Prosecutors have asked Massachusetts’ highest court to allow them to retry Karen Read for the murder of her Boston police officer boyfriend, arguing against a bid by the defense to have two of her three charges dropped.
Read is accused of deliberately running over her boyfriend, 45-year-old John O’Keefe, with her SUV and then leaving him to die outside a fellow officer’s home after a night of drinking during a blizzard in January 2022.
The 44-year-old financial analyst, who has maintained her innocence, was initially charged with murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
However, after a deadlocked jury failed to reach a unanimous decision earlier this year, the high-profile case ended in a mistrial.
A new trial was scheduled for January 2025.
Last month, Read’s defense team asked the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to drop charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident, arguing the jury was only deadlocked on the manslaughter charge but found her not guilty on the other two charges.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office had until Oct. 16 to file a response. In a brief filed late Wednesday night, prosecutors pushed back against claims that jurors had reached a verdict before the mistrial was declared.
“The jury gave no indication it had reached a unanimous verdict on any charge, and the defendant argued at the time against finding any such unanimity,” the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office wrote in the 77-page brief.
“There was no viable alternative to a mistrial,” prosecutors added, arguing Read “was not acquitted of any charge because the jury did not return, announce and affirm any open and public verdicts of acquittal.”
“That requirement is not a mere formalism, ministerial act or empty technicality,” they said. “It is a fundamental safeguard that ensures no juror’s position is mistaken, misrepresented or coerced by other jurors.”
Oral arguments from both sides will be heard Nov. 6.
