A Massachusetts judge has ruled that Karen Read will be tried again for allegedly killing her police officer boyfriend with her truck, quashing her attempts to have the case dismissed.
Days after the case ended in a mistrial on July 1, Read’s attorneys said several jurors said they planned to acquit her of second-degree murder and fleeing the scene of the crime.
They further claimed that these jurors were deadlocked only on the murder charge, but Norfolk County Judge Beverly Cannone rejected this.
“Since there was no open, public verdict in this case, the defendant was not acquitted of any of the charges,” Cannone’s decision reads. “The only unanimous act of the jury in this case was their statement to the court that they were ‘at an impasse’ and could not come to an agreement.”
David Traub, spokesman for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, said The New York Post whose retrial for the murder of John O’Keefe is expected to begin on January 27.
Karen Read, 44, is scheduled to be retried for the murder of Boston police officer John O’Keefe on Jan. 27 after her prosecutors’ first attempt ended in a mistrial.
Judge Beverly Cannone rejected arguments by Read’s attorneys to dismiss her second-degree murder charge, saying the former college professor was not acquitted.
Cannone added that Read’s attorneys did not initially raise any concerns about the mistrial declaration and said they had multiple opportunities to do so as jurors submitted notes indicating their disagreement among themselves.
Prosecutors accused Read, 44, of running over John O’Keefe during a snowstorm in January 2022 in an attempt to escape their toxic relationship.
On the night of O’Keefe’s death, he and Read had been drinking with a group of friends at the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton, about 14 miles south of Boston, and were invited to their friend Brian Albert’s home for an after-party.
Read, who prosecutors say had several alcoholic beverages earlier in the day, decided to drop her boyfriend off at the after-party before heading home (which O’Keefe shared with her orphaned niece and nephew) to sleep around 1 a.m.
Court documents revealed the pair had been arguing bitterly for weeks beforehand, and on the night O’Keefe died, Read left him a voicemail calling him a “fucking loser” and telling him, “John, I hate you.”
John O’Keefe, 46, was found dead at 6am on January 29, 2022, outside a house where Read dropped him off for an after-party at around 12.45am
Read and O’Keefe had been drinking the night of her death, before she drove him to an after-party while she went home to sleep. He was found dead on the lawn of the after-party house hours later.
The couple had been together for two years when O’Keefe, who had been with the Boston Police Department for 16 years, died.
According to Read’s version of events, she woke up at 4 a.m. to find that O’Keefe had never returned home, prompting her to drive frantically to try to find him.
After finding O’Keefe’s body outside Albert’s home, which partygoers claimed he never entered, first responders at the scene claimed Read repeatedly told them she hit him while in a panic.
Vehicle data also revealed Read reversed his SUV for 62 feet at 24 mph near Albert’s home. O’Keefe’s cause of death was blunt force trauma and hypothermia, and pieces of Read’s taillight were found around his body, prosecutors said.
Read, a financial analyst and former Bentley College professor, has been described as “America’s happiest murder defendant” because of how often she smiled and even winked at cameras during her trial.
As her trial began, Read received an outpouring of support from true crime fans and locals who camped outside the courthouse with signs reading “Free Karen Read.”
Amid intense media scrutiny and huge protests surrounding her hearings, public opinion on Read’s innocence was divided, with some calling for her to be “freed” and others accusing her of being a villainous murderer.
Amid intense media scrutiny and huge protests surrounding her hearings, public opinion on Read’s innocence was divided, with some calling for her to be “freed” and others accusing her of being a villainous murderer.
Just two weeks after the mistrial was declared, Read decided to put her 2,000-square-foot colonial-style home in Mansfield on the market for $849,900.
Her real estate agent revealed that she had not lived in Mansfield since last year and “is looking forward to another family enjoying the property she spent many years improving.”
Read has maintained her innocence from the beginning, claiming she was framed by police and people who attended the party the night of O’Keefe’s death.
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