DEDHAM, Mass. — The judge declared a mistrial amid a deadlocked jury and the lead state police detective assigned to investigating John O’Keefe’s death has been relieved of duty but the Karen Read murder case is far from over.
Read is accused of killing 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 hit him with her SUV before driving away. The defense sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside and left for dead.
Judge Beverly Cannone ultimately declared the mistrial on Monday afternoon after the jury told her on three occasions that they couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict due to “fundamental differences” in opinion.
After Cannone opted for a mistrial, Massachusetts State Police Colonel John Mawn relieved Trooper Michael Proctor of his duty for conduct connected to the Read case.
“Upon learning today’s result, the Department took immediate action to relieve Trooper Michael Proctor of duty and formally transfer him out of the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office State Police Detective’s Unit,” Mawn said in a statement. “This follows our previous decision to open an internal affairs investigation after information about serious misconduct emerged in testimony at the trial.”
Proctor came under fire for a series of disparaging texts he sent regarding Read, which he read aloud in court during Read’s trial. He admitted on the stand that the texts were “unprofessional.”
Boston 25 legal expert Peter Elikann weighed in on what the Proctor development means moving forward and what a second trial could look like.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office wasted no time in announcing an intention to retry the Read case, but will Proctor be called back to testify again?
“They can call him back again. Particularly, the prosecution may not want him but certainly, the defense can call him as a witness. So if anything, it probably couldn’t hurt his reputation any more than it’s already been hurt,” Elikann said. “There’s no dodging that. It can’t be swept aside in the next trial. Once again, Trooper Proctor will be front and center.”
Doesn’t Proctor have to be called back to the stand since he was the lead investigator?
“They don’t have to but boy would that look odd. I’ve never heard of a case where you don’t bring the lead investigator in. It would certainly look very peculiar,” Elikann said. “The prosecution either will have to bring him during the next trial and if they don’t the defense will.”
As things proceed to the next trial, will both sides present the same arguments or do they need to adjust since they didn’t get the job done?
“They will have to adjust but ultimately the evidence doesn’t change. The fact that they didn’t do some of the diligent police work, that can’t change at all,” Elikann said. “Maybe the prosecution should cut their witness list in half from around 70 people. A lot of them were thrown down, weren’t well prepared, and didn’t really contribute anything. They may also have a different order and may also bring in different forensic experts into it who are better prepared.”
With all the publicity, is it going to be possible to find a partial jury around here for the retrial?
“It is possible but boy is that going to be difficult because there’s not going to be anybody who hasn’t heard of this case or maybe formed an opinion but that’s not the key question. The key test is can they be impartial.” Elikann said. “A lot of people can say, ‘Yes, I’m still open. My mind’s open, and I will listen to the evidence.’ That’s probably the best you can do because we are not going to be able to move to a different venue or a different county where they haven’t heard of this because everybody’s heard of it.”
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