The latest on the Karen Read murder case
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Karen Read attorney says Boston officer’s credibility ‘irreparably compromised’
“If she lied under oath, Officer [Kelly] Dever is guilty of perjury. If she truly suffers from false memories, she is unfit to serve as a police officer,” Alan Jackson told Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox.
Karen Read’s lead defense attorney is demanding a Boston police officer who testified during Read’s retrial be added to the department’s Brady list, alleging her credibility was “irreparably compromised” in light of her combative testimony.
In a scathing letter to Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox last week, Alan Jackson argued Officer Kelly Dever’s “false memory” claim warrants her inclusion on the list, which is used to track law enforcement officials whose credibility has come under fire.
“Her reports, statements, and testimony can no longer be presumed accurate, and any case — current or prior — involving Officer Dever must be reviewed accordingly,” Jackson wrote in the letter, obtained by Boston.com. A Boston Police Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
More on Karen Read:
Dever was working at the Canton Police Department when Read’s boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, was found unresponsive on another Boston officer’s lawn in January 2022. Jackson’s complaint stems from Dever’s June 2 testimony that she was experiencing a “false memory” when she told federal authorities she saw witness Brian Higgins and former Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz with the alleged murder weapon, Read’s SUV.
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Prosecutors accused Read of drunkenly backing the vehicle into O’Keefe while dropping him off at an afterparty, but a jury acquitted her of murder and manslaughter charges last month. She was convicted only of drunk driving, for which she was sentenced to a year of probation.
Read’s lawyers have long alleged she was framed in a law enforcement coverup. They accused investigators of failing to properly vet Higgins, who exchanged flirty texts with Read while she was dating O’Keefe and attended the same afterparty on Fairview Road.
According to Jackson, Dever told FBI agents before Read’s trial that she saw Higgins and Berkowitz enter the Canton police station garage, where Read’s SUV was stored in the days following O’Keefe’s death.
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“Officer Dever described in indelible detail that she witnessed Chief Berkowitz and Mr. Higgins go into … the sally port and stay there for a ‘wildly long time,’ and that she thought it ‘weird’ that a witness on the case (Higgins) would have access to a seminal piece of evidence (the SUV) in the investigation,” Jackson wrote.
Dever, he alleged, “claimed no issues with her memory” and was clear with the agents about what she purportedly saw on Jan. 29, 2022.
Yet when she was called to testify in Read’s retrial, Dever changed her tune. While she confirmed she initially informed the agents she saw Higgins and Berkowitz in the garage with Read’s SUV, Dever told jurors she was later reminded she’d left the station before the vehicle arrived.
She characterized her initial statement as a “false memory” and said her recollection could have been colored by media reports covering the high-profile case. In one of the more electric moments of Read’s retrial, Dever also alleged the defense “threatened to charge me with perjury … if I didn’t lie on the stand right now.” (Prosecutors, not defense attorneys, handle criminal charges.)
“It is clear, therefore, that one of two things is true: Either Officer Dever lied about having a false memory, or she actually suffers from a condition that subjects her to false memories,” Jackson derided in his letter.
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“In either case,” he continued, “her credibility and reliability as a law enforcement officer are irreparably compromised. If she lied under oath, Officer Dever is guilty of perjury. If she truly suffers from false memories, she is unfit to serve as a police officer.”
All information surrounding Dever’s purported “false memories” must be disclosed to defense attorneys for every case in which she is a witness or potential witness, Jackson asserted.
“Failure to disclose Officer Dever’s intentionally false testimony and/or her false memory condition would be a constitutional violation, subjecting both the prosecution and the Boston Police Department to severe sanctions, the least of which is the dismissal of every case she touches,” he added.
Jackson’s letter came soon after Cox dismissed allegations that he pressured Dever into changing her testimony while meeting with the officer at some point before she took the stand. Dever had previously denied Cox tried to guide her testimony, adding, “He just wanted me to tell the truth up here.”
“I have nothing to do with Karen Read,” Cox told reporters following an unrelated event last week, per video from WBZ.
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“As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know this person was associated with the Karen Read case,” he said of Dever. “You know, I have an organization full of over 3,000 people, and we support all our folks. And the reality is that I get information passed on, whether those people are high or low, and I encourage everyone, all right? And if you’re going to work here and you belong here, then we’re going to encourage you. I have no idea what they’re talking about with Karen Read.”
But speaking to reporters as she left the courthouse following Dever’s testimony last month, Read appeared skeptical.
“[Dever] was called into the commissioner’s office, and her story completely changed; she recanted,” Read said at the time.
She explained the defense subpoenaed Dever “to testify to what she told other authorities and just wanted her to be as honest with us as she was with them. And today she’s now telling us that was a lie.”
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