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00:00So this was John, when he left to go out to see if McCarthy's, he's with his friend Mike,
00:22and John's going to move his car to a corner of the driveway so I can park in the garage
00:28in his stall because it's about to snow, and that's the last time he ever got out of his
00:38car. He drove a car. It's his baseball hat on. That was found on February 3rd. I don't feel
00:47much anymore. I feel sad for him, but it's all a precursor to this nightmare I'm living in,
00:53and when I used to watch it, like, I just felt, poor guy. I mean, everything he's doing is for
01:00the last time. Now it's become all about me, and I feel like I've mourned him, and I'm fighting
01:07for him, but the fights have shifted to me now. I've got to save myself.
01:23I'm here right now because I'm exposing corruption. I'm exposing what really happened to John O'Keefe.
01:46So you have two sides in this case. You have the people who say that Karen Reid is guilty,
01:57that she killed John O'Keefe. On the other side, you have the Free Karen Reid Movement,
02:04and that was essentially started by Turtle Boy. These two polar opposite groups who use social
02:13media as a battlefield, and the vitriol that you see is just insane. There is a man who murdered
02:24a Boston cop out there, and they're doing nothing about it, and they're coming after... The problem
02:29in the danger with the Turtle Boys of the world is there's absolutely no accountability. They can
02:37say anything about anyone without any restraint, and they keep pushing that envelope to get more
02:43and more clicks. It's like a subculture cesspool when it comes to Johnny's case. If you don't
02:55believe that Karen's innocent, you become a target, and that's what makes it all so terrifying. We are
03:03trapping these people down one by one and shaming them. There have been supporters of Karen Reid
03:10who'd call them cop killers online, who call their places of work and call them cop killers.
03:16That's a cop killer right there. They have been stalking the witnesses. Hey John, how you doing?
03:23Fancy seeing you here. Following them to lacrosse games to do nothing other than intimidate a mother,
03:31a family, kids. There are no boundaries.
03:35They had their lives turned upside down, and if you look at the reality of the story,
03:53they were trying to do the right thing in the moment, and this is the thanks they get.
03:58It's just unbelievable. All the people in that house, one by one, picked apart by this mob.
04:04Johnny would have been disgusted by the whole thing. This is more than dishonest. This is vile.
04:10It's unimaginable what my entire family is going through. I am a witness. That's all I am. I am not
04:19on trial. I am a witness, and these people are terrorizing me. The harassment that the witnesses
04:26have received by the outside forces, I think, has been pretty troubling, especially the kids
04:33and their friends and family. Allie McCabe, Jen McCabe's daughter, who was not in the house that
04:39night, was also harassed. Constant phone calls, emails, awful messages, people emailing my school.
04:49It's impossible for me to have any sympathy for any of these witnesses. Definitionally,
05:10is it harassing witnesses? Yes, they're witnesses against me in my prosecution,
05:15and is he yelling things at them, and is he going up to their front doors and ringing the bell? Yes,
05:21but they shouldn't be witnesses. They should have been suspects, so it's not cut and dry.
05:37There's never been a case that I've seen that's divided a community like this case has.
05:43It's become a civil war in Boston. On both sides of the argument of people who are either sure
05:50Karen Reid did it or think Karen Reid didn't do it, John O'Keefe rarely comes up. He's supposed
05:56to be the focus here. This is justice for John O'Keefe, and it has completely become the Karen
06:01Reid show. John's never coming home. John's never coming home with those kids. No matter what
06:09happens to Karen, John's never coming home. When you think about the last moments of Johnny's life,
06:18you can only hope that the skull fracture that he sustained made him not conscious
06:25as to what he was dealing with, because if he was, it's not a pleasant thought at all.
06:36It's tragic, and he didn't deserve it. I've thought about the hours Johnny spent on that lawn,
06:44and I did research to try to make myself feel better, and established that hypothermia is a
06:52very, very peaceful way to go, and that you're very, very cold, and then you get warm and tingly
07:00and sleepy, and you go to sleep. So the way I get by is my belief that he had a peaceful passing.
