Week one of the Karen Read murder trial is set to end Friday, but the same can’t be said about jury selection process. Four spots remain on the jury panel.
Week 1 of the Karen Read murder trial has come to an end, but the same can't be said about the jury selection process.
Four spots remain on the jury panel after what was an eventful day on Thursday. According to the defense, one juror who was previously chosen to serve on the trial was excused for a hardship. It's uncertain what exactly that hardship was but they've been replaced and now a total of 12 jurors have been seated.
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As far as the trial, new documents filed in court Thursday reveal a report from a Virginia-based lab about DNA tests. The results are connected to a piece of hair that was discovered on Read's SUV after her boyfriend John O'Keefe, a former Boston police officer, was found dead.
Prosecutors have given the report to Read's lawyers, but the judge hasn't made a ruling on if the data will be allowed in court.
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Also, Read's attorneys spent time arguing for a fair cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor, who was the lead state investigator on the case.
Simply put, they want the jury to know he's under an internal affairs investigation for his handling of this case. The state believes that isn't necessary.
Thursday was already established as the last day of the process for the week, with no jury selection on Fridays. A new pool of prospective jurors is expected to return to the courtroom in Dedham on Monday.
Also Thursday, a Supreme Judicial Court justice upheld the court-ordered buffer zone that keeps demonstrators 200 feet away from the courthouse and from holding signs and wearing pro-Karen Read clothes.
However, demonstrators appealed the decision to the full Supreme Judicial Court, claiming "the Superior Court had no authority to create the buffer zone outside the courthouse and its curtilage."
"The buffer zone is an unconstitutional prior restraint on all forms of 'demonstration' regardless of relation to the criminal case that spurred the creation of the zone," the group of demonstrators argued.
We got new insight Wednesday on how the people who will eventually consider the high-profile charges are being screened.
NBC10 Boston obtained the jury questionnaire from the clerk's office of the Norfolk Superior Court.
The questionnaire includes 29 questions, starting with one that summarizes the case:
"It is alleged that on January 29, 2022, while intoxicated and operating her motor vehicle in Canton, MA, the defendant, Karen Read, killed her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, an off-duty Boston Police officer. Is there anything about the description of the case, the charges, or the that the victim was an off-duty police officer, that causes you to believe that you cannot be fair and impartial in this case?"
Potential jurors have the option to respond yes, no or not sure to that and the other questions, which cover religious beliefs, law enforcement, media attention and if they think Read should have to prove her innocence.
Read the full document here:
Prior to the start of jury selection Tuesday, Judge Beverly Cannone announced that she's not going to exclude the defense from using a third-party culprit defense during the trial.
Prosecutors had filed a motion seeking to prevent the defense from making such an argument.
"I'm going to give you a chance to develop it through relevant, competent, admissable evidence," she said. "But you cannot open with it."
Read is accused of killing O'Keefe in January of 2022. Prosecutors say she hit him with her SUV and left him in a blizzard, but her attorneys say she's being framed as part of a massive coverup. The defense claims O'Keefe was attacked inside the home.
Cannone has said she expects the Read trial to last somewhere between 6-8 weeks once a jury is seated. She said the schedule will include full days on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
