The Massachusetts judge presiding over the high-profile murder trial of Karen Read has rejected a defense motion to dismiss two charges, including murder, setting the stage for the case to be retried in January after jurors deadlocked this summer.
Read, 44, is accused of killing her boyfriend, the Boston police officer John O’Keefe, 46, by hitting him with her sport-utility vehicle and leaving him to die in a snowbank. She pleaded not guilty to charges including second-degree murder, manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a deadly crash.
A two-month trial ended in July after the jury indicated multiple times that its members were deadlocked while deliberating a verdict. The judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial on the fifth day of unsuccessful deliberations.
O’Keefe, who served as a Boston police officer for 16 years, was found dead on 29 January 2022 outside the home of Brian Albert, a retired Boston officer who hosted a house party in the suburb of Canton.
According to investigators, O’Keefe had suffered multiple head injuries, including a fractured skull and a brain bleed. He also had hypothermia.
Prosecutors argued that Read killed O’Keefe in an act of domestic violence. She is accused of driving over O’Keefe with an SUV while under the influence and fleeing the scene as O’Keefe died.
Her defense team maintained that she was framed by corrupt officials attempting to cover up the murder of O’Keefe by others. She alleged that fabricated evidence and false testimony unduly implicated her.
Defense attorneys also argued that several conflicts of interests prejudiced O’Keefe’s murder investigation.
Lawyers for Read had sought the dismissal of two of three charges, presenting evidence that several jurors said the jury had unanimously reached a not guilty verdict on those charges: second-degree murder and leaving the scene. They said the jury was deadlocked on the remaining manslaughter charge.
The defense argued that retrying Read on the charges of murder and leaving the scene would violate constitutional protections against double jeopardy. But the judge said the jurors did not tell the court during their deliberations that they had reached a verdict on any of the charges.
In her ruling on Thursday, Cannone wrote: “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.”
The motion to dismiss the case against Read “is therefore denied”, she added.
Lawyers for Read said they plan to appeal the decision to a higher court.
“We respectfully but strongly disagree with the cornerstones of today’s rulings and fully intend an appeal to assert and uphold Ms Read’s rights under the double jeopardy clause,” the attorney Martin G Weinberg said in a statement shared by the local news outlet WCVB.