07:09I hope he did.
07:16They're gonna try to slut her up, right? She's just a slutty girl that's a drunk, and a slut,
07:20and a whore, and cheating on John, or whatever, blah, blah, blah. When John and Karen walked into
07:25the bar, Brian Higgins was not expecting them. He texts Karen surreptitiously with John,
07:33um, well, like, you're not even gonna say hi to me? Like, he's got a motive to not like John.
07:40Your next witness, Mr. Lally? Yes, Your Honor, I'm calling to call Mr. Brian Higgins to the stand.
07:46Brian Higgins is a federal ATF agent, and he was one of the people who was at
07:51the Albert residence that night. How would you describe your relationship with John O'Keefe?
07:56I considered him a friend. And how would you describe your relationship with Ms. Reed?
08:02I considered her a friend as well. So much of this case has been about people having to air
08:07their dirty laundry on the stand. Mr. Higgins, what's up on the screen in text messages between
08:12yourself and Ms. Reed, is that correct? Yes. Brian Higgins testifying felt like a pivotal
08:17moment when that was happening. Defendant responded, you're hot. I responded, are you
08:23serious or messing with me? Defendant responded, no, I'm serious. I responded, failing is mutual.
08:29Is that bad? The troubling stuff with Higgins is the fact that a couple weeks before John O'Keefe
08:35was killed, Higgins had been flirting with Karen Reed. They'd been flirting back and forth.
08:41Defendant said, hey, we're single and we don't have kids. We can do whatever we want.
08:48Then I said, what do you like about me? Defendant responded, I just feel like you're from my
08:54neighborhood and I think you're hot. You really think that? I have always thought that about you,
09:00that you're hot, smart, witty, but I didn't think you were interested.
09:05The hour that we heard Brian Higgins read his text messages with Karen Reed
09:09was one of the most uncomfortable moments in that courtroom of this entire trial.
09:14Defendant responded, do you like me? I said, yes, from Jump. Defendant said, when was Jump?
09:21I said, first time I saw you. Defendant said, come over my house.
09:26The Brian Higgins texts showed a budding relationship forming that did culminate in
09:34a kiss. The defendant kissed me. And how did she kiss you? Not like a friend.
09:41Lip to lip, is that fair to say? Yes. Like a romantic? That's the way I interpreted it.
09:48Karen Reed and Brian Higgins had exchanged approximately 50 text messages. When I read that,
09:56the light went on for me. I said, ooh, no wonder she didn't want to go to the after party. She
10:04knew Brian Higgins was going to be there and she had been pursuing him. I just assumed you
10:09were happy with your situation. Defendant responded, it is very, very complicated. He
10:14and I dated when we were kids and then his sister died and everything got f***ed up.
10:19It felt like the walls were closing in during the Higgins text messages. I could like feel my
10:26parents like shrinking and that was painful. I felt like I was having an endoscopy without
10:33a sedative. That's exactly what it felt like. There was certainly discomfort. I mean,
10:39it's a woman accused of killing her boyfriend and texts were being read about an affair.
10:46I don't even like to use the phrase having an affair because I wasn't married. That's one
10:50aspect of this that frustrates me is, you know, Karen was flirting with somebody else or attempting
10:54to hook up with someone else. But I mean, John and I were just dating, just dating. We're middle
11:00age and we didn't pay a mortgage together. We didn't have life insurance together. We didn't
11:05have kids together. I in turn said, no, you initiated this. It was clear that Karen was
11:13the one who initiated the text relationship with Higgins, but it wasn't like Higgins ever said,
11:20hey, you know, we can't do this. You know, I know John, that would be inappropriate. He was,
11:27he was sort of playing along, but cautiously playing along. You know, I'm not
11:35proud of these text messages. It is what it is. I take responsibility for them.
11:40First of all, I was never really around Brian Higgins when we weren't in a bar room. And so my
11:45judgment might've been a little precarious, but Brian Higgins and I had a kind of a flirtatious
11:53back and forth for about two weeks, maybe a little less. And that was on the heels of my
11:59issues with John in Aruba. It was a lot of alcohol and it just escalated from there.
