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CNN
05-07-2025
- CNN
Long before his sex trafficking trial, Sean ‘Diddy' Combs fended off allegations surrounding infamous charity event in which 9 people died
On the day Sean 'Diddy' Combs was convicted on charges of transportation to engage in prostitution, Jason Swain's mind raced back more than three decades to the Manhattan gymnasium where his brother and eight other young people were crushed to death. He recalled being shown a Polaroid of his deceased 20-year-old brother Dirk – eyes open – that night in late December 1991 at the stairwell entrance to the City College of New York gymnasium. Thousands had gathered at the Harlem campus for an oversold charity basketball game organized by an up-and-coming music producer then known as Puff Daddy. 'My mother was there with some of the other mothers. They all were looking at Polaroid pictures of their dead kids,' Swain told CNN in a recent interview. 'And my dad was angry with the police because they wouldn't let us see Dirk. But, you know, it was a crime scene.' In fact, no criminal charges were filed in connection with the tragedy, which stunned the city and generated national headlines. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 28, according to media reports. It was the first of several instances along the three-time Grammy winner's meteoric ascent that Combs' career kept prospering despite civil or criminal allegations, including his 2001 acquittal on four counts of gun possession and one count of bribery following a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier. For years, the families of Dirk Swain and other victims sought civil damages in drawn-out wrongful death suits. Combs paid about $750,000 of a total $3.8 million to settle claims by relatives of the victims in 1998, according to the New York State Attorney General's office, which represented City College, The New York Times reported. A state court judge had ruled Combs and the rap artist and copromoter of the event Dwight 'Heavy D' Myers – who died in 2011 – bore 50% of the culpability for the deaths and injuries, according to court documents. The balance of the blame fell on the college, according to the judge. Combs' attorney in the suits declined comment this week. Jason Swain and a survivor, Charrisse Miles, find little solace in Combs' conviction this week on two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. They said he has never accepted full responsibility for the deaths at City College. Combs avoided the worst possible scenario when he was cleared of more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking counts, punishable by up to life in prison, at his federal criminal trial. Instead, Combs faces a maximum sentence of 20 years – though he could serve less prison time. 'I don't know how to express it any other way. I'm spiritual, like my mother, and for anything that was done wrong over the years, he's gonna get his,' said Swain, a filmmaker. 'I believe in karma.' CNN reached out to members of Combs' current legal team for comment on this story. A media representative for Combs referred CNN to their client's 1998 statement to the media. When Combs testified as a witness in one of the lawsuits related to the deadly stampede, he spoke to reporters outside the courtroom. 'City College is something I deal with every day of my life,' Combs was quoted as saying by The New York Times. 'But the things that I deal with can in no way measure up to the pain that the families deal with. I just pray for the families and pray for the children who lost their lives every day.' On Wednesday, after an eight-week trial, Combs sat with his hands clasped in his lap when the verdict was read. When the not guilty verdict was announced on the racketeering conspiracy charge, he put his head in his hand. Then he did a subtle fist pump when he was declared not guilty on the sex trafficking counts. Later, Combs dropped to his knees at his chair and bowed his head as if praying. When he stood up, he faced members of his family and supporters in the gallery and started a round of applause. They responded with applause and cheers as Combs' attorneys exchanged hugs. Prosecutors had accused Combs of leading a criminal enterprise made up of some of his closest employees, alleging they used threats, violence, forced labor, bribery and other crimes to force ex-girlfriends Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura and 'Jane,' who testified under a pseudonym, to engage in drug-fueled sex acts called 'Freak Offs' or 'hotel nights' with male escorts. Combs pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation for prostitution. His lawyers argued the sex acts were consensual and merely preferences, while trying to undermine the hip-hop mogul's accusers by contending they were trying to gain a monetary benefit from Combs. Combs was denied bail on Wednesday. The date of his sentencing has not been firmly set. There will be a hearing Tuesday to address the scheduling of Combs' sentencing. In the end, legal experts said the prosecution may have overcharged Combs. Jurors never heard any direct testimony from many of the people who prosecutors claimed participated in the alleged enterprise. After the judge left the bench Wednesday, Combs told family members: 'We're going to make it through this.' 