Prosecutors push to get Karen Read interviews ahead of retrial

Ahead of the retrial of Karen Read, Massachusetts prosecutors are asking for records of an interview she did last year with Boston Magazine.

Read is facing multiple charges, including murder, in the 2022 death of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe in Canton. Prosecutors say she hit O'Keefe, her boyfriend, with her SUV and left him for dead, while Read has said she was framed in a coverup. Her first trial ended with a hung jury.

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Read has sat down with various media outlets to tell her story. Massachusetts is now digging into those interviews, asking for a court order to compel Boston Magazine to hand over all communications between its reporter, Gretchen Voss, and the defendant.

"The more information they gather, the more likely they're going to start to uncover inconsistencies in the story and the like, and that's all going to help them ultimately prove their case at trial," NBC10 Boston legal analyst Michael Coyne said.

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Karen Read was in Massachusetts' highest court Wednesday where her lawyers argued why two of the charges against her should be dropped or at least reexamined following outreach from jurors saying Read would have been acquitted. We asked legal expert Michael Coyne how the court might rule, and talked to Read's father outside of court.

The Norfolk County District Attorney's Office is asking for all audio recordings, interview notes, emails, text messages and voicemails that Voss or the company still have on file from a lengthy article published last September.

"The defendant made a tactical decision to be interviewed," prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

This isn't the first time they've asked for this information. Judge Beverly Cannone previously granted them access to the on-the-record audio recordings, but prosecutors say they were heavily redacted.

A lawyer for the magazine and Voss said they were willing to turn over recordings of on-the-record comments, but that reporters have the right to keep confidential information private.

"They still have a lot of holes to fill, but what they're obviously doing is quite aggressively trying to fill those holes and correct some of the mistakes that we all saw in the first trial," Coyne said.

Ahead of her retrial, Karen Read was the subject of a two-part profile in Vanity Fair.

Prosecutors argue that there are contradictions in the interviews Read has been giving, citing statements she made about alcohol consumption on the night O'Keefe died.

They claim in the article, Read's explanation of how much she had to drink was different from what she told reporters in an interview with 20/20.

"I think there's a likelihood that some of those interviews will be played during the next trial, at least portions of them, because you're always trying to convey to the jury what took place," Coyne said.

Boston Magazine said it is not commenting on the issue Thursday.

NBC10 Boston also reached out to Read's defense team, but has not heard back.