CANTON, Mass. — Dozens of people gathered outside the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office for hours on Wednesday showing support for Karen Read.
Read is accused of killing her Boston Police Officer boyfriend John O’Keefe by striking him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm in Canton in 2022.
She has been portrayed by her lawyers as a victim of an elaborate coverup by law enforcement.
Earlier in the day on Wednesday, Read’s lawyers filed a motion to dismiss her second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal crash charges, claiming a fourth juror came forward saying she was found “not guilty” of those.
“If the jury truly came to a verdict on two of the counts, that would have to be honored, and we’d just be left with the one count that they were deadlocked on,” said Peter Elikann, Boston 25 News legal analyst.
The jury was deadlocked on the manslaughter charge.
Elikann says the court should now bring the jury back in or reach out to them directly to clarify whether they indeed reached a verdict on any of the charges.
“The jury may not have been clear that it’s not an all-or-nothing thing,” said Elikann.
Read’s supporters held signs and shouted “Shame on you,” calling for Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey to step down over this case.
The picketers believe there shouldn’t be a re-trial after Karen Read’s murder case ended in a mistrial last week.
[ Defense says jurors had ‘agreement’ to find Karen Read ‘not guilty’ of murder charge ]
With the new defense filings and juror allegations, the crowd hopes the DA drops some of the charges – and the case as a whole.
“I mean, it doesn’t seem like they have much of a basis of their case. Maybe if they had conducted a better investigation when they started, there’d be a lot less unanswered questions, but unfortunately, it was a completely botched case with no supervision – and what supervision was there was conflicted, corrupted, we’ll see,” said Brad Goldstein.
While the defense tries to get those charges dropped, Read supporters will continue to fight for her, claiming she was framed by police for the death of John O’Keefe.
“You know it’s the good ole boys club still in Canton and that’s gonna change, we’re not going to stop until that changes,” said Goldstein.
The Norfolk County DA’s Office says they have no comment on the protest outside their office.
The crowd also plans on picking a retrial date at the next hearing on July 22.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.
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