'I'll see you when I get out,' he added before blowing kisses to family and friends in the courtroom. Charrisse Miles, who was 21 when she survived the deadly 1991 stampede in Harlem, said she followed coverage of Combs' latest trial for a couple of days and then couldn't 'stomach' any more. 'When you think about the City College incident, that was traumatizing for a lot of us back then. But when we think about the people he's traumatized since then, it's astronomical,' Miles, 54, an IT project manager who now lives in Georgia, told CNN, referring to Combs. The nightmarish moments she endured more than three decades ago are still vivid: A mob of pushing, shoving young people; the faces of victims trapped in a small stairwell, screaming, passing out and being crushed. People were falling; others running. It was her first time out alone for an event like the '1st Annual Heavy D & Puff Daddy Celebrity Charity Basketball Game.' Miles recalled 'feeling a little grown up.' The night featured some of the biggest names in music: Boyz II Men, Run DMC, Big Daddy Kane and Jodeci. It was billed as an AIDS education benefit after basketball legend Magic Johnson had recently revealed he was HIV-positive. Miles recalled standing in the crowded gym as speakers blared music and celebrities ran plays up and down the court. 'I probably was (in the gym) not even 10 minutes before the stampede actually started,' she told CNN. 'I was in the crowd when the first victim was raised above us and carried out.' She remembered a roar as the crowd stampeded through the doors. She said she saw Combs and some associates running past her and 'never looking back.' 'I know it was so many years ago but it was one of those incidences where you kind of don't forget,' Miles said. 'He just kind of ran past, like, 'We have to get out of here.'' Miles said Combs – who she believes was sufficiently well-known and respected by young people even at the time – could have used his celebrity status to try to calm the crowd and 'brought a sense of peace.' 'I feel like from City College up until today, if this was a person of remorse, we should have seen it by now,' she said. 'I just feel like he's trying to get to a position where he can continue.' She referred to his behavior after the recent trial verdict, the subtle fist pump and the applause and cheers in the courtroom. 'I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but it just screams narcissistic behavior,' Miles said. 'He seems to be saying, 'I'm OK. I'm good. I'll be free again.' There's nothing about, 'I'll do better,' or the victims or the harm he's brought to people. It just appears to be all about him.' A 1992 report requested by former New York City Mayor David Dinkins cited a failure of responsibility of all the parties involved in the event in the 1991 tragedy. It singled out Combs for leaving the event planning in the hands of inexperienced associates and accused him of misleading attendees about the charitable nature of the game. The gym's capacity was 2,730 – but accounts of the number of people who sought to gain admission were between 3,000 and 4,000, the report said. The review of the events that day, the report said, 'leads to the inescapable conclusion that almost all of the individuals involved in the event demonstrated a lack of responsibility.' In his ruling in one of the lawsuits, Court of Claims Judge Louis Benza cited the testimony of a veteran New York City police officer who said the doors to the gym were blocked by a table. The officer said when he pushed aside the table that was blocking the door and fell 'through the door, into the gym,' he saw 'Combs standing there with two women, and all three had money in their hands.' Benza wrote the officer's description of events 'places a strain on the credibility of Combs' testimony that he was caught up in the melee and attempted to help the people who were trapped in the stairwell.' 