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Live updates: Day 4 of Karen Read jury selection as lawyers ask SCOTUS to drop her charges

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DEDHAM, Mass, — Karen Read, the woman charged in the murder of her police officer boyfriend, has asked the highest court in the United States to throw out two of her three criminal charges as jury selection in her second trial continues for a fourth day on Friday.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of hitting John O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die in the cold after a night of drinking. The defense has sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the Albert family home at 34 Fairview Road in Canton and then dragged outside and left for dead.

Read’s lawyers filed a 149-page petition for a writ of certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States asking it to overturn charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a crash causing injury or death, offenses that her lawyers claim jurors in her first trial agreed to acquit her of.

Read and her legal team have argued that retrying her on all charges constitutes double jeopardy.

They first filed a motion to dismiss the charges in Norfolk Superior Court, but Judge Beverly Cannone denied the request. The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, a federal judge in Boston, and the U.S. Court of Appeals all upheld Cannone’s ruling after subsequent appeals were made.

Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury in July 2024.

She has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.

As the highest court in the land takes up Read’s latest appeal, jury selection for her retrial is continuing in Dedham.

Read and her team left court at the end of the third day of jury selection on Thursday with nearly two-thirds of the juror seats filled.

Read herself is involved in the selection process, going over jury questionnaires as she did at her first trial. She also sits close to the bench and listens in as the candidates for jury are individually questioned in front of Judge Cannone.

Three new jurors were added on Thursday, bringing the total to 10. Five jurors were picked Wednesday, and two were settled upon Tuesday.

The current makeup is five men and five women. The court needs to seat a jury of 12, including at least four alternate jurors.

The jury selection process will continue on Friday.

Read the full appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States:

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