Karen Read trial taking a day off today

The Karen Read murder retrial is taking at present off The announcement came in the form of a somewhat cryptic message from the state s courts Please be advised that the trial in Commonwealth v Karen Read is not taking place at present due to unavoidable circumstances Massachusetts state courts spokeswoman Jennifer Donahue wrote in an email There was no further explanation Read of Mansfield faces charges including second-degree murder in the death of John O Keefe a Boston Police officer who she had dated for roughly two years at the time of his death on Jan She was tried last year but that ended in mistrial There have been days of testimony so far in her retrial Prosecutors say that Read struck O Keefe with her Lexus SUV sometime after midnight and left him to freeze and die on the front lawn of Fairview Road in Canton The previous three days of trial featured testimony from Massachusetts State Police Sgt Yuriy Bukhenik one of the principal investigators of the situation His testimony included details on his assessment with his investigative partner Trooper Michael Proctor who has since been fired from the MSP due primarily to his behavior in this matter Proctor s testimony was shocking in the first trial last year in which he read texts he sent that included calling Read the subject of his inquiry things like a babe and a whack job as well as cruder things Bukhenik s time on the stand was so extensive that it s not clear if Proctor will be returning this year