'It does not take an Einstein to know that young people attending a rap concert camouflaged as a 'celebrity basketball game,' who have paid as much as $20 a ticket, would not be very happy and easy to control if they were unable to gain admission to the event because it was oversold,' the judge wrote. 'By closing the only open door giving access to the gym, Combs' forces, who were fully aware of the crowd uncontrollably pouring down the stairwell, created something akin to a 'dike,' forcing the people together like 'sardines' squashing out life's breath from young bodies,' Benza added. The cause of death for each victim was 'asphyxia due to compression of the chest,' the city's chief medical examiner said, according to the report commissioned by the former mayor. 'No broken bones were found in any of the deceased.' Jason Swain said even after nearly 34 years, he has never stopped thinking or talking about the tragedy at City College and the nine people who lost their lives. He'll never forget his older brother Dirk, lying on the gym floor with a sheet draped over his body. The ticket to the game was in his pocket. 'Dirk wanted to be an architect. And that was based off, as funny as it may sound, 'The Brady Bunch,' the father of 'The Brady Bunch,'' he recalled. 'Dirk was a graffiti artist … Dirk, with my dad, as a kid, used to trace the comics in the newspaper. And he became an artist.' Dirk was a junior at Hampton University near Virginia Beach when he died. Swain said Dirk had been shot in Virginia three months before the City College event and survived his head injuries. 'His first day out was at City College, at this event. So we got him back, and then he died. So I lost my mind. I only had one sibling and he was super, like a father to me.' On his Grammy award-winning 'No Way Out' album nearly six years after the stampede, Combs briefly mentioned the City College victims in a song titled 'Pain.' 'To the City College deceased, may you rest in peace To the families, I never meant to cause no pain I know the truth, but if you want, then I shoulder the blame.' But Swain and Miles said Combs has always evaded responsibility for the deaths. 'The way I look at it, the victims were tucked under a rug and left voiceless,' Swain said. 'No one talked about them.' CNN's Dakin Andone, Lauren del Valle, Nicki Brown, Way Mullery, Holly Yan, Rebekah Riess, Karina Tsui, Kara Scannell and Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this report.
CNN
05-07-2025
- CNN
Long before his sex trafficking trial, Sean ‘Diddy' Combs fended off allegations surrounding infamous charity event in which 9 people died
On the day Sean 'Diddy' Combs was convicted on charges of transportation to engage in prostitution, Jason Swain's mind raced back more than three decades to the Manhattan gymnasium where his brother and eight other young people were crushed to death. He recalled being shown a Polaroid of his deceased 20-year-old brother Dirk – eyes open – that night in late December 1991 at the stairwell entrance to the City College of New York gymnasium. Thousands had gathered at the Harlem campus for an oversold charity basketball game organized by an up-and-coming music producer then known as Puff Daddy. 'My mother was there with some of the other mothers. They all were looking at Polaroid pictures of their dead kids,' Swain told CNN in a recent interview. 'And my dad was angry with the police because they wouldn't let us see Dirk. But, you know, it was a crime scene.' In fact, no criminal charges were filed in connection with the tragedy, which stunned the city and generated national headlines. The victims ranged in age from 15 to 28, according to media reports. It was the first of several instances along the three-time Grammy winner's meteoric ascent that Combs' career kept prospering despite civil or criminal allegations, including his 2001 acquittal on four counts of gun possession and one count of bribery following a Manhattan nightclub shooting two years earlier. For years, the families of Dirk Swain and other victims sought civil damages in drawn-out wrongful death suits. Combs paid about $750,000 of a total $3.8 million to settle claims by relatives of the victims in 1998, according to the New York State Attorney General's office, which represented City College, The New York Times reported. A state court judge had ruled Combs and the rap artist and copromoter of the event Dwight 'Heavy D' Myers – who died in 2011 – bore 50% of the culpability for the deaths and injuries, according to court documents. The balance of the blame fell on the college, according to the judge. Combs' attorney in the suits declined comment this week. Jason Swain and a survivor, Charrisse Miles, find little solace in Combs' conviction this week on two charges of transportation to engage in prostitution. They said he has never accepted full responsibility for the deaths at City College. Combs avoided the worst possible scenario when he was cleared of more serious racketeering conspiracy and sex trafficking counts, punishable by up to life in prison, at his federal criminal trial. Instead, Combs faces a maximum sentence of 20 years – though he could serve less prison time. 