‘I just struck a stake through his heart.' Karen Read's lead defense attorney discusses trial with Vanity Fair
Here are some highlights from Jackson's interview with Vanity Fair, which had
Both trials would've cost Read a pretty penny if she paid full freight
Defense lawyer Alan Jackson, left, questions State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik during the Karen Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court on May 9, 2025.
Mark Stockwell/Pool
Jackson told the magazine that his firm would've billed
a combined
$10 million for both trials; Read's first murder trial ended in a hung jury last year, and attorneys Jackson, Elizabeth Little, and David Yannetti were joined for the retrial by Robert Alessi, a bespectacled New York litigator who aggressively challenged much of the forensic evidence, and Victoria George, a lawyer who had served as an alternate juror during trial one.
Read, a former financial analyst, drained her savings and
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The defense would've fought efforts to jail Read on the OUI conviction
Judge Beverly J. Cannone addresses the jury during the Karen Read trial in Norfolk Superior Court on June 17, 2025.
Nancy Lane/BH
Jackson told Vanity Fair that had Judge Beverly J. Cannone sent signals in the immediate aftermath of the verdict that she was considering jail time for Read
for the OUI conviction, the defense was prepared to fight to keep her free.
'If the court even hinted that she was going to give her custody time and make her perp walk out of that courtroom with a guilty on the OUI, we were fully prepared. And Karen was prepared. She was buckled down for the possibility that Judge Beverly Cannone
would give her a year of jail.'
Had she received a year behind bars, 'we were going to immediately appeal it,' Jackson told the magazine.
But once special prosecutor Hank Brennan told Cannone the government was ready for sentencing after the verdict came down, the defense said they wanted Read to be treated like any other first-time drunken driving offender, and Cannone indicated she would do that, giving Read
'The first thing that flooded over me was, It's over — this odyssey that Karen's been going though, that I've been through — it's done,' Jackson said.
Jackson thought prosecutors were 'embarrassed' by Michael Proctor, erred by not calling others
Investigator Michael Proctor takes the stand on June 10, 2024, during the trial of Karen Read.
Kayla Bartkowski/Associated Press
A notable omission from the government witness list at the retrial was former State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, lead investigator in the Read case.
During the first trial, he was forced to read a number of crude and misogynistic
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'You were so embarrassed of Michael Proctor you couldn't even put him on the stand,' Jackson told the magazine.
He also said he thought prosecutors made a 'glaring, glaring error' at the retrial by not calling 'certain witnesses, including Brian Albert and Brian Higgins, Nicole Albert, Matt McCabe, Chris Albert.'
Brian Albert is the now-retired Boston police officer who owned the Canton home where O'Keefe's body was found outside near the road, while Higgins is an ATF agent who swapped flirtatious texts with Read and who was present at the afterparty at Albert's house. Nicole Albert is Brian Albert's wife, Matt McCabe is Nicole's brother-in-law whose wife Jen was at the afterparty, and Chris Albert is Brian Albert's brother.
'They didn't want them to be subjected to a very vigorous cross-examination because the Commonwealth knew they would not withstand it,' Jackson said.
Speaking of cross-examination, Jackson really enjoys it
'I want the jurors looking at me, to see the look on my face, my body language, I want them to listen to the tone of my voice and then turn back around and watch how the witness reacts,' Jackson offered up in almost cinematic detail. 'That is the fun of a trial, a good, solid cross-examination. And it requires an enormous amount of preparation. Every single question I ask is highly scripted because I'm building to something else. It's like a symphony. It's a beautiful thing to execute.'
He recalled one moment when he was cross-examining State Police Sergeant Yuri Bukhenik, who told Jackson that he 'asked the question, I wanted to answer.' Without hesitating, Jackson said 'I know the answers to all of my questions.'
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'The jurors all chuckled,' Jackson recalled. 'And I just struck a stake through his heart. You have to be really comfortable in your own skin to be able to have an argument and know that you're going to win it in front of a jury. And national television, too.'
Read was 'elated' after the verdict but has a challenging road ahead
'As much as she is relieved and elated and so very, very thankful to all of the people who have given her undying and unyielding support … it's been an unbelievable amount of stress for her to deal with for the last three and a half years," Jackson told the magazine. 'And it's not like a light switch. You can't just turn that off.'
He said he gave Read some advice before he left Massachusetts to return home to Los Angeles.
'You're a different person coming out of the back end of this thing than you were going into it,' he said. 'And it's going to take you a minute to figure out what the new normal is for Karen Read.'
Karen Read emerges from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham on June 18, 2025, after the jury delivered its verdict in her murder retrial.
Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff
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