Two weeks before Karen Read’s retrial, her defense team and the prosecution was back in court for the first of two high-stakes pretrial hearings — with Judge Beverly Cannone delivering a stern rebuke to the defense over something she’d previously said she had “grave concern” about.
In this edition of “Canton Confidential,” we recap the hearing and get expert analysis, plus review what happened with Karen Read blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney in his witness intimidation case and the first episode of the Karen Read docuseries, “Body in the Snow.”
Follow NBC10 Boston:
https://instagram.com/nbc10boston
https://tiktok.com/@nbc10boston
https://facebook.com/NBC10Boston
https://twitter.com/NBC10Boston
https://bsky.app/profile/nbcboston.com
Tuesday began a two-day saga of critical hearings in the Karen Read case, with two potentially significant updates coming from the first day as the judge ruled on a key point of contention over two defense witnesses and the defense later argued for a delay in the start of the second trial.
The next two hearings are expected to be the final ones before jury selection begins for the retrial in two weeks. These motions will help shape the evidence, witnesses and narratives the jurors will hear during Read's second trial.
WATCH ANYTIME FOR FREE
 |
Stream NBC10 Boston news for free, 24/7, wherever you are. |
Read is accused of murder in the death of Boston police officer John O'Keefe in 2022. Authorities have alleged she drunkenly hit him with her SUV and left him in the snow, where he was found dead the following morning.
Read's defense has claimed that Read is at the receiving end of a massive coverup involving law enforcement corruption, and that she is being framed for the murder.
Get updates on what's happening in Boston to your inbox. Sign up for our News Headlines newsletter.
Judge Beverly Cannone and both sides are moving to address a number outstanding issue, including the possibility of a revised schedule for this trial.
Cannone admonished Read’s lawyers Tuesday, saying they repeatedly and deliberately misrepresented their relationship with accident reconstruction experts from ARCCA.
"A lawyer is only as good as his or her word," Cannone said.
Still, she said those controversial experts can testify and the defense won’t be sanctioned - which could have included the removal of attorneys from the case.
In the first trial, the jury heard about a trip Read and O’Keefe took to Aruba, during which the couple fought.
It's been said that they had an explosive argument on that trip, and in the first trial, prosecutors tried to create a link to a motive. The defense says the trip is irrelevant to the case. The prosecution now says details of that trip won’t be presented at the second trial.
Jurors could see fresh evidence with last night’s release of a docuseries in which prosecutors say Read suggests for the first time that O’Keefe took her vodka soda glass when exited her SUV the night he died.
The trial is set to start April 1, but the defense is looking for a delay, pending federal appeal of the SJC’s recent ruling that denied their efforts to have two charges against the defendant dropped. The state opposes a delay.
The defense team is also fighting to keep Read's blood alcohol content test from being allowed in court. It showed that she was over the legal limit, but it was taken hours after the alleged killing. The defense is also trying to keep out details of a trip Read and O'Keefe took to Aruba.
The defense team also wants to use a third party culprit defense in the retrial — a tactic they used during the first trial, where they suggested it was somebody else responsible for O'Keefe's death. The prosecution is pushing back on the defense's ability to use this argument in the retrial.
The hearing was continued until Thursday, where further arguments will be made on issues of the trial.
Both sides were asked to estimate how long the trial would last, and right now it's estimated at five to six weeks.
