Highest court in Massachusetts to hear arguments in Karen Read's bid to dismiss murder charge
The latest chapter in the Karen Read saga moves to the state’s highest court, where her attorneys Wednesday are hoping to convince judges that several charges related to the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend should be dropped.
BOSTON — The latest chapter in the Karen Read saga moves to the state’s highest court, where her attorneys Wednesday are hoping to convince judges that several charges related to the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend should be dropped.
Read is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. Read’s attorneys argue she is being framed and that other law enforcement officers are responsible for O’Keefe’s death. A judge declared a mistrial in June after finding jurors couldn’t reach an agreement. A retrial on the same charges is set to begin in January, though both sides asked Monday for it to be delayed until April. 1.
The defense is expected to reiterate arguments made in briefs to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that trying Read again on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene would be unconstitutional double jeopardy.
Defense attorneys said five jurors came forward after her mistrial to say that they were deadlocked only on a manslaughter count and had agreed that she wasn’t guilty on the other counts. But they hadn’t told the judge.
The defense also argues that affidavits from the jurors “reflect a clear and unambiguous decision that Ms. Read is not guilty” and support their request for a evidentiary hearing on whether the jurors found her not guilty on the two charges.
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