Retrial of Karen Read ‘should not be allowed,’ defense says in new court filing

wdc tv news staff July 17, 2024

14 13 minutes read

In a new court filing, defense attorneys said Tuesday that the retrial of Karen Read “should not be allowed,” calling the state’s continued push for a conviction in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe “grossly unfair.”

Read’s attorney team made the statements in a filing in Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court, where last they filed a motion with Judge Beverly Cannone to dismiss two of three criminal charges against Read, including second-degree murder, claiming that four jurors came forward to notify them that the jury found Read “not guilty” during their secret deliberations.

“According to information from four deliberating jurors, the jury had reached a unanimous decision that Ms. Read is not guilty on two of the three charges pending against her, namely Counts 1 and 3,” the defense stated in Tuesday’s filing. “The Commonwealth’s insistence that Ms. Read must nonetheless be ‘forced to run the gantlet’ once more is based on several clear fallacies.”

Read’s two-month trial ended in a mistrial on July 1 after deadlocked jurors sent a note to Cannone indicating they were at an “impasse” and future deliberations would be futile.

“Even if the first trial is not completed, a second prosecution may be grossly unfair. It increases the financial and emotional burden on the accused of wrongdoing, and may even enhance the risk that an innocent defendant may be convicted,” the defense added in its latest filing. “Given the unambiguous post-trial evidence, it would simply be wrong to require the defendant to obtain two acquittals from two different juries for the same crime.”

The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office has repeatedly said that it plans to retry Read and a new trial date could be scheduled as soon as July 22.

“The underlying idea of the Constitutional protection against Double Jeopardy, one that is deeply ingrained in at least the Anglo-American system of jurisprudence, is that the state with all its resources and power should not be allowed to make repeated attempts to convict an individual for an alleged offense,” the defense argued.

Lawyers also argued that they weren’t allowed an opportunity to contest Cannone’s mistrial ruling.

“The defense was provided no opportunity to be heard regarding the declaration of a mistrial,” the filing stated. “Rather, upon receiving the final jury note…The court declared a mistrial with no warning to or solicitation of objections from the parties.”

‘Grossly unfair’: Retrial of Karen Read ‘should not be allowed,’ defense says in new court filing by Boston 25 Desk on Scribd

Prosecutors in the murder case filed documents last week in opposition to the defense’s post-trial motion to dismiss Read’s criminal charges.

The “unsubstantiated and sensational” claim made by defense attorneys Alan Jackson and David Yanneti indicating the “jury reached a unanimous decision to acquit” Read on second-degree murder and leaving the scene of fatal crash charges “lacks any merit or legal foundation,” the Commonwealth wrote in the documents.

The DA’s office also said the defense’s motion to dismiss is “premised upon hearsay, conjecture, and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.”

Read is accused of killing O’Keefe by striking him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm in Canton in January 2022.

Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away.

The defense sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside and left for dead.