DEDHAM – Judge Beverly Cannone approved a request from prosecutors to access unedited and off-the-record recordings of interviews with Karen Lees and her family.
A similar motion had been denied by the judge before Karen Read’s first trial “on limited grounds,” Judge Cannone wrote Thursday, but the new motions were approved before Read’s retrial.
Prosecutors asked for access to reporter notes and recordings of an interview Karen Read did with Boston Magazine in 2023, and an interview her parents William and Janet did with WFXT in 2023.
Special counsel Hank Brennan said he planned to use the information during Read’s second trial to show how her story has changed over time, including what he suggested were admissions of wrongdoing.
Read has another hearing scheduled for December 12, where prosecutors will argue to keep the testimony of dog bite experts out of her second trial.
Karen Read statements
Judge Cannone has not yet ruled on a motion by both prosecutors and Read’s attorneys to postpone the trial until April. Her second trial will begin on January 27, 2025.
She recently rejected a request from the Public Prosecution Service for access Read the parents’ mobile data from the month of January 2022.
Charges against Karen Read
Karen Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV in Canton in 2022. Her lawyers claim she is the victim of an elaborate cover-up and is being framed by a group of people that includes law enforcement.
Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She has pleaded not guilty. Her first trial ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury.
Read will two of the chargessecond-degree manslaughter and leaving the scene, are tossed out, but the Massachusetts Supreme Court has not yet ruled on that request.
