By Jurors caught a further glimpse into and John O’Keefe’s strained relationship Friday as witness Brian Higgins read through his flirty texts with Read and recalled the moment she “planted a kiss” on him just weeks before O’Keefe died. Higgins had gone over to O’Keefe’s house in January 2022 to watch a New England Patriots game. He testified that Read walked him out afterward, kissing him as he left.
“And how did she kiss you?” Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally asked. “Not like a friend,” Higgins replied, adding that he was “taken aback” by the kiss. Lally showed jurors texts between Read and Higgins from over the course of several weeks in January 2022.
“You’re hot,” Read texted Higgins at one point. “Are you serious or messing with me?” he replied. “No, I’m serious,” Read wrote.
“Feeling is mutual,” he responded. “Is that bad?” Higgins testified that throughout his texts with Read, he was constantly trying to figure out her intentions. “Was the defendant interested in me? Was she at the end of her relationship with John? Was she trying to weaponize me against John and put me in the middle?” he said.
“There was numerous things that were going on, and that’s what I was trying to vet out or suss out, or whatever you want to call it. But I was having a hard time accepting what was happening.” In some of her texts, Read vented about her relationship with O’Keefe and the couple’s dynamic with O’Keefe’s niec.