Nine months following a dramatic mistrial declared under the glare of the national spotlight, Karen Read is on trial again for the murder of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Read, 45, of Mansfield, faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death.
Prosecutors say that Read backed her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe at up to 24 mph in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022, leaving him to freeze and die on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton.
The defense has countered that someone else, or multiple others, killed him inside the house and left his body on the lawn. They say that those killers, which could include homeowner Brian Albert, a fellow Boston cop who they say is well connected in the community, worked with local police and crooked prosecutors to create a sweeping frame job of Read.
Read was tried last year but that case ended July 1 in mistrial after the jurors reported through three increasingly assertive notes that they had reached an impasse.
In a twist few saw coming, the defense shortly thereafter said that multiple jurors had come forward to say they were not actually at an impasse on two of the charges — including murder — but were ready to acquit. The jurors, according to defense arguments, were only hung on the manslaughter charge.
This alleged revelation launched a multi-pronged effort to have every charge but manslaughter dropped against Read in the retrial. The defense said that the disclosures were tantamount to a verdict and that to retry her on the other charges would be a violation of her constitutional protections from Double Jeopardy. But those efforts failed before trial Judge Beverly J. Cannone, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the federal court in Boston, and the federal Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.
The defense has since launched a petition to have the argument reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the court declined to delay the start of Read’s retrial to take it up.
Opening statements are set to be delivered today. But those have yet to begin as attorneys and Judge Cannone are hammering out the final details on four motions filed over the weekend.
Victoria George, a lawyer added to the defense team ahead of jury selection, is not at the defense table. Instead, she’s sitting on Read’s side of the gallery. She was an alternate juror in the last trial.
Attorney Alan Jackson is expected to deliver the opening statement for the defense. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan is expected to do so for the Commonwealth.
This is a developing story.