Jurors in the Karen Read trial were scheduled to meet for a fourth day Friday to decide whose story they believe: that of prosecutors who say she drunkenly and angrily slammed into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her Lexus SUV and left him to die, or defense attorneys who claim one or more colleagues killed John O’Keefe and framed Read to cover it up.
The Massachusetts jury of six men and six women is deliberating behind closed doors in Norfolk County Superior Court, while a “sidewalk jury” of true crime bloggers and pink-shirted Read supporters gathers outside. The unofficial adjudicators, many of them waving Stars and Stripes, have been present every day since the trial began nearly two months ago.
Who’s who?
Read, 44, had worked as an equity analyst and was an adjunct lecturer in finance at her alma mater, Bentley University. O’Keefe, 46, was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department. Jurors are deliberating events that unfolded at the Canton home of another Boston Police officer, Brian Albert, after a night of bar-hopping in January 2022. A federal agent, Brian Higgins, also was among those at the gathering inside.
The charges
Read has been charged with second-degree murder, which in Massachusetts is punishable by life in prison with the possibility of parole. She also faces lesser charges of manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, punishable by five to 20 years, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death, punishable by up to 10 years.
Tense exchange
Judge Beverly Cannone rebuked Read for apparently smirking during an exchange with her lawyers. “Excuse me, this is funny, Ms. Read? All right, we’re done,” the judge snapped Wednesday.
It happened as defense lawyer Alan Jackson complained that a verdict form, or slip, was unfair because the offenses included under manslaughter didn’t include not-guilty options.
Cannone said the verdict form is how Massachusetts always does…