A decide declared a mistrial Monday after jurors mentioned they have been at an deadlock within the murder trial of Karen Read, the Massachusetts lady accused of killing her police officer boyfriend in 2022.
The choice got here on the fifth day of deliberations and after a nine-week trial in a courthouse exterior Boston the place Learn’s legal professionals described the killing of John O’Keefe, 46, as a cover-up carried out by legislation enforcement officers.
Prosecutors had argued that Learn, 44, and O’Keefe had a tumultuous relationship that culminated with the monetary analyst backing her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend and leaving him for lifeless on Jan. 29, 2022.
Learn was charged with second-degree homicide, motorized vehicle manslaughter whereas driving underneath the affect and leaving the scene of a collision inflicting dying.
In a observe despatched Monday afternoon to Norfolk County Superior Court docket Decide Beverly Cannone, the foreman mentioned that regardless of rigorous efforts, the jury of six males and 6 girls remained deadlocked. Some believed the proof surpassed the usual of proof wanted to convict Learn, the observe mentioned, whereas others discovered that prosecutors had not established their case.
In an earlier observe to Cannone, the jurors mentioned: “Regardless of our dedication to the responsibility entrusted in us, we discover ourselves deeply divided by elementary variations in our opinions and mind-set.”
After the mistrial was declared, Cannone set a standing listening to for the case later this month.
In an announcement, the district lawyer’s workplace thanked O’Keefe’s household and mentioned prosecutors intend to retry the case.
Outdoors the courthouse, a lawyer for Learn, Alan Jackson, advised reporters that prosecutors had relied on compromised investigators and a compromised investigation.
“We is not going to cease preventing,” he mentioned.
O’Keefe’s physique was discovered unresponsive that morning, and he was later pronounced lifeless. The medical expert attributed his explanation for dying to blunt drive trauma to the pinnacle and hypothermia.
Her legal professionals alleged that she was framed by officers who sought to hide a beating that they mentioned O’Keefe suffered throughout a gathering on the dwelling the place his physique was discovered.
The protection alleged that the lead investigator in the case, Massachusetts state Trooper Michael Proctor, manipulated proof, did not correctly examine O’Keefe’s dying and despatched a sequence of slurs and vulgar messages about Learn to buddies, household and supervisors.
In his closing argument final Tuesday, Norfolk County Assistant District Legal professional Adam Lally acknowledged that Proctor’s texts have been “indefensible” however mentioned that they had no bearing on the integrity of the company’s investigation.
Lally dismissed the protection’s declare of a cover-up as “rampant hypothesis.”
Learn repeatedly advised first responders that she had hit O’Keefe, Lally mentioned, and automobile information confirmed her reversing her SUV for 62 toes at 24 mph close to the house of one other officer, Brian Albert, after midnight on Jan. 29.
Lally mentioned bodily proof backed up the allegation that she struck him, together with a tail mild that authorities mentioned was damaged after the collision and hair and DNA from O’Keefe that was discovered on the rear part of the automobile.
Lally mentioned that nobody who attended the gathering recalled seeing O’Keefe inside Albert’s home.
Protection lawyer Alan Jackson mentioned the tail mild was truly damaged after Learn dropped O’Keefe off at Albert’s home, drove dwelling and left in a panic hours later she realized her boyfriend by no means returned.
The protection offered safety video from O’Keefe’s dwelling exhibiting Learn backing her SUV into her boyfriend’s automobile as she left to go discover him. Information from O’Keefe’s iPhone confirmed that his gadget had gone dozens of steps across the time prosecutors mentioned he was struck, Jackson mentioned, suggesting that these steps might have been to the basement of Albert’s dwelling.
Learn’s legal professionals have been allowed to current a third-party offender protection — a idea of O’Keefe’s dying that differed from the prosecution’s — and so they pointed to an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives who’d traded flirtatious texts with Learn as a attainable suspect in O’Keefe’s dying.
Jackson recommended the agent, Brian Higgins, turned offended after Learn ignored him at a bar earlier than the gathering at Albert’s dwelling. At Albert’s home, Jackson mentioned, there might have been skirmish between Higgins and O’Keefe over Learn that might have ended with O’Keefe falling and hitting his head.
Higgins testified that he by no means noticed O’Keefe inside Albert’s dwelling and he mentioned he was not upset about being ignored by Learn.
According to The Associated Press, a forensic engineer who reviewed legislation enforcement’s dealing with of the case for the Division of Justice testified that O’Keefe’s accidents ought to have been extra extreme had he been struck by a automobile touring greater than 20 mph.
“We don’t actually have sufficient proof on this case to find out what one particular occasion truly brought about that damage,” mentioned the professional, Andrew Rentschler, in response to the AP.
