MANSFIELD – Karen Read is scheduled to appear in Dedham Superior Court Friday afternoon, where a judge is expected to hear arguments on whether two of the three charges against her in connection with the 2022 death of her boyfriend, a police officer, including murder, should be dropped.
Lawyers for Read, 44, of Mansfield, say in court documents that during deliberations, jurors voted to acquit her of first-degree murder, leaving the scene of the accident and receiving death threats before the case was ended by a Mistral wind on July 1.
The jury, which informed the court in three letters that it was deadlocked, was only divided on the drunken driving manslaughter charge against Read and did not know how to proceed, Read’s lawyers argued in court documents.
Prosecutors, who also received jury notices after the mistrial, have said they will retry Read, arguing in their court filings that the state Supreme Court has ruled that verdicts must be made publicly and recorded.
But Read’s lawyers say her right to protection from double jeopardy, that is, from being tried twice for the same crimes, may have been violated given the unanimous “not guilty” votes during deliberations.
Read is free on bail and has pleaded not guilty to intentionally backing into her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, on January 29, 2022, after a night of drinking and then leaving him to die during a snowstorm.
But Read says she was framed by corrupt state and Canton police officers as part of a wider cover-up. Her lawyers argue that Read dropped O’Keefe, 46, off at another Boston police officer’s house in Canton, where he was beaten during a basement party and dragged outside into the snow.
Her cause has attracted large numbers of supporters who have appeared at court hearings and her trial and held demonstrations in other communities. Counter-protesters demanding her guilt have appeared during jury deliberations and post-trial hearings.
Read’s renegotiation is scheduled for January.
