A judge declared a mistrial Monday after jurors said they were at an impasse in the murder trial of Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her police officer boyfriend in 2022. The decision came on the fifth day of deliberations and after a nine-week trial in a courthouse outside Boston where Read’s lawyers described the killing of John O’Keefe, 46, as a cover-up carried out by law enforcement officers.
Prosecutors had argued that Read, 44, and O’Keefe had a tumultuous relationship that culminated with the financial analyst backing her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend and leaving him for dead on January 29, 2022. Read was charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.
In a note sent Monday afternoon to Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone, the jury foreman said that despite rigorous efforts, the panel of six men and six women remained deadlocked. Some believed the evidence surpassed the standard of proof needed to convict Read, while others found that prosecutors had not established their case.
In an earlier note, the jurors told the judge, “Despite our commitment to the duty entrusted in us, we find ourselves deeply divided by fundamental differences in our opinions and state of mind.” After the mistrial was declared, Cannone set a status hearing for the case later this month.
In a statement, the district attorney’s office thanked O’Keefe’s family and said prosecutors intend to retry the case. Outside the courthouse, a lawyer for Read, Alan Jackson, told reporters that prosecutors had relied on compromised investigators and a compromised investigation. “We will not stop fighting,” he said.
O’Keefe’s body was found unresponsive that morning, and he was later pronounced dead. The medical examiner attributed his cause of death to blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia. Read’s lawyers alleged that she was framed by officers who sought to conceal a beating that they said O’Keefe suffered during a gathering at the home where his body was found.
The defense alleged that the lead investigator in the case, Massachusetts state Trooper Michael Proctor, manipulated evidence, failed to properly investigate O’Keefe’s death, and sent a series of slurs and vulgar messages about Read to friends, family, and supervisors. In his closing argument last Tuesday, Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally acknowledged that Proctor’s texts were “indefensible” but said they had no bearing on the integrity of the agency’s investigation.
In a statement Monday night, Massachusetts State Police confirmed that Proctor had been “relieved of his duties.” “Upon learning today’s result, the department took immediate action to relieve Trooper Michael Proctor of duty and formally transfer him out of the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office State Police Detective’s Unit,” Colonel John E. Mawn, Jr. said in a statement. The department had previously opened an internal investigation into Proctor’s alleged serious misconduct, which remains ongoing.
Lally dismissed the defense’s claim of a cover-up as “rampant speculation.” Read repeatedly told first responders that she had hit O’Keefe, Lally said, and vehicle data showed her reversing her SUV for 62 feet at 24 mph near the home of another officer, Brian Albert, after midnight on January 29. Lally said physical evidence backed up the allegation that she struck him, including a taillight that authorities said was broken after the collision and hair and DNA from O’Keefe that was found on the rear section of the vehicle. Lally said that no one who attended the gathering recalled seeing O’Keefe inside Albert’s house.
Defense lawyer Alan Jackson said the taillight was actually broken after Read dropped O’Keefe off at Albert’s house, drove home, and left in a panic hours later when she realized her boyfriend had never returned. The defense presented security video from O’Keefe’s home showing Read backing her SUV into her boyfriend’s vehicle as she left to go find him. Data from O’Keefe’s iPhone showed that his device had gone dozens of steps around the time prosecutors said he was struck, Jackson said, suggesting that those steps could have been to the basement of Albert’s home.
Read’s lawyers were allowed to present a third-party culprit defense — a theory of O’Keefe’s death that differed from the prosecution’s — and they pointed to an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who had traded flirtatious texts with Read as a possible suspect in O’Keefe’s death. Jackson suggested the agent, Brian Higgins, became angry after Read ignored him at a bar before the gathering at Albert’s home. At Albert’s house, Jackson said, there could have been a skirmish between Higgins and O’Keefe over Read that could have ended with O’Keefe falling and hitting his head. Higgins testified that he never saw O’Keefe inside Albert’s home and that he was not upset about being ignored by Read.
According to The Associated Press, a forensic engineer who reviewed law enforcement’s handling of the case for the Department of Justice testified that O’Keefe’s injuries should have been more severe had he been struck by a vehicle traveling more than 20 mph. “We don’t really have enough evidence in this case to determine what one specific event actually caused that injury,” said the expert, Andrew Rentschler, according to the AP.
A judge declared a mistrial Monday after jurors deadlocked in the case of Karen Read, a woman accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by striking him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm, a case that drew outsize attention thanks to true crime fanatics, conspiracy theorists, and Read’s pink-shirted supporters. Prosecutors said in a statement that they intend to retry the case.
Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, faced second-degree murder and other charges in the death of Officer John O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police who was found outside a Canton home of another Boston police officer in January 2022. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma. Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away.
The defense sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside and left for dead. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider other suspects, including Albert and other law enforcement officers at the party.
