Karen Read facing music again in second murder trial in Boston cop’s death​on March 31, 2025 at 5:38 pm

Accused killer Karen Read’s last-ditch effort to have her charges tossed has been torpedoed.

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On Tuesday, jury selection begins for the 45-year-old’s second murder trial in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.

Read is accused of slamming into O’Keefe — a 16-year BPD veteran — with her vehicle. O’Keefe was left to die in a snowstorm on the front lawn of a home in Canton, Mass. on Jan. 29, 2022.

In 2024, the Read trial riveted the planet as she was tried on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death.

But the jury reached an impasse and a mistrial was declared on July 1, 2024.

Her defence team has spent the last year trying to have the charges tossed. Read’s legal eagles claim the jury wasn’t deadlocked, saying five members were ready to acquit on all charges except manslaughter.

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As a result, her lawyers are arguing that if anything, she should only be tried on the manslaughter beef. Trial Judge Beverly Cannone shot down the double jeopardy gambit. She is presiding over the retrial.

Cannone also shot down a separate defence effort to dismiss for “extraordinary governmental misconduct.”

Jury selection starting Tuesday morning could get tricky, legal observers said.

“The lawyers should get comfortable for the long haul because this is going to take a while,” retired Superior Court Judge Jack Lu told the Boston Herald, citing pre-trial publicity.

A trial court spokesperson said 275 potential jurors will be called each day of the first week, with that dropping a bit to 243 a day thereafter.

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Boston criminal lawyer William Kickham added: “Now, information travels at the speed of light, and almost simultaneously across multiple social media and a variety of internet sources.

“The pretrial publicity, combined with the new documentary series, is going to make empaneling a jury that has no knowledge, bias, or opinions about this case complex at best. This case … could easily rival Sacco & Vanzetti and the Boston Strangler cases, in terms of widespread recognition.”

Legal experts are giving the prosecution a “whisker of an edge.”

During the first trial, the jury heard two very different theories of what happened that terrible night.

THE PROSECUTION

Prosecutors said Read had knocked back around nine drinks and got into yet another fight with O’Keefe. The relationship was turbulent. O’Keefe exited Read’s SUV to go to a house party.

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She began a three-point turn, prosecutor Adam Lally said, then slammed the vehicle in reverse, striking O’Keefe. He would freeze and die on the lawn.

THE DEFENCE

Read’s team attacked the physical and social evidence of that theory. Instead, they argued that not only did Read not strike her longtime partner, but someone else did. Read, they claim, was a patsy, a victim of a local and state police conspiracy.

THE ARUBA TRIP

The new prosecutor will go for the same approach but won’t bring up Read and O’Keefe’s trip to Aruba weeks before he died. The ill-fated trip was used by prosecutors to show that the couple’s relationship was spiralling down the drain. In Aruba, Read accused one woman of making out with O’Keefe.

THE UPSHOT

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“The message from that first jury seemed clear to me: ‘We don’t believe Karen Read should be found guilty of the most serious charges because we had clear disagreement about her intent,’” Suffolk University Law School Clinical Professor of Law Christopher Dearborn told the Herald.

“‘However, we believe she did hit John O’Keefe with the car.’ Oversimplified, that jury did not seem to be swayed by the defence theory about a third-party culprit, but rather they were trying to decide if it was accidental or not.”

AND ANOTHER THING

Lead Massachusetts State Police investigator Michael Proctor was relieved of duty and fired after the mistrial. He had been forced to read “inappropriate” text messages to friends and family.

Proctor told pals he had discovered “No nudes so far” on Read’s phone. He called the suspect a “babe” and a “whack job.” He also texted his sister that he hoped Read “kills herself.”

bhunter@postmedia.com

@HunterTOSun

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