BOSTON — Karen Read’s legal team has filed an appeal with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Read is seeking to have two of the three charges against her dismissed on the grounds of double jeopardy.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow in Canton. January 2022Read’s lawyers allege she was framed and O’Keefe was beaten to death in a house, bitten by a dog and dragged outside into the yard.
The Process of Read ended in a mistrial in July, due to a jury failing to decide the case.
Her attorneys argued that multiple jurors came forward after the mistrial and that they unanimously acquitted Read of second-degree murder and leaving the scene causing injury and death.
Judge Cannone denied the motion to dismiss
Last month, Read’s new attorney, Martin Weinberg, argued the motion to dismiss on the basis of the principle of double jeopardy, which means that a person cannot be tried again after being acquitted of a crime.
Judge of the Norfolk District Court Beverly Canone Rejected The request states: “Since the defendant has not been acquitted of any charges and the defense has agreed to the court’s ruling that the trial is a mistrial, there will be no double jeopardy in a new trial of the defendant.”
A spokesman for the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said at the time that Cannone’s decision “is consistent with nearly 200 years of case law.”
A new trial is scheduled for January 27, 2025. Legal experts told WBZ that the appeal process could take months and that the next trial could be delayed as a result.
WBZ News Employees
