Judge rejects motion to dismiss two charges

The presiding judge in the murder trial of Karen Read has rejected the defense's request to dismiss two of the three charges against Read in connection with the death of Boston police officer John O'Keefe, including premeditated murder.

Citing information they received from five jurors, the Mansfield woman's attorneys said the supposedly deadlocked jury in Read's first trial had internally agreed that she was not guilty of murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The defense claimed the jury only reached a deadlock on the charge of intoxication manslaughter, which includes less serious offenses such as manslaughter and involuntary manslaughter.

Read is accused of drunkenly and intentionally driving her SUV into her boyfriend, O'Keefe, after a night of drinking in Canton in January 2022. The high-profile case ended in a mistrial on July 1, and Read's retrial is scheduled to begin in January.

While Read's lawyers argued that reopening her case on charges of first-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident would violate trial settlement rules, Judge Beverly Cannone disagreed in a memorandum filed Friday in Norfolk Superior Court.

“This Court recognises that the prohibition of retrial after acquittals[p]”Perhaps the most fundamental rule in the history of double jeopardy jurisprudence,” Cannone wrote, citing precedent. “However, if the defendant's first trial did not result in an acquittal on any of the charges, there is no risk that a retrial will subject the defendant to double jeopardy on all of the charges. Therefore, the defendant's motion to dismiss the case is denied.”

Read Cannone’s memorandum and order: