The jury in the retrial of Karen Read, the woman from the Boston suburbs accused of killing her police officer boyfriend in 2022 by intentionally running over him with her car, began deliberations in the high-profile case on Friday after hearing closing arguments from lawyers on both sides.
It is the second time a jury has weighed the fate of Ms. Read, 45, who is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death. Her first trial ended in a mistrial last July after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
The case, which has drawn intense national interest, centers on the events of Jan. 29, 2022, when Ms. Read and her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, 46, a Boston police officer, drove to a house party in Canton, Mass., 20 miles south of Boston, after a night out drinking with friends. The prosecution had argued that the couple was fighting, and that Ms. Read intentionally accelerated in reverse, intentionally striking Officer O’Keefe with her Lexus S.U.V.
Defense lawyers spent weeks detailing what they described as the failures and corruption of the police investigation, and asserted that Officer O’Keefe’s injuries were not consistent with a car strike. They have argued an alternate theory: that after Ms. Read dropped her boyfriend off at the house party in Canton, someone inside beat him to death and then dumped his body outside in the snow.
On Friday, Alan Jackson, a lawyer for Ms. Read, told jurors that inconsistencies in the conduct and findings of investigators were “blank spots on a map where justice is supposed to live, and every one is a reason why you can’t convict Karen Read.”
Officer O’Keefe was found unresponsive around dawn by Ms. Read, who said she had frantically searched for him after waking up on his couch around 4 a.m. and realizing that he had not come home. Officer O’Keefe, who had severe head injuries and hypothermia, was pronounced dead that morning.
Ms. Read was arrested three days later, and pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.