Karen Read judge refuses to toss 2nd-degree murder charge in death of boyfriend as controversial case heads to new trial

KAREN Read’s efforts to dismiss charges, including second-degree murder, in her upcoming retrial have been denied by a judge.

Read ‘s first trial for the 2022 death of her police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe , ended in a mistrial on July 1 after jurors argued for five days, unable to reach a verdict.

AP

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Defense attorneys Alan Jackson and David Yannetti cited in a motion in July that they received information from five jurors.

They learned that the jury internally agreed that Read, 44, was not guilty of murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.

Jackson and Yannetti argued to dismiss the two charges, saying that a retrial would violate laws against double jeopardy protection.

However, Judge Beverly Cannone dismissed the defense’s attempts, ruling Read was not acquitted on any of the charges in court.

“After careful consideration, this court concludes that because the defendant was not acquitted on any of the charges and defense council consented to the court’s declaration of a mistrial, double jeopardy is not implicated by retrial of the defendant,” Cannone wrote.

Now, Read will face the original three charges she was tried for in her first trial.

A retrial has been set for January 27, 2025.

KAREN READ BACK IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Read is accused of intentionally backing her SUV into O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, on January 29, 2022, after a night of heavy drinking, prosecutors said.

The prosecution alleges that the hit knocked O’Keefe down, and Read, without any regard for her boyfriend, left the scene, leaving him for dead on a snowbank in Canton, Massachusetts , a suburb of Boston.

Read’s defense team has vigorously denied the allegations, claiming the defendant is the victim of a coverup by O’Keefe’s law enforcement colleagues.

Her attorneys claim the people behind O’Keefe’s death are protecting the actual killer.

The defense has claimed that after Read dropped off her boyfriend at the residence hosting a party, O’Keefe was fatally assaulted inside, and the homeowner’s relationship with local and state police hindered their investigation.

A timeline of Karen Read's case

Karen Read, the Mansfield woman accused of fatally striking her cop boyfriend with her SUV in January 2022 will face a retrial on January 27, 2025.

A judge declared a mistrial on July 1, 2024, after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict after five days of deliberation.

• January 29, 2022 : O’Keefe’s body is found outside of a friend’s home.
• February 1, 2022 : Read was arrested and charged with manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a vehicle homicide.
• February 2, 2022 : Read pleads not guilty in Stoughton District Court.
• June 9, 2022 : A state grand jury indicts Read on upgraded charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene.
• April 12, 2023 : Read’s attorneys publicly release court documents they say contain “bombshell exculpatory information,” including Jennifer McCabe’s Google search.
• Nov. 20, 2023 : Residents of the divided community vote 903-800 to audit the Canton Police Department over the case.
• May 23, 2023 : During another pre-trial hearing, the defense says that the murder of John O’Keefe is a massive cover-up involving members of law enforcement and their friends and family members.
• Feb. 22, 2024 : Prosecutors unveil long-awaited results of crime scene evidence tests, alleging that O’Keefe’s DNA was recovered from the broken taillight of Read’s vehicle.
• April 12, 2024 : Read’s defense attorneys say in court that Brian Albert, his son Colin Albert, and Brian Higgins could have each killed O’Keefe at the party that night.
• April 16, 2024 : Read’s trial began in Massachusetts Superior Court.
• May 17, 2024 : Jennifer McCabe, who was with Read when she discovered O’Keefe’s body, testifies that during their search, Read repeatedly said: “Did I hit him? Could I have hit him?” She also says Read later said when emergency workers were on the scene: “I hit him.”
• June 3, 2024 : The defense accuses police of planting the shattered fragments of taillight from Read’s car at the scene of the crime.
• June 24, 2024 : The defense rests their case.
• July 1, 2024: A judge declared a hung jury after five days of deliberation.

The high-profile case has generated international attention, with Netflix announcing a three-part documentary is in the works.

Dozens of pro-Karen Read supporters, many wearing pink in solitary with the adjunct professor, flooded the streets around Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham from the moment the trial began in April.

During the four-month trial, the prosecution suffered an embarrassing moment , which legal experts previously described as the “worst since the OJ Simpson trial.”

The state’s biggest hindrance was their star witness, State Trooper Michael Proctor .

During cross-examination, lead investigator Proctor admitted to sending a series of offensive and inappropriate texts about reading to friends, family, and fellow troopers during the probe.

Proctor often referred to Read as a “whackjob” and a “b***h.”

In the texts, he even voiced his desire for Read to “kill herself” and joked to supervisors that he had not found any nude photographs of her on her phone.

Proctor admitted on the stand to sending the messages but denied the “juvenile, unprofessional comments” blurred his judgment in the investigation.

Neama Rahmani, founder of West Coast Trial Lawyers, called Proctor one of the worst witnesses he’s ever seen take the stand.

Rahmani compared Proctor’s performance to Mark Fuhrman ‘s calamitous showing in the OJ Simpson trial , in which the disgraced Los Angeles police detective was found to have used the N-word and then lied about it on the stand.

“Proctor lied about his relationship [with the homeowner], he’s not likable, he’s not credible, and that’s your key witness […] I don’t think the prosecution did a good job of fronting the evidence,” Rahmani previously told The U.S. Sun.

“In Donald Trump’s trial, everyone knew Michael Cohen was going to be a terrible witness, but in that case, the prosecution did a good job of telling the jurors Cohen’s a known liar, a felon, but here’s all the independent evidence that corroborates what he’s saying.

“But in this case, we didn’t get that. So Proctor goes up, gets destroyed on cross, and it’s just terrible.

“And you have the defense pushing the narrative that maybe some of the evidence against Read was planted, which is again shades of OJ.

“In OJ, jurors thought the LAPD planted the evidence, and the jury in this case might buy that argument too, which is unbelievable in my opinion.”