Canton Cover-Up Part 29: What’s Being Hidden On Karen Read’s Cell Phone? 

 

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Where is Karen Read’s cell phone? This is a common question I’ve been asked dozens of times by people following the John O’Keefe murder case, but I don’t have an answer. We know that Karen’s phone was confiscated by the State Police on January 29, four days before she was arrested and charged with manslaughter. It’s unclear what the Commonwealth has done with her phone, considering they didn’t even extract the Cellebrite data from it like they did with McCabe, Kerry Roberts, and O’Keefe.

Why is the Commonwealth extracting all the cell phone data from an irrelevant person like Kerry Roberts when she was never even suspected of being in the house, but not extracting any data from the alleged murderer who they consider to be the prime suspect?

There is no way State Police have not thoroughly went through her phone. If the Commonwealth had found anything on Karen Read’s phone that could incriminate her they would have used it by now. Any text message she wrote to a family member “confessing” to hitting John O’Keefe. Any messages to friends expressing a desire to break up with O’Keefe. Anything she searched for after allegedly hitting him on purpose with her car, like “how to get fix a broken tail light.” The fact that we haven’t heard anything about her phone at all speaks volumes.

Conversely, the same state troopers investigating the murder of Ana Walshe confiscated Brian Walshe’s cell phone and his children’s iPads within days of her disappearance, and had done a full extraction. Walshe, like Karen Read, was the prime suspect. Why haven’t the police done a full extraction of the prime suspect’s cell phone?

The answer is that they probably have. But as we saw with Jennifer McCabe’s phone, they hid incriminating phone calls and Google searches that were erased, despite claiming to have handed everything over to the defense. There is possibly data in Karen Read’s phone that could exonerate her, and we know that if there is the State Police and DA’s Office have no problem keeping that from the defense.

In this case police aren’t doing a lot of things they normally would do with a homicide. A year after John O’Keefe was killed an Acton woman was killed by a hit and run driver in similar snowy conditions outside her house as she was getting the mail. This is how Acton Police set up their crime scene:

Nothing like this ever existed at 34 Fairview Road.

Even more troubling is the fact that the phone could prove Karen Read’s innocence. In particular, they would be able to ping Karen’s phone after she left 34 Fairview Rd. If the phone pinged a mile away at the same time that John O’Keefe’s phone was moving inside the house, then it would prove that she didn’t kill him.

This is very similar to the Canton Library tape, which would prove that Karen Read’s tail light was in tact after she dropped John O’Keefe off at 34 Fairview Road. The only people who have accessed that tape are the conflicted State Troopers investigating the murder, and DA Michael Morrissey’s office. When they handed it over to the defense there were three minutes of video missing that happened to be the exact time when Karen Read drove by.

It’s funny how evidence that could prove Karen Read’s innocence keeps disappearing, but evidence that “proves” her guilt (like tail light fragments) suddenly appears out of nowhere 12 hours after police searched the scene of the crime. Given their history in this case it’s more than fair to assume that the Commonwealth and State Police are hiding something that could exonerate Karen Read.

I reached out to Read’s Attorney David Yannetti for comment on this:

 

I’m reaching out for comment on a story I am working on regarding the investigation into Karen Read. Many of my readers have asked questions that I have been unable to answer or probe because the information does not appear to be anywhere in the court documents. 

1. Does the Commonwealth still possess Karen Read’s cell phone?

2. Has the Commonwealth downloaded the data from Karen Read’s phone and provided it to the defense? 

3. Has the defense requested an image of Karen Read’s cellphone from when it was handed over on January 29?

4. To your knowledge, did Trooper Michael Proctor or Nicholas Guarino physically possess Karen Read’s cell phone?

5. Did Karen Read’s cell phone pings indicate that her vehicle was driving towards Meadows Avenue while John O’Keefe’s cell phone indicated that he was inside 34 Fairview Rd?

6. In your experience as a prosecutor and a criminal defense attorney, is it abnormal for the prosecution to withhold key evidence that the defense has been asking for? If so, what actions can the defense take to obtain them if the judge does not set a hard date for the Commonwealth to hand over their discovery evidence? 

Unfortunately all Yannetti was able to tell me was this:

“I read your questions, and are all obviously relevant. We have answers to all of them, but I unfortunately cannot go on record to answer them…yet.”

It is my belief that if the defense was provided with a full Cellebrite extraction report of her phone, they’d be loudly talking about it. This leads me to believe that the Commonwealth is withholding it from them. Whatever Yannetti has answers to can’t be discussed until trial, which ideally never happens. If the case does make it to trial Karen Read will be acquitted, but it would mean that they never investigated anyone else. Luckily a federal grand jury has been convened, and two US Attorney’s have subpoenaed several people who were inside 34 Fairview Road that fateful night.

Justice is coming for John O’Keefe, regardless of how many posts Elizabeth Proctor flags to Facebook in an attempt to silence the truth.