BOSTON — On Thursday, attorneys for Karen Read submitted a motion to the highest court in Massachusetts, seeking to further their previous claims for dismissing two of the charges related to the death of her boyfriend, a Boston police officer. This came as a response to a brief from prosecutors asserting that the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene should remain intact, allowing only the manslaughter charge to be dropped.
According to the allegations, Read collided with John O’Keefe using her SUV and left him to perish during a snowstorm in January 2022. Her legal team contends that Read is innocent and is being unjustly blamed, positing that other law enforcement individuals may bear responsibility for O’Keefe’s demise. Earlier this year, a judge declared a mistrial when jurors were unable to reach a unanimous decision. A retrial on the existing charges is scheduled to commence in January.
In their legal arguments, Read’s defense insists that subjecting her to a retrial for second-degree murder and leaving the scene would violate constitutional protections against double jeopardy. They noted that five jurors approached them after the mistrial to indicate they had unanimously agreed on a manslaughter count, asserting that they believed Read was not guilty of the other charges, although this information was not disclosed to the judge during the trial.
The defense lawyers expressed that the jurors’ statements provide clear support for the notion that Read was not guilty and warranted an evidentiary hearing to explore the jurors’ opinions regarding the acquittal on the two charges. They referenced a previous ruling concerning Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Marathon bomber, where a federal appeals court mandated an investigation into claims of juror bias, underscoring the importance of jurors’ conclusions in a trial.
According to the defense’s writing, “Under the Commonwealth’s logic, no defendant claiming that the jury acquitted her but failed to announce that verdict would be entitled to further inquiry.” They criticized the manner in which the mistrial was declared, arguing that the judge did so without verifying each juror’s conclusions on every count.
“The court appeared to disregard potential alternatives, particularly inquiries regarding partial verdicts,” the defense noted. They claimed that the attorney did not have ample opportunity to express their viewpoints during the proceedings, stating that the court failed to involve counsel in the decision-making regarding the mistrial.
In a ruling made in August, a judge determined that Read could indeed be retried on all charges. Judge Beverly Cannone stated, “Since there was no verdict announced in open court in this case, retrying the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy.”
Prosecutors, however, argued that there is no merit in dismissing the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene. They pointed out that the jury had acknowledged being deadlocked on three occasions before a mistrial was ultimately declared. According to their filing, “The defendant was given a legitimate chance to address any alternative suggestions.”
They emphasized that Read was not acquitted of any charge, as the jury did not provide any publicly announced verdicts of acquittal, labeling it as a critical safeguard in the judicial process to ensure against misrepresentation or coercion among jurors.
The prosecutors recounted that Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O’Keefe, a long-serving member of the Boston police, were consuming alcohol prior to the incident. They alleged that she struck him with her vehicle and left the scene. An autopsy concluded that O’Keefe succumbed to hypothermia compounded by blunt force trauma.
Conversely, the defense depicted Read as the victim, asserting that O’Keefe may have been killed within a private residence and later moved outside. They criticized the investigative focus on Read, suggesting she conveniently took the blame, allowing authorities to avoid scrutinizing law enforcement connections as potential suspects.