12:13There was an anecdote at trial that during a nice family trip to Aruba, John O'Keefe had
12:19purportedly put Karen Reed into a jealous rage. It was like a new year into 2022 trip.
12:28So he and Karen Reed and the two children went to Aruba.
12:35We met a huge group of people down there. A lot of John's friends, none of whom I knew,
12:41it was just a lot of booze, a lot of like late nights. And on New Year's Eve,
12:48I walked through the lobby to go to my and John's room. And John is in the lobby,
12:53like literally hanging on this girl who I hadn't met. John O'Keefe had hugged a long time friend
12:59of his sister's. I heard very loudly his name screamed across the lobby very angrily. And it
13:06made me stop in my tracks. I hear someone yell, who the was that? And he said, excuse me.
13:15He said, calm down. That's that's Laura's little sister. I said, hi, nice to meet you.
13:23That's when Miss Reed's head snapped up and she very loudly told me to go myself across the lobby.
13:30And I said, yeah, you too. She was waving her hands. Johnny was trying to calm her down.
13:36Then I feel guilty and I apologize to her. It was just a bad, bad trip. And that's how we started
13:422022. And then that rolled into the Higgins flirtation.
13:48Testimony for the prosecution was that Karen and John's relationship was not a happy one,
13:56that it was on the path to perhaps breaking up and that the outside view of them as being
14:03this happy couple that other people wanted their relationship to be like was not the case.
14:08Do you recognize that, sir? Yes. And what do you recognize?
14:11The first page is Facebook messenger chats between Karen Reed and John O'Keefe.
14:19The prosecution has harped on the fact that John was trying to break up with Karen.
14:22She didn't want to leave. You can see that reflected in their text in the same day,
14:27just prior to them going out that night of January 28th.
14:31At 9.49 a.m. Karen says, you've really hurt me this time.
14:36She's texting him nonstop.
14:38At 2.25 p.m. tell me if you're interested in someone else.
14:41John responds back, things haven't been great between us for a while.
14:44He's saying, don't text me. I can't do this right now.
14:46Sick of always arguing, fighting. And then John again, oh my God, stop calling.
14:53The fact that that all happens before they go out that night,
14:57you know, it's the prosecution's fault.
15:00You know, it's the prosecution trying to show
15:03that failing relationship that they alleged was the motive for second degree murder.
15:09The relationship felt less healthy as time went on, mainly because of the dynamic
15:16among the four of us that I was getting closer to the kids. I was spending more time there.
15:22I had more of a role and it seemed to bother John.
15:27I think if you look under the hood of anyone's relationship or go through anyone's phone and
15:31they've taken multiple phones of mine, like, yeah, I've argued with John. We argued that day.
15:34If that's evidence that I, of murder, then I guess a lot of people have evidence that
15:39they're capable of murder on their cell phones.
15:42You know, having her text messages read, intimate text messages with another person
15:46read on national television is, you know, that's got a high suck value for anybody.
15:52They're trying to drag her through the mud, trying to just vilify her,
15:56make her look like a vixen of sorts.
15:59When in point of fact, what it did is created a very, very clear motive
16:03for Brian Higgins to visit harm on John O'Keefe.
16:15It'll be interesting what happens today.
16:17Yeah.
16:18We're going to hear a ton of I don't remember and I don't recall
16:22making that phone call and there's going to be a big explosion of butt dials.
16:27So many butt dials.
16:29So many butt dials.
16:31All right, Mr. Jackson.
16:33Mr. Higgins, on January 29th, 2022, at 2.22 and 35 seconds,
16:39you received a call from Brian Albert duration of one second, correct?
16:44Yes.
16:45There's a second call just below that.
16:47So 17 seconds after you missed a call from Brian Albert,
16:52you called him back and there was a call lasting 22 seconds.
16:56Is that right?
16:57That's what the records say.
16:59Brian Albert and Brian Higgins told investigators that once the party broke up,
17:04they didn't speak to anybody over the phone.
