Latest news with #NorfolkCountyDA
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Yahoo
Federal Murder Case Connected to Karen Read Slated to Heat Up Next Week
Federal Murder Case Connected to Karen Read Slated to Heat Up Next Week originally appeared on L.A. Mag. The Karen Read retrial in Massachusetts has ended in a not guilty verdict for the most serious charges leveled against the 45-year-old finance analyst who was charged with murdering her boyfriend, beloved Boston police officer John O'Keefe. But many of the same questions centered on state police practices in the case that transfixed the country are now being asked in connection with a murder that took place in the same Massachusetts town that was the scene of the Read case: Canton. On February 4, 2021 - nearly a year to the day before the body of beloved Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe was found in the snow on a front yard of a fellow cop's house in Canton - Sandra Birchmore, a pregnant 23-year-old teacher's aide, was recovered in her bedroom with a duffle strap around her neck. Investigators from the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office, many of whom were witnesses or connected to the Read case, determined almost immediately that Birchmore had taken her own life despite overwhelming evidence, federal officials now say, that she was not suicidal. On the day investigators now believe was her last, Birchmore was excitedly making plans for her future, planning a newborn photo session, making arrangements with a friend to care for her two cats, and even putting a load of laundry in the washer while she waited for the man she believed was the father of her baby: Stoughton Police Detective Matthew Farwell, who was also a powerful union official, to stop by. In the lead up to her brutal alleged murder, she was pestering Farwell, according to a federal complaint, "regarding her due date, ultrasounds, genetic testing, gender reveals, and doctor appointments.' Farwell, a married man whose third baby was due around the time Birchmore was excitedly telling everyone she was expecting and the detective was the father, wasn't as excited and had texted her that he "wish she would die."On Feb. 1, 2021, Farwell had a change of heart. He texted Birchmore he "wanted to come by for a minute," braving an ongoing blizzard that had created treacherous conditions, dumping a foot of snow on Boston's south shore area. That night, Birchmore was captured on her apartment building's security cameras coming in and out with an ice scraper. She texted Farwell at 9:10 p.m. that her door would be open. That was the last activity on her cell phone. Farwell showed up four minutes later - wearing a COVID mask with a hoodie pulled tight over his head - and left twenty minutes later, driving directly to a Boston area hospital where his wife Michelle was giving birth to their third child, a boy. The six-foot-four detective, 38, was the last person to see her alive, and her body was found days later after Canton Police were asked to do a well-being check when Birchmore didn't show up for work and couldn't be reached. Yet, he was never seriously considered a suspect in her death despite multiple tips to the Norfolk County D.A.'s office about Farwell's long history with Birchmore, who had been involved in a police mentoring program since she was a girl. It would take nearly four years, and an FBI investigation, before Farwell would be arrested in Birchmore's death, essentially charged with framing the young woman for her own murder. Federal prosecutors now say he used his "knowledge and experience as a law enforcement officer to stage her death to make it look like a suicide." 'He arrived wearing a mask to disguise his appearance. He quickly strangled Birchmore, choking off her air supply until she perished. He moved her body and tied a duffle bag strap to the closet door knob to make it look like Birchmore had done this to herself. And he quickly left her apartment. The crime required planning and a unique willingness to take risks to cause irreversible harm,' federal investigators said in court records. But did Farwell have help is the question that appears to be ongoing as his case is delayed over and over again, with hearings pushed, including one scheduled for next week that is now slated to be held on August 4 at Boston's federal courthouse. Farwell was arrested in a dramatic takedown by the FBI last August and charged with murder motivated in part because he "could no longer control Birchmore," former Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Josh Levy told reporters. Farwell, prosecutors believe, "silenced her permanently." "Ms Birchmore was very excited about becoming a mother," Levy said. "She had good friends. She had a good job. She had dreams of being a nurse and a child on the way." The Birchmore case has so many overlaps with Read case, the Superior Court Judge overseeing the 45-year-old's retrial, Beverly Cannone, barred her defense team from any mention of the Birchmore case. The FBI's presence in Canton was referenced in Read's trial several times by several witnesses, including former Canton cop Kelly Dever, now a Boston Police officer, who testified that statements she made to federal agents were a "false memory" that she later recanted. After Birchmore's death, troopers in the Norfolk County D.A.'s office were "advised by multiple sources that the victim Sandra was possibly pregnant and that she said the father of the baby is Detective Matthew 'Matt' Farwell from Stoughton Police Department," MSP Lt. John Fanning wrote in one report. Fanning was also a figure in the Read case and was one of the MSP supervisors who were disciplined or admonished for being in the much-discussed text chain that dehumanized Read after her arrest and led to the firing of Trooper Michael Proctor earlier this year. DNA evidence has since proved Farwell was not the father of Birchmore's unborn baby, a civil attorney for the Birchmore family confirmed to Los Angeles, but