On Tuesday, jury selection starts for the second murder trial of a 45-year~old Karen Read, charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Read’s legal team and prosecutors are preparing for a trial that could last weeks, while her supporters plan to stand by her, WHDH reports.
Court officials will bring hundreds of potential jurors into the Dedham courtroom in Norfolk County. The trial will have a larger buffer zone to keep Read’s supporters farther from the courthouse.
As CrimeOnline previously reported, prosecutors alleged that Read struck O’Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, with her vehicle. O’Keefe was left to die in a snowstorm on the front lawn of a home in Canton, Massachusetts, on January 29, 2022.
In 2024, Read stood trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident that caused death. That trial ended in a mistrial on July 1, 2024, after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict.
Her defense team argues that someone else killed O’Keefe and dragged him out the Canton home.
Meanwhile, Judge Beverly Cannone issued rulings on jurors and a defense expert in the case, ordering the juror list to be impounded and barring reporters from physically describing jurors to the public.
“This case has garnered significant and divisive attention in Massachusetts and across the country,” Cannone wrote in the order, according to the Boston Herald. “Individuals associated with this case have been charged with intimidation, which charges remain pending. At least one deliberating juror from the first trial submitted an affidavit to the court detailing reasonable fear for the safety of their family should the list of jurors be made available to the public.
“This court concludes that the fear expressed by that juror coupled with the inordinate amount of public attention to this trial and its outcome is good cause to impound the Clerk’s List of Jurors for Norfolk County Courthouse for the duration of empanelment,”
Read maintains her innocence and has pleaded not guilty to the charges against her, including second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.
Check back for updates.
