Dedham – Testimony The Karen Reed Incident Continuing today in the Massachusetts murder trial, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Brian Higgins took the stand to read out several “flirtatious” text messages exchanged with the defendant.
Reed is accused of striking and killing her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with an SUV and leaving him in the snow outside their Canton home in 2022. The defense argued she was being entrapped and Alleged cover-up Law enforcement gets involved.
You can watch the Karen Reed trial live in the CBS News Boston video player above.
Who is Brian Higgins?
Higgins had been at an afterparty that night at a home at 34 Fairview Road owned by Brian Albert. Higgins is one of three people named by the defense as suspects. Alternate suspect Upon O’Keeffe’s death.
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The defense has so far Surveillance Video Footage from the Waterfall Bar & Grill in Canton shows Higgins and Albert pretending to fight at the bar before the afterparty.
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“The footage speaks for itself,” Reed’s lawyer, Alan Jackson, said of the video. “It shows two guys grappling, sparring, it looks like they’re fighting. It looks like they’re practicing martial arts.”
Albert testified that the two were just “going around.”
In a new discovery notice filed this week, prosecutors said five pages of Higgins’ medical records had been provided to the defense.
Asked what was going to happen during cross-examination of Higgins outside Norfolk Superior Court on Wednesday, Jackson replied simply: “Fireworks.”
What was Brian Higgins’ relationship with John O’Keefe and Karen Reid like?
Higgins testified that he had known O’Keefe for about a year and that they would often meet at the Hillside Pub in Canton, and that he had also gone to O’Keefe’s house to watch the end of New England Patriots games. Higgins said O’Keefe was usually with Reed.
“I considered him a friend,” Higgins said, “and I considered her a friend too.”
Mr Higgins sent a text message to Mr Reid at Waterfall that night saying something along the lines of “Hmm, well, yeah”, and told jurors: “To be honest, it was a flirtatious text message.”
Higgins said he did not see Reed or O’Keefe that night after he left Waterfall, and that he thought he was the first to leave the afterparty at 34 Fairview, arriving at his West Roxbury home around 2 a.m.
Higgins testified that Brian Albert called him around 6:30 a.m. to say O’Keefe had been found on the front lawn of the home.
“I couldn’t understand it,” Ms Higgins said. “I couldn’t do the math in my head because I knew John O’Keefe and the defendant never appeared in court. I just couldn’t understand it.”
Text by Brian Higgins and Karen Reid
The prosecution had Higgins read out several text messages exchanged between him and Karen Reid in January 2022, before Ms O’Keefe’s death.
In one of the messages, Reid tells Higgins, “You’re hot.”
“Are you serious or are you kidding me?” Higgins replies.
“No, I’m serious,” Reed said.
Higgins later said Reed “planted a kiss” on him after watching a Patriots game at O’Keefe’s home on a Saturday night in January.
“It didn’t seem like he was a friend,” Higgins testified.
In another series of messages, Reid texts Higgins to “come over to my house.”
Reid texted Higgins to tell her he didn’t want children and that their relationship was complicated by O’Keefe caring for his niece and nephew.
In one message, Mr Higgins told Ms Reid she would be happy with the way things were.
“Yes, I did, but it got worse,” she replied.
More text messages. Karen is in grey, Higgins is in blue. It’s been a full hour (50 minutes so far) of Brian Higgins and Karen Reid’s text messages being read out in court. The jury is glued to the screen. John’s brother bends down to watch. #WBZ pic.twitter.com/5sNcWoMUBu
— Kristina Rex (@KristinaRex) May 24, 2024
Reid also texted Higgins saying O’Keefe had shown him a video of the interaction between them.
“He was like, ‘Hey man, are you guys dating?'” Reed’s message read.
Reid then went to Higgins’ home to meet him in person and find out “what the heck was going on.”
“I’m not proud of those text messages. That’s the reality. I take responsibility. But John was also a friend… If their relationship was coming to an end, then their relationship was coming to an end. But I wasn’t going to let someone use me and weaponize me against someone I loved. It was just a strange experience.”
The final message between the pair shown in court was Reid texting Higgins: “John’s dead.”
Cross-examination of Brian Higgins
Reid’s defense began cross-examining Higgins before the jury broke for lunch.
“Were you sexually attracted to her?” Jackson asked.
“I was physically attracted to her… I think I said in a text message, ‘You’re attractive.’
Who is Karen Reed?
Reed, a 45-year-old Massachusetts resident, was in a relationship with O’Keefe at the time of his death.
Reed has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, negligent homicide while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in bodily injury or death.
What happened this week in the Karen Reed murder trial?
This week Controversial cross-examination Between Jennifer McCabe and Reid’s defense team. McCabe was present when Reid and Kelly Roberts discovered O’Keefe’s body in the snow.
Brian Albert’s sister-in-law, McCabe, Googled “how long does it take to die from the cold” the morning O’Keefe died. McCabe testified that Reid had urged her to Google hypothermia and how long it would take to die from the cold after 6 a.m., when O’Keefe’s body was discovered. The defense said: Cellular Data The first search was actually performed at 2:27 a.m., and McCabe later deleted it.
Greg Durr/Patriot Ledger via The Associated Press, Pool
“Did you delete that search because you knew that if that search was found on your phone it would implicate you in the death of John O’Keefe?” Jackson asked her.
“I did not delete that search,” McCabe responded. “I never did that search at 2:23.”
Kelly Roberts testified next after McCabe, saying she found her friend, O’Keefe, in a pile of snow. Roberts broke down in tears as the prosecution played police dash camera footage showing emergency responders arriving at the scene. Roberts recalled that Reid suspected O’Keefe had been hit by a snowplow.
“She asked me, ‘Do you think I hit him? Do you think I hit him?’ and I said, ‘No, I think he probably hit something, but let’s go look for him,'” Roberts said.
Sisters Laura and Marietta Sullivan also testified Wednesday, saying there had been tension and jealousy between the couple during a New Year’s Eve trip to Aruba just weeks before O’Keefe’s death.
Karen Reed trial schedule
Court was not in session Thursday, and after next week’s Memorial Day holiday, jurors will only be in attendance on Tuesday to hear testimony.
Experts told WBZ-TV that both sides There is a risk of losing jurors The trial is taking longer than expected.
