Karen Read murder trial: Opening statements are Tuesday. Here’s a quick primer on the case.
Karen Read’s highly anticipated retrial is about to begin. This is what you need to know.
Karen Read is back for Round 2 as she prepares to stand trial again in the 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Opening statements in Read’s murder trial will be held Tuesday, more than three years after O’Keefe’s death rocked the town of Canton and launched a sprawling legal saga that has since captured the nation.
Judge Beverly Cannone estimates the case will take between six and eight weeks to try. This will be Read’s second trial, after her first ended with a hung jury last July.
Below, find a quick primer on the case.
Prosecutors say Read backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at a home in Canton early on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of bar-hopping. Authorities allege Read was driving drunk and left O’Keefe to die in the snow outside a fellow Boston police officer’s home on Fairview Road.
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Read’s lawyers contend she was a “convenient outsider” framed in a vast conspiracy among the homeowners, law enforcement, and fellow afterparty guests. They’ve floated an alternate theory that O’Keefe was actually beaten inside the home, attacked by the family’s dog, and dumped outside in the snow.
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The charges Read is facing include second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal collision. She has pleaded not guilty to all three charges.
The key players are a motley crew of witnesses, law enforcement, media personalities, experts, and others linked to the case.
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The evidence at the center of the case is hotly debated, from a now-infamous Google search to contentious crash analysis and Read’s extemporaneous comments at the scene.
- Further reading: Karen Read murder trial: A guide to the most contentious evidence
A lot has happened since Read’s first trial. The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office tapped special prosecutor Hank Brennan to lead the state’s case against Read, who has added several new lawyers of her own. Read also appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in her ongoing bid to get two of her charges dropped, and Massachusetts State Police fired disgraced Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation into Read’s case and whose vulgar texts about the defendant cast a pall over her first trial. Additionally, a federal probe into the state’s handling of the case concluded with no charges or arrests announced.
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Separately, Read is also being sued by O’Keefe’s family, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit last year against her and the two bars where she and O’Keefe drank the night before he died. A judge last fall effectively delayed the lawsuit by ruling that Read doesn’t have to produce discovery or give a deposition until after her criminal trial has ended.
If you plan to visit Norfolk Superior Court during Read’s retrial, bear in mind Cannone once again established a 200-foot buffer zone to bar demonstrations around the courthouse. Cannone also extended the buffer zone an additional block from Court Street to Bullard Street, noting demonstrators could be heard inside the courthouse during Read’s first trial.