On Friday, a jury foreperson told the judge that they hadn’t reached a unanimous verdict despite an “exhaustive review of the evidence.” The judge told jurors to keep trying. On Monday morning, jurors said they were at an impasse, but the judge asked them to continue deliberating. In the afternoon, they said it would be futile to continue. “The deep division is not due to a lack of effort or diligence but rather a sincere adherence to our individual principles or moral convictions,” the jury said in a note read by the judge in court.
O’Keefe’s mother cried after the mistrial was declared, while Read hugged her father and other relatives. The Norfolk County district attorney’s office said in a statement: “First, we thank the O’Keefe family for their commitment and dedication to this long process. They maintained sight of the true core of this case — to find justice for John O’Keefe. The Commonwealth intends to re-try the case.”
Defense attorney Alan Jackson said he and others representing Read will keep fighting. “They failed. They failed miserably, and they’ll continue to fail. No matter how long it takes, no matter how long they keep trying, we will not stop fighting,” he told reporters outside court.
Testimony during the two-month trial focused on shoddy police work and relationships between the parties. Police acknowledged using red plastic cups to collect blood evidence and a leaf blower to try to clear away snow to reveal evidence. The lead investigator acknowledged making crude statements about Read in texts from his personal cellphone.
Experts disagreed on whether O’Keefe’s injuries were consistent with being hit by Read’s luxury SUV, which had a broken taillight. The defense contended the injuries were caused by an altercation and the Albert family’s aggressive dog.
While the drama played out in a courtroom, dozens of Read’s supporters dressed in pink gathered each day outside, carrying “Free Karen Read” signs and mobbing her when she arrived each day. Motorists honked their horns in support. A smaller group of people who wanted Read convicted also turned up.
Prosecutors relied on several first responders who testified that Read admitted that she hit O’Keefe — saying “I hit him” — as well as evidence that Read was legally intoxicated or close to it eight hours later, after she returned to the house with friends and they found the body. Several witnesses testified the couple had a stormy relationship that had begun to sour. Prosecutors presented angry texts between the couple hours before O’Keefe died. They also played voice messages from Read to O’Keefe that were left after she allegedly struck him, including one left minutes afterward saying, “John I (expletive) hate you.”
Defense attorneys sought to poke holes in the police investigation, noting that Albert’s house was never searched for signs of a fight involving O’Keefe and that the crime scene was not secured. They suggested that some evidence — like pieces of her SUV’s cracked taillight, a broken drinking glass, and even a strand of hair — was planted by police.
A turning point in the trial came when lead investigator, State Trooper Michael Proctor, took the stand. He acknowledged sending offensive texts about Read to friends, family, and fellow troopers during the investigation. He apologized for the language he used but insisted they had no influence on the investigation. In his texts, he called Read several names, including “whack job.” At one point, he texted his sister that he wished Read would “kill herself,” which he told jurors was a figure of speech. And despite having relationships with several witnesses, he remained on the case.
Two expert witnesses hired by the U.S. Department of Justice during an investigation of police handling of the case testified for the defense, providing a scientific analysis for their conclusion that O’Keefe’s injuries and the physical evidence didn’t sync with the prosecution theory that he was struck and injured by Read’s 7,000-pound (3,175-kilogram) vehicle. O’Keefe had a significant head injury and other injuries but lacked significant bruising or broken bones typically associated with being hit by a vehicle at the speed indicated by GPS and the SUV’s onboard computer.
While the drama played out in a courtroom, dozens of Read’s supporters dressed in pink gathered each day outside, carrying “Free Karen Read” signs and mobbing her when she arrived each day. A smaller group of people who wanted Read convicted also turned up.
Read supporters cheered after word got out of the mistrial, but they acknowledged that the outcome wasn’t all they hoped for — and that she could be back in court again. “It’s not the verdict we were hoping for, we were hoping for a not guilty verdict. That is what this jury should have returned with the evidence that was presented,” Rita Lombardi, a Canton resident who has described herself as being part of the “sidewalk jury.” “But we accept the hung jury, we accept the mistrial.”
Aidan Timothy Kearney, known online as Turtleboy and whose website and social media posts have attacked the prosecution’s case for months, called the ruling “bittersweet.” “It’s not the outcome that we wanted. I wanted full vindication,” he said. “But in my mind, the fact that so many people in that jury clearly are aware, the majority clearly is with Karen Read. It’s a small minority that is just stubborn and won’t look at the facts and won’t be impartial and it’s just judging her based on not liking her.”
Prosecutors relied on several first responders who testified that Read admitted that she hit O’Keefe — saying “I hit him” — as well as evidence that Read was legally intoxicated or close to it eight hours later, after she returned to the house with friends and they found the body. Several witnesses testified the couple had a stormy relationship that had begun to sour. Prosecutors presented angry texts between the couple hours before O’Keefe died. They also played voice messages from Read to O’Keefe that were left after she allegedly struck him, including one left minutes afterward saying, “John I (expletive) hate you.”
Source: The Associated Press, NBC News