'I don't know how to express it any other way. I'm spiritual, like my mother, and for anything that was done wrong over the years, he's gonna get his,' said Swain, a filmmaker. 'I believe in karma.' CNN reached out to members of Combs' current legal team for comment on this story. A media representative for Combs referred CNN to their client's 1998 statement to the media. When Combs testified as a witness in one of the lawsuits related to the deadly stampede, he spoke to reporters outside the courtroom. 'City College is something I deal with every day of my life,' Combs was quoted as saying by The New York Times. 'But the things that I deal with can in no way measure up to the pain that the families deal with. I just pray for the families and pray for the children who lost their lives every day.' On Wednesday, after an eight-week trial, Combs sat with his hands clasped in his lap when the verdict was read. When the not guilty verdict was announced on the racketeering conspiracy charge, he put his head in his hand. Then he did a subtle fist pump when he was declared not guilty on the sex trafficking counts. Later, Combs dropped to his knees at his chair and bowed his head as if praying. When he stood up, he faced members of his family and supporters in the gallery and started a round of applause. They responded with applause and cheers as Combs' attorneys exchanged hugs. Prosecutors had accused Combs of leading a criminal enterprise made up of some of his closest employees, alleging they used threats, violence, forced labor, bribery and other crimes to force ex-girlfriends Casandra 'Cassie' Ventura and 'Jane,' who testified under a pseudonym, to engage in drug-fueled sex acts called 'Freak Offs' or 'hotel nights' with male escorts. Combs pleaded not guilty to one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking and two counts of transportation for prostitution. His lawyers argued the sex acts were consensual and merely preferences, while trying to undermine the hip-hop mogul's accusers by contending they were trying to gain a monetary benefit from Combs. Combs was denied bail on Wednesday. The date of his sentencing has not been firmly set. There will be a hearing Tuesday to address the scheduling of Combs' sentencing. In the end, legal experts said the prosecution may have overcharged Combs. Jurors never heard any direct testimony from many of the people who prosecutors claimed participated in the alleged enterprise. After the judge left the bench Wednesday, Combs told family members: 'We're going to make it through this.' 'I'll see you when I get out,' he added before blowing kisses to family and friends in the courtroom. Charrisse Miles, who was 21 when she survived the deadly 1991 stampede in Harlem, said she followed coverage of Combs' latest trial for a couple of days and then couldn't 'stomach' any more. 'When you think about the City College incident, that was traumatizing for a lot of us back then. But when we think about the people he's traumatized since then, it's astronomical,' Miles, 54, an IT project manager who now lives in Georgia, told CNN, referring to Combs. The nightmarish moments she endured more than three decades ago are still vivid: A mob of pushing, shoving young people; the faces of victims trapped in a small stairwell, screaming, passing out and being crushed. People were falling; others running. It was her first time out alone for an event like the '1st Annual Heavy D & Puff Daddy Celebrity Charity Basketball Game.' Miles recalled 'feeling a little grown up.' The night featured some of the biggest names in music: Boyz II Men, Run DMC, Big Daddy Kane and Jodeci. It was billed as an AIDS education benefit after basketball legend Magic Johnson had recently revealed he was HIV-positive. Miles recalled standing in the crowded gym as speakers blared music and celebrities ran plays up and down the court. 'I probably was (in the gym) not even 10 minutes before the stampede actually started,' she told CNN. 'I was in the crowd when the first victim was raised above us and carried out.' She remembered a roar as the crowd stampeded through the doors. She said she saw Combs and some associates running past her and 'never looking back.' 