BOSTON — The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on Tuesday morning denied Karen Read’s bid to get two of three criminal charges she faces in the January 2022 death of her Boston police officer boyfriend dropped.
In the 35-page ruling, the SJC stated, “The trial judge correctly denied the defendant’s motion to dismiss and request for a posttrial juror inquiry. The case is remanded to the county court for entry of a judgment denying the defendant’s petition for relief.”
During deliberations in Read’s first trial, the jury submitted three separate notes to Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannon indicating a deadlock, however, the SJC faulted the defense for not requesting further inquiry into the content of the notes.
“Nothing suggested that the deadlock was limited to a specific charge. On the contrary, the notes contained no inkling of agreement, and the third note implied the jury were deadlocked on all charges,” the SJC stated in its ruling. “Under these circumstances, given the content of the notes and the fact that defense counsel did not request further inquiry, engaging in one sua sponte (of one’s own accord) risked coercing a verdict. Thus, the judge appropriately exercised her discretion in declaring a mistrial based on manifest necessity.”
The SJC also declared that “posttrial disclosures cannot retroactively alter the trial’s outcome.”
“Can posttrial accounts of jurors’ private deliberations that are inconsistent with their public communications in court render the declaration of a mistrial improper, or constitute an acquittal, where the jury did not announce or record a verdict in open court? We conclude that they cannot,” the SJC stated. “The jury clearly stated during deliberations that they had not reached a unanimous verdict on any of the charges and could not do so. Only after being discharged did some individual jurors communicate a different supposed outcome, contradicting their prior notes. Such posttrial disclosures cannot retroactively alter the trial’s outcome.”
READ THE FULL SJC DECISION:
Karen Read SJC Ruling Feb 11 2025 by Boston 25 Desk on Scribd
Read’s attorneys are now considering their legal options, including federal habeas corpus relief.
In November 2024, Read’s legal team appeared before the state’s highest court in Boston and formally requested that the SJC dismiss her charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly crash for double jeopardy reasons.
Read’s first murder trial ended in July 2024 when hopelessly deadlocked jurors told Cannone that they couldn’t come to a unanimous decision on a verdict, leading to a mistrial.
The 44-year-old Mansfield woman’s lawyers later filed an appeal challenging Cannone’s decision not to dismiss two of three charges against her.
Read’s attorneys had argued that their client’s double jeopardy protections were violated because several jurors who came forward after the mistrial indicated that Read was found not guilty of the two charges in question.
They had also argued that polling the jury would show the panel reached “not guilty” verdicts on the two charges and that they were only hung on Read’s manslaughter charge.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office had opposed Read’s bid to get the charges dropped, arguing that Cannone was correct when she ruled all of Read’s charges should remain for her retrial.
Read is accused of hitting John O’Keefe, her boyfriend at the time, with her Lexus SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die after a night of drinking.
The defense has sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the Albert family home and then dragged outside and left for dead.
The retrial of Read has been delayed until April 2025.
In an exclusive one-on-one interview on Super Bowl Sunday, Read told Boston 25′s Ted Daniel that she has “nothing to hide” and that she’s “been framed” for murder.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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