DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - Karen Read’s defense team appealed the judge’s decision not to delay the start of her retrial. That appeal has been denied.
Judge Beverly Cannone ruled Thursday that Read’s retrial will begin April 1 with jury selection, but she will not swear the jury in immediately, so she has some flexibility in case the defense’s federal appeal is still pending by that time.
Now, Read is going to the same federal judge who initially ruled against her effort to get two charges dismissed. A newly filed document from the defense asks the U.S. District Court to issue a stay — delaying her retrial.
Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in 2022. Prosecutors say she hit him with her SUV and left him to die in the snow outside a Canton home. Read’s lawyers say she is being framed.
Read, 45, claims the jury in the first trial unanimously decided she was not guilty of second-degree murder and one other charge. But, the jury never announced that, and the foreperson sent several notes to the judge last summer saying they were hopelessly deadlocked.
Cannone never polled the jury and she is not required to under Massachusetts law.
Read wants the two charges dismissed, or for the jurors to be brought in and polled about the issue.
Cannone, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, and the chief judge of the federal court all ruled that Read’s retrial does not constitute a case of double jeopardy.
Meanwhile, special prosecutor Hank Brennan is focused on a docuseries, just released on Max, called “A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read.” He is asking Cannone to force Unsolved Productions to turn over all of its raw video from the series, including portions that did not air.
“She thinks it’s her way of testifying, without ever actually testifying,” said 7NEWS legal analyst Tom Hoopes. “He is going to see this as gold.”
The company says producer Terry Meurer refuses to do so without a court order.
Additionally, Brennan asked for all text messages, emails, and communications between Read and one of her attorneys, David Yannetti, restricted to five days, beginning on January 29, 2022.
Brennan argued that Read spoke in several interviews about those communications with her lawyer and therefore is waving her attorney client privilege during those days.
“She’s made statements,” said Hoopes. “Is she going to testify? If not, how is Brennan going to use them?”
Cannone has said if the First Circuit appeal is still live after jury selection is complete, she will hold another hearing on the issue before swearing in the jury. Another pre-trial hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.
The jury commissioner says hundreds of people, all residents of Norfolk County, will be called to Norfolk Superior for the second trial beginning a week from Monday.
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