A Massachusetts judge has ruled that Karen Read can be retried for murder and leaving the scene of a crime in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe.
The decision comes after a mistrial was declared in July when jurors could not reach a verdict. According to ABC News, Judge Beverly Cannone dismissed arguments from Read's defense team that jurors had privately agreed she was not guilty on two of the charges.
The case against Read, 44, stems from a January 2022 incident where she is accused of hitting O'Keefe with her SUV during a snowstorm and leaving him to die. The original trial lasted two months and ended in a deadlock on the fifth day of jury deliberations, leading to the mistrial declaration.
Judge Cannone's decision, released on Friday, paves the way for a new trial scheduled to begin on January 27. The ruling came despite claims from Read's lawyers that four jurors had stated they were only deadlocked on a manslaughter charge, having unanimously agreed on Read's innocence regarding second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident.
The defense team argued that the judge had prematurely announced the mistrial without confirming each juror's conclusions on individual counts. They had requested that the jurors be summoned back to court for further questioning.
However, Judge Cannone maintained that the jurors never informed the court during their deliberations that they had reached a verdict on any of the counts. She stated in her ruling, "Where there was no verdict announced in open court here, retrial of the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy."
Prosecutors have consistently argued that Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O'Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the Boston police force, had been drinking heavily before the incident. They allege that Read dropped O'Keefe off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, another Boston police officer, before striking him with her SUV and fleeing the scene.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally urged the judge to dismiss what he called an "unsubstantiated but sensational post-trial claim" based on "hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations." The prosecution maintains that the jury was given clear instructions on how to reach a verdict and that the defense had ample opportunity to object to the mistrial declaration.
Michael Coyne, dean of the Massachusetts School of Law, commented on the unusual nature of the situation:
It's very unusual to actually have after the fact, after the mistrial has been declared, for jurors to say, 'Oh, wait a minute, we had a verdict.' And now for the defendant then to try and argue that the verdict that should have been announced in open court would be not guilty, and therefore should be subject to double jeopardy if you retried her — that's what unusual about it.
Throughout the trial, Read's defense team portrayed her as a victim, suggesting that O'Keefe was actually killed inside Albert's home and then moved outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a "convenient outsider," allowing them to avoid considering law enforcement officers as potential suspects.
The case has garnered significant attention due to its complexity and the involvement of law enforcement personnel. An autopsy revealed that O'Keefe died from a combination of hypothermia and blunt force trauma, adding to the intricacy of the case.
A Massachusetts judge has decided that Karen Read can be retried for the murder of her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, and for leaving the scene, despite her defense presenting post-trial claims that jurors believed she was not guilty.
Karen Read, accused of hitting John O’Keefe with her SUV during a snowstorm, faced a mistrial previously when jurors couldn't reach a unanimous decision. The judge dismissed the defense's request to use the jurors' post-mistrial statements as evidence, asserting that no verdict was officially reached in court, allowing for a retrial without violating double jeopardy rules.
