DEDHAM, Mass. — Karen Read maintained a lengthy flirtatious text message relationship with a friend of the boyfriend she is accused of murdering in the weeks before his death.

“You’re hot,” Read texted Brian Higgins just before 1 a.m. on Jan. 16, 2022.

“Are you serious or messing with me?” Higgins responded, but Read confirmed she was serious.

“Feeling is mutual,” Higgins said, later adding that he had been attracted to Read “From jump,” meaning the “1st time” he saw her.

While the pair had texted each other two days before, it was that early morning “You’re hot” that spurred a lengthy exchange — the texts cover more than 20 pages of single-spaced transcription — that ended with a shocking final message from Read.

“John died,” Read texted Higgins at 11:54 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, faces charges including second-degree murder in the death of John O’Keefe, a Boston Police officer who she had dated for roughly two years at the time of his death on Jan. 29, 2022.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson introduced the entire, uncurated text exchange during his cross examination Friday of Massachusetts State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, one of the principal investigators in the case. Bukhenik, who returned to the stand for a second full day of testimony, then proceeded to spend the next couple hours reading the entirety of the exchange.

It’s a change in structure from Read’s first trial last year, which ended in mistrial, when Higgins himself read the text messages in court. Higgins has not taken the stand in the retrial so far and it is unclear who else the prosecution will call. Both sides are under gag orders and so information is limited to what is heard in court.

The texts, often sent when either one or both parties were drinking, were illuminating. Among the repetitive back and forth where neither Read nor Higgins could figure out what they wanted from one another, Read disclosed valuable information in the case.

For one, Read repeatedly indicated that at best she was uncertain about her relationship with O’Keefe and at worst that the relationship was disintegrating.

The reasons she had for that were stated repeatedly over the texts: jealousy over O’Keefe allegedly hooking up with another woman during a New Year’s celebratory trip and, even more often repeated, a sense of loss of independence because of helping raise O’Keefe’s niece and nephew — “I never got married. And now somehow I’m arguing w someone about raising kids.”

“John and I have had a lot of ups and downs,” Read texted on Jan. 18, the pair’s most active day of texting “… And there’s kids involved that get attached and things get muddy. I don’t know what the answer is. But I feel very strongly that I’ve put my best effort in with all three of them. And the extended family too. At some point it gets frustrating and my actual feelings take precedence.”

The complaints are a continuous theme: “I try very hard but they are very spoiled. And they’re not my family. My parents keep telling me I’d feel differently if they were mine. Or my own sister’s,” Read texted at a different point that day. “Then I told you he got drunk and sloppy on NYE while we were away and that has really affected me.”

In an unusual situation for this case, there was no objection during the entire reading of the text messages. That’s likely because the text messages provide evidence that is beneficial to the prosecution and the defense in this case.

The defense introduced them for a reason that will become clear as the case moves along: they suggest Higgins — a bulky U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) agent — to be a rival paramour who could be jealous enough of O’Keefe to want to cause him harm.

Higgins is one of three men the defense named in pretrial hearings as possible alternative killers of O’Keefe.

The other two are Brian Albert, a fellow Boston Police officer with extensive local Canton connections and homeowner of 34 Fairview Road in Canton on whose lawn O’Keefe’s body was found, and Colin Albert, Brian Albert’s nephew. The defense has also suggested that Brian Albert’s dog at the time, a German shepherd named Chloe, took part in an attack.

Jackson asked Bukhenik if he knew that the Albert family “had gotten rid of the dog” not too long after O’Keefe’s death. Bukhenik disagreed with the assessment: “We learned that they no longer cared for the dog. I don’t know if ‘get rid of’ is accurate.”

Jackson presented the theory by showing surveillance video from the Waterfall Bar and Grille, which is where Read and O’Keefe were drinking with others last before his death, which featured a very specific interaction between Brian Albert and Brian Higgins, two law enforcement officers a previous witness agreed could be considered “large.”

“Sergeant, did you see either of the two men or both of them squaring off in what you would consider to be a fighting stance?” Jackson asked.

“I guess it could be considered that,” Bukhenik said. “It looked more like rough housing; just a couple of buddies messing around.”

Jackson conceded the pair were not actually fighting, but just that he was asking if they had taken on “a fighting stance.”

Jackson then asked Bukhenik, who had served in the U.S. Marine Corps before becoming a police officer, if hand to hand combat was part of the training for members of the armed services. Bukhenik confirmed that it was. Bukhenik also confirmed that he is aware that Brian Albert and Higgins were also in the military.

The text chain also works for the prosecution by exposing Read’s dissatisfaction with her relationship. And Bukhenik, a prosecution witness after all, suggested that the chain could represent something even more insidious.

“My opinion is that it’s an angry girlfriend trying to set up a hookup to hurt John (O’Keefe),” Bukhenik said when questioned about how he took the text messages as a whole. He later used slightly different wording: “an angry girlfriend trying to get revenge.”

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan will likely question Bukhenik on the implications from the prosecution’s point of view when court resumes on Monday.

Judge Beverly Cannone told jurors that the trial remains on schedule and that court will begin at 10 a.m. on Monday for a full day.

The text messages feature a lot of material for both sides to work with depending on which arguments they want to make. There’s the promise of a budding relationship between the two, with a “babe” placed here and a “doll” placed there. The texts also confirm the two kissed outside of Read’s house and went on at least one date: to drink at a bar in West Roxbury.

That kiss, which followed a game-watching party at O’Keefe’s house, represented more, though — the idea of O’Keefe discovering the relationship and how he may react.

“John has showed me about five times the Ring video of me walking you out on Sat and my voice and my accent are killing me softly (vomit emotion),” Read texted Higgins. “… He’s like ‘Christ, are you guys hooking up??’”

The idea of the moment being captured on video was clearly a surprise to Higgins.

“Ummmm What????” Higgins texted. “… I don’t need drama dude.”

“No it’s fine,” Read assured him. “I know where the cameras are anyway duh.”

“So your slick move isn’t on there????” Higgins continued.

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