34 Fairview Road Podcast Part 1

By Steve Atkinson 

The 34 Fairview Road Podcast, leading up to its debut episode a few weeks ago, gave the impression that it would present the facts in the case. Matthew Phelps interviews Turtle Boy Aidan Kearny, Sean McDonough, Jessica Machado, and others who believe Karen Read is innocent. Prior to its release, it seemed the podcast aimed to expose corruption within the Canton Police, Massachusetts State Police, and Norfolk County. However, Phelps shifted the narrative, making a case against those who support the pro-Karen Read movement, suggesting they are irrational.

He effectively used Aidan Kearny, Jessica Machado, and numerous others to portray them as the ones lying, claiming the situation was simple: Karen Read hit John O’Keeffe with her SUV.

Notably, this podcast does not discuss the Vanity Fair article because it was recorded before the article’s release. The Vanity Fair piece supported Karen Read. However, after listening to the first four episodes of the podcast, it appears that Phelps only briefly touches on the Free Karen Read conspiracy, while labeling Jennifer McCabe as credible and agreeing that the Google search at 2:27 AM regarding “how long to die in the cold” did not occur. If he had hired an investigator unrelated to the case, as Vanity Fair did, he might have discovered that the Google search did indeed take place at 2:27 AM.

The Google Search Happened

Vanity Fair commissioned Umit Karabiyik, a PhD from Purdue’s Department of Computer and Information Technology who specializes in iPhone artifacts and the limitations of digital forensics, to evaluate the prosecution’s expert testimony as well as an affidavit from Read’s expert. Karabiyik stated, “Based on my research and expertise, I concur with what I see in the Affidavit from Richard Green,” referring to Read’s expert. He explained that while the browser tab was opened earlier than the searches, the time stamp for the search items is recorded for searches and stored in the database—not based on when the tab was opened. He noted that Green verified the search times with associated WAL files, which are sometimes overlooked.

If Matt Phelps were genuinely trying to be fair, he would have followed Julie Miller’s approach from Vanity Fair and hired an investigator to determine whether the Google search was legitimate at that time, rather than misleading Aidan Kearny.

Karen Read was Distraught when she got to Fairview Road

Phelps discusses how Karen Read was in a state of shock and grief after discovering her boyfriend in the snow. He concludes that she was making suicidal statements based on testimony from individuals attempting to pin the blame on her. Vanity Fair author Julie Miller counters this theory

The patient is hysterical, she is actively grieving, she states she does not belong [in] care, she just wants to know what happened to her [boyfriend],” observed attending physician Jonathan Rice, who noted that Read had blood on her face and hands. The doctor also noted “no psychiatric history,” and that Read denied any “SI, HI, AH, VH,” meaning no suicidal or homicidal ideation, and no auditory or visual hallucinations. He also noted that Read worried continually about her “husband” because they had two adopted kids, and she stated she “can not live without him.”

Again, this podcast was recorded before the article was published. If Phelps had conducted more thorough research on the opposing side and been fair like Vanity Fair, listeners could arrive at their conclusions.

No Doorbell camera footage was found on Fairview Road of Karen hitting John O’Keeffe

Phelps mentions that the homeowner across the street did not capture any doorbell camera footage of Karen Read’s vehicle backing into John O’Keeffe, a point also made in the Vanity Fair article. The homeowner is a high-ranking official in the Canton Police. Phelps argues that nobody would have been searching for a body leaving 34 Fairview Road after 12:30 AM; therefore, no one would have seen it. However, a normal person would indeed not look for such a thing, however, the headlights of a car would illuminate the snow, making a body—especially one with less snow visible on it than at 6 AM when John was found—clearly visible.

In the last episode, Phelps discusses how the O’Keefe’s began accusing Karen of hitting John the following morning at John’s house. However, he fails to present her side of the story, as Vanity Fair does.

Read was taken aback by the unexpected hostility. Her family realized it was time to leave. Read and her father hurried upstairs to pack her medication and some belongings, and she hugged and kissed Patrick and Kayley for what would be the last time. A few days later, Read was court-ordered to refrain from contacting the O’Keeffe family. She told her father, “I don’t know what happened, but I feel like Peg thinks I did something.”

Via reddit

Phelps describes the cracked taillight on Karen’s SUV in a way that suggests it was severely damaged, neglecting to note that the ring camera footage shows her backing into John’s car. He claims the taillight was completely missing when the tow truck operator arrived, but the taillight was not entirely gone, as evidenced in the ring video from Read’s parents’ house.

No piece of Read’s car was found during a daylight search on January 29—after snow had been cleared from the yard with a leaf blower. Read, her family, and a Dighton police officer who witnessed Proctor seizing the car hours later say that Read’s taillight was only cracked at that point—damage Read says was inflicted when she backed out of O’Keefe’s garage to search for him and bumped into his SUV, which was caught on O’Keefe’s security camera. Despite Proctor’s affidavit declaring he picked up Read’s car at 5:30 p.m., Dighton police and the Reads’ security camera showed that he took the car at 4:12 p.m., a time to which the commonwealth conceded a year and a half later. (Read thinks this discrepancy was to make it seem as though her car was not in police custody when pieces of her taillight were found.) After her Lexus was in law enforcement custody, Read believes her taillight was completely smashed. It wasn’t until Proctor greenlit a State Emergency Response Team search after 5:30 p.m., in the dark, when pieces of the taillight were found in the Albert yard. One week later, after multiple searches by law enforcement, former Canton Police chief Ken Berkowitz reported spotting more taillight pieces in the yard from his moving vehicle during a random drive-by. Read says that she has always considered the taillight to be “the cornerstone of the whole case: It’s the only concrete evidence that connects me to that crime scene,” she says. “No evidence was found until they had the evidence.”

Michael Proctor had friendships with the families involved

Also, Phelps doesn’t mention how Michael Proctor had a close friendship with the Albert and McCabe families. Julie Miller reached out to a Boston defense attorney who said the Proctor should’ve excused himself from the case because of a friendship with the families involved in the case.

Forget about the allegations of the victim being killed inside the house,” says Doug Louison, a Boston defense attorney who has represented law enforcement for four decades but who is not working on the Read case. (He, like many legal analysts, believes Read should never have been tried for second-degree murder.) “As soon as these people who Proctor was acquainted with were identified as witnesses, he should have dropped out of the case. It was a system failure by the state police.” Instead, Proctor declared Read guilty via text the day he started his investigation. About six months later, while the probe was underway, Proctor and Albert’s brother Kevin, the Canton cop, went out drinking. The next day, Proctor texted Kevin that he left his badge in Proctor’s cruiser. Kevin responded, “Did I take my gun?”

Matt Phelps didn’t do his own investigating through the first four episodes of this podcast. He could’ve done what Julie Miller did and got his own investigator and lawyer to get some quotes. But he chose to just rely on testimony and police reports. I’ll listen to the second half of the podcast, write a part of this article, and compare it to the Vanity Fair article that was written.