DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - The judge in the high-profile Karen Read murder case on Monday set Jan. 27 as a tentative new trial date after Read’s first trial ended without a verdict earlier this month.
Read and her attorneys appeared in Norfolk Superior Court for a brief status hearing.
Judge Beverly Cannone soon set Aug. 9 as Read’s next pretrial court date and established Jan. 14 as a hearing for final pretrial motions.
Prosecutors say Read hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her car and left him to die outside the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer in January 2022.
Read’s defense claims she is being framed, saying O’Keefe actually died after a fight inside the home.
Read’s first trial began in late April and drew widespread attention as more than 70 witnesses took the stand. The case went to the jury in late June and ended in a mistrial after jurors told Cannone they were deadlocked.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office vowed to retry Read in the wake of the mistrial.
Read’s defense team promised to continue fighting allegations against their client.
Though the cameras and crowds of Karen Read supporters left their usual posts outside the courthouse in Dedham after the July 1 mistrial declaration, the saga surrounding the Read case continued in recent weeks.
State Trooper Michael Proctor, who served as the lead investigator in the case, was relieved of duty and later suspended without pay after he was forced to reveal his graphic text messages about Read in court.
Read’s defense team also filed a motion and a flurry of affidavits arguing jurors reached an agreement behind closed doors to find Read not guilty on two of three counts against her, including second degree murder. Defense attorneys argued jurors were confused about their options during deliberations and said retrying Read on all three counts would amount to double jeopardy due to the purported jury agreements.
Prosecutors responded to the defense motion on July 12, saying it was based on “hearsay, conjecture, and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.”
Exactly three weeks after the mistrial declaration, a significant crowd gathered two hours before Monday’s Karen Read hearing outside Norfolk Superior Court.
A group of Read supporters stood on one side of the courthouse steps, holding signs and waving flags while wearing pink outfits.
Supporters of O’Keefe’s family gathered on the other side of the steps, also holding signs and waving flags while wearing blue outfits.
State police troopers stood between the two groups.
The crowd thickened near 1 p.m. as blogger Aidan Kearney grabbed a bullhorn and addressed Read’s supporters.
Kearney, who writes the blog Turtleboy, has been a vocal supporter of Read and a sharp critic of investigators probing O’Keefe’s death. He has been charged with charges including witness intimidation in connection with the Read case.
With Kearney in the crowd, Karen Read supporters on Monday rained a shower of boos on Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally as he entered the courthouse.
Accompanies by bodyguards and her attorneys, Read soon squeezed through the crowd.
“It’s just unjust,” said one Karen Read supporter. “She should be acquitted on [counts] one and three.”
“That family has been lost in this sideshow,” said an O’Keefe family supporter. “And I want justice for John O’Keefe and for the O’Keefe family.”
Attorney David Yannetti came to court to represent Read alongside a new face on the defense team — Martin Weinberg.
Cannone had not ruled on the defense motion to dismiss charges as of Monday. She is now expected to hear oral arguments on the matter during Read’s next court date on Aug. 9.
“It’s a constitutional argument,” Yannetti said after Monday’s proceedings. “Double jeopardy, it doesn’t get any more serious than that.”
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