Karen Read trial: Judge refuses to dismiss case against woman for murder of Boston police officer John O'Keefe after mistrial

DEDHAM, Massachusetts – A judge in the US state of Massachusetts has refused to drop two charges, including murder, in the case of Karen Read, who is blamed for the death of her boyfriend, a Boston police officer.

Read is accused of driving her SUV into John O'Keefe and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. Her two-month trial ended in July when jurors said they were hopelessly deadlocked and a judge declared a mistrial on the fifth day of deliberations.

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Judge Beverly Cannone's decision means the case can go to trial, which is scheduled for January 27.

The defense had presented evidence that four jurors had stated that the jury had unanimously reached an acquittal on the counts of premeditated murder and leaving the scene of a crime resulting in death, but could not agree on the remaining charge of manslaughter.

They said that re-indictment on these two charges would be an unconstitutional double jeopardy procedure.

They also reported that a juror told them that “no one believed that she hit him intentionally, or even believed that she hit him intentionally.”

Earlier this month, Read's attorney Marty Weinberg asked Cannone to consider several options to prove that the jury acquitted Read on both counts.

Weinberg said she could ask the jury whether to reach a verdict on the three counts or to let the four jurors be questioned anonymously. If she did not want to accept the defense's statements, she could authorize the defense to ask the jury “if they would make an affidavit that could be two sentences. We have unanimously decided to acquit Ms. Read on counts 1 and 3.”

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Prosecutors called the defense's motion to dismiss charges of first-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident an “unproven but sensational post-trial claim” based on “hearsay, conjecture and a legally inappropriate reliance on the content of the jury's deliberations.”

Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally asked Cannone to deny the defense's motion at the hearing earlier this month.

Lally argued that at no point did the jury indicate that it had already reached a verdict on the charges, that it had been given clear instructions on how to reach a verdict, and that the defense had ample opportunity to object to a declaration that the trial would not be successful.

The video in the player above is from an earlier report.