the motive, the FBI believes, remains the same: Farwell killed Birchmore to keep her quiet about how he allegedly abused her for years after she joined the Police Explorers, a mentoring program run by the police department that employed him. Farwell is also accused of taking Birchmore's virginity - which is the crime of statutory rape in Massachusetts - when she was 15. The DNA test does not change the charges against him. Birchmore's family says. "He's still a rapist and murderer who should never see the outside of a jail cell - it changes nothing there," Birchmore's cousin Barbara Wright told Los Angeles. "He is a monster." Two other since disgraced Stoughton cops, Farwell's twin brother William, and Robert Devine, have been accused of an "ongoing scheme of grooming" in a civil suit filed by Birchmore's family. The town's animal control officer and Birchmore's U.S. Army recruiter have also been accused of preying on the troubled young woman. Farwell declined to seek bail after his arrest and has been held in a federal lockup for nearly a year with no court appearances, and a surprisingly scant record of filings in his case. All of it, two sources told Los Angeles, points to a larger federal investigation that is ongoing. "The Read retrial might be over, but federal looks at a bigger issue isn't," the investigator said. "That is far from over." Farwell, federal prosecutors say, covered his "tracks" in an attempt "to get away with murder." "And he almost did," Levy said at the time. This story was originally reported by L.A. Mag on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
Fox News
13-06-2025
- Fox News
Karen Read trial nears its finale: What each side is banking on
With closing arguments scheduled for Friday morning, jurors will soon begin deliberating Karen Read's fate after 31 days of testimony in her second trial over the death of Boston cop John O'Keefe, her former boyfriend. Read, 45, is accused of clipping the 46-year-old outside a house party and leaving him to die on the ground during a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022. Her defense denies that a collision ever happened, suggesting he was attacked by someone at the party and a dog instead. Judge Beverly Cannone denied the defense's second motion for a finding of not guilty Thursday – clearing the way for deliberations to begin. The following includes core evidence presented by both the prosecution and the defense. Former Whitey Bulger defense lawyer turned special prosecutor Hank Brennan, derided as a "mob lawyer" by Read's vocal supporters, came in to take over the case after last year's mistrial. Assistant Norfolk County District Attorneys Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin returned from the first trial. Central to Brennan's case is that O'Keefe had plastic fragments that matched Read's taillight embedded in his clothes. Dr. Aizik Wolf, a renowned brain surgeon, said O'Keefe's injury is consistent with a "classic" fall backward on frozen ground. And a biomechanist named Dr. Judson Welcher testified that Read likely hit him with a glancing blow to the right arm and sent him stumbling backward before he cracked his head on the lawn at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, where he was found under a pile of snow hours later. And in Read's own alleged words, she repeatedly said, "I hit him. I hit him. I hit him." The timing of Jennifer McCabe's Google search – "hos long to die in cold" – is another key factor, according to Paul Mauro, a retired NYPD inspector who is following the case. "If at 6:23 a.m., it corroborates Jen McCabe's testimony," he told Fox News Digital. "If you believe Jen McCabe, you pretty much have to convict. You could perhaps acquit on the top charge, but certainly you would have to convict on the manslaughter." Read's legal team includes big-city lawyers from three states – Boston's David Yannetti, New York City's Robert Alessi, and Alan Jackson and Elizabeth Little from Los Angeles. In her first trial, Yannetti and Jackson argued that Read had been "framed" by local and state police. This time around, they focused on the theory that Read's 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV never struck O'Keefe. They also deployed a "Bowden defense" – attempting to show the police investigation was "inadequate." Investigators collected evidence in red Solo cups and shopping bags, used a leaf blower to move snow, mislabeled evidence and did not seek a search warrant for the house at the address where they recovered O'Keefe's remains. Former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, a homicide detective on the case, later lost his job for sharing confidential and law enforcement sensitive information on an R-rated text chain that also included lewd remarks about the defendant. GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB Defense experts testified that the minor abrasions on O'Keefe's right arm were not caused by contact with Read's broken taillight, but rather by dog or animal bites. Dr. Daniel Wolfe and Dr. Andrew Rentschler disputed Welcher's findings with testing of their own, using a crash dummy arm that they said could not reproduce the same damage to a Lexus taillight. The blow to the back of his head – which fractured his skull – did not come from contact on the frozen lawn, but rather by contact with a ridged, grainy surface, according to Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a forensic pathologist and clinical professor at Brown University. Laposata also disputed autopsy findings that indicated O'Keefe had hypothermia – testifying that his internal injuries came from resuscitation attempts and not damage from the cold. "The defense case is science, science and then more science," said Mark Bederow, a New York City attorney representing Read ally and Canton blogger Aidan Kearney. "No car accident, then no crime." Read faces 15 years to life in prison if convicted on the top charge. If convicted of drunken driving manslaughter, she would face 5 to 20.