'I know it was so many years ago but it was one of those incidences where you kind of don't forget,' Miles said. 'He just kind of ran past, like, 'We have to get out of here.'' Miles said Combs – who she believes was sufficiently well-known and respected by young people even at the time – could have used his celebrity status to try to calm the crowd and 'brought a sense of peace.' 'I feel like from City College up until today, if this was a person of remorse, we should have seen it by now,' she said. 'I just feel like he's trying to get to a position where he can continue.' She referred to his behavior after the recent trial verdict, the subtle fist pump and the applause and cheers in the courtroom. 'I'm not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but it just screams narcissistic behavior,' Miles said. 'He seems to be saying, 'I'm OK. I'm good. I'll be free again.' There's nothing about, 'I'll do better,' or the victims or the harm he's brought to people. It just appears to be all about him.' A 1992 report requested by former New York City Mayor David Dinkins cited a failure of responsibility of all the parties involved in the event in the 1991 tragedy. It singled out Combs for leaving the event planning in the hands of inexperienced associates and accused him of misleading attendees about the charitable nature of the game. The gym's capacity was 2,730 – but accounts of the number of people who sought to gain admission were between 3,000 and 4,000, the report said. The review of the events that day, the report said, 'leads to the inescapable conclusion that almost all of the individuals involved in the event demonstrated a lack of responsibility.' In his ruling in one of the lawsuits, Court of Claims Judge Louis Benza cited the testimony of a veteran New York City police officer who said the doors to the gym were blocked by a table. The officer said when he pushed aside the table that was blocking the door and fell 'through the door, into the gym,' he saw 'Combs standing there with two women, and all three had money in their hands.' Benza wrote the officer's description of events 'places a strain on the credibility of Combs' testimony that he was caught up in the melee and attempted to help the people who were trapped in the stairwell.' 'It does not take an Einstein to know that young people attending a rap concert camouflaged as a 'celebrity basketball game,' who have paid as much as $20 a ticket, would not be very happy and easy to control if they were unable to gain admission to the event because it was oversold,' the judge wrote. 'By closing the only open door giving access to the gym, Combs' forces, who were fully aware of the crowd uncontrollably pouring down the stairwell, created something akin to a 'dike,' forcing the people together like 'sardines' squashing out life's breath from young bodies,' Benza added. The cause of death for each victim was 'asphyxia due to compression of the chest,' the city's chief medical examiner said, according to the report commissioned by the former mayor. 'No broken bones were found in any of the deceased.' Jason Swain said even after nearly 34 years, he has never stopped thinking or talking about the tragedy at City College and the nine people who lost their lives. He'll never forget his older brother Dirk, lying on the gym floor with a sheet draped over his body. The ticket to the game was in his pocket. 'Dirk wanted to be an architect. And that was based off, as funny as it may sound, 'The Brady Bunch,' the father of 'The Brady Bunch,'' he recalled. 'Dirk was a graffiti artist … Dirk, with my dad, as a kid, used to trace the comics in the newspaper. And he became an artist.' Dirk was a junior at Hampton University near Virginia Beach when he died. Swain said Dirk had been shot in Virginia three months before the City College event and survived his head injuries. 'His first day out was at City College, at this event. So we got him back, and then he died. So I lost my mind. I only had one sibling and he was super, like a father to me.' On his Grammy award-winning 'No Way Out' album nearly six years after the stampede, Combs briefly mentioned the City College victims in a song titled 'Pain.' 'To the City College deceased, may you rest in peace To the families, I never meant to cause no pain I know the truth, but if you want, then I shoulder the blame.' But Swain and Miles said Combs has always evaded responsibility for the deaths. 'The way I look at it, the victims were tucked under a rug and left voiceless,' Swain said. 'No one talked about them.' CNN's Dakin Andone, Lauren del Valle, Nicki Brown, Way Mullery, Holly Yan, Rebekah Riess, Karina Tsui, Kara Scannell and Elizabeth Wagmeister contributed to this report.
