Karen Read‘s murder-or-conspiracy trial, scripted like a TV drama, ends in a mistrial.
The Massachusetts jury had been deadlocked for days and couldn’t come to a unanimous decision about Read’s innocence or guilty after nearly 26 hours of deliberations.
The 44-year-old woman, who was accused of killing her Boston cop boyfriend John O’Keefe, smiled outside the Dedham courthouse. She stood next to her lawyers, David Yannetti and Alan Jackson, who said prosecutors relied on a compromised investigator.
“We will not stop fighting,” Jackson said, and it appears they will have to.
“The Commonwealth intends to re-try the case,” the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said within minutes of Monday afternoon’s outcome.
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The jury, which heard from 74 witnesses and examined nearly 700 pieces of evidence during the polarizing trial, first told presiding Judge Beverly Cannone they were deadlocked late last week.
They doubled down late Monday morning when the jury penned a well-crafted note to the judge.
“Despite our commitment, we are deeply divided by fundamental differences. No lack of understanding or effort. Consensus is not reachable,” the jury said.
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Cannone issued a dynamite charge (or Allen charge), which is a last-resort option to force jurors to go continue deliberations and try to reach a unanimous verdict.
The result was the same. “Despite our commitment to the duty entrusted in us, we find ourselves deeply divided by fundamental differences in our opinions and state of mind,” the jury wrote in a note to the judge.
The jubilation on Read’s side of the courtroom was a stark contrast to the tears and defeated faces on O’Keefe’s side.
The Boston police officer’s mom was being consoled by family and friends as Read hugged her dad and reached her hand to thank her supporters.
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O’Keefe’s body was found in several inches of snow outside the home of Boston police officer Brian Albert.
Prosecutors alleged Read purposely backed into him with her SUV during a booze-infused fight in January 2022 and let him die on the front lawn of a Canton, Massachusetts, home during a nor’easter.
Read claimed she was framed in an elaborate cover-up to protect the Alberts, an influential family with deep law enforcement ties.
She pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision causing injury and death.
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The mistrial mimicked the civil-war-like atmosphere in the Boston suburb between Read supporters and critics.
Protesters voiced their opinions, #FreeKaren billboards cropped up, and family and friends of both sides of the case were lambasted and heckled.
One of O’Keefe’s friends told Fox News Digital that Read supporters shouted profanities and heckled them as they entered the courtroom for the first day of the trial.
Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney, a controversial blogger who was frequently seen with a bullhorn backing Read and writing about the case, was assaulted outside a Canton bar over the weekend.
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Jillian Daniels and James Farris, two Canton residents, were charged with assault, police confirmed to NBC 10 Boston.
Shortly before the trial started, Kearney was arrested after he allegedly was “showing up” at sporting events of witnesses’ children and “made scenes,” harassed and photographed witnesses at their homes and jobs and instructed followers of his blog to do the same.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges, including witness intimidation. That case is ongoing.
Shortly before the trial started, Kearney was arrested after he allegedly was “showing up” at sporting events of witnesses’ children and “made scenes,” harassed and photographed witnesses at their homes and jobs and instructed followers of his blog to do the same.
He pleaded not guilty to all charges, including witness intimidation. That case is ongoing.
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Another salacious piece of the trial involved the texts of Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, an investigator on the case whose vulgar, sexist texts were revealed during testimony.
The jurors noticeably shook their heads as he read the texts while on the stand during a brutal cross-examination.
In the personal texts, he called Read a “wack job,” a “babe … with no a–” and a “c—;” wished she would kill herself; and joked about looking for nude images on her phone, among other things.
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The embattled state trooper admitted his messages were “unprofessional and regrettable,” as he was being pummeled by the defense’s cross-examination, but he stood by the integrity of the investigation.
Many law experts believe Proctor’s testimony sank the prosecution’s case.
