A special prosecutor has been named by Massachusetts District Attorney Michael Morrissey to take on the Karen Read murder case. Hank Brennan, a seasoned attorney who has represented well-known clients in the past, including James “Whitey” Bulger, will lead the retrial scheduled for January. Read, 44, is facing charges for allegedly hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him for dead during a snowstorm in January 2022. The first trial ended in a mistrial, and a new trial is set to begin early next year.
Brennan, who will serve as a special assistant district attorney, expressed his commitment to conducting the case meticulously, ethically, and without compromise, ensuring a fair trial for Karen Read while also seeking to present all facts related to O’Keefe’s death in court without external influence.
Read’s legal representation has not yet responded to a request for comment on the appointment of Brennan as the special prosecutor. A judge had ruled in August that Read could be retried for murder and leaving the crime scene despite arguments from her defense that jurors had indicated they believed she was not guilty of the charges after the mistrial.
Lawyers for Read have filed an appeal regarding the ruling with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. The prosecution had claimed that Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before the incident, where Read allegedly struck O’Keefe with her vehicle before driving away, leading to his death from hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
The defense, however, argued that O’Keefe was killed inside a fellow officer’s home and then moved outside, painting Read as a victim who was wrongly targeted by investigators. Following the mistrial, discrepancies emerged about the jurors’ deliberations, with some suggesting they were deadlocked on a manslaughter charge while believing Read was innocent of murder and leaving the accident scene. The judge ruled that since no formal verdict had been reached in court, a retrial does not violate double jeopardy principles.