17:07But each of them was confronted with the fact that Albert called Higgins
17:17and then Higgins called Albert back and they spoke for 22 seconds at 2.22 in the morning.
17:28What the hell is Brian Albert doing calling Brian Higgins at 2.22 in the morning?
17:37Sir, did you make any phone calls after you went to bed
17:41between the hours of 1.45 a.m. and 6.30 a.m.?
17:45Yes.
17:48Who did you call?
17:49I inadvertently called Brian Higgins.
17:54You say you inadvertently called him at 2.22 in the morning?
17:58Yes.
17:59How did you inadvertently call him?
18:02Well, I don't know because it was inadvertent.
18:05Is it your testimony, let me just ask, is it your testimony that you and your wife
18:09were in the middle of some sort of sexual or intimate situation
18:13and that's what caused you to butt dial the phone at that time at 2.22 a.m.?
18:18Objection.
18:19One thing I can't reconcile is the idea of this sort of back and forth butt dial
18:26that Brian Albert butt dials Brian Higgins who says he has no recollection of the call
18:33and then Higgins calls him back.
18:36The way I understand it, they're both saying that those were butt dials?
18:39The butt dials are hard to believe.
18:41I mean, it just, and also the not knowing someone called you,
18:47I don't know what they were interacting about
18:50and I don't know why they would be lying about it being a butt dial.
18:55And then there's Jen McCabe.
18:57There was a call at 12.14 a.m., correct?
19:01Correct.
19:02That was a call that you indicated was answered.
19:05You had a conversation with Mr. O'Keefe.
19:07Correct.
19:08Then there's the 12.29 and 44 second call that you indicated was not answered.
19:14Correct.
19:15There's a period of like 10 minutes where Jen McCabe called John O'Keefe's phone multiple times.
19:25There was a 12.41 call from you to John O'Keefe.
19:29There was a 12.43 and 19 second call from you to him.
19:3312.46 a.m. and 16 seconds from you to him.
19:38And you claimed at another proceeding that you had an explanation for all these missed calls.
19:44I believe I used the word butt dials.
19:46This was, you know, sometime before 1 a.m.
19:49And the defense is going to say, yeah, you know why?
19:53Because John O'Keefe was beaten up in the house
19:56and his phone dropped and they were all looking for his phone.
19:59So Jen's dialing it, like wanting to hear it ring.
20:02I don't understand how you repeatedly butt dial somebody over and over again in a short span.
20:09The butt dials add to the suspicion.
20:12I mean, it depends on if the jury believes that there really were eight butt dials
20:16over the course of two hours between three or four different people in one night.
20:21And if they weren't butt dials, why not just say what they were?
20:25So you think it's possible that you may have butt dialed
20:29Brian Albert for a 22 second call that you're not aware of?
20:33I always tell the truth.
20:35Did you lie under oath, sir?
20:36No, I did not.
20:38Would you tell us if you did?
20:39Objection, Your Honor.
20:40Sustained.
20:42I don't know what the hell was happening in Canton, Massachusetts
20:46on January 29th in the wee hours of the morning.
20:50Some, like, bubble was around Canton where everybody's butts were doing all the phone calls.
20:56So where's your phone?
20:57I do not have that phone anymore.
21:00You've destroyed that phone, haven't you?
21:01No, I threw the phone away.
21:03Well, that's destroying the phone, isn't it?
21:06Brian Higgins destroyed his phone.
21:09He said he had gotten a new one.
21:11And so he just got rid of his old one.
21:16And Jackson and Unetti are arguing that
21:21the reason he didn't hand over the phone is because he had something on that phone to hide.
21:26I had every right to do that.
21:28I didn't ask you about your rights.
21:30I asked you what you did.
21:32Objection.
21:32Sustained.
21:33You destroyed the phone.
21:34Why not just turn over your phone?
21:36Why did they act in the way that they did?
21:38I don't know.
21:38I don't know the answer to that question.
21:40And so I think that's one of the reasons it's so hard, frankly, for us to solve this case
21:45is because a lot of the stuff that would have helped is gone.
