DEDHAM, Mass. — The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office announced that it’s “looking forward” to picking a new trial date for Karen Read after her legal team filed a motion to dismiss two of the three criminal charges that she faces in connection with the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe.
Read’s murder trial ended in a mistrial last week but the office of DA Michael Morrissey said they plan to retry her with a court proceeding to pick a new date slated for July 22.
Attorneys Alan Jackson and David Yannetti filed a motion to dismiss after they said they received unsolicited communications from three of the 12 deliberating jurors. The defense wants Read’s second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal crash charges dismissed.
In the court filing, the defense claims one juror told Jackson that jurors unanimously agreed that Read was “not guilty” of second-degree murder and that the charge was “off the table.”
Yannetti said that he heard from two other jurors through informants and intermediaries. One said, “No one thought she hit him on purpose” and that “the prosecution didn’t prove the case.”
The filing claims that jurors were stuck on the manslaughter while driving drunk charge with some jurors stating that they “started polling at 6/6 and then ended deadlock @ 4no8yes.”
The DA’s office said they’re now “examining the motion in anticipation of filing a response.”
The defense argues that it would be unfair to retry Read on charges they claim a jury has already acquitted her of.
Jackson and Yannetti said they don’t have the names or contact information for those jurors.
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