NOTES BETWEEN PRINTED EDITIONS

GIORDANO: KAREN READ JURY TASKED WITH GUESSING ITS WAY THROUGH RECKLESS ACTIONS

By Alice Giordano

Out of a sundry of conflicting evidence and polarizing debate in the gripping murder trial of Karen Read murder —  what’s not in dispute is that a night of drinking ended in the tragic death of Boston cop John O’Keefe.

As a 16-year veteran to the badge, O’Keefe no doubt did more than his share of DWI stops, sobriety tests, and yes, routinely saw the tragic consequences from a night of boozing.

He slapped  cuffs on motorists and had their cars towed away for blood-alcohol content less than that of his girlfriend’s.

Massachusetts also has a law that makes it a crime to knowingly let someone drive drunk.

Nevertheless, O’Keefe willingly got in a car and  let someone who had been downing alcohol — drive.

And in a blizzard —  not safely home to his two adopted kids. But instead to a late night party where more boozing was likely at the top of the activity list.

The couple apparently quarreled. It was slippery out. Both of them were drunk, meaning O’Keefe was probably not exactly fully steady on his feet.

Blinding snowfall to both himself or Read was likely at hand.

And according to the prosecution, O’Keefe only had one free hand because he was holding a cocktail glass in the other.

Meanwhile, Read remained drunk behind the wheel, pretty drunk in fact, as her blood alcohol content test showed.

What happened after that is pretty much a stab in the dark.

Cryptic butt calls, missing security camera footage, an investigation wholly devoid of standard police procedure, and a household stock-still despite a litter of cruisers, fire engines,  ambulances, and a screaming woman on their front lawn — aside.

This is a case of a couple engaging in reckless actions.

O’Keefe sounds like he was a good man. Good people make bad choices.

No one wants to blame the deceased or even breathe a word of fault against them. The O’Keefes have certainly suffered their share of losses, a daughter and then a son. Unimaginable.

But grief does not make someone any more or less guilty of murder.

O’Keefe’s family scoffs at the idea of a police cover up. How quickly they forget The Blue Line Coverup,  the Patrick Rose case and others.

But like cops too often do, they make it so we don’t have to think too far back.

Just last month, Boston cop Stephen O’Connell crashed his car after a night of drinking.

And wouldn’t you know it, Boston police are refusing to release  the body camera footage from the night and of course, conveniently failed to give him  a breathalyzer test.

Maybe Read did hit O’Keefe, maybe he slipped and fell. Maybe someone else ran over him (there were certainly enough cars and booze coming and going that night)….Maybe O’Keefe got into a fist fight after Read left. Maybe, maybe, maybe — maybe.

Maybe just maybe the prosecution let ego get in their way on this one.

If O’Keefe lived and Read wrapped herself around a tree on her way home. Would he be the one on trial? The law suggests he might.

By the very least, the state is tasking a jury not with the examination of evidence to reach a verdict, but a guessing game.

The state certainly has a history of cutting sweetheart deals. According to a report by WCVB-TV5, the Suffolk County District Attorney’s office has on average offered plea deals in about 40 percent of its murder cases. Norfolk County DA has also had its share, the 2019 DWI plea deal it cut, for example, for state Senator Michael Brady.

Lest us not forget the deadly boating DWI crash on Cape Cod that led to the death of 17-year old Sadie Mauro. It was just last year that the drunk driver David Sullivan, Mauro’s boyfriend — who like Read pleaded not guilty —  was given a suspended sentence and probation after prosecutors dropped the more severe charges against him. In other words — no jail time.

It was an avoidable tragedy made possible by the victim’s complicity — as in participation —  in the dangerous decision to mix drinking and driving.

The prosecution obviously recognized that in the case.

The Karen Read prosecutors refuse to.