Jury deliberations started on Tuesday within the homicide trial of Karen Learn, who’s accused of deliberately backing her automobile into her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, after which leaving him to die within the snow exterior a home celebration. The case has drawn outsize consideration, fueled by her attorneys’ accusations of a police cover-up.
It has additionally transfixed Boston, the place a faithful band of supporters who imagine Ms. Learn was framed has galvanized a “Free Karen Learn” motion. Wearing pink, they’ve gathered exterior Norfolk County Superior Courtroom every time her trial is in session, choosing aside the proof and the online of relationships concerned. A Boston blogger generally known as Turtleboy, who additionally helps Ms. Learn, has been charged with harassing and intimidating witnesses.
What occurred?
In January 2022, Ms. Learn and her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, a 46-year-old Boston police officer, had been out ingesting with associates in Canton, Mass., a city about 20 miles south of Boston. At a bar, they bumped into one other Boston police officer and have been invited to a late-night celebration at his home.
Shortly after midnight, they drove to the home, the place Officer O’Keefe obtained out of Ms. Learn’s black Lexus S.U.V. Prosecutors say that the couple had been combating and that Ms. Learn accelerated in reverse, deliberately hanging her boyfriend earlier than leaving him within the snow.
He was discovered unresponsive later that morning by Ms. Learn, who stated she had frantically looked for him after waking up on his sofa round 4 a.m. and realizing he had not come dwelling. Officer O’Keefe, who had extreme head accidents and hypothermia, was pronounced useless on Jan. 29, 2022.
Ms. Learn was arrested three days later. She has pleaded not responsible to expenses of second-degree homicide and manslaughter.
Ms. Learn’s attorneys accuse the police of a cover-up.
Ms. Learn’s attorneys have accused regulation enforcement officers of a sweeping conspiracy to cover the reality in regards to the homicide.
They are saying that Ms. Learn dropped Officer O’Keefe off on the home celebration in Canton, the place somebody inside fatally beat him after which dumped his physique within the snow. Protection witnesses have testified that Officer O’Keefe’s accidents weren’t according to a automobile accident.
Ms. Learn’s attorneys level to a Google search, together with a misspelled phrase, that was recovered from the cellphone of a girl who was inside the house that night time: “hos lengthy to die in chilly.” They are saying the question was made round 2:30 a.m., earlier than Officer O’Keefe’s physique was discovered round 6 a.m.
The protection has additionally highlighted an internet of relationships that related among the individuals who have been in the home that night time to the regulation enforcement officers who investigated the case as a way to bolster their argument that there was a cover-up. Ms. Learn’s attorneys have additionally questioned the gathering and the storage of crime-scene proof, casting them as shoddy and unprofessional.
“The undeniable fact is, you’ve gotten been lied to on this courtroom,” Alan Jackson, a lawyer for Ms. Learn, informed jurors throughout closing arguments. “One lie begets one other, and it’s a malignancy that grows — and that, of us, is how a cover-up is born.”
Prosecutors say Ms. Learn was offended with Officer O’Keefe.
Prosecutors say that Ms. Learn and Officer O’Keefe had been combating earlier than she drove him to the home in Canton and that she deliberately backed into him after he obtained out of her S.U.V.
In court docket filings, prosecutors have described injury to the rear finish of Ms. Learn’s S.U.V., items of a pink taillight discovered exterior the home, enraged voice mail messages that she left on Officer O’Keefe’s telephone that night time and statements from witnesses that he had informed her he needed to finish the connection.
A few of the emergency employees known as to the scene that morning have testified that they heard Ms. Learn say repeatedly “I hit him.” Adam Lally, an assistant district legal professional for Norfolk County, reminded jurors of these phrases throughout closing arguments.
“‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,’” Mr. Lally stated. “These are the phrases of the defendant, and also you heard testimony from 4 witnesses who overheard these statements.”
Ms. Learn has recommended that in her shock and grief that morning, she uttered a panicked query — “Did I hit him?” — not a confession.
Concerning the Google seek for the phrase “hos lengthy to die in chilly,” prosecutors say the question was made between 6 a.m. and 6:30 a.m., at Ms. Learn’s frantic request, simply after she found her boyfriend unresponsive. An knowledgeable witness testified the phrase was typed right into a search tab that had been left open since 2:30 a.m., leading to a deceptive time stamp.
The lead investigator despatched vulgar textual content messages about Ms. Learn.
The state’s case has been damage by vulgar and misogynistic textual content messages despatched by the lead investigator, State Trooper Michael Proctor. In texts despatched to associates which Trooper Proctor learn aloud in court docket, he joked about trying to find nude pictures on Ms. Learn’s telephone, mocked her well being issues, critiqued her look and stated he hoped she killed herself.
Earlier this month, Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts, a Democrat, stated she was “disgusted” by the trooper’s textual content messages, which she known as “horrible” and “utterly unprofessional.”
“It does hurt, frankly, to the dignity and the integrity of the work of women and men throughout the state police and regulation enforcement,” she informed WCVB, an area tv station.
Mr. Lally, the Norfolk County prosecutor, stated in his closing arguments that the textual content messages have been “distasteful and disrespectful and unprofessional.” However he stated the proof confirmed that Ms. Learn killed Officer O’Keefe.
“There is no such thing as a conspiracy,” Mr. Lally stated. “There is no such thing as a cover-up. There is no such thing as a proof for any of that, past hypothesis — rampant hypothesis and conjecture — on behalf of the protection.”
What’s subsequent?
If convicted, Ms. Learn, 44, faces 5 to twenty years in jail for manslaughter and life in jail for homicide. The jury was nonetheless deliberating on Wednesday.
