Attorneys for Karen Read — charged with murder for allegedly striking and killing her boyfriend with her car in January of last year — will not be bound by a gag order in speaking outside the court on matters of the case.
“The Commonwealth argues that defense counsel has made statements to the media that have a substantial likelihood of materially prejudicing the proceedings and that therefore a court order is necessarily (sic) to ensure compliance,” Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly J. Cannone wrote in her ruling, filed Monday. “The court disagrees.”
“Although it is true that the statements by defendant’s counsel cited by the Commonwealth are arguably inflammatory and appear to have fueled much of the publicity in this case, the Court does not find, at this time, that there is a substantial likelihood that the statements will materially prejudice the proceedings,” she continued.
It is the second motion she denied in a week, following her denial of a defense motion on Feb. 25. That motion asked that she recuse herself from the case because, defense attorney Alan Jackson argued, she may have some kind of relationship with a figure related to Jennifer McCabe. McCabe is one of two people, along with Boston Police Sgt. Brian Albert, the defense has named as likely culpable in O’Keefe’s death.
Both McCabe and Albert have hired lawyers who have sat in on the case’s hearings and have filed motions in defense of their clients.
O’Keefe’s mangled body was found in the snow in the front yard of Albert’s then-home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton at around 6 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
Prosecutor Adam Lally has argued that Read backed her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe in the early morning hours after dropping him off to a get-together at the home following an evening at two bars in town. Defense attorneys Jackson and David Yannetti have pursued what Cannone has described as “a third-party culprit defense,” in which they say O’Keefe was attacked onsite and that his wounds do not suggest being hit by a car.
Lally argued his motion to suppress extrajudicial comment and allegedly sharing court materials that had not yet been filed — including photographs of a part of O’Keefe’s body — at the last hearing.
He said he was asking that attorneys be bound by “professional conduct,” and argued that defense counsel had been using the media “as propagandists for the defense version of the case.”
Defense attorney Yannetti argued passionately against the “gag order,” which he said is not only “unconstitutional, it is anti-constitutional.”
