Authorized specialists are handing Karen Learn’s protection workforce the win for Friday’s heated cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik – who returned for his second day on the stand as prosecutors look to persuade the jury that Learn fatally struck her boyfriend, Boston cop John O’Keefe, and left him to die in a blizzard in January 2022.
Throughout hours of cross-examination from protection legal professional Alan Jackson, the murder investigator was requested to learn a protracted string of textual content messages exchanged between Learn and Brian Higgins, a Canton-based ATF agent with whom she was flirting behind O’Keefe’s again.
Having Bukhenik learn the texts permits the protection to introduce rumour statements into the case, in response to Grace Edwards, a Massachusetts protection legal professional who’s following the case carefully. Additionally they increase questions concerning the integrity of the investigation, one thing the protection has aimed to discredit completely.
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Textual content message between Brian Higgins (in blue) and Karen Learn from January 2022.
“They’re being entered not for the reality of what’s contained in them however to point out that they existed,” she instructed Fox Information Digital. “That’s necessary as a result of the protection needs to have the ability to argue that these messages existed, and did or didn’t the investigation contemplate them as a lead? Wouldn’t the data of a romantic flirtation between Karen Learn and Brian Higgins create the potential for battle between Brian Higgins and John O’Keefe?”
She stated that each side carried out nicely Friday and credited Hank Brennan, the particular prosecutor introduced in to deal with Learn’s retrial, with devising a brand new technique after the primary trial led to a mistrial. However she stated the protection gained out barely.
“Nice lawyering on each side as we speak. Hank Brennan’s new trial technique signifies he gained’t have to name upon Brian Albert or Brian Higgins or Michael Proctor,” she stated. “They’ve stretched the witness to the max the previous few days. Alan Jackson seems to have worn the witness down and there was damaging testimony relating to the dealing with of proof. Total, I felt the protection achieved extra of their objectives as we speak.”
Karen Learn and John O’Keefe pose in an undated photograph. (Karen Learn)
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Sgt. Bukhenik spent hours on the stand Friday, studying by way of flirty textual content messages between Learn and Brian Higgins, an ATF agent and potential love curiosity whom she contacted behind O’Keefe’s again.
The Ukraine native, who immigrated to the U.S. when he was 9 and joined the Marine Corps after 9/11, typically sparred with Jackson about semantics, asking for a replica of Webster’s Dictionary at one level, telling the courtroom that English was his “third language.”
Frequent objections from the particular prosecutor, Hank Brennan, additionally interrupted the proceedings as Choose Beverly Cannone repeatedly known as the perimeters to the bench for off-camera discussions.
ATF Agent Brian Higgins speaks at Karen Learn’s first homicide trial at Norfolk Superior Courtroom on Tuesday, Might 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. The case ended with a deadlocked jury, prompting her retrial, which started final month. (Stuart Cahill/The Boston Herald by way of AP, Pool)
At one level, Jackson replayed video proven earlier of Learn backing out of O’Keefe’s storage the morning he was discovered useless. The protection clip included a layover of a field with a zoomed-in view of O’Keefe’s automobile, which was parked exterior. It appeared to bounce in place as Learn neared it along with her rear bumper – the identical one later discovered with a damaged taillight.
“The prosecution appears to be like prefer it’s attempting to cover the reality with all objections,” stated Linda Kenney Baden, a outstanding East Coast protection legal professional who’s carefully following the case on her “Justice Served” podcast.
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One other damning second, she stated, was when Bukhenik admitted that no items of Learn’s damaged taillight have been recovered till after her automobile – the alleged homicide weapon – was parked contained in the sallyport at Canton Police Headquarters.
Textual content message between Brian Higgins (in blue) and Karen Learn from January 2022.
However she stated it was Bukhenik’s responses to Jackson which will have turned off jurors – calling the day a win for the protection.
Within the texts, Learn, now 45, mentioned her relationship struggles, repeatedly mentioning that she was not married and referred to herself as “single” regardless of, as Higgins wrote, having a “reside in boyfriend.”
They mentioned discovering one another “sizzling,” a kiss they shared exterior O’Keefe’s home, heavy ingesting and danced round laying out their intentions for each other.
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“Are you breaking apart or staying collectively?” Higgins requested at one level, about Learn and O’Keefe.
Karen Learn will get the eye of her lawyer through the Karen Learn homicide trial in Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Might 9, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Solar Chronicle by way of AP, Pool) (Mark Stockwell/The Solar Chronicle by way of AP, Pool)
“I don’t know,” Learn replied. “He attached with one other woman on trip. I’m very near his niece. It’s a really f—– up state of affairs.”
Higgins repeatedly requested Learn for readability about her intentions, though they each stated they discovered one another enticing and traded invitations to at least one one other’s houses.
“Okay, so he’s cool with you relationship different folks?” Higgins requested in one other trade.
