As expected, the emotional testimony of Peggy O’Keefe, the mother of victim John O’Keefe, dominated the headlines for day two of the retrial of accused murderess Karen Read on Wednesday.
O’Keefe essentially told basic facts about her life, losing two of her three children to tragedy and having to assume a parental role to the grandchildren of her late daughter after son John, who had originally taken on that role, was killed in the incident at the heart of the case.
She testified about events of the morning in January of 2022 when she was brought to the hospital to see her son, who had been found in the snow under mysterious circumstances. Describing Kare Read, her son’s girlfriend, as stating that she left John O’Keefe at a party the night before and screaming, “Peg, is he dead? Is he dead, Peg? Peg is he dead?”
O’Keefe would testify that later in the morning Read, along with her father and brother, would later arrive at John O’Keefe’s house and basically ignore the grieving family to retrieve items from an upstairs bedroom before taking Read’s SUV with them as they departed the scene.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson then declined to cross-examine Mrs. O’Keefe.
For the second straight day, the defense attacked other witnesses with the notion that the failing of memory makes people “liars.” Witness Kerry Roberts was directly accused of lying to the grand jury in the case, with Jackson implying that Roberts was colluding with witness Jen McCabe and others to frame his client.
The defense’s contention for the second trial of Read is that Read never hit John O’Keefe with her car. Despite Read’s numerous statements that she asked “did I hit him” or made statements that “I hit him” in interviews with the media over the past two years, they contend actual words at the scene inexplicably did not happen and were part of a story concocted by the conspiracy against their client.
Part of Wednesday’s hearing was taken up by the defense’s objection to the prosecution’s use of segments from the interviews as framing elements in the case. For example, after Jackson spent almost an hour relentlessly questioning firefighter Timothy Nuttall about hearing Read say, “I hit him” on the scene, the prosecution used a bookend style video of Read admitting she said, “I hit him,” seemingly negating his cross examination.
On Wednesday, the defense objected to the use of the media clips and argued that they were irrelevant to the case. Judge Beverley Cannone asked for a copy of all the clips for review before she made further rulings on their use.
In other news, YouTuber Bao Nguyen, who was arrested in the “buffer zone” around the courthouse on Tuesday and was apparently released on Wednesday after being held for a mental competency hearing. Someone claiming to be Bao was posting in various forums Wednesday night, though Bao himself has yet to post an official statement following his release.
Bao has achieved a weird sort of celebrity status within the auditing community following the arrest. Those favoring first amendment auditors have labeled him a “victim of extreme violence” during his arrest and as a man who is fighting for everyone’s freedom by challenging the exclusion zone.
The community opposing first amendment auditing have called him clueless and possibly mentally challenged. With some stating that a psychiatric evaluation was something he’s needed for a long time.
Those standing in the middle of the issue have signed an let out a collective “meh” as Bao’s drama has again overshadowed an important issue within the collective community.
It is unclear if Bao will return to the buffer zone as the Karen Read murder trial redux continues on Thursday.
