(WJAR) — The judge in Karen Read’s case has rejected her defense’s request to drop two charges in her case.
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe.
The defense team had argued that the jury had acquitted Read on two counts and that she should not be prosecuted again.
They wanted to drop the charges of first-degree murder and leaving the scene of a crime after the jury announced after the trial that they agreed not guilty on those two counts.
But the jury could not agree on the manslaughter charge.
In court documents filed this week, Judge Beverly Cannone concluded that there was no acquittal on the charges at the first trial, saying “there is no danger that the defendant will be subjected to double jeopardy by a retrial on all counts.”
NBC 10 legal analyst Mark Dana said he was surprised by the judge’s decision.
“I’m surprised that she just denied the motion. There’s clearly some confusion here, and it’s at least the job of any judge to determine that confusion,” he said. “They must have found her not guilty of murder, but disagreed on what we call the lesser offense, which is manslaughter. They could have responded that they found her not guilty of murder… But I think the way it came out, they were so confused about the jury form that they probably didn’t know they could do that.”
Another expert said that if the implied acquittal were allowed, the trial would take a different direction.
“If this judge had ruled in her favor, she would have set a precedent, so I’m not really surprised that she wanted to leave the decision to the appellate court, assuming the defense would appeal,” said Morjieta Derisier, an attorney with the Bay State Law Group.
The question now is whether a deal could be offered after this new information becomes known.
“If I had this case and knew there was evidence that the jury would find the defendant not guilty of murder, I would definitely make an offer. The question is whether the defense will accept it,” Dana said.
Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial in July after five days of jury deliberations.
Legal experts believe Read’s defense may appeal Friday’s decision.
The new trial is scheduled for January 27.
NBC 10’s Kennedy Buck contributed to this report.
