DEDHAM, Mass. — Defense attorney Alan Jackson on Friday morning made a push to get the murder case against Karen Read thrown out, however, he was unsuccessful in doing so.
As expected, Judge Cannone denies defense request to stop trial now and find Read not guilty.
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) May 30, 2025
Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party in Canton at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking.
“The Commonwealth has simply not proven, even in a light most favorable to them, that there was a collision on January 29th, 2022, at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts,” Jackson argued in his required finding for not guilty motion.
The prosecution rested its case Thursday after calling 38 witnesses to the stand over six weeks of testimony.
Testimony provided by the prosecution’s witnesses focused on evidence collected at the scene of O’Keefe’s death, "triggering events" in Read’s SUV that crash experts claim showed a three-point turn and a backing maneuver, and witnesses who claimed they heard Read repeatedly say, “I hit him.”
“There was no collision proven to have occurred. There was no eyewitness presented. There was no video evidence, no audio evidence, and no evidence in the form of physical evidence at the scene by searches that were done by officers on the morning of January 29, 2022,” Jackson argued. “The Commonwealth, through suspect experts based on circumstantial technical data, only sought to prove a backing event. And that’s important. They sought to prove that at 34 Fairview, the SUV went backward. They did not prove. And every single one of their experts was asked this question. They did not prove that there was actually a collision associated with that backing event."
After hearing Jackson’s argument and special prosecutor Hank Brennan’s rebuttal, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Cannone quickly announced, “The motion is denied.” The defense then called its first witness to the stand.
Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at the 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.
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.
A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.
Get caught up with all of the latest in Karen Read’s retrial.
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