Textual content message between Brian Higgins (in blue) and Karen Learn from January 2022. (Pool)
“I doubt it,” Learn wrote. “If he’s seeing another person I wouldn’t wish to know both method. He in all probability feels the identical. And also you in all probability really feel that method about whoever you hook up with. I feel that’s regular.”
Higgins was current on the Waterfall Bar and Grille with Learn, O’Keefe and others earlier than the entire group went to the close by dwelling of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer who can also be shut pals with Higgins.
Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik testifies through the Karen Learn homicide trial in Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Might 9, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Solar Chronicle by way of AP, Pool)
Learn has claimed she dropped O’Keefe off, noticed him go inside and left.
Prosecutors allege that she hit him with the rear finish of the Lexus SUV and left him to die on the bottom.
Learn had pleaded not responsible to expenses of homicide, manslaughter and fleeing the scene. Her protection denied {that a} collision occurred in any respect and insists his deadly accidents have been inflicted in another method – presumably a “combat” with a number of folks on the after-party.
Learn’s first trial, during which she claimed she was being framed by a gaggle of regulation enforcement with ties to Albert and his household, ended with a deadlocked jury and a mistrial.
Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official headshot. O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Reed, is at the moment on trial for homicide after he was discovered useless exterior of a Massachusetts dwelling in January 2022. (Boston Police Division)
Particular prosecutor Hank Brennan, a outstanding Massachusetts protection legal professional who beforehand represented Whitey Bulger, was introduced in to take over the reins from Assistant Norfolk County District Legal professional Adam Lally, who continues to be a part of the prosecution workforce.
Whereas Learn has stated that whether or not she is going to testify in her personal protection stays “to be decided,” Brennan sought and obtained video interviews that Learn had given to numerous TV retailers and documentarians and has been enjoying clips in courtroom for the jury.
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Within the texts, Higgins instructed Learn he wasn’t serious about “drama” however continued the two-way flirting till she despatched a chilling textual content to him round midday on Jan. 29, 2022.
“John died,” she wrote.
Karen Learn listens to sidebar conferences with legal professionals and Choose Cannone throughout her homicide trial in Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger by way of AP, Pool)
Simply hours earlier, whereas she was out ingesting with O’Keefe about an hour earlier than the tip of his life, Higgins despatched two texts to her that went unanswered round 11:30 p.m. on Jan. 28, 2022.
Legal professionals for each events additionally agreed in courtroom that at 12:20 a.m. the next morning, Higgins additionally texted O’Keefe. “You coming right here???”
Earlier, Jackson additionally grilled Bukhenik over how proof was dealt with within the case. Bukhenik testified that no taillight fragments had been recovered till after Learn’s SUV was in state police custody. He could not say which officer had crammed out an proof bag beneath his title and did not keep in mind whom he had given the unsigned proof to.
Jackson requested him whether or not he was conscious that greater than a dozen studies within the case weren’t written till greater than 100 days after the occasions that they have been imagined to “memorialize” had taken place. He stated he was not.
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Police witnesses could also be hurting the case because of missteps that should not have occurred had routine protocols been adopted, in response to Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD chilly case investigator and an adjunct crminal justice professor at Penn State Lehigh Valley.
Paul O’Keefe, brother of homicide sufferer John O’Keefe, listens to testimony through the Karen Learn homicide trial in Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Might 9, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Solar Chronicle by way of AP, Pool)
“A tie goes to the protection,” he stated of Friday’s testimony. “The Massachusetts State Police have a significant drawback on their palms.”
The MSP fired former Trooper Michael Proctor, who was a lead investigator within the case, after his testimony through the first trial revealed unprofessional textual content messages he had despatched relating to Learn. He might testify when the protection presents its case later within the trial.
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Native police additionally testified that they used pink Solo cups and a grocery bag to gather proof, eliminated snow with a leafblower and continued to be concerned on the outskirts of the case regardless of a battle of curiosity – considered one of their detectives is Brian Albert’s brother.
“The prosecution goes to go dwelling this weekend and reevaluate issues, as a result of this week couldn’t have been worse,” stated David Gelman, a former prosecutor and Philadelphia-area protection legal professional who’s following the case.
Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor faces a tricky cross-examination by lawyer Alan Jackson. The Karen Learn homicide trial in Norfolk Superior Courtroom, Dedham, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, June 12, 2024 (© Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger/IMAGN)
He beforehand instructed Fox Information Digital he was stunned the commonwealth even moved ahead with a brand new trial after the primary case fell aside.
Alternatively, digital proof has not supported protection claims.
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Two specialists have testified that Albert’s sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe, made a key Google search about hypothermia shortly after Learn and two different ladies discovered O’Keefe unresponsive within the snow – not hours earlier, earlier than anybody ought to have recognized he was useless, because the protection has claimed.
And studying the texts in courtroom may very well be a “double-edged sword,” stated Paul Mauro, a former NYPD inspector. Did Higgins have a cause to get into an altercation with O’Keefe? Or do they paint Learn as manipulative and untruthful?
