BOSTON (WHDH) - Karen Read’s legal team challenged the charges against her in federal court Wednesday, after the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court denied the request to dismiss charges.
In federal court, Read’s lawyers asked the chief judge to dismiss two charges — including second-degree murder — overruling decisions made by the SJC and Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone.
Read claims several jurors reported the panel was unanimous in deciding she was not guilty of those two charges. But, the jurors only said they were at an impasse, so the judge declared a mistrial.
Judge F. Dennis Saylor cited a legal “thick forest,” expressing concerns that there is no precedent for a federal judge to dismiss state charges in this way, or to conduct an inquiry by calling the jurors in for a question-and-answer session.
After Read appeared in federal court, the 45-year-old defendant attended a court hearing in Dedham as her lawyers argued a motion to dismiss the case.
She is charged with murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, in 2022.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson focused on Canton Police Department security videos from Jan. 2022, which he believes were kept from the defense.
“The conduct in this case is so egregious, it’s so pervasive, and it’s so deliberate that prejudice must be presumed. We don’t have to prove prejudice,” Jackson said.
Jackson says some videos were provided after the first trial ended, and that others were inverted — distorting reality.
There is never a clear view of her right rear tail light, which the defense claims was cracked, but not broken until police officers at the department, such as Trooper Michael Proctor, had access.
“The fact that those videos all just happen to either be grainy, wobbly, missing 42 minutes, or from the wrong angle and flipped backward, all tend to show that the Commonwealth doesn’t want the condition of the tail light to be seen by anybody,” Jackson said.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan responded, saying that Proctor failed to report the existence of the videos. He says while that was mishandled, he claims there was no deliberate effort to fool anybody.
“There was nothing done to alter or taint the video. There was nothing destructive about it. There was no tactical advantage. There was no benefit to the government, and clearly from Trooper Proctor’s testimony, there was no effort whatsoever to hide it,” Brennan said.
Brennan also played several videos which he says proves Read’s tail light was damaged and broken before the car made it into the police department sally port.
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