21:53And you either cut up the SIM card or ripped it up, correct?
21:58Cut it up or broke it.
22:00Brian Higgins gave an explanation for why he destroyed his phone.
22:04He said that the girlfriend of a target he was investigating, Higgins is an ATF agent,
22:10had called him out of the blue, said she found his number on open source.
22:14So that's why he wanted to get rid of his phone.
22:17Then you drove to a military base and you threw both the destroyed SIM card
22:23and the phone into a dumpster, did you not?
22:26Well, I was cutting through the base and I believe how I testified was—
22:30Did you drive to a military base, sir?
22:32I was cutting through a base, yes.
22:33Did you drive to it?
22:35Yes, sir.
22:35And then you put both the destroyed SIM card and the phone itself,
22:42which were in a trash bag, into a dumpster on that military base, did you not?
22:47Believe that's what I did, yes.
22:48Pulling that SIM card out and getting rid of his phone.
22:51Who does that?
22:53And it's very convenient that Brian Higgins,
22:56the day before he's given formal notice, don't destroy your phone, he destroys his phone.
23:01Whatever was on their phones, they did not want public.
23:04And it may or may not have anything at all to do with the Karen Reid
23:08trial or the charges or John O'Keefe.
23:13I think that just might be an unrelated yet suspicious activity
23:18that has something to do with something that we will never know about.
23:27What we're looking for with, you know, their experts coming up,
23:30you know, very shortly is kind of the killer blow for each of them
23:37in terms of the ruling out the timing of the 227 search.
23:45One of the most important pieces of evidence in this entire case
23:48was an extraction from Jennifer McCabe's cell phone.
23:52And it shows that at 227 in the morning,
23:57hours before John O'Keefe's body was found,
24:00hours before anybody knew that he was dead,
24:03hours before anybody knew that he was on Brian Albert's lawn,
24:09Jennifer McCabe is Googling how long to die in the cold.
24:24If Jen McCabe Googles how long to die in the cold at 227 in the morning,
24:30then she already knows what's going on.
24:33With John O'Keefe's body, she already knows that something has happened
24:37and that he's going to die in the cold.
24:44Did you, in fact, Google search
24:47how long it takes for someone to die of extreme temperatures?
24:51I did in the morning at the request of your client.
24:54Karen was screaming,
24:56Google hypothermia, how long does it take to die in the cold?
24:59And I picked up my phone and I started Googling.
25:04See this first search that says how long to die in the cold?
25:06I do.
25:08What's that time?
25:10227.
25:11Now, you indicate that you did that.
25:14You made that search at 623 a.m., correct?
25:19Correct.
25:20And then you indicated that you did it again thereafter at 624, correct?
25:26Correct.
25:27And then of those three searches, one of them ended up deleted.
25:31Isn't that right?
25:34I never deleted any search.
25:36Ms. McCabe, you made that search at 227 a.m.
25:40because you knew that John O'Keefe was outside in your sister's lawn
25:43dying in the cold, didn't you?
25:46Absolutely not.
25:47I did not make that search at that time, no.
25:49Did you delete that search because you knew that you would be implicated
25:54in John O'Keefe's death if that search was found on your phone?
25:58Objection.
26:00Could you answer that, please?
26:02I did not delete that search.
26:04I never made that search at 223.
26:08I never would have left John O'Keefe out in the cold to die
26:11because he was my friend that I loved.
26:16The defense expert, Rick Green, he says,
26:19not only did Jen McCabe do the search at 227 a.m., she deleted it.
26:25We found a Google search that happened.
26:28First of all, the search was how long to die in cold.
26:32What was the date and time for that artifact?
26:35January 29th, 2022 at 227.
26:40And it was in a deleted state.
26:42Okay.
26:43So Adam Lally called two cell phone experts to say,
26:48hey, this didn't happen.
26:50The assumption that that is the time of the search
26:53is a misunderstanding of the browser state DB artifact
26:57because that artifact is not the time of search.
27:00It's the time of movement of the tab.
27:02If, for example, at 12 p.m. I create a new tab,
27:06I can do a search for whatever I want.
