‘No viable alternative’: Norfolk DA’s Office asks SJC to allow retrial of Karen Read murder case

DEDHAM, Mass. — The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office has asked the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to allow them to retry Karen Read for the murder of John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, arguing against the defense’s appeal to have two of her charges dropped.

Read is accused of ramming O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving to die in a snowstorm outside of the Canton home of former Boston police officer Brian Albert in January 2022.

In a 77-page brief filed late Wednesday night, prosecutors stated that there’s no basis for dismissing the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of the accident, arguing in three key points that the state’s retrial cannot be double jeopardy:

• The judge soundly exercised her discretion in declaring a mistrial where the jury repeatedly reported it was deadlocked, gave no indication of unanimity on any charge, and stated that further deliberations would be futile
• The judge properly found the defendant consented to the mistrial where counsel consistently pushed for that result, had several days to prepare for it, and when it was declared, did not object despite multiple opportunities to do so
• The defendant was not acquitted of any charge where no verdicts of acquittal were returned, announced, and affirmed by the jurors in open court

“There was no viable alternative to a mistrial, but even so, the defendant was afforded a meaningful opportunity to be heard on any purported alternative,” prosecutors wrote in the brief. “Even assuming there was no manifest necessity, the trial judge properly ruled that the defendant consented to the mistrial. The possibility of a mistrial because of deadlock was clear from the jury’s first note, and clearer still from its second note.”

Prosecutors added, “The defendant was not acquitted of any charge because the jury did not return, announce, and affirm any open and public verdicts of acquittal. That requirement is not a mere formalism, ministerial act, or empty technicality. It is a fundamental safeguard that ensures no juror’s position is mistaken, misrepresented, or coerced by other jurors.”

Read the full brief below:

Oral arguments will be heard from both sides on Nov. 6.

In a lengthy brief filed with the SJC in September, Read’s legal team said that five of the 12 jurors came forward after her mistrial saying they were deadlocked only on a manslaughter count, and they had agreed unanimously that she wasn’t guilty on the other counts.

Judge Beverly Cannone ruled in August that Read can be retried on all three charges against her. Read’s attorney Martin Weinberg argued that Read’s double jeopardy protections would be violated if two of the three counts weren’t dropped.

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Massachusetts is backing Read in her appeal to the SJC to protect her from being retried.

Prosecutors have said that Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at Albert’s home and ran him over. 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.

The lead investigator assigned to this murder case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, was relieved of his duty after the trial over inappropriate texts about Read that he sent to coworkers, friends, and family.

In July, Cannone tentatively scheduled Read’s retrial for Jan. 27, 2025.

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