Judge denies bid to dismiss murder charge against Karen Read after mistrial

A Massachusetts judge denied a request to dismiss the murder charge against Karen Read following a mistrial last month in the high-profile case, after her defense attorneys said four jurors reported that the jury had found her not guilty of the offense.

Read was accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, in January 2022. Prosecutors allege she hit O'Keefe with her car and left him to die in the middle of a snowstorm after the two got into an argument earlier in the day.

Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in the case on July 1 after the jury said it was unable to reach a unanimous consensus on the fifth day of deliberations. The Norfolk District Attorney's Office said they planned to retry the case.

Read was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. She had pleaded not guilty.

Read's attorneys asked the judge to dismiss the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in the retrial. They argued in court filings that retrying her on the charges would violate double jeopardy protections because, based on subsequent statements from the four jurors, the jury had reached a unanimous decision to acquit Read on the charges.

In her ruling released on Friday, Cannone concluded that double jeopardy was not at issue "because the defendant was not acquitted of any charges and defense counsel consented to the court's declaration of a mistrial."

Cannone acknowledged the statements from the jurors cited in defense filings, though said that any agreement among the jurors on the charges "cannot be considered acquittals for purposes of double jeopardy." Because no verdict was announced in court, Read was not acquitted of any charges, the judge said.

Prosecutors had asked the judge not to dismiss the two charges, arguing in court filings that the defense's motion "lacks any merit or legal foundation" and labeled the defense's claims that the jury reached a unanimous decision to acquit on the two counts "unsubstantiated and sensational."

Read has strenuously denied the allegations, and her lawyers alleged that a fellow police officer was involved in O'Keefe's death and colluded with others in a cover-up.

The new trial has been scheduled to start on Jan. 27, 2025, "in an effort to make sure we have plenty of time," Cannone said during a hearing last month.

"I assume whatever I ended up doing on the motion to dismiss will be appealed," Cannone said at the time.