CBS News
03-07-2025
- CBS News
Widow of D.C. officer who died by suicide after Jan. 6 says $500,000 verdict was "a relief that all the fighting was worth it"
Washington — Jeffrey Smith, one of the D.C. police officers beaten and injured during the Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, was left traumatized and changed by the events of that day, his widow, Erin Smith, says. "The man that left on January 6 was not the man that came home in the early hours of January 7," Smith told CBS News this week. "He was a different person. His personality changed. His demeanor changed. He was there, but the man that I knew was not in the same body." The 35-year-old Smith died by suicide on Jan. 15, 2021, as he was driving to work for the first time since the Capitol riot. In 2022, Erin Smith filed a wrongful death lawsuit for assault and battery against 69-year-old chiropractor David Walls-Kaufman, alleging that he had assaulted her husband during the Capitol riot. In January 2023, Walls-Kaufman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor federal count of "parading, demonstrating and picketing in a Capitol building" in connection with the insurrection. At the time, he acknowledged that he had "scuffled" with law enforcement, but did not face any federal assault charges in the case. He served 60 days in prison on that misdemeanor charge. He was one of hundreds of Capitol insurrectionists pardoned by President Trump in January. Despite the pardon, Smith's lawsuit went to trial in June. After a lengthy civil trial and just two hours of deliberations, a jury last week ordered Walls-Kaufman to pay her and her late husband's estate $500,000, finding that Walls-Kaufman had assaulted Jeffrey Smith on Jan. 6. In a statement to CBS News, Walls-Kaufman denied striking Smith and called the lawsuit and the verdict "sadistic." "It felt like a relief, a relief that all the fighting was worth it, everything that I had done was worth it, and it proves that he was injured," Smith said of the jury's decision. Following her husband's death, Smith became a reluctant but impactful advocate. She successfully lobbied Congress to pass a bipartisan law in 2022 to allow some police deaths by suicide to be designated as "official line of duty" deaths. In March of that year, Washington's Police and Firefighters' Retirement and Relief Board officially ruled that Smith's death was in the line of duty. Body camera footage obtained by CBS News appeared to show that Jeffrey Smith was the target of multiple assaults on Jan. 6. Those images helped Erin Smith have her husband's designation changed. Now, Smith is pressing the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington to add her late husband's name to its wall and include him in an honorary ceremony next May. She is also calling for the memorial to open eligibility for others for whom it's been officially determined to have died by suicide because of injuries on the job. "Getting his name on there is not just for me," Smith said. "It's also for his family, his friends, his partner, the people at the Metropolitan Police Department, his colleagues. And it's also for other officers who have died by suicide due to injuries that they also received at work." If you or someone you know is in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis, you can reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. You can also chat with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline here. For more information about mental health care resources and support, The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) HelpLine can be reached Monday through Friday, 10 a.m.–10 p.m. ET, at 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) or email info@
Yahoo
19-06-2025
- Yahoo
Key takeaways from the acquittal of Karen Read in John O'Keefe's death
DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Karen Read walked out of court a free woman after more than three years and two trials over the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who was found on the lawn of a fellow officer's home after a night of heavy drinking. Prosecutors said Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, leaving him to die in a blizzard, and charged her with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a deadly collision. Her lawyers successfully defended her, painting a sinister picture of police misconduct and theorizing that O'Keefe was, in fact, killed by colleagues, followed by a vast cover-up. She was convicted of drunken driving, however, for which she will face a year's probation. Though her criminal case is over, Read still faces civil litigation. O'Keefe's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against her and two bars where the couple drank that night. The two trials were filled with moments that raised reasonable doubt, both in the public's mind and, as illustrated by Wednesday's verdict, the minds of jurors. Here are some key takeaways: Defense lawyers asserted from the beginning that there was no collision between O'Keefe and the 6,000-pound (2,700-kilogram) SUV driven by Read, arguing instead that a crew of tightly knit local and state cops were shielding one of their own and framing her. Lead investigator Michael Proctor, who was fired from the Massachusetts State Police after the first trial for misconduct, knew some people at the party at the house outside of which O'Keefe was found. Proctor sent text messages to friends, family, and co-workers, calling Read a 'whack job' while implying that she was the lone suspect and he wanted her to pay. 