Karen Read’s lucky charm may be a plow driver who saw nothing during multiple passes by the address where she is accused of leaving her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, to die on the ground in a blizzard in January 2022.
Brian “Lucky” Loughran testified Wednesday that he didn’t see a body on the lawn as he cleared snow on the street in the hours after prosecutors allege the victim stopped moving.
According to prosecution experts, O’Keefe’s last known activity came to a stop around 12:30 a.m., and his body allegedly did not move until first responders arrived around 6 a.m.
“I saw nothing,” Loughran told defense attorney David Yannetti, speaking of his first pass around 2:45 a.m. He cleared that side of the block, turned around at the end and saw nothing again when he went back the other way.
Canton DPW snowplow driver Brian “Lucky” Loughran testified that he didn’t see a body on the lawn as he cleared snow on the street in the hours after prosecutors allege the victim stopped moving. (Greg Derr/Patriot Ledger via AP/Pool)
He testified that he passed by 34 Fairview Road, the home of Brian Albert where John O’Keefe was found dead in the snow, in both directions multiple times between 2:40 a.m. and around 6 a.m. Prosecutors allege Read hit her boyfriend outside and drove off, leaving him to die in blizzard conditions.
Loughran said he had good visibility despite the blizzard conditions due to multiple lights on the plow truck and a high seat. Asked if he saw a body in the snow, he said he did not, but he added that he did see a Ford Edge SUV parked outside the address during a later pass around 3:30 a.m.
“Loughran’s adamance that there was nobody on the lawn after 2:30 a.m., one day after an active-duty officer was adamant that the taillight he saw before the [Massachusetts State Police] had it was not destroyed, are major blows to a prosecution case that already has had severe problems,” said Mark Bederow, a New York City defense attorney closely following the case.
Loughran said the Ford Edge stood out to him because he was from the area and knew the Albert family, and he said he had to maneuver around the vehicle as he cleared the road.
“For as long as I can remember, they have never parked a vehicle in front of their house,” Loughran testified. “They’ve always had enough ample parking in the driveway.”
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan asked Loughran during cross-examination about purported threats from an online blogger and inconsistencies in his timeline.
Loughran said he never felt threatened by the blogger and denied having a bad memory when Brennan confronted him with multiple statements that offered different times for when the driver passed by Fairview Road.
“Mr. Loughran was adamant that he was not intimidated or threatened in exchange for his testimony, which substantially favored Karen Read,” said Bederow, who represents Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as “Turtleboy.”
Loughran now follows the blog but said he had met with a private investigato
