Karen Learn exchanged flirty texts with one other man two weeks earlier than her cop boyfriend was discovered lifeless within the snow, jurors heard throughout testimony in her homicide trial Friday.
“You’re hot,” Brian Higgins — an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, wrote to Learn in a collection of textual content message from January 2022.
“Are you serious or messing with me?” Learn responded.
“No, I’m serious,” Higgins mentioned.
“The feeling is mutual,” Learn wrote. “Is that bad?”
The messages had been learn throughout Learn’s retrial in a Dedham, Massachusetts, courtroom Friday morning by State Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik, who oversaw the investigation into Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe’s loss of life on Jan. 29, 2022.
Bukhenik carried on studying the communications — which continued for roughly two weeks, beginning on Jan. 12, 2022 — aloud for roughly an hour as jurors sat riveted and took notes, NBC Boston reported.
Learn informed Higgins within the messages that she bought his quantity from a mutual pal and went on to ask him what his courting standing was.
“I am solo, no rotation,” wrote Higgins — who beforehand testified he’s been divorced since 2017. “I am not a hoe.”
“Solo?” Karen responded.
“Solo like no rotation or woman for that matter,” Higgins replied. “Not locked down. Ha Ha.”
“Good for you,” Learn mentioned. “That’s the best way to be.”
At one level, Higgins informed Learn, “I have always been attracted to you.”
Issues seem to start out escalating over the times they message one another with Learn inviting Higgins over and texting him later to inform him: “I’m glad you came over tonight.”
Higgins requested Learn what she wished from him and if she was going to interrupt up with O’Keefe, prompting Learn to elucidate the scenario was sophisticated however that O’Keefe had cheated on her with one other girl after they had been on trip in Aruba.
One juror who usually fidgets throughout testimony, sat together with his mouth agape because the seemingly scandalous messages had been learn out, the outlet reported.
Extra messages reveal that Learn kissed Higgins and that the pair had been captured on O’Keefe’s dwelling surveillance, which O’Keefe confronted Examine.
“He’s like ‘Christ, are you guys hooking up??’” Learn texted Higgins.
“I don’t need drama dude,” Higgins responded. “You legit planted one on me.”
Learn tried to downplay the scenario, and informed him the kiss wasn’t recorded as a result of she knew the place the cameras had been.
“It was a peck anyway,” Learn mentioned, in an obvious effort to reduce the smooch.
Lastly, the jury noticed a message from Learn to Higgins, that merely mentioned: “John died.”
The panelists couldn’t conceal their shock after the message was learn, NBC Boston reported.
At Learn’s first trial final 12 months — which ended with a hung jury — Higgins testified that Learn “planted a kiss on me. Not like a friend,” when he was leaving O’Keefe’s home one time.
What to know concerning the Karen Learn homicide case
- Karen Learn, 44, was charged with second-degree homicide for allegedly mowing down her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, as she was dropping him off to satisfy mates in Canton, Mass., on Jan. 29, 2022.
- The evening of O’Keefe’s loss of life, the couple had been out on a bar crawl, with Learn allegedly consuming seven drinks in simply 90 minutes, in line with reviews.
- Prosecutors declare that after Learn drunkenly ran over her boyfriend, she drove off and left O’Keefe to die outdoors as a snowstorm was set to brush in.
- Learn’s legal professionals argued she was framed in a sweeping regulation enforcement cover-up and that O’Keefe truly died after entering into an altercation together with his officer mates.
- On July 1, 2024, Choose Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial within the case for the reason that jury was not in a position to attain a unanimous verdict after 5 days of deliberations.
- On April 22, 2025, Learn will stand trial for the second time, dealing with the identical expenses regardless of her legal professionals’ failed plea try to the highest Mass. court docket to drop the homicide and hit-and-run expenses.
- Learn confronted as much as life in jail if she had been convicted on the highest rely of homicide.
“I’m not proud of these text messages,” Higgins testified on the time. “John was a friend at the same time.”
However the ATF agent admitted he was “physically attracted to” Learn.
Learn, 45, was courting O’Keefe when he died and is accused of backing over him together with her Lexus SUV after an evening of ingesting after which leaving him for lifeless outdoors of a Canton, Massachusetts, dwelling as a snow storm was rolling in.
Learn, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, had been at a bar with O’Keefe, 46, earlier than dropping him off at his cop pal, Brian Albert’s home occasion, which Higgins had additionally attended.
Learn has pleaded not responsible to the fees of homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a deadly accident.
She has claimed she’s is a scapegoat in a widespread regulation enforcement cover-up and that O’Keefe was truly killed through the occasion together with his regulation enforcement buddies at Albert’s home.
Her legal professionals have sought accountable Albert, Albert’s nephew, Colin Albert, and Higgins — a protection they used on the first trial.
Nonetheless, on the second trial, new limitations have been positioned on Learn for a way far she will go along with the alternate suspect protection, limiting what her crew can say about Higgins’ and Brian Albert’s involvement and barring the protection utterly from claiming Colin Albert was concerned in O’Keefe’s loss of life.
