Judge in Karen Read’s retrial prohibits defense from referencing Sandra Birchmore’s death

DEDHAM, Mass. — The judge in Karen Read’s retrial on Tuesday allowed a motion from the prosecution to prohibit the defense from referencing the death of Sandra Birchmore during witness testimony “unless a door is opened.”

A filing in Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court signed by Judge Beverly Cannone states, “Questioning an officer’s involvement in an unrelated death investigation particularly one remote in time and circumstance, is irrelevent, would have no tendency to prove any material issue in this case, is speculative, and would confuse the jury.”

The motion comes as multiple first responders, including current and former members of the Canton Police Department, take the stand in Read’s second trial.

Birchmore, 23, was pregnant with Stoughton Police Department detective Matthew Farwell’s child when she was found dead inside her Canton apartment in February 2021.

Farwell is accused of sexually exploiting Birchmore when she was underage and then trying to make her death look like a suicide after she told him she was pregnant.

Canton is also where Read is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert following a night of drinking.

O’Keefe was found dead in the snow outside 34 Fairview Road on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.

Both the Birchmore and Read cases were investigated by the Canton Police Department and Massachusetts State Police troopers assigned to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office. They were also looked into on the federal level.

The motion adds, “Testimony about this unrelated death investigation would result in a trial within a trial, with much of the information being inadmissible, confidential, or offered with a proper foundation.”

Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense has claimed that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.

A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

Read the full ruling:

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