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Mass. SJC set to issue highly-anticipated ruling in Karen Read murder case

BOSTON — The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts on Tuesday morning is expected to publish its ruling on Karen Read’s fight to drop two of three criminal charges she faces in the January 2022 death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe.

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 charge 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 Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone that they couldn’t come to a unanimous decision, 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 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 have also argued that polling the jury will 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 has 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 O’Keefe, her boyfriend, 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.

Today’s SJC ruling is expected to be released after 10 a.m.

Boston 25 will share an update online and on-air when the SJC’s opinion is released.

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