'There will be some serious charges brought on the girl ... Zero chance she skates. She's f'd,' he texted just hours into the investigation. A federal agent who was at the party, Brian Higgins, acknowledged at trial destroying his phone and SIM card afterward and disposing of them in two different locations on a military base. In another exchange, Jackson questioned a former officer who originally reported seeing Higgins and the Canton police chief near the SUV in a station garage, a statement she later recanted. 'Have you ever heard of something called the blue wall of silence?' Jackson asked the officer. In closing arguments, he suggested that she changed her story under pressure from the department. The prosecution's evidence included pieces of Read's broken taillight that were recovered at the scene; accounts of the couple's crumbling relationship, fueled by booze; and several witnesses testifying that they heard her repeatedly say, 'I hit him.' But defense lawyers portrayed the case as riddled with errors, missteps, and malfeasance. They emphasized that the taillight fragments were not found immediately and argued that police had time to take them from Read's impounded vehicle and plant them. They also presented video evidence that Read's taillight could have been damaged instead when she hit O'Keefe's car at home later that morning. The shards, which the state claimed cut into O'Keefe's arm, had no blood, tissue, or DNA on them. The only DNA found was on an intact piece of taillight on Read's SUV, and it contained three possible sources — O'Keefe and two unknown males. A hair traced to O'Keefe was found on the rear of the SUV, but the defense questioned how it could have stayed there through the blizzard. Prosecutors also struggled to demonstrate that O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle. They acknowledged not knowing how he was hit, and an accident reconstruction video they produced was panned by the defense since no one knows where he would have been standing. Meanwhile, crash reconstruction experts testified for the defense that O'Keefe's injuries were inconsistent with being hit by a large vehicle. Instead, the defense argued, O'Keefe was beaten up at the party. Neither side produced witnesses who saw him enter into the house, but the defense was able to show a fight was possible. A medical expert testified that wounds on his arm were consistent with an animal bite, supporting the theory that a family dog at the home attacked O'Keefe. A cut over his right eye and injuries to the back of his head, they said, more likely came from being punched and falling backward on a hard surface. It was hard to know, defense attorneys argued, since police never searched the home or treated anyone there as a suspect. Even Read's comments about having 'hit him' were explained away by the defense, which said prosecutors were trying to twist into a confession the dazed words of someone who was grieving and in shock. 'It wasn't a confession. It was confusion,' Jackson said, noting that it is common to be in such a state after an emotional trauma. Any number of people at the home, defense lawyers suggested, while questioning why multiple key law enforcement witnesses were never considered potential suspects or investigated. The defense did not prove that someone else killed O'Keefe, but it was apparently able to create enough reasonable doubt for jurors. Higgins, the federal agent, had sent sexually charged and flirtatious text messages to Read despite knowing she was in a relationship with O'Keefe. On the night in question, Higgins texted her while they were at a bar — 'Umm, well?' he wrote. Moments later he was seen 'play fighting' with Brian Albert, a retired Boston police detective and the owner of the home where the party took place. They defense also pointed to a group text that morning in which one person suggested they all agree that O'Keefe never entered the home and Albert said, 'exactly.' Albert, the defense said, never bothered to exit the house after O'Keefe was found. He later sold it, got rid of the family dog and ditched his cellphone. They also portrayed the family as politically connected, noting that Albert's brother was a police officer and a second brother was on the town's governing body. The defense also questioned Jennifer McCabe, Albert's sister-in-law, who was with Read when they discovered the body, about a misspelled web search: 'hos long to die in cold.' The defense argued that McCabe made it just before 2:30 a.m., but prosecutors said it was after O'Keefe was found at Read's request. McCabe was also asked why she never went in the house after finding the body, suggesting that she already knew they were safe inside. No one from the home came outside as police and paramedics gathered. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
The Independent
19-06-2025
- The Independent
Key takeaways from the acquittal of Karen Read in her Boston police officer boyfriend's death
Karen Read walked out of court a free woman after more than three years and two trials over the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who was found on the lawn of a fellow officer's home after a night of heavy drinking. Prosecutors said Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV, leaving him to die in a blizzard, and charged her with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a deadly collision. Her lawyers successfully defended her, painting a sinister picture of police misconduct and theorizing that O'Keefe was in fact killed by colleagues, followed by a vast cover-up. She was convicted of drunken driving, however, for which she will face a year's probation. Though her criminal case is over, Read still faces civil litigation. O'Keefe's family has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against her and two bars where the couple drank that night. The two trials were filled with moments that raised reasonable doubt, both in the public's mind and, as illustrated by Wednesday's verdict, the minds of jurors. Here are some key takeaways: The defense theory: Crooked cops and 'the blue wall of silence' Defense lawyers asserted from the beginning that there was no collision between O'Keefe and the 6,000-pound (2,700-kilogram) SUV driven by Read, arguing instead that a crew of tightly knit local and state cops were shielding one of their own and framing her. Lead investigator Michael Proctor, who was fired from the Massachusetts State Police after the first trial for misconduct, knew some people at the party at the house outside of which O'Keefe was found. Proctor sent text messages to friends, family and co-workers calling Read a 'whack job' while implying that she was the lone suspect and he wanted her to pay. 