Karen Read pushes to get charges dropped in murder case over death of police officer boyfriend after mistrial

Attorneys for Karen Read filed a motion in an attempt to bolster earlier arguments that two of her charges in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend should be dismissed.

Their brief was in response to one filed by prosecutors earlier this month to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, arguing against dropping the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene - leaving only a manslaughter charge.

Read is accused of ramming into John O´Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. 

Her attorneys argue she is being framed and that other law enforcement officers are responsible for O´Keefe´s death. 

A judge declared a mistrial in June after finding that jurors couldn´t reach an agreement. A retrial on the same charges is set to begin in January.

Karen Read, center right, sits at the defense table during her trial on charges in connection with the 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police Officer John OKeefe

OKeefes family is pushing for the civil lawsuit to forward and wants to lock in testimony from Read while while the criminal case against her plays out. He is pictured with Read

The defense brief argues that trying Read again on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene would be unconstitutional double jeopardy.

The defense attorneys said five jurors came forward after her mistrial to say that they were deadlocked only on a manslaughter count and had agreed that she wasn´t guilty on the other counts. But they hadnt told the judge.

The defense also argues that affidavits from the jurors reflect a clear and unambiguous decision that Ms. Read is not guilty and support their request for a evidentiary hearing on whether the jurors found her not guilty on the two charges.

Reads defense attorneys cited a ruling in the case of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in which a federal appeals court earlier this year ordered the judge who oversaw his trial to investigate the defense´s claims of juror bias and determine whether his death sentence should stand.

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, no matter how clear and well-supported her claim, according to the defense brief.

The defense also argued that the judge abruptly announced the mistrial in court without first asking each juror to confirm their conclusions about each count.

There is no indication that the court gave any consideration to alternatives, most notably inquiry regarding partial verdicts, according to the defense brief. And counsel was not given a full opportunity to be heard. 

The court never asked for counsel´s views, or even mentioned the word mistrial.

In August, a judge ruled Read can be retried on those charges. 

Where there was no verdict announced in open court here, retrial of the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy, the judge, Beverly Cannone, said in her ruling.

In its brief to the court, prosecutors wrote that there´s no basis for dismissing the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of the accident.

They noted in the brief that the jury said three times that it was deadlocked before a mistrial was declared. Prosecutors said the defendant was afforded a meaningful opportunity to be heard on any purported alternative.

The defendant was not acquitted of any charge because the jury did not return, announce, and affirm any open and public verdicts of acquittal, they wrote. 

That requirement is not a mere formalism, ministerial act, or empty technicality. 

It is a fundamental safeguard that ensures no juror´s position is mistaken, misrepresented, or coerced by other jurors.

Read, 44, put her three-bedroom home in Mansfield up for sell for $849,900, just two weeks after her case was declared a mistrial 

Prosecutors said Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O´Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer. 

They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away. An autopsy found O´Keefe had died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.

The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O´Keefe was actually killed inside Albert´s home and then dragged outside. 

They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a convenient outsider who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.

Read has since been accused of trying to flee the state of Massachusetts by the family of her alleged victim.

The relatives of late police officer said in a court filing for the wrongful death lawsuit against Read that she has one foot out of Massachusetts, as reported by the Boston Herald.

Read, 44, put her three-bedroom home in Mansfield up for sale for $849,900, just two weeks after her case was declared a mistrial. 

OKeefes family is pushing for the civil lawsuit to forward and wants to lock in testimony from Read while while the criminal case against her plays out. 

The O’Keefe family also has compelling reasons to lock in testimony from Karen Read, who seeks not only to poison the jury pool with her regular communications with the media, reporters and/or bloggers, but also has one foot out of Massachusetts now that her house has sold, the court filing read.

To avoid prejudice based on witness unavailability, failed memories and/or Karen Read’s attempts to poison the jury pool through her public statements, this Court should exercise its discretion to DENY a stay of the civil case pending the criminal matter’s resolution.