DEDHAM – Attorneys for Karen Read are appealing to the state's highest court to have two charges, including second-degree murder, dropped following a July mistrial.
Defense attorneys for Read, a Mansfield woman accused of killing her Boston police officerboyfriend and Braintree native John O'Keefe, had attempted to make the case that retrying her onall charges is double jeopardy.
But prosecutors argued that the defense had thechance to object to the declaration of a mistrial at the timeand did not, and thecase does not have a verdict.
Judge Beverly Cannone sided with the prosecution in a decision last month.
Read's attorneys this week appealed Cannone's decision to the state Supreme Judicial Court, filing a 37-page petition requesting oral arguments before a single justice.
Cannone declared amistrialin the case in July. She hasscheduled a second trialto begin Jan. 27, 2025.
Defense lawyers sought to have some charges against Karen Read dropped
Following the mistrial, Read's defense attorneysfiled motionsseeking to dismiss two charges in the case and said the jury had agreed unanimously that Read was not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident with injury or death.
Attorney Alan Jackson said the defense was denied the chance to request that the court inquire about which counts the jury had deadlocked on after thejurors returned saying they were at an impasse.
The defense team has sought court permission to contact jurors about the deliberations "for the sole purpose of asking them to affirm the accuracy."
In a hearing on the motion, Martin Weinberg, a new attorney on Read’s team, said the court shouldn't just "accept fiction" that the jury was at an impasse on all three charges. He said there is evidence that they unanimously agreed that Read was not guilty on two of the three charges.
"We have to embrace that these are facts," he said. "This jury was unanimous in its acquittal of Ms. Read on counts one and three."
Weinberg suggested the court could have thejurors in for a hearing to establish evidence the jury acquittedher on two charges, calling it "the right thing to do."
"There hasn't been a single case where facts like this have been ignored," he said.
Norfolk County District Attorney wants to have a second trial for Karen Read
In a response motion, Norfolk County Assistant District Attorneys Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin opposed the motion and said it's "premised upon hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations."
Lally and McLaughlin said there was no verdict acquitting Read and there are no grounds to "inquire into the deliberative process of a discharged jury."
Lally said the jury did not return a verdict, so retrying Read is not double jeopardy. He said calling jurors back to inquire about deliberations wouldn't be appropriate.
"It's backed by decades if not centuries of case law," he said. "There is no verdict in this case."
Judge sided with the prosecution
Cannone, in her 21-page decision, said jurors didn't tell the court during their deliberations that they had reached a verdict on any of the counts.
“Where there was no verdict announced in open court here, retrial of the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy," Cannone said in her ruling.
Cannone said there no justification for bringing jurors in to question them about their deliberations since they didn't reach a verdict.
“The defense counsel has not cited one case suggesting the post-trial inquiry they now seek is appropriate or that it could change the outcome of the proceedings,” Cannone wrote. “Therefore, there is no reason for the Court to allow post-trial inquiry of the jurors.”
Karen Read charged with second-degree murder
Thedefense and the prosecution made theirclosing arguments on June 25in the trial of Read, who was charged with second-degree murder afterO'Keefe's body was found in the drivewayoutside the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer Jan. 29, 2022, during a snowstorm. Prosecutors say Read was drunk and angry when she purposely hit him.
But defense attorneys for Read say she was framed for O'Keefe's death.
Read is also charged with manslaughter while driving drunk and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.
Prosecutors called more than 65 witnesses intestimony that started April 29.
The defense's list of witnesses was much shorter and included a plow driver who said he did not see anything on the lawn in Canton where O'Keefe's body was found.