'There will be some serious charges brought on the girl ... Zero chance she skates. She's f'd,' he texted just hours into the investigation. A federal agent who was at the party, Brian Higgins, acknowledged at trial destroying his phone and SIM card afterward and disposing of them in two different locations on a military base. In another exchange, Jackson questioned a former officer who originally reported seeing Higgins and the Canton police chief near the SUV in a station garage, a statement she later recanted. 'Have you ever heard of something called the blue wall of silence?' Jackson asked the officer. In closing arguments, he suggested that she changed her story under pressure from the department. What the evidence showed the jury The prosecution's evidence included pieces of Read's broken taillight that were recovered at the scene; accounts of the couple's crumbling relationship, fueled by booze; and several witnesses testifying that they heard her repeatedly say, 'I hit him.' But defense lawyers portrayed the case as riddled with errors, missteps and malfeasance. They emphasized that the taillight fragments were not found immediately and argued that police had time to take them from Read's impounded vehicle and plant them. They also presented video evidence that Read's taillight could have been damaged instead when she hit O'Keefe's car at home later that morning. The shards, which the state claimed cut into O'Keefe's arm, had no blood, tissue or DNA on them. The only DNA found was on an intact piece of taillight on Read's SUV, and it contained three possible sources — O'Keefe and two unknown males. A hair traced to O'Keefe was found on the rear of the SUV, but the defense questioned how it could have stayed there through the blizzard. Prosecutors also struggled to demonstrate that O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with being struck by a vehicle. They acknowledged not knowing how he was hit, and an accident reconstruction video they produced was panned by the defense since no one knows where he would have been standing. Meanwhile crash reconstruction experts testified for the defense that O'Keefe's injuries were inconsistent with being hit by a large vehicle. Instead, the defense argued, O'Keefe was beaten up at the party. Neither side produced witnesses who saw him enter into the house, but the defense was able to show a fight was possible. A medical expert testified that wounds on his arm were consistent with an animal bite, supporting the theory that a family dog at the home attacked O'Keefe. A cut over his right eye and injuries to the back of his head, they said, more likely came from being punched and falling backward on a hard surface. It was hard to know, defense attorneys argued, since police never searched the home or treated anyone there as a suspect. Even Read's comments about having 'hit him' were explained away by the defense, which said prosecutors were trying to twist into a confession the dazed words of someone who was grieving and in shock. 'It wasn't a confession. It was confusion,' Jackson said, noting that it is common to be in such a state after an emotional trauma. If Read didn't kill O'Keefe, who did? Any number of people at the home, defense lawyers suggested, while questioning why multiple key law enforcement witnesses were never considered potential suspects or investigated. The defense did not prove that someone else killed O'Keefe, but it was apparently able to create enough reasonable doubt for jurors. Higgins, the federal agent, had sent sexually charged and flirtatious text messages to Read despite knowing she was in a relationship with O'Keefe. On the night in question, Higgins texted her while they were at a bar — 'Umm, well?' he wrote. Moments later he was seen 'play fighting' with Brian Albert, a retired Boston police detective and the owner of the home where the party took place. They defense also pointed to a group text that morning in which one person suggested they all agree that O'Keefe never entered the home and Albert said, 'exactly.' Albert, the defense said, never bothered to exit the house after O'Keefe was found. He later sold it, got rid of the family dog and ditched his cellphone. They also portrayed the family as politically connected, noting that Albert's brother was a police officer and a second brother was on the town's governing body. The defense also questioned Jennifer McCabe, Albert's sister-in-law, who was with Read when they discovered the body, about a misspelled web search: 'hos long to die in cold.' The defense argued that McCabe made it just before 2:30 a.m., but prosecutors said it was after O'Keefe was found at Read's request. McCabe was also asked why she never went in the house after finding the body, suggesting that she already knew they were safe inside. No one from the home came outside as police and paramedics gathered. ___ See an AP Photo Gallery from Read's acquittal here.
