A WITNESS in Karen Read’s murder trial has been branded “Officer Diva” as she testified that the defense tried to get her to lie for them.

Kelly Dever, a former Canton police officer who now works with the Boston Police Department, blamed her shifting testimony on aggressive pressure from defense attorneys in the fiery exchange.

Dever was working patrol on the night Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, Read’s boyfriend, died in January 2022.

Read, 45, is accused of fatally hitting O’Keefe with her car and leaving him to die in the snow after dropping him off at a party at a friend’s house.

Her lawyers insist Read has been framed in a police conspiracy and that someone inside the house killed O’Keefe.

On Monday, Dever was asked to testify about statements she had previously made about what she saw while working at the police department that night.

Her exchange with Read’s defense attorney Alan Jackson quickly heated up as Dever said she had “no idea why I’m here.”

After a few tense back-and-forths, Jackson mispronounced Dever’s last name and called her “Officer Diva.”

“Just answer my question, Officer Diva — Dever,” Jackson said.

When answering the question, Dever fired back and called him out for the petty nickname.

“Like you can’t remember my name, I don’t remember,” she said.

Dever spent her time on the stand distancing herself from her previous statements that suggested her fellow officers possibly tampered with Read’s SUV on the night O’Keefe was killed.

In August 2023, Dever told federal agents she had seen ATF agent Brian Higgins and former Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz go in to the garage where Read’s car was “for a wildly long time.”

Higgins is one of the men whom the defense alleges could’ve killed O’Keefe.

“That was my recollection at the time,” Dever said on Monday,

However, she’s now saying that it was a “distorted” memory.

A timeline of Karen Read’s case

Karen Read, the Mansfield woman accused of fatally striking her cop boyfriend with her SUV in January 2022, will face a retrial on January 27, 2025.

A judge declared a mistrial on July 1, 2024, after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict after five days of deliberation.

• January 29, 2022: O’Keefe’s body is found outside of a friend’s home.
• February 1, 2022: Read was arrested and charged with manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a vehicle homicide.
• February 2, 2022: Read pleads not guilty in Stoughton District Court.
• June 9, 2022: A state grand jury indicts Read on upgraded charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene.
• April 12, 2023: Read’s attorneys publicly release court documents they say contain “bombshell exculpatory information,” including Jennifer McCabe’s Google search.
• Nov. 20, 2023: Residents of the divided community vote 903-800 to audit the Canton Police Department over the case.
• May 23, 2023: During another pre-trial hearing, the defense says that the murder of John O’Keefe is a massive cover-up involving members of law enforcement and their friends and family members.
• Feb. 22, 2024: Prosecutors unveil long-awaited results of crime scene evidence tests, alleging that O’Keefe’s DNA was recovered from the broken taillight of Read’s vehicle.
• April 12, 2024: Read’s defense attorneys say in court that Brian Albert, his son Colin Albert, and Brian Higgins could have each killed O’Keefe at the party that night.
• April 16, 2024: Read’s trial began in Massachusetts Superior Court.
• May 17, 2024: Jennifer McCabe, who was with Read when she discovered O’Keefe’s body, testifies that during their search, Read repeatedly said: “Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?” She also says Read later said when emergency workers were on the scene: “I hit him.”
• June 3, 2024: The defense accuses police of planting the shattered fragments of taillight from Read’s car at the scene of the crime.   
• June 24, 2024: The defense rests their case.
• July 1, 2024: A judge declared a hung jury after five days of deliberation.
• April 22, 2025: Read’s second murder trial begins.

She told prosecutors that she previously felt pressured to remember Higgins and Berkowitz in the carport because of the defense team’s threats to charge her with perjury for changing her testimony.

“They became very aggressive,” Dever testified.

“Raising their voices, and the one word that I can very definitely remember is they said that they would charge me with perjury.”

She added, “They wanted me to say that statement, although I knew at that point it was not an accurate statement given the timeline.”

Outside of court, Read told reporters that she thinks Dever was coaxed into changing her testimony by other cops.

“We subpoenaed her to testify to what she told other authorities and just wanted her to be as honest with us as she was with them,” Read told Fox affiliate WFXT.

“Today, she’s now telling us that was a lie.”

After Dever, dog bite expert Dr. Marie Russell took the stand for the defense.

She testified that O’Keefe had several dog bites on his arm when his body was found.

Russell is taking the stand again on Tuesday.