And Alan Jackson is back, baby, her hot shot attorney from |
| 1:45.9 | Los Angeles. I covered Alan Jackson when he was a prosecutor and he was prosecuting |
| 1:52.5 | Phil Specter a gazillion years ago and he was really good back then and he's only getting |
| 1:58.2 | better with time. So she's flanked by her attorneys. And the one thing |
| 2:02.0 | you didn't see as much this time is Karen Reed walking through the throngs of supporters and |
| 2:08.5 | protesters. Because there are camps in this town. There are camps. There's an official one called |
| 2:15.2 | the free Karen Reid movement, the FKR people. They all wear |
... |
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