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Karen Read murder case: Wednesday marks 3 years since death of John O’Keefe

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CANTON, Mass. — Wednesday marks three years since the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe.

O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Read, 44, is accused of hitting O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV on January 29, 2022, and leaving him to die after a night of drinking.

After a night out drinking at several bars, prosecutors say Read dropped O’Keefe off at a house party hosted by Albert and his wife just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.

The defense has sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the Albert family home and then dragged outside and left for dead.

Read’s lawyers have been fighting to dismiss her second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly crash charge for double jeopardy reasons after multiple jurors told them that the jury agreed to acquit on those counts. Double jeopardy is a legal protection that prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for the same crime.

Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury this past summer.

Born and raised in suburban Braintree, O’Keefe graduated from Northeastern University and earned a master’s in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts. He was 46 at the time of his death, and had been a Boston police officer for 16 years.

The anniversary of O’Keefe’s death comes as Read’s legal team makes a renewed push to keep her cell phone expert on the witness stand ahead of her second trial in April.

The prosecution is trying to block Richard Green from testifying. In Read’s first trial, Green testified that Jen McCabe’s “Hos long to die in cold?” Google search happened at 2:27 a.m. in the morning, hours before the prosecution said it happened.

In a new filing, the defense argues that Green used five different tools to come to that conclusion. The prosecution calls Green’s opinion “baseless.”

A final determination will be made before Read returns to court on April 1.

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

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