27:09If I create a 12 o'clock tab, minimize Safari.
27:13I can leave it for several hours, for several days, for several weeks.
27:16The timestamp is not updated.
27:18So I can search for something in three weeks time
27:20using the same tab I opened today
27:22and the timestamp will show today's time.
27:25It would be ludicrous to think that Jen McCabe
27:28left John O'Keefe, who was her very close friend,
27:32who she loved and cared for,
27:34left him on the front lawn of the Alberts,
27:37in the cold, incapacitated,
27:39went home, got into bed,
27:42and said, I'm going to Google search how long
27:45till someone dies out in the cold.
27:47You get home from Fairview around 2 a.m.
27:50or somewhere in that timeframe.
27:52You go up to bed and you do some searches on your phone, correct?
27:55Correct.
27:56And you were looking at Ozone basketball.
27:58You're also looking at...
27:59The prosecution's experts say that Jennifer McCabe
28:02just reused a tab that she had used previously
28:05when she was looking up her daughter's sports results and coverage
28:08at around 2.27 a.m.
28:11And she never closed out the tab.
28:13According to the prosecution experts,
28:15she goes to make the search at six in the morning,
28:19uses the same tab,
28:21and then it shows up on the cell phone report as 2.27 a.m.
28:25I'm of no doubt that the only time those two searches were conducted
28:29was at 6.23 and 6.24 on the morning of the 29th.
28:34But then you have a defense witness, Rick Green,
28:37who comes in and says that, no, those experts are wrong.
28:42They were using the wrong iOS.
28:44They were not using, I guess, the iOS that Jen McCabe had.
28:47And that's why he says their data is wrong.
28:50So it's a total battle of experts.
28:53One of the things that Green did concur with
28:56is that Jennifer McCabe was also searching
29:00a private basketball team for her daughter.
29:03And by the way, after I do that,
29:06I should see how long John has until he dies
29:09on that front lawn where I just left him.
29:12Does that make sense?
29:13No, of course, it's rhetorical.
29:14It doesn't.
29:15It's absurd.
29:16It's ludicrous.
29:17What makes more sense is she went to the scene.
29:21Karen Reed was frantic and was asking her and the paramedic,
29:26how long is it until someone dies,
29:29having been left out in the cold?
29:32All right, sir, you are all set.
29:37I don't want to breathe any more oxygen into the Google search
29:40because the more time we spend on the Google search,
29:42the more I'm worried a juror will think,
29:44well, if I'm not convinced Jen McCabe googled
29:46how long to die in the cold at 2 27 in the morning on January 29th,
29:50does that mean Karen's guilty?
29:51I mean, the more time we spend on it,
29:53it becomes like either Karen did it or Jen McCabe did it.
29:55And obviously that's not what we're here for.
30:00Do these curls make me look like I slept?
30:06I look at the humidity and if it's over 70,
30:09I wear curly.
30:10And if it's under 70, I can get away with it straight.
30:13So that's the first thing I do in the morning.
30:14And then I look at myself on TV
30:17and it looks like I didn't do a damn thing.
30:26This case has been, to an extent,
30:29tried in the court of public opinion.
30:30It's been tried in the media.
30:32And Karen Reed, she now owns a certain amount of celebrity.
30:36A large portion of the public believes that she's innocent.
30:40And they live, eat, sleep, and breathe this case.
30:44It's extraordinary.
30:46Look at all these people lined up.
30:49You'd think they were waiting for a movie star.
30:51Let's go, Karen!
30:53But the center of attention is former college professor Karen Reed.
30:57Karen Reed! Karen Reed! Karen Reed!
31:01Outside the courthouse has this tailgate atmosphere.
31:04Karen's supporters, they're there
31:07a lot of times before I am in the morning
31:10and spend the entire day there.
31:14Every day, some iteration of the same group of people
31:18is setting up in the same spot with snacks, with drinks.
31:22There's coolers, there's a pickup truck, a tent, beach chairs.
