A former Canton police lieutenant who was in charge of the scene of John O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022, testified about his decision to use unorthodox evidence collection means that morning in the trial of Karen Read, a Massachusetts financial analyst accused of running over her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, and leaving him to die in the snow.
Last week saw days of testimony from Jennifer McCabe, a key witness who was present at the after-party on the night O’Keefe died and with Read at the scene when he was found dead the next morning.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan churned through witnesses Monday, calling a blood-alcohol expert, a young couple who saw Read’s car outside before prosecutors believe O’Keefe was struck and killed, a paramedic and the former Canton cop who used a leaf blower and red Solo cups to collect evidence.
Former Canton Lt. Paul Gallagher, who was the supervisor on scene after O’Keefe had been transported to Good Samaritan Hospital, was the decision maker responsible for a number of unorthodox methods used to collect evidence on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
Gallagher said he wanted the leaf blower used because he was afraid disturbing the snow with a shovel could damage potential evidence. He said the red Solo cups “hold liquid terrifically” and claimed that the paper grocery bag used to transport them was similar to an evidence bag police would have used if they’d had one.
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At one point, Gallagher denied having any knowledge that disgraced Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor was the lead investigator on the case, prompting a visible reaction from Read at the defense table, who mouthed words that did not reach the courthouse microphones.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson took issue with the lax standards of evidence collection during a grueling cross-examination, questioning Gallagher about his lack of a firsthand account in writing, potential contamination of the blood evidence, and an unclear chain of custody or evidence logs.
Jackson asked why he sent a sergeant to get a leaf blower but didn’t send anyone to grab proper evidence collection materials.
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But Gallagher shot back that had O’Keefe’s blood sample been contaminated by someone else’s DNA, it would have shown up on testing and been “good” for Read’s defense.
“[The cups] weren’t going to get soggy,” Gallagher said. “They were large. I needed a small sample. My thought was, because [the blood] was frozen or coagulated, that we could collect it, transport it and transfer it to the crime lab, who could extract the DNA however they saw best fit.”
He said he made decisions on the fly due to ongoing blizzard conditions and a lack of awareness at the time that a crime had been committed. The initial call came over as a possible “unattended death,” which he said usually involves natural causes.
Gallagher responded to the scene in his personal vehicle because it had four-wheel drive, he said.
He instructed officers to put frozen blood in the snow into the Solo cups and stored them in a bag from Stop & Shop, a supermarket. He also uncovered a broken “cocktail glass” with the leaf blower near his approximation of where O’Keefe died.
Brennan played two videos of Gallagher using the leaf blower at the crime scene, depicting how effective it was at revealing John O’Keefe’s blood on the snow. Brennan noted a broken cocktail glass could be seen buried in the snow next to where O’Keefe’s body was found. Gallagher testified that he handed the glass off to another officer at the scene and did not see it again until it was moved from an evidence locker to the forensic unit.
Gallagher went on to reveal the glass inside the courtroom and held it up for the jurors.
Read has denied that her vehicle struck O’Keefe and pleaded not guilty.
Outside auditors previously recommended more training for Canton police after an independent review of their handling of the crime scene.
Gallagher is expected to return to the witness stand Tuesday morning.
Katie McLaughlin, a paramedic with the Canton Fire Department who was at the scene, testified earlier that after she asked Read for demographic information about O’Keefe and if there had been any significant trauma to the victim.
“She answered with a series of statements that she repeated, ‘I hit him, I hit him,’” McLaughlin testified.
McCabe told her to calm down, she said, but Read allegedly kept repeating the phrase.
“And a police officer asked her, ‘Said you what?’” she testified. “And she repeated it again, ‘I hit him.’ And the officer then signaled for his sergeant to come down to the scene.”
On cross-examination, McLaughlin told defense attorney Jackson that she didn’t take notes during the exchange. He played back dashcam video from that morning and asked her what she was doing. She said she was writing O’Keefe’s vitals on her gloves.
He asked if she wrote down anything about Read “confessing” to the crime. She said she hadn’t and that she threw the gloves out and did not preserve any notes from them.
McLaughlin testified that she had known Caitlin Albert, whose parents owned the home at 34 Fairview Road where O’Keefe was found dead, for years, having grown up together and had overlapping social circles. However, she denied they shared a close personal relationship and downplayed their ties.
Jackson tried to have McLaughlin discuss photographs showing her and Caitlin Albert and to grill her about her testimony from Read’s first trial, but the judge sustained Brennan’s repeated objections.
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Ryan Nagel and Heather Maxon, who were dating at the time of O’Keefe’s death in January 2022, both testified they were stopped outside 34 Fairview Road for about five minutes, arriving around the time as Read and O’Keefe and leaving before she allegedly hit him with her SUV. Read drove in front of them as they were pulling onto the road, and there was a male in the passenger seat, according to trial testimony.
Both testified that in the minutes they were behind Read’s SUV outside the address, they did not see him walking across the front yard or entering the house, but they also did not see him in the passenger seat of Read’s vehicle when they drove right next to it as they were leaving.
Outside experts told Fox News Digital that Nagel’s testimony could help the defense, raising questions about O’Keefe’s whereabouts at that time.
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“He did not see John O’Keefe in the car or on the lawn or crossing the lawn,” said Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts defense attorney who has been following the trial. “So where was John O’Keefe?”
The question could boost the defense’s assertion that Read never struck her boyfriend with her SUV, according to John Deaton, another Massachusetts trial attorney and former Senate candidate.
“Today’s testimony hurts the prosecution, as a witness stated the passenger seat was empty next to Karen Read in the driver’s seat, suggesting that John O’Keefe was already inside the house,” he told Fox News Digital. “That’s probably reasonable doubt No. 10.”
Sarah Levinson, a friend of Nagel’s sister who was inside the house, testified that O’Keefe did not come into the home before she left between 1:30 and 2 a.m. with McCabe, her husband, Matt and Julie Nagel.
Read faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and fleeing the scene. She could face up to life in prison if convicted of the top charge.
