DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - They didn’t get the not guilty verdict they hoped for. But supporters of Karen Read still celebrated Monday after Read’s second degree murder trial ended in a mistrial.
“Out of 12 people, they could not convict Karen Read,” one supporter told 7NEWS. “A mistrial is not a not guilty [verdict]. But they couldn’t find her guilty.”
“If they do re-try it, we will be back here again,” the same supporter said.
Prosecutors said Read hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her car and left him to die outside the Canton home of Brian and Nicole Albert in January 2022.
Her defense claimed she was framed, saying O’Keefe actually died after a fight inside the Albert home.
Read’s supporters were a fixture of her two-month trial and the many pre-trial hearings that preceded it, regularly assembling in pink regalia to cheer Read’s arrivals and departures from Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.
During the trial itself, supporters were kept outside a 200-foot, court-ordered buffer zone around the courthouse.
Undeterred, one other supporter said the group bonded over parts of four months between late April and Monday’s mistrial announcement on July 1.
“It’s an emotional rollercoaster out here,” said Allison Taggart. “We’ve been through a lot. We’ve been attacked. We’ve been through sleet storms, hailstorms. We’ve grown really close to each other.”
“It’s been a really great group out here,” Taggart continued. “It’s a tragic situation, but we’ve formed fabulous relationships.”
Taggart said supporters got to know Read’s family.
“It’s been fun out here and it’s been hard at the same time,” she said.
While they rallied for Read, supporters at times clashed with those supporting the prosecution and O’Keefe’s family.
“I looked further into the evidence and realized, ‘Oh my God, she did it.’ I wish more people would be humble enough to say, ‘Yeah, maybe I was wrong,'” one person said.
“I could not believe that people actually believe this conspiracy theory because she’s clearly guilty,” another person said.
The crowd outside the courthouse had largely come and gone by 4 p.m.
Read is now due back in court for a status hearing on July 22.
Having vowed to return to Dedham in case of a re-trial, supporters may soon have a chance to do so after the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office quickly announced plans to re-try Read.
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