PASSAGE OF THE DAY: "Many people are so invested in the trial they parade around in Karen Read pink, or “Free Karen Read” merch. But not everyone wants to go public. That includes a middle school teacher who is using a pseudonym to secretly act as administrator of an enormous Karen Read Facebook group, and who sneaks out of school between periods to accept new members or allow posts to go up. “Only my close friends know I’m doing this,” said the man, who asked to be identified by his Facebook name, Dooh Greg. On the phone with a Globe reporter, he said he was “100 percent” living his own life — and cited as proof the fact that he went ahead with a planned colonoscopy, even though he would be away from the trial while under sedation. Even so, he said, after 22 years of teaching, he’s so disturbed by what he sees as police corruption in the case that he now finds himself wishing he’d followed his mother into the law. “I’ve had a rewarding career,” he said, “but I don’t have the same passion for it as I do for the trial.''
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STORY: "A hysterectomy, an abandoned grocery cart, a secret Facebook identity. Karen Read obsession in three chapters," by Reporter Beth Teitell, published by The Boston Globe, on May 30, 2024. (Beth Teitell has been writing features for the Boston Globe since 2007, and joined the staff in 2010. Her beat is “human behavior,” and she is known for writing with a sense of humor, and for exploring the emotional angles of things that wouldn’t seem to have an emotional angle.)
SUB-HEADING: "It’s dictating people’s lives. One person scheduled surgery to maximize trial-watching time. Another sweats through boot camp with his phone in front of his mat. The case has become “my entire personality,” said another."
GIST: “I needed the hysterectomy,” Christine Lyons felt the need to insist. “I didn’t just have it so that I could stay home and watch the trial.”
No, no, of course she didn’t. No one is that obsessed with Karen Read and whether she backed into her boyfriend with her Lexus and left him for dead in the snow, as charged, or is instead the victim of a massive coverup that involves a clique of law enforcement officers and assorted party animals.
Or maybe they are that obsessed.
Lyons, a nurse from Norton, had been delaying surgery “for ages.” But this winter she realized that if she timed the procedure right, her recovery at home would coincide with a case so juicy that people are already fantasizing about a Netflix series. That was just the push she needed.
“My doctor said that depending on how I feel, I might be able to go back to work in three weeks,” she said recently, one week into her recovery/Karen Read sabbatical. “But I’m like, ‘May
It’s going on 2½ years since Boston police Officer John O’Keefe was found fatally injured outside of another cop’s home in Canton, and since then the case has picked up a gravitational pull that is almost hard to believe if you’re not among the raptured, many of whom have become convinced that Read was framed and that what happened to her could happen to any of us.
The groupies standing outside the courtroom in pink, feasting on Dunkin’ and posing for keepsakes with their “Free Karen Read” signs, grab the attention. But far away from the courthouse, Read has become the soundtrack of spring, with an uncounted number of obsessives more focused on a stranger’s life than on their own. For them, it’s an addiction so strong it’s like the playoffs and Trump and french fries all rolled into on
In Foxboro, a YMCA member takes group fitness classes with his phone streaming the trial positioned in front of his mat, and his AirPods in. “I need to watch every moment of this,” said Brian, who asked that his last name be kept secret “because I’ve got family in Canton, and it’s a small town.”
In Holden, Tracie Bovee was shopping at the Big Y when she suddenly lost her Wi-Fi connection and, in a panic, abandoned her cart in produce and dashed out to restore her signal. She whizzed by a friend, who “looked at me like I was crazy,” she said.
In Kingston, a respiratory therapist named Aileen Holmes had a flash of self-recognition: “The Karen Read case has become my entire personality,” she said.
Like many in the case’s grip, Holmes said she’s surprised at her own behavior and has either pulled in relatives or become the object of their ridicule.
She’s studied autopsy photos, reviewed grand jury testimony, and rewatched videos of pretrial motions.
“This is people’s lives,” she said, “but it feels like a show. It’s hard to distinguish what’s reality.”
With its “The Real Law Enforcement Officers of Canton” vibe, the case has so many hooks it could spawn several spinoff series. A woman accused of murder. A California lawyer with a roster of celebrity clients. A dog who may or may not have bitten the deceased. Blood evidence stored in red Solo cups. A conspiracy-stoking blogger. Allegations of law enforcement corruption.
And, blessedly, courtroom cameras to capture the drama.
Consider the Friday before Memorial Day weekend — another tawdry day inside Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.
On the stand, in a suit and tie, ATF agent Brian Higgins was trying to maintain what little dignity was possible as he was forced to read — out loud, and in cringe-inducing detail — the flirty texts he and the defendant had exchanged in happier times.
“You’re hot,” Read had written. “Feeling is mutual,” he had written back.
Inside the courtroom, Higgins appeared stressed. “I’m not proud of these text messages,” he said.
And outside — like way outside — life came to a standstill.
In Stoughton, Aaron Lopez-Schwartz, a cement finisher, feigned a stomachache and rushed to the worksite’s porta potty for some viewing. “This makes Whitey Bulger look like traffic court,” he said.
In Methuen, event planner Chris Despres also played sick, in his case to get out of a sales pitch that was worth “six figures” in profit. “This is the busiest month of the year. I should be booking business,” he said, not wistfully. “But this case has taken over my life.”
Many people are so invested in the trial they parade around in Karen Read pink, or “Free Karen Read” merch. But not everyone wants to go public. That includes a middle school teacher who is using a pseudonym to secretly act as administrator of an enormous Karen Read Facebook group, and who sneaks out of school between periods to accept new members or allow posts to go up.
“Only my close friends know I’m doing this,” said the man, who asked to be identified by his Facebook name, Dooh Greg.
On the phone with a Globe reporter, he said he was “100 percent” living his own life — and cited as proof the fact that he went ahead with a planned colonoscopy, even though he would be away from the trial while under sedation.
Even so, he said, after 22 years of teaching, he’s so disturbed by what he sees as police corruption in the case that he now finds himself wishing he’d followed his mother into the law.
“I’ve had a rewarding career,” he said, “but I don’t have the same passion for it as I do for the trial.''
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue/resource. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog.SEE BREAKDOWN OF SOME OF THE ON-GOING INTERNATIONAL CASES (OUTSIDE OF THE CONTINENTAL USA) THAT I AM FOLLOWING ON THIS BLOG, AT THE LINK BELOW: HL:
https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/120008354894645705/4704913685758792985
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."Lawyer Radha Natarajan:Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
—————————————————————————————————FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions. They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they've exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;————————————————————————————
YET ANOTHER FINAL WORD:David Hammond, one of Broadwater's attorneys who sought his exoneration, told the Syracuse Post-Standard, "Sprinkle some junk science onto a faulty identification, and it's the perfect recipe for a wrongful conviction.
https://deadline.com/2021/11/alice-sebold-lucky-rape-conviction-overturned-anthony-broadwater-12348801
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