Watch Live: “Flirty” texts between Karen Read, Brian Higgins revealed in murder trial testimony

DEDHAM – Testimony in the Karen Read case continues today with Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent Brian Higgins taking the stand at Massachusetts murder trial and reading several ‘naughty’ text messages exchanged with the accused.

Read is accused of hitting and killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a Canton home in 2022. The defense says she is accused and alleges a cover-up involving law enforcement.

You can watch Karen Read’s trial live in the CBS News Boston video player above.

Who is Brian Higgins?

Higgins was at the after-party that evening at the house at 34 Fairview Road that belonged to Brian Albert. Higgins is one of three men the defense has suggested as alternative suspect in O’Keefe’s death.

The defense has already shown video surveillance from the Waterfall Bar and Grille in Canton which apparently shows Higgins and Albert fighting in the bar before the after-party.

“It speaks for itself,” Read’s attorney, Alan Jackson, said of the video. “Two guys grappling, sparring, looking like they’re fighting. They’re practicing fighting techniques.”

Albert testified that the two were just “having fun.”

In a new notice of discovery filed this week, the prosecution said five pages of Higgins’ medical records were provided to the defense.

When asked Wednesday in Norfolk Superior Court what to expect during Higgins’ cross-examination, Jackson responded with a single word: “Fireworks.”

What was Brian Higgins’ relationship with John O’Keefe and Karen Read?

Higgins testified that he had known O’Keefe for about a year and would see him at the Hillside Pub in Canton. He said he also went to O’Keefe’s house to watch the end of a New England Patriots game. Higgins said that more often than not, O’Keefe was with Read.

“I considered him a friend,” Higgins said. “I also considered her a friend.”

Higgins said that at the Cascade that evening he texted Read something like “um, well” and told the jury: “to be honest with you, it was a flirty text”.

Higgins said that after leaving the waterfall, he never saw Read or O’Keefe again that night. He also said he thought he was the first to leave the after-party at 34 Fairview. He said he ended up at his West Roxbury home around 2 a.m.

Higgins testified that Brian Albert called him around 6:30 a.m. to tell him O’Keefe had been found on the lawn.

“It made no sense to me,” Higgins said. “I couldn’t do the math in my head, because I knew John O’Keefe and the defendant, they never showed up. It didn’t make any sense.”

Texts between Brian Higgins and Karen Read

The prosecution had Higgins read several texts between him and Karen Read in January 2022, before O’Keefe’s death.

In one of the texts, Read tells Higgins “you’re hot.”

“Are you serious or are you kidding me?” Higgins responds.

“No, I’m serious,” Read said.

Higgins then said that after watching a Patriots game at O’Keefe’s house on a Saturday night in January, Read “planted a kiss” on him.

“Not as a friend,” Higgins testified.

In another series of posts, Read Higgins’ “Come to Me” texts.

Read told Higgins she never wanted children and sent him a text message explaining how O’Keefe taking care of his niece and nephew was complicating their relationship.

In one message, Higgins told Read he assumed she was happy with her situation.

“I was. But things got worse,” she replied.

Read also texted Higgins to tell him that O’Keefe had shown her video of her interacting with Higgins.

“He says ‘Holy shit, are you guys dating??'” Read’s message reads.

After that, Higgins said Read came to his house for a face-to-face conversation to determine “what it was all about.”

“I’m not proud of these text messages, it’s what it is, I take responsibility for it. But John was at the same time a friend… If they were at the end of their relationship, they were at the end .” of their relationship. But I wasn’t going to let someone take advantage of me and use me as a weapon against someone I loved. It was just a strange experience.

The last message played in court between the two was the one Read sent to Higgins: “John is dead.”

Cross-examination of Brian Higgins

Read’s defense began cross-examining Higgins before the jury’s lunch break.

“Were you sexually attracted to her?” » asked Jackson.

“I was physically attracted to her…I think in the text I said ‘you’re hot.’

Who is Karen Read?

Read is a 45-year-old woman from Massachusetts. She was dating O’Keefe at the time of his death.

Read pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of bodily injury and death.

What happened at Karen Read’s murder trial this week?

The week started with contentious cross-examination between Jennifer McCabe and Read’s defense. McCabe was with Read and Kerry Roberts when they found O’Keefe’s body in the snow.

McCabe, who is Brian Albert’s sister-in-law, Googled “hos (sic) long time to freeze to death” the morning of O’Keefe’s death. McCabe testified that Read urged her to look for hypothermia and how long it took to die in the cold after 6 a.m. when they found O’Keefe’s body. The defense says cell phone data show that the first search actually took place at 2:27 a.m. and that McCabe later deleted it.

“Did you delete this search because you knew you would be involved in the death of John O’Keefe if this search was found on your phone?” Jackson asked him.

“I did not delete that search,” McCabe responded. “I never did this search at 2:23.”

Kerry Roberts testified after McCabe about finding her friend O’Keefe in a mound of snow. She cried as the prosecution played police dashboard camera video showing first responders arriving at the scene. Read wondered if O’Keefe might have been hit by a plow, Roberts recalled.

“She said ‘Do you think I hit him? Do you think I hit him? And I said ‘No, I think you probably hit something, but we should go get it’ , Roberts said.

Also testifying Wednesday were two sisters, Laura and Marietta Sullivan, who both said there was tension and jealousy between the couple during a New Year’s Eve trip to Aruba just weeks before the deaths by O’Keefe.

Karen Read trial schedule

The court was not in session on Thursday. And next week, after the Memorial Day holiday, the jury won’t be here until Tuesday to hear testimony.

Experts tell WBZ-TV that both sides risk losing the jury because the trial is taking longer than expected.