DAY 12: Karen Read Retrial
Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik shares the details of his investigation into the death of John O'Keefe.
Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik (MSP Investigator) took the stand for the entire day today, and we’ll be seeing him return again tomorrow to finish up on cross-examination.
Lots of interesting details from his testimony, including the early morning Ring footage showing the hole in Karen’s taillight…
AND —-
When Yuri asked her if she saw John enter the Albert house that night at 34 Fairview, she told him: No, she doesn't think so.
Yeah. That’s not what she tells the media in her multiple evolving interviews.
Here are the highlights from the entire day:
SGT. YURI BUKHENIK (MSP Investigator)
Works for Norfolk District Attorney’s office (MSP-Homicide Unit).
Marine Corps Veteran - Military Police Officer (Joined after 9/11 occurred).
Honorably discharged in 2006.
~ MORNING OF 1/29/22~
Yuri received a call at 6:44 AM regarding an unresponsive man in the snow.
Yuri met Trooper Proctor and several other officers at the Canton Police Station at about 9:15 AM. Yuri was Proctor’s supervisor.
Investigations are a teamwork. There is a case leader, but ultimately they all work in unison.
Initial evidence found on scene are reviewed by Yuri and Proctor at the station that morning. (evidence including: coagulated blood and broken glass cup/pieces.)
~ HOSPITAL VISIT~
Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik and Trooper Proctor went from CPD station to Good Samaritan Hospital to view the deceased victim, John O’Keefe.
Yuri describes the wounds he saw:
Blood behind head, and on the sheet underneath it.
Swollen eyes (not both symmetrically swollen) due to blood pooling under them.
Right arm had multiple scrapes on exterior of arm, not interior.
Light bruise on top of hand.
Bruising on right knee.
John’s clothing was removed during life-saving measures, and eventually put on the floor by medical staff. Yuri says clothing was soaking wet.
They put into an evidence bag:
Pair of jeans
Two-toned sweatshirt (grey and black)
Orange t-shirt
1 Nike shoe
The missing shoe was a potential clue Yuri wanted to follow because a common sign of being struck by a vehicle is being knocked out of their shoes. The officers had reached out to EMS to see if maybe his shoe fell off in the ambulance.
~DIGHTON~
Karen Read was discharged from the hospital before investigators arrived there, and they learned that she headed to her parents’ home in Dighton. Yuri and Proctor drove there together.
Ring camera at Karen’s parents’ house shows Karen arriving in her SUV and walking to the back, right taillight for a moment.
Snow had accumulated a lot at that point.
When Yuri and Proctor arrive at the house, Karen and her parents were in the living room.
Karen said she would answer questions, but not go into any details.
Karen describes meeting John at the bar. She was drinking vodka tonics, and John was drinking beer at the time.
Investigators asked if she brought a cocktail glass with her from C.F. McCarthy’s bar to Waterfall Bar & Grill. Karen said she didn’t think so.
Karen was asked if she saw John walk into the Albert house that night.
Karen said — no, she didn’t think so.
She was asked about her broken taillight. She said that she doesn’t know how it happened last night.
Karen said she made a 3-pt turn when leaving the Albert property that night.
She said John did not have any injuries on him prior to that night out, but does recall that 2 nights before John told her he bumped his head.
~SEIZURE OF EVIDENCE~
Investigators seized Karen’s cellular phone and her SUV while at Karen’s parents’ house.
When there’s evidence of a crime committed (ex. John’s death), officers are allowed to seize items (to save, not search) from a suspect prior to the warrant being signed if there’s concern of destruction of evidence (cell phone).
Karen’s SUV was put onto a tow truck, and headed back to the Canton Police Station at 4:16 PM. Yuri and Proctor followed the truck back to the station.
They chose the CPD garage because it’s the closest one with a heated Sally Port. Karen’s SUV was in a shell of snow, and the best option was to have it melt off before the vehicle was inspected.
Yuri never touched the taillight.
Yuri says he never saw Proctor touch the taillight either.
Karen’s SUV is a black 2022 Lexus - LX 570.
Yuri says he’s 100% sure Karen’s taillight had a large hole in it.
At some point, Yuri learns that Tully dispatched officers (SERT team) to the crime scene to search for the missing shoe.
Defense asks if Yuri was concerned about bringing the SUV to the CPD garage since the local officers recused themselves. Yuri says no.
