A judge in Dedham, Massachusetts, has ruled that Karen Read can stand trial again for the murder of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe. The decision comes after jurors in her initial trial declared a mistrial in July due to being deadlocked. Read is accused of hitting O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die during a snowstorm in January 2022.
The defense argued that jurors had indicated after the mistrial that they had reached a unanimous decision of not guilty on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident. They claimed that retrying Read on these charges would violate the constitutional protection against double jeopardy. However, the judge determined that since the jurors did not announce any verdict in court during deliberations, a retrial is not considered double jeopardy.
Karen Read’s new trial is scheduled to commence on January 27. Earlier this month, her attorney requested various options to prove that the jury had acquitted Read on the aforementioned charges, including polling the jurors or having them questioned anonymously. Prosecutors rebutted the defense’s claims as unsubstantiated and urged the judge to deny the motion to drop the charges.
The Assistant District Attorney argued that the jury had never officially reached a verdict on any of the charges and that the defense had opportunities to object to the mistrial declaration during the initial trial. Consequently, the case will proceed to a new trial as scheduled.
