Judge doesn’t rule on Karen Read bail reduction request, sets trial date in murder case

DEDHAM, Mass. — The trial for Karen Read, who’s charged with second-degree murder in the death of late Boston cop and her boyfriend John O’Keefe, is set for March 12, 2024.

That’s the date Judge Beverly Cannone set Friday during a pretrial hearing in Canton at Norfolk Superior Court.

Prosecutors have alleged that Read struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV before fleeing the scene and leaving him to die in a blizzard on a lawn outside of 34 Fairview Road in Canton after a night of drinking. O’Keefe’s body was found just after 6 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.

Prosecutors say they’ve amassed a pile of evidence – from interviews with numerous witnesses who said Read was asking if she hit O’Keefe the morning his body was found, to forensic evidence of skull fractures that led to bruising on his face, to an apparent human hair found on Read’s Lexus, to voicemails and text messages suggesting discord between O’Keefe and Read, to records showing Read was still intoxicated the morning O’Keefe’s body was found, to tiny bits of plastic taillight found on O’Keefe’s clothing.

The Norfolk County District Attorney’s office has previously stated that eight people inside the home and three more outside have testified that O’Keefe never entered, and the office states that GPS data from O’Keefe’s phone supports that.

Read’s defense team starting this spring has argued that a wide-ranging conspiracy of police officers, their friends and local officials have framed Read in O’Keefe death.

Her defense team claims that Read dropped O’Keefe off at a party at a Boston cop’s Canton home, where he was beaten up, bitten by a German Shepherd and dragged outside.

Last week, Read’s attorney David Yannetti, filed a motion in Norfolk Superior Court to have her $80,000 returned, citing legal expenses, health complications, and what he described as “mounting evidence of her innocence.”

Read’s Bail was initially set at $100,000 during her Superior Court arraignment. According to the filing, Judge Beverly J. Cannone reduced it to $80,000 on Feb. 8, 2023. Read posted the bail and was released from custody.

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The judge heard arguments, but said she couldn’t make a decision about revoking bail until her lawyers file an affidavit detailing Read’s finances.

Prosecutor Adam Lally also argued that Read’s bail should remain in place because there has been no change in circumstances since the case started, a notion that the defense scoffed, claiming evidence was planted against their client.

“My client is one of the most recognized criminal defendants in America,” Yannetti told the court, arguing that Read isn’t a threat to flee if bail is lifted.

Her attorneys also want potential video surveillance footage from an alleged Google Nest camera that the Canton homeowner says he bought but never installed.

Prosecutors said they agreed to a request for any such footage.

Read’s defense team said they didn’t object to prosecutor’s motion for surveillance footage from parents’ home in Dighton.

Investigates spoke to Read at her parent’s home, where investigates said they saw her SUV parked with a broken taillight.

The judge also heard prosecutors’ motions for footage from Read’s interviews on two media outlets. The defense said they wouldn’t fight that motion.

Read’s lawyers have used pretrial hearings to raise doubt about the prosecution’s case.

“Regarding the tiny pieces of taillight – for those to have any evidentiary value, you have to trust the person who had custody of John O’Keefe’s clothing before it was sent to the lab,” defense lawyer David Yannetti.

Yannetti claimed the state trooper who had custody of O’Keefe’s clothing had close ties to the Canton homeowner’s family that left him “conflicted and corrupt.”

“He had every reason to sprinkle tiny pieces of taillight that he had seized into the clothing that he alone took so that the lab would later find it weeks later,” Yannetti said.

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The defense has pointed to: a party attendee’s Google search for “hos long to die in the cold,” lacerations on O’Keefe’s arm that Read’s team argues are actually dog bites and the Canton homeowner’s sale of his home and alleged re-homing of his German Shepherd.

The defense argues law enforcement failed to conduct a full and fair investigation of the Canton homeowner and party attendees.

Read has recently said that she dropped O’Keefe off and saw him approach the door of the residence.

Yanetti said a plow driver said he plowed the street at 2:30 a.m. and didn’t see a body on the Canton lawn.

“There was no body!” Yannetti said.

Prosecutors have argued the Google search happened after O’Keefe’s body was found and that medical records say O’Keefe’s arm wounds were not animal bites.

The defense also wants prosecutors to let them inspect and test dozens of items of physical evidence that are still at a lab for testing: including taillight pieces, O’Keefe’s clothing and samples from O’Keefe’s clothing and person.

The defense also wants handwritten notes and other data from law enforcement searches during their investigation.

Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said that the court records show it’s provided evidence to counsel as soon as possible.

“Any suggestion that we’re desperately withholding evidence from the defense because we’re afraid of what it might show is patently ridiculous,” Lally said.

Lally said the lab had to wait to start testing because the defense submitted paperwork late.

Lally said “microscopic pieces” of red and clear plastic were recovered on O’Keefe’s shirt. He said there’s an ongoing analysis comparing those pieces with the broken taillight pieces.

He said such testing will likely be completed later this fall.

Prosecutors said items undergoing testing can’t be released, but that the laboratory could likely release items that had already been tested.

The defense team questioned the testing of an alleged human hair found on Read’s SUV.

Lally said a criminologist examined the hair and said it was apparent human hair.

But testing on the hair so far didn’t provide enough material to find human DNA on the hair.

Prosecutors say more extensive DNA testing is needed.

Hundreds of people crowded the street outside of Norfolk Superior Court in support of Read ahead of Friday’s hearing.

Prior reporting:

DEDHAM, Mass. -- Karen Read on Friday is slated to return to a Dedham courtroom, where her defense team is expected to ask a judge to drop the bail in her murder case and release her on personal recognizance.

Last week, Read’s attorney David Yannetti, filed a motion in Norfolk Superior Court to have her bail removed, citing legal expenses, health complications, and what he described as “mounting evidence of her innocence.”

Read is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe.

O’Keefe was found unresponsive outside of 34 Fairview Road in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors say Read backed over O’Keefe in a snowstorm and left him for dead after a night of drinking.

Read’s Bail was initially set at $100,000 during her Superior Court arraignment. According to the filing, Judge Beverly J. Cannone reduced it to $80,000 on Feb. 8, 2023. Read posted the bail and was released from custody.

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Her defense team is now asking for her release on personal recognizance.

“Read has had to spend considerable money on legal fees to properly defend herself and to obtain basic discovery material that should have been voluntarily turned over to the defense by the Commonwealth many months ago,” the filing states.

Yannetti also references “outstanding” items of evidence he says the defense has been waiting 19 months for.

Read’s defense team has argued that police failed to seriously consider any of the party attendees who were at 34 Fairview Road on Jan. 29, 2022, as potential suspects.

The Norfolk County District Attorney’s office has previously stated that eight people inside the home and three more outside have testified that O’Keefe never entered, and the office states that GPS data from O’Keefe’s phone supports that.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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