A judge will decide whether to release mobile phone records showing Karen Read ‘did something terrible’ the night her boyfriend died.
Prosecutor Hank Brennan petitioned the court Tuesday for the release of conversations between Read and her parents in the hours after she allegedly struck Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe with her SUV on Jan. 29, 2022.
Brennan said she called her parents Janet and William Read several times in the early morning hours, around the time she claimed she left O’Keefe at a party and drove home.
He was found dead in the snow hours later at 6 a.m., and guests said he never went inside.
“The inference that a 40-year-old woman called her parents at 1:30 a.m. after this tumultuous event is strong evidence that Ms. Read knew she had done something terrible,” Brennan said.
“She knew she hit John O’Keefe, and she knew she left him behind.”
Prosecutors with the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office alleged that Read’s phone records show she called her mother three times, at 1:14 a.m., 4:38 a.m. and 4:42 a.m., and her father at 6:32 a.m. — and none were answered .
In her defense at her first trial, Read claimed that she was driving around with two friends at the time looking for O’Keefe after he never returned home.
She argued that she was the victim of a vast conspiracy, including the Boston Police Department, to frame her. The first trial ended in a hung jury, and she will stand trial again in January 2025.
Prosecutors are seeking the phone records of Karen Read, who arrives in court Tuesday claiming they will prove she struck and killed her boyfriend with her SUV
Prosecutor Hank Brennan, who oversaw Read’s first trial, argued that Read’s phone calls to her parents would provide “strong evidence that Ms. Read knew she had done something terrible.”
John O’Keefe, a 16-year-old Boston police officer, was found dead around 6 a.m. on January 29, 2022, at a house where Read had dropped him off for a party around 12:45 p.m. Prosecutors say Read hit him with her SUV and she was framed
Although Read is scheduled to appear in court again in January, during Tuesday’s hearing both prosecutors and her defense requested that the trial be postponed until April.
Read’s attorney, Elizabeth Little, has denied the prosecutor’s request for her phone records, labeling it a “fishing expedition” and an invasion of her parents’ privacy. Boston sphere.
She argued that prosecutors have not presented evidence that the phone records contain evidence related to the case.
“The Commonwealth asks this court to condone this gross invasion of her father’s privacy so that the Commonwealth can search Mr. Read’s electronic records for information already in the Commonwealth’s possession,” she said.
The judge did not rule on the request during Tuesday’s hearing.
Brennan also requested the release of reporters’ notes and recordings of interviews that Read gave to a Boston Magazine reporter for a story last year.
Prosecutors said they have two recordings of the interview, but they contain about 150 redactions, and they are seeking unredacted versions.
Read is said to have called her mother Janet three times, at 1:14 a.m., 4:38 a.m. and 4:42 a.m., and her father William at 6:32 a.m., on the night O’Keefe died
Read and O’Keefe had been dating for two years at the time of his death. He had served on the Boston Police Department for sixteen years
These redactions are said to include comments from Read that contradict statements she made to other media outlets, and other times are mentioned where Read makes a statement before an editorial then moves on to another story.
In one example reported by the Globe, Read reportedly admitted to drinking a vodka tonic every 40 minutes at a bar with O’Keefe the night of his death.
When the audio resumed, court records allege she offered a “non sequitur” in which she claimed to be consuming sips of water at a second bar, while previously telling 20/20, “I’d probably had about four (drinks), and not four I have completed both. At the second bar I drank perhaps no more than a few sips.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Brennan said, “It’s clear that something happened during that redaction that turned the drinking alcohol license, which is part of this case, into something like water.”
The judge also did not rule on a motion about the recordings on Tuesday. Read will appear in court on December 12.
Read has maintained her innocence in the case and says she plans to fight to clear her name when she faces a second murder trial in January.
Read’s first trial in July ended in a mistrial because the jury was deadlocked, and she is expected to have a second murder trial in January 2025.
Although her jury was deadlocked, John O’Keefe’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her.
Prosecutors allege Read hit O’Keefe with her car after a drunken argument when she dropped him off at the house for an afterparty, and claim they found pieces of her car’s taillight around his body.
She had spent the evening drinking with O’Keefe and a group of friends at the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton, about 14 miles south of Boston, and the group had been invited to the home of his friend Brian Albert, a Boston retiree. police officer.
Read, who prosecutors say had consumed several alcoholic drinks beforehand, decided to drop O’Keefe off at the afterparty before heading to his home — which he shared with his orphaned niece and nephew — to go to sleep around 1 a.m.
Court documents revealed that the couple had been arguing heavily for weeks beforehand, and on the night O’Keefe died, Read left him a voicemail calling him a “f****** loser” , and ‘John, I f** I hate you.’
Chilling footage was shown in court of Read at a Boston bar the night she allegedly killed her police boyfriend
Read was scrutinized in court for a perceived light-hearted attitude, including winking at cameras and interjecting during the proceedings
The couple had been dating for two years at the time of O’Keefe’s death. He had served on the Boston Police Department for sixteen years.
As the party continued at Albert’s house, Read said she woke up around 4 a.m. to find him not home, telling O’Keefe’s niece she was “distraught.”
Attendees at the party, including some law enforcement officers, claimed that O’Keefe never arrived at the party or entered the house.
Read then searched for O’Keefe with a friend, and prosecutors allege that during the search she said to her, “What if he’s dead?” What if a plow hits him?…I don’t remember anything from last night, we drank so much I don’t remember anything.’
At 6 a.m., Read found O’Keefe lying in the snow outside Albert’s home, and a first responder on the scene reportedly claimed Read repeatedly shouted, “I hit him, I hit him,” CBS News reports.
O’Keefe was rushed to hospital, where he was pronounced dead. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was blunt force trauma and hypothermia.
Read’s defense countered that she is the victim of an elaborate conspiracy to frame her, claiming the police officer may have actually been attacked by other officers and attendees at the party where he was found dead.
When her trial began, Read received strong support from true crime fans and local residents who camped outside the courthouse with signs that read “Free Karen Read.”
During her trial, Read’s claims that she was framed also attracted a legion of fans, who wore pink to show their support and were often evicted outside the courthouse.
The judge in her case even issued a ruling at the start of the trial that banned supporters from coming within 200 feet of the courthouse.
Read’s behavior in the courthouse also sparked backlash when she was branded “America’s luckiest murder defendant” as she appeared to soak up the attention as she winked at the cameras and snacked in the courtroom.