31:27And every morning, when Karen Reed and her defense attorneys
31:31arrive to court, her supporters line up on the sidewalk
31:34Her supporters line up on the sidewalk.
31:37Many of them have pom-poms.
31:38They're cheering for her.
31:41We love you, we love you, we love you!
31:44As she's walking into court.
31:47Those walks are just lovely and bittersweet.
31:52Everyone's telling me they love me and I look beautiful and knock them dead.
31:56And it's a nice little ego bath that we take walking in there.
32:01A lot of what you hear from people who support her is
32:03Karen Reed could be your neighbor.
32:05Karen Reed could be your daughter.
32:07Karen Reed could be your sister.
32:10And I think that the relatability of her as a defendant
32:14plays a big role in people's captivation with this case.
32:19Karen, a fan.
32:21Oh, thank you!
32:22You're welcome.
32:24There should be a card in there.
32:25I filled out her name already.
32:26I can't even...
32:26Thank you, Chrissy.
32:28Listen, have a good weekend.
32:30I think they just sympathize so much with what I'm going through
32:35that they care about me and feel for me.
32:39And they're inspired and they want to see this through.
32:45It's like watching a really good sporting event or more than that.
32:49It's like watching a really good trial of someone who's innocent.
32:53So I don't know that it's me.
32:55It's what is happening to me.
32:59Thank you, guys.
33:11It's the latest twist in this incredibly high-profile case.
33:14The feds are looking at the people who investigated Karen Reed.
33:20Multiple sources tell 25 Investigates the U.S. Attorney's Office is examining
33:24local and state law enforcement's handling of the Reed case.
33:28The federal investigation into those investigating in prosecuting Karen Reed
33:36is something completely unique to criminal trials.
33:39I've never seen that taking place.
33:43To be clear, their ultimate issue isn't whether or not Karen Reed killed John O'Keefe.
33:51What they're investigating is whether or not there was corruption.
33:57They probably heard and read and saw the nature of the allegations
34:01and were concerned with the investigation conducted by Michael Proctor.
34:06Now, the defense would have you believe that Trooper Proctor
34:11actually planted evidence, including pieces of the taillight.
34:15Did he do that?
34:16Well, no one knows for sure.
34:20All right, Mr. Lally, your next witness, please.
34:23Yes, Your Honor.
34:23The call to call Trooper Michael Proctor to the stand.
34:26Trooper Michael Proctor is the single most important witness in this case.
34:30He's the person responsible not just for the investigation,
34:34but for the evidence and the integrity of the investigation.
34:39The problem is Trooper Proctor was connected to the Albert family
34:43through his sister, through his mom, through his dad.
34:47And he should have been conflicted off the case.
34:51I couldn't wait to get him on the cross.
34:56This case involves a Boston cop whose family you were actually connected to, correct?
35:10Loosely.
35:12As a matter of fact, you were close enough friends with Julie Albert
35:17that she had your personal cell phone in her cell phone, correct?
35:21And vice versa.
35:22I wouldn't classify us as close friends at all.
35:26There was at least the appearance of a conflict of interest.
35:30He had connections, he had friendships, he had relationships with many of the people involved.
35:36He knew several of them were local or Boston police officers,
35:41including Brian Albert, who owns the house at 34 Fairview.
35:46But a pivotal moment for me in this trial
35:50was when he testified about the unprofessional texts regarding Karen Reed.
35:56Right at the inception of the investigation.
35:58So this is a group text or a group chat with you
36:01and eight of your high school friends about this investigation
36:04taking place on January 29th at about 10.52 p.m., correct?
36:11Correct.
36:11And your buddy Bird writes, she hot at least?
36:15Yes.
36:17And what was your response to that?
36:20Yep, she's a babe.
36:21Weird Fall River accent though.
36:24No ass.
36:25She's a whack job.
36:28She's a whack job.
36:30That's what you wrote, correct?
36:32Correct.
36:3316 hours into this investigation.
36:36Yes.
36:37There's been a number of sort of jaw dropping moments in this trial,
36:42but Proctor's text messages were probably the most kind of like, wow.
