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Prosecutors ask to revisit data from Karen Read’s SUV

Prosecutors want to take another look at Karen Read’s SUV.

A request submitted in Norfolk Superior Court on Friday asks that prosecutors revisit the vehicle’s telematics system, where precise data like location and speed are stored.

Prosecutors say they only got a portion of that data during the initial evidence-gathering period and there may be a significant amount they haven’t examined.

Read is accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe in January 2022 by backing into him with the Lexus SUV outside a canton home of another officer.

Read’s defense team sought to portray her as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually was killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside and left for dead. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider other suspects, including Albert and other law enforcement officers at the party.

Karen Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury earlier this year. Testimony during the two-month trial focused on shoddy police work and relationships between the parties. Police acknowledged using red plastic cups to collect blood evidence and a leaf blower to try to clear away snow to reveal evidence. The lead investigator acknowledged making crude statements about Read in texts from his personal cellphone.

Experts disagreed on whether O’Keefe’s injuries were consistent with being hit by Read’s luxury SUV, which had a broken taillight. The defense contended the injuries were caused by an altercation and the Albert family’s aggressive dog.

Prosecutors relied on several first responders who testified that Read admitted that she hit O’Keefe — saying “I hit him” — as well as evidence that Read was legally intoxicated or close to it eight hours later, after she returned to the house with friends and they found the body.

Read’s retrial is scheduled for January 2025.

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