CBS News
26-05-2025
- CBS News
Franklin mourns girl killed in alleged drunk driving crash
Franklin residents are honoring the life of a five-year-old girl who, police say, was killed in a drunk driving crash over the weekend. It happened on Grove Street in Franklin shortly before 6:30 p.m. Saturday when, police say, a pickup truck collided with a sedan carrying the little girl and her family. Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey said the girl was taken to the hospital, where she later died. Her brother and mother remain hospitalized with serious injuries and her father, who was driving, was treated at the hospital and released. None of the victims' identities or ages have been released. The driver of the pickup truck, identified as 21-year-old James Blanchard of Franklin, was arrested. He faces several charges, including three counts of OUI, motor vehicle homicide while driving negligently and under the influence of alcohol and operating a motor vehicle with an open container of alcohol. He's being held on $500,000 bail and is set to be arraigned in Wrentham District Court on Tuesday. Memorial for girl killed in crash On Monday, some residents returned to the crash site to add to a growing memorial for the little girl. Longtime Franklin resident, Rick Talamini, built a wooden cross and hammered it into the ground. "As soon as I find out her name, I'll paint it on there," Rick told WBZ. Lisa and David Oxford also paid a visit, dropping off flowers and saying a prayer for the girl and her family. "It feels good to do something to remember the beautiful child and hopefully her family will take comfort in knowing that this is a caring community and it's a small expression of condolences to them," Lisa said. David recognized that two families lives are, now, forever altered. "The poor girl never started her life. She didn't have a chance to start her life. And it's the same situation for the driver too. We feel bad but this is what happens when people drink alcohol and drive," David said.
CBS News
08-05-2025
- CBS News
Police, Massachusetts school district investigate photos shared by students
A recent set of emails to parents from different Dover-Sherborn school officials forced the Superintendent to step in to set the record straight on a photo sharing scandal that has spanned the entire school year. Dover police said they started investigating a photo sharing scandal at the middle school in September of 2024. The case, police said, centered around male middle school students possessing and potentially sharing photos of their female classmates. Student shared photos with classmates "It was determined that one male juvenile student disseminated these photos of clothed students and included additional nude pictures of an unknown origin in these messages," wrote Dover Police Chief Joseph Vinci in a statement released on Wednesday. "The identities of the individuals in the explicit photos could not be determined. Dover Police consulted with the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office, which pursued charges through the juvenile court system." In her letter to parents that same day, Superintendent Elizabeth McCoy referred to an email sent to parents a day earlier by a school committee member as, "not factual and could be misleading." Judge dismisses case against student The Boston Herald reported that original email suggested child pornography was being distributed by the teens. The superintendent's letter appeared to clear that accusation up and revealed the male student who was charged faced a judge who ultimately dismissed the case. "We take very seriously our responsibility to protect the safety and due process rights of every student in our schools," McCoy wrote. "District officials have taken appropriate action throughout this process to adhere to federal, state and district policies and protocols and will continue to do so. The District remains committed to supporting the students and families directly involved in this case." The school district says an investigation continues to determine whether Title IX or the code of conduct was broken.