After the vehicle is towed to the Sally Port garage, Yuri and Proctor left at about 5:51 PM. They headed to the CPD dispatch area and then the conference room. Met with with Tully and some homicide detectives to brief on the items recovered by SERT.
The hat was still missing, so officers decided they needed to do another search at some point. The weather would be warmer in the next days, so snow should be melting more.
The victim’s clothing from the hospital was brought to the DA’s office, and put into the temporary evidence processing area. Each item was separated and laid out on butcher paper to air dry. Avoiding any trapped moisture while drying is important because it could impact DNA recovery. Clothing laid out for several days before being re-bagged and stored.
~ Third Search of Fairview ~
A planned excavation at 34 Fairview occurs on 2/3/22. Brought tools to use like snow shovels.
Items found, include:
Shards of red and clear taillight plastic (some larger, some very small and put into an envelope).
John’s hat. (Yuri describes it as “flattened and frozen to the ground”)
Cocktail straw in the street.
Evidence was photographed.
Yuri directed the team to have at least one person drive down Fairview Road in the morning and on the way home from work each day to look for any shards of plastic in the lawn as snow continued to melt. This leads to more findings of plastic/glass being found on the following days, including 2/5 and 2/10.
~Surveillance Evidence~
At some point the investigators collected bar surveillance, ring footage, and other security footage from different entities.
The surveillance at the bar was to corroborate witness statements, view victim’s clothing, and watch the alcohol content being consumed. Bar footage is shown to the jury to show all the times Karen Read is seen consuming alcohol at C. F. McCarthy’s.
~ Proctor’s Termination ~
Yuri says Proctor was the Lead Case Officer for this particular case. Defense plays tug-of-war with Yuri over the difference between the semantics of a case officer and a lead detective. Yuri says he doesn’t refer to anyone as the lead detective. The term he uses is ‘Lead Case Officer’.
Yuri was questioned about Trooper Proctor’s termination as an investigator in this case. Yuri says he was Proctor’s supervisor and was penalized for not taking appropriate action when seeing concerning text references in a group chat.
Yuri reads Proctor’s texts out loud to the jury, including one from 8/17/22 that said:
“Funny, I’m going through his retarded client’s phone right now. No nudes so far.”
(Last trial, Proctor testified that his words were inappropriate, and that he was making a very poor joke.)
Yuri had 5 vacation days taken from him as punishment for failing to supervise this communication properly, as well as inaccurately reporting it in his quarterly review of Proctor.
Yuri is still in his position working as a trusted officer in the homicide unit.
~ Ring Footage ~
A warrant was sent to Ring, and they provided the footage stored on John’s Ring camera.
Video clips from 1/28 and 1/29 are played in court.
The first clip below is from around 5:30am in the morning. I put it on a short loop so you can see the hold in her right taillight when the break lights turn off.
Several clips are missing or simply did not record, including:
Karen arriving to the property 12:36 AM without John.
Karen leaving the property with Jen and Kerry that morning (the time she is reported to have shown the women her taillight).
Karen and her Father leaving John’s property that morning.
ON CROSS-EXAMINATION
Proctor’s role was being involved in evidence collection, interviews, and signing of warrants.
Defense Attorney Jackson asks Yuri if he thinks Proctor’s behaviors tainted this investigation. Yuri says, no.
Defense asks Yuri if he believes Proctor investigated with integrity and honor. Yuri says, Yes.
Defense asks if Yuri thinks Proctor had a bias investigating this case. Yuri says he believes that all people have a bias, but that is not how they investigate. Their job is a ‘very serious line of work’ and they treat it accordingly.
Defense Attorney Jackson says suspects are not always telling the truth, why did you just trust the witness statements in this investigation as truth? Yuri says they don’t just trust statements. They follow the evidence and leads. Cooperating witnesses always want to assist. No one was being evasive. They were corroborating all info that came their way.
Jackson tries to point out that no searches were documented until November 2023. Yuri disagreed with his assessment, and stated that the evidence bags were marked with the search dates and times. Writing a log with the date, times, and evidence would be ‘redundant’.
Jackson points out that one of the officers who found a taillight shard one day driving by the property on Fairview was Officer Berkowitz of CPD. Berkowitz is a friend of Brian Higgins (an officer who was out with the friend group the night John died).
Yuri will be back on the stand tomorrow for a continued cross-examination.
After I read your summaries it all makes sense :)
Awesome summary!