Karen Read's lawyers have officially filed their brief to Massachusetts' highest court, which just last week agreed to review the case.
Wednesday was the deadline to get those briefs in, and in documents filed a short time ago, her lawyers are asking the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to look at Judge Beverly Cannone's refusal to dismiss two of the three criminal charges against her, including murder.
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It's been revealed that the jury was in fact unanimous that she was not guilty of those two charges and the defense says trying her on those charges would amount to double jeopardy.
Prosecutors have until mid-October to file their brief on the appeal. Oral arguments could begin as soon as November.
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Review the defense team's full filing below:
Read, 44, is accused of ramming into O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him for dead during a January 2022 snowstorm. Her two-month trial ended in July when jurors declared they were hopelessly deadlocked and a judge declared a mistrial on the fifth day of deliberations.
Prosecutors said Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
Prosecutors have scheduled a new trial for January of 2025.