36:51Are you kidding me, dude?
36:53What did you write after you talked about going through the quote,
36:58client's phone?
36:59Objection.
37:00I'll allow it.
37:04No nudes so far.
37:06No nudes so far, correct?
37:10Correct.
37:10And you said that to your bosses.
37:13Yes, sir.
37:14Let me ask you a question.
37:15Have you ever looked for naked photos of a male suspect that you were investigating?
37:20I don't look for naked photos on anyone's phones.
37:23You said you were looking for nudes of Ms. Reed.
37:25Like I said, Mr. Jackson, it was an inappropriate joke.
37:28There were gasps.
37:30There was head shaking.
37:32I saw jurors making eye contact with each other who had not interacted in front of me before,
37:37like looking over their shoulders.
37:39Can you believe this is happening?
37:41Would you agree, Trooper Proctor, that you have dehumanized Karen Reed
37:48during the course of your investigation with comments and words like this?
37:51Jackson.
37:53I'll give you this one, Mr. Jackson.
37:55Would you agree with that?
37:57I would say based off that language,
38:07yes.
38:09I've read posts on social media just about how humiliating it must have been for me
38:14and degrading.
38:15And I didn't feel any of those things.
38:18I felt bad that we all had to listen to it because it was disgusting.
38:22But I didn't feel humiliated at all.
38:28I didn't say those words.
38:29He did.
38:32You can't read Michael Proctor's text messages to his friends and colleagues
38:40without coming to the conclusion that, you know, he was biased from the start.
38:45And that bias was reflected in the personal feelings
38:49that were ultimately exposed that he never thought would be exposed.
38:55And yet another text message that we haven't gone over yet today.
38:58You responded to a text message from your sister.
39:00Correct.
39:01And your response was, hopefully, she kills herself.
39:07Correct?
39:07Yes.
39:08You literally said that you hope that Karen Reed, the subject of your investigation,
39:12the woman sitting to my left, about seven feet from me,
39:17that she would just die.
39:19Correct?
39:20It's a figure of speech.
39:23Well, let's talk about your figures of speech.
39:25During the course of your investigation, your figures of speech include the following.
39:32She's a bitch.
39:34Objection.
39:35Is that right?
39:36Yes.
39:37A whack job.
39:38Correct?
39:38Yes.
39:40Right?
39:41Yes.
39:41No ass.
39:42Correct?
39:43Yes.
39:44She's according to you.
39:45Right?
39:46Yes.
39:47And Trooper Proctor, it would be far easier, far easier for you to pin it on the girl
39:56who's just a whack job bitch, in your words, who you hope just kills herself.
40:04Right?
40:05Objection.
40:05Sister.
40:11Shame on you, sir.
40:13Objection.
40:14So jurors disregard that.
40:16I've told you before, lawyers can't make comments.
40:18They can ask questions.
40:19And Mr. Jackson, you know better than that.
40:24Mr. Lally?
40:25Jurors aren't allowed to consider things that have been stricken from the record.
40:29But you can't put toothpaste back in the tube.
40:32One thing that's important to point out about Michael Proctor's texts, as bad as they were,
40:37there's nothing in his personal text messages to show that he was plotting to frame Karen Reed.
40:44Thank you, Your Honor.
40:46Thank you, jurors.
40:47But I don't know how Michael Proctor survives this.
40:54Certainly Trooper Proctor is damaged goods in this case,
40:58because now the theory is everything he touched is tainted.
41:01That jury might become so disgusted by Trooper Michael Proctor's testimony
41:07and find him lacking credibility so much.
41:10That in and of itself could be enough for Karen Reed to walk out of there clean.
41:32A big day for this case.
41:34They found John's DNA on Karen's car.
41:37No injuries on the shoulder, on the ribs, on the back, correct?
41:40The cross-examination was tough to watch.
41:43What was the point of impact on John's body?
41:46Did you see your body?
41:47No.
41:50I knew this day was coming forever.
41:52My anxiety is high.
41:54My life is in their hands.
41:55So, counsel, you're aware of a note from the jury?