A new trial date has been set for January for Karen Read after a mistrial was declared earlier this summer for the Massachusetts woman accused in the 2022 death of John O’Keefe, her police officer boyfriend.
Read appeared in court Monday, and a new jury trial was scheduled for Jan. 27. It was Read’s first appearance since a judge declared a mistrial earlier this month after jurors said they could not reach a verdict in the murder trial.
The judge’s ruling came on the fifth day of deliberations and after a nine-week trial in a courthouse outside Boston.
Prosecutors had argued that Read, 44, and O’Keefe had a rocky relationship that culminated with the financial analyst backing her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend and leaving him for dead in the snow Jan. 29, 2022, in a Boston suburb.
Read’s lawyers argued that O’Keefe’s death was a cover-up carried out by law enforcement officers.
After the mistrial was declared, Read’s defense team said prosecutors had relied on compromised investigators and a compromised investigation.
“We will not stop fighting,” Alan Jackson said.
In addition to second-degree murder, Read was also charged with motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.
Her lawyers have asked the judge to dismiss two of the charges, second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident, saying in court filings that jurors unanimously agreed to acquit Read on those charges.
Prosecutors have opposed the defense’s request, describing it as “legally inappropriate” and premised on conjecture and hearsay. The judge has not yet weighed in.
In addition to a tentative trial start date, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone also scheduled a motion to dismiss hearing Aug. 9, and a trial conference for Jan. 14.
O’Keefe, 46, a Boston police officer for 16 years, was found unresponsive and was later pronounced dead. The medical examiner attributed his cause of death to blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.
Read has said she dropped O’Keefe off at the gathering and didn’t see him until the next morning, when she found his body on the lawn of a fellow law enforcement officer.
Read’s lawyers alleged that she was framed by officers who sought to conceal a beating that they said O’Keefe sustained during the party at the home where his body was found.
The defense alleged that the lead investigator in the case, Massachusetts state Trooper Michael Proctor, manipulated evidence, failed to properly investigate O’Keefe’s death, sent a series of slurs and vulgar messages about Read to friends, family and supervisors and ran a biased investigation.
Proctor was suspended without pay earlier this month.
He testified that he made derogatory comments about Read in texts. But denied the texts affected his ability to be impartial.
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