Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, for a motions hearing in her murder case on Tuesday, March 12, 2024.
A judge agreed to unseal some - but not all - of the documents regarding a failed motion to dismiss in the high-profile Karen Read murder case Tuesday.
Read is accused of killing John O'Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, in Canton, Massachusetts, in 2022. Her lawyers have alleged that she was framed amid a massive coverup, which the prosecution and people involved have denied. Read has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while impaired and leaving the scene of an accident.
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During Tuesday's hearing the judge considered arguments from The Boston Globe, which has requested the court unseal a previous motion to dismiss from the defense.
Read's lawyers had attempted to have the murder case against her dismissed, but a judge ruled against that motion last month. Her attorneys had also pushed to have Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey disqualified from the case, which was also denied by the judge.
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The Globe's argument centers on the idea that the public has a presumptive right of access to materials surrounding those motions, which were impounded. The case and the questions the defense has attempted to raise about the way the investigation has been handled have captured public attention and become a point of contention in Canton and beyond.
Among the concerns surrounding the release of the documents are that they contain sensitive information about grand jury testimony, and a separate concern over a protective order.
Judge Beverly Cannone on Tuesday agreed to release some of the documents tied to the motions, giving the Commonwealth instructions to redact certain information and a deadline of Wednesday. Those documents include a memorandum in support of Read’s legal team’s motion to dismiss, and the Commonwealth’s opposition to that motion to dismiss.
The trial is scheduled to begin on April 16.
