Karen Read investigator Yuri Bukhenik reads texts from Michael Proctor during testimony
Witness testimony resumed for a 12th day Thursday in the Karen Read trial. Massachusetts State Police Sergeant Yuri Bukhenik, who was one of the lead investigators in the case, took the stand Thursday and later began a tense cross-examination about evidence collection and the role of his former colleague Michael Proctor.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan has been questioning witnesses on direct while Alan Jackson, one of Read's defense attorneys, does most of the cross-examinations.
Prosecutors accuse Read of hitting and killing Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who she was dating, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside Brian Albert's Canton home in January 2022. Read says she is being framed and O'Keefe was actually killed during a fight inside the home and several men, including Brian Albert, were involved.
Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in Read's case, worked closely with Bukhenik. Proctor was later fired for his conduct in the case.
Canton Police Department involvement
Late in the day, Jackson began to ask Bukhenik about potential conflicts the Canton Police Department had in the case. The department recused itself from conducting interviews in Read's case because a detective, Kevin Albert, is the brother of Brian Albert, who owned the home where O'Keefe's body was found at the time.
Earlier, Bukhenik testified about Canton Police Chief Ken Berkowitz driving by the house on February 4, 2022, and seeing a piece of red taillight. Berkowitz, who died in December, called Bukhenik and the evidence was documented.
Jackson asked if Bukhenik was concerned with Berkowitz's involvement with the evidence due to the department's recusal.
"To prevent any perceived conflict of interest they recused themselves from being involved in interviews. I wasn't pairing up with Chief Berkowitz to interview the taillight piece," Bukhenik said.
Court ended for the day with Bukhenik still on the stand for cross-examination. He is expected back on the stand Friday morning.
Alan Jackson cross-examines Yuri Bukhenik
Jackson began cross-examination of Bukhenik after the afternoon recess. He immediately began questioning Bukhenik about Proctor's role in the case.
"Would you agree with me that Michael Proctor was the lead investigator as well as the case agent in charge of this case?" Jackson asked with his first question.
"He was assigned as the case officer for the case," Bukhenik said.
Jackson, asking about "Former Trooper Michael Proctor," asked Bukhenik if Proctor was the lead case agent. Bukhenik again said that Proctor was the case officer.
"He was assigned ultimately, to use another phrase, as the lead investigator, wasn't he?" Jackson asked.
"I'm not going to agree with you," Bukhenik said.
Jackson asked if there was a reason he was trying to distance himself from Proctor.
"I am not trying to distance myself. All I'm saying is the term I use is the case officer. We're simply case managers. There's no leading investigation in any direction," Bukhenik said.
Jackson asked Bukhenik if Proctor played a "major" role in the case. Bukhenik said he would not say that, because others were involved in the investigation. Jackson then showed Bukhenik several search warrants, affidavits and other documents, noting that they were signed by Proctor.
"There's a lot of people involved in this investigation," Bukhenik said, noting that there were more than 100 reports total.
Jackson pointed out that Bukhenik did not go inside 34 Fairview Road, and did not call crime scene investigators to search the inside of the home. He also noted that Bukhenik conducted three interviews of witnesses - Jennifer McCabe, her husband Matt McCabe, and Brian Albert. All three interviews were conducted at the McCabe home, and Jackson tried to show the jury that all three could have a motive to lie if they were somehow involved.
"Have suspects ever lied to you? ... Suspects lie to you all the time, don't they?" Jackson asked.
Karen Read drinking at C.F. McCarthy's
Earlier on direct examination, Brennan showed jurors surveillance from C.F. McCarthy's in Canton on the night of January 28, 2022. Read can be seen with a group that includes O'Keefe drinking at the bar. Later, Read and O'Keefe leave and go to nearby Waterfall Bar & Grille.
Each time Read orders a drink, she can be seen receiving a cocktail glass, then a separate smaller shot glass that she pours into the larger glass. During a media clip played earlier in the trial, Read said the original drinks she was handed were weak and she was making them closer to what she considered a regular drink.
"I did not consume nine vodka martinis or take nine shots, depending on how you count it. The last two drinks I did not touch," Read said in one interview.
In a clip from a recent HBO documentary about her case that Brennan played on the third day of the trial, Read said she shouldn't have been driving.
"I shouldn't have been driving. But I know I wasn't driving recklessly," Read said, later adding, "I know I was driving safely. Not as safely or as alert as I would be if I had no alcohol. But I was not driving recklessly by any measure."
After the afternoon recess, Brennan showed a surveillance photo from when O'Keefe left the Waterfall. In the photo, Bukhenik said O'Keefe appears to be holding a cocktail glass with a black straw.
Michael Proctor's text messages
During the first trial it was revealed that Proctor sent text messages on his personal cellphone to friends, family, and colleagues about Read. Proctor wrote in one message that "hopefully she kills herself." Another text revealed that Proctor called Read a "whackjob [expletive]." During his testimony at the first trial, Proctor called the text messages "regrettable."
Bukhenik forfeited five vacation days following an internal affairs investigation. Bukhenik was on one of the group chats where Michael Proctor sent the inappropriate text messages about Read.
Brennan asked Bukhenik about Proctor adding him to the text message chain. Bukhenik said he was working a traffic detail and did not respond with words, but acknowledged the message with a thumbs up emoji.
He acknowledged to the jury that he had been punished for failing to adequately supervise Proctor, but remains on the job.
Brennan had Bukhenik read several text messages aloud from the group text.
"Funny, I am going through his r------d client's phone right now," Proctor said. "No nudes so far. I hate that man. I truly hate him."
The male Proctor referred to in the messages was David Yannetti, Read's defense attorney.
Will Michael Proctor testify?
During Read's first trial, Proctor testified to these text messages. It's unclear if that will happen in the second trial.
"I'm guessing, after seeing the direct examination of Yuri Bukhenik, that Michael Proctor is not going to testify," WBZ Legal Analyst Katherine Loftus said.
It's a risky prosecution strategy that Loftus isn't sure will work after a tense cross examination.
"The problem now is that the trooper that you're relying on to sort of rebut this presumption of Michael Proctor is aggressively, you know, going back at the defense attorney when any allegation is made against you know him or Michael Proctor it. It doesn't look great," Loftus said.
Evidence from 34 Fairview Road
Bukhenik said after O'Keefe's clothing was brought to the Norfolk District Attorney's office, it was laid out to dry, then put in an evidence locker on January 29, 2022.
On the witness stand Thursday, Bukhenik held up several of the items O'Keefe was wearing the night he died.
They included his jeans, the sneaker found in the snow at 34 Fairview Road, and the sweatshirt he was wearing.
Bukhenik said that on February 3, 2022, he returned to Brian Albert's home with Proctor and two other troopers to search for additional evidence. He said the search focused on the lawn in the area of the flagpole and fire hydrant near where O'Keefe's body was found. Some of the snow from the storm several days prior had begun to melt, Bukhenik said.
The state police sergeant held up several pieces of taillight that he says were found at the scene. Some of the pieces were clear, others were red.
Bukhenik presented a plastic drinking straw that he said was found near the street.
Police were also searching for O'Keefe's "thin blue line" baseball hat, which he was wearing in the hours before his death. The hat was not found with other clothing items at the hospital that were brought by first responders.
Bukhenik said the hat was found frozen to the ground, underneath about a foot and a half of snow.
Bukhenik said he directed police to drive by the scene every day in the days that followed in an effort to find more evidence that may be revealed by melting snow.
Bukhenik said on Feb. 4 he was on his was to drive by the scene himself when a member of the Canton Police Department called him to say they had found a large piece of red taillight.
On February 10, Bukhenik said he found several smaller pieces of taillight near the flagpole.
Karen Read police interview
Bukhenik recalled an interview he performed with Read at her parents' home in Dighton. According to Bukhenik, Read said she wanted to answer questions, but did not want to go into too many details.
According to Bukhenik, Read was asked if she saw O'Keefe go into 34 Fairview Road.
"She stated no, she did not see him go in the house," Bukhenik said.
WBZ-TV's Kristina Rex asked Read outside court Thursday if she saw O'Keefe go inside the house. "I did. I saw John go in the house," Read said.
Bukhenik said Read was also asked about damage to her taillight.
"I don't know how I did it last night," Read said, according to Bukhenik.
At the end of the interview, Read's vehicle and cellphone were seized. The vehicle was towed to the Canton Police Department.
Bukhenik was asked if when the SUV was in the Canton Police Department garage if he ever saw Proctor touch the vehicle. "I did not," he said.
Yuri Bukhenik takes the stand
Bukhenik said he arrived at the Canton Police Department around 9:15 a.m. with Proctor and was shown evidence local police had collected earlier in the morning of January 29, 2022. That included a broken cocktail glass, O'Keefe's cellphone and a brown paper bag with six plastic solo cups filled with blood that had been in the snow.
After interviewing Jennifer McCabe, her husband Matt McCabe, and Brian Albert, Bukhenik went to Good Samaritan Hospital to view O'Keefe's body.
Bukhenik said he saw blood pooling under O'Keefe's head, swelling under his eyelids, a small cut above the right eye, and a small cut under O'Keefe's left nostril. O'Keefe had cuts and bruises on the exterior of his right arm.
Bukhenik said that when he learned that O'Keefe only had one shoe at the hospital, he suspected that it would be at 34 Fairview Road and that it was likely the sign of a vehicle strike.
"I was suspecting that he was hit out of his shoes," Bukhenik said.
Bukhenik said he wanted to look at Read's Lexus SUV in person after learning of several pieces of evidence.
"With the missing shoe, her stating 'Did I hit him' and along the lines of those statements, I was interested in the vehicle that she was operating that night," Bukhenik said.
Bukhenik went to speak to Read at her parents' home. Bukhenik said he got within several feet of Read's SUV, but did not touch it.
"There was a large piece of red taillight cover missing from the vehicle," Bukhenik said.
Karen Read trial latest
Read told reporters after court ended for the day Wednesday that the prosecution's case is almost over, though lawyers are subject to a gag order so WBZ-TV is unable to confirm how many more witnesses may be remaining before the defense takes over. There are still several notable witnesses from Read's first trial who have not yet been called, including Brian Albert, Brian Higgins and Proctor.
On Wednesday, court ended about a half hour earlier than planned as Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors she'd do that "rather than beginning a witness who's probably going to take a while."
Massachusetts State Police trooper Connor Keefe and forensic analyst Jessica Hyde were the two witnesses on the stand Wednesday and both completed their testimony.
Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She has pleaded not guilty. This is Read's second time facing trial after her 2024 trial ended with a mistrial due to a hung jury.
