An independent agency, as part of an audit ordered last year, did not find any evidence of a cover-up by the police department in Canton, Massachusetts regarding the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Town residents requested an outside review in November 2024 to investigate the police department’s handling of O’Keefe’s death. The officials selected 5 Stones Intelligence (5Si) to conduct the audit between November 18, 2024, and March 30, this year.
The 206-page report was made public on Tuesday, coinciding with the commencement of jury selection for the second trial of Karen Read. Read, O’Keefe’s girlfriend, is accused of fatally injuring him in a drunken hit-and-run following an altercation.
They recommended that Canton detectives undergo “advanced training” on crime scene investigations and that all patrol vehicles should be equipped with crime scene kits and evidence collection bags. They called for an increase in the police department’s budget.
John O’Keefe (Boston Police Department)
They also found that department-issued radios don’t have full coverage of the community and that officers are not given work cellphones. They recommended giving all officers work phones and rewriting department policy to have them use their work phones to take crime scene photographs, never their personal phones.
Aidan Kearney, the blogger known as Turtleboy, walks toward court prior to jury selection for the trial of Karen Read outside Norfolk County Superior Court, April 1, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Charles Krupa/AP)
Auditors also referenced the Sandra Birchmore case, recommending that supervisors review all death cases for accuracy.
“A Canton PD detective wrote that Sandra Birchmore died of a suicide in the initial report,” auditors wrote. “It was later determined that she had been killed by strangulation.”
Ex-Stoughton police officer Matthew Farwell is charged in Sandra Birchmore’s murder. (AP | IMAGN)
A suspect in that case was indicted in August, and he was a police officer in the nearby town of Stoughton, another Boston suburb. Matthew Farwell, 38, is accused of strangling her after she told him she had become pregnant with his child and then staging the scene to make it look like she had killed herself. He has pleaded not guilty.
As of Thursday afternoon, eight jurors had been empaneled, according to WCVB-TV, a local station. There will be 12 sitting jurors and four alternates selected before opening statements kick off.
Fox News’ Danielle Wallace contributed to this report.
