DEDHAM, Mass. — Attorneys for Karen Read filed a 77-page brief with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court on Wednesday as they try to get two criminal charges dropped, arguing that the state’s continued push to retry her would amount to unconstitutional double jeopardy.
The Bay State’s highest court agreed last week to review the Read murder case after the 44-year-old Mansfield woman’s lawyers filed an appeal challenging Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone’s decision not to dismiss two of three charges against her: second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly crash.
Read’s trial ended in July when hopelessly deadlocked jurors told Cannone they couldn’t come to a unanimous decision, leading to a mistrial.
The SJC set a deadline no later than Sept. 25 for Read’s legal team to file a principal brief on the case. Prosecutors have until Oct. 16 to file their brief.
In the brief, Attorneys Martin Weinberg, Michael Pabian, Alan Jackson, and David Yannetti argue that Read’s double jeopardy protections have been violated because several jurors who came forward after the mistrial indicated that Read was found not guilty of the two charges in question.
“The very day after the trial court declared a mistrial, counsel for Ms. Read began receiving unsolicited communications from five of the twelve deliberating jurors (in four instances, directly from the jurors themselves) indicating, unequivocally and unconditionally, that the jury had a firm and unwavering 12-0 agreement that Ms. Read is not guilty of two of the three charges against her, including the charge of murder in the second degree,” the defense stated in the briefing.
Morning. Karen Read's lawyers have filed their brief to the SJC. This is their appeal of Judge Cannone's ruling to keep all of Read's charges for her next trial. The defense is arguing that her double jeopardy protections have been violated. #boston25 pic.twitter.com/NvYlBCJJ2q
— Ted Daniel (@TedDanielnews) September 25, 2024
Read’s attorneys added that the charges should be dismissed given that there are “hundreds of years” of case law supporting their argument.
“Crucially, neither the Commonwealth, which frankly acknowledged receiving communications from one juror to the same effect nor the Superior Court judge, who expressly accepted the veracity of juror statements relayed in affidavits by counsel, disputed the factual basis for the defense motion in any meaningful respect,” the brief went on to state. “Despite the widespread media given to the defense filings of the attorney affidavits attesting to the jurors’ representation they had acquitted Ms. Read of two of three charges, no juror disputed the facts represented by the attorneys in any manner. Given the central importance that acquittals have held in our criminal justice system for hundreds of years, the defense respectfully submits that the jury’s unanimous agreement precludes re-prosecution of Ms. Read on Counts 1 and 3 and mandates dismissal of those charges.”
The legal team also argued that the superior court relied solely upon the lack of an “open and public verdict affirmed in open court” in rejecting Read’s claim of acquittal.
“This reasoning is rooted in a formalism that has been consistently rejected by the United States Supreme Court and this Court in a string of precedents spanning more than one hundred years,” the attorneys stated in the brief.
If an agreement is reached to drop charge one of second-degree murder and charge three of leaving the scene of personal injury or death, Read would just stand to face a charge of OUI/manslaughter.
Read is accused of killing John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, by striking him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm in Canton in January 2022.
Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow officer. They said she rammed him with her SUV before driving away.
The defense has portrayed Read as a scapegoat, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside and left for dead.
Last week, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced that Special Assistant District Attorney Hank Brennan will lead the Commonwealth’s retrial of Read. He was one of Whitey Bulger’s defense attorneys during his 2013 mob trial.
Judge Cannone tentatively scheduled Read’s retrial for Jan. 27, 2025.
Read the full brief from Read’s legal team below:
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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