Karen Read case special prosecutor takes swipe at her, slams ‘campaign of intimidation and abuse' from her fans
The special prosecutor in Karen Read's retrial slammed her rabid fanbase's 'campaign of intimidation and abuse' in a scathing statement on Monday — less than a week after she was found not guilty of murdering her Boston cop boyfriend.
Hank Brennan, who was assigned after Read's first case ended in a mistrial, also took a swipe at the financial analyst, declaring his investigation yielded no other suspects in the death of 46-year-old John O'Keefe.
Brennan said he was 'disappointed' that his team 'could not achieve justice' for the O'Keefe family.
Advertisement
5 Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan condemned the scare tactics used by Karen Read's fans throughout the trial.
David McGlynn
'District Attorney Michael Morrissey appointed me, giving me full discretion to independently assess the case and follow the evidence no matter where it led. After an independent and thorough review of all the evidence, I concluded that the evidence led to one person, and only one person,' Brennan said in the statement.
'Neither the closed federal investigation nor my independent review led me to identify any other possible suspect or person responsible for the death of John O'Keefe,' Brennan wrote in a statement.
Advertisement
Read was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the drawn-out trial — but she was still found guilty of a lesser drunken driving charge.
5 Read was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter last Wednesday.
David McGlynn
'The campaign of intimidation and abuse that has been waged, funded, and promoted in public and on social media is the antithesis of justice,' Brennan's statement continued.
'If this type of conduct becomes commonplace, it will threaten the integrity of our judicial system, affecting both victims and the criminally accused.'
Advertisement
5 Brennan said that he was 'disappointed' they weren't able to 'achieve justice' for O'Keefe and his family.
David McGlynn
In the days following the verdict, many members of the jury admitted they struggled to determine whether or not Read was guilty of murder in part because of the 'poor investigation.'
The case captured the country's attention and Read's supporters quickly grew to worship the financial analyst, even adopting sign language to communicate with her.
Many waited outside the Needham, Mass. courthouse daily throughout the trial just so they could catch a glimpse of Read.
Advertisement
After the not guilty verdict was delivered, a sea of Read loyalists were there to greet her — and the heartbroken O'Keefe family soon after.
Unperturbed, Read made a jarring statement, asserting that she was the one trying to do right by O'Keefe the entire trial, not the prosecution.
5 Read's fans were waiting outside last Wednesday dressed in pink and holding up the American sign language symbol for 'I love you'.
David McGlynn
'No one has fought harder for justice for John O'Keefe than I have. Than I have and my team,' she said outside the court.
The prosecution argued that Read slammed O'Keefe with her SUV during a blizzard and left him to die in a snowbank while she was drunk after a night of partying.
5 Read was still found guilty of a lesser charge for drunken driving.
David McGlynn
The defense, meanwhile, argued that Read was nothing but a scapegoat for the police who were purposefully conspiring against her.
Advertisement
O'Keefe's friends, the McCabe and Albert families, who served as key witnesses during the case, believed that the verdict was a 'miscarriage of justice.'
'Today we mourn with John's family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media. The result is a devastating miscarriage of justice,' they wrote last week.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Los Angeles Times
2 hours ago
- Los Angeles Times
Threatened with deportation, these L.A. workers keep doing their jobs amid fear
Any day now, Noemi Gongora knows border patrol agents can snatch her up from the streets and send her back to El Salvador, a country she fled more than 30 years ago. But every morning, she steps out of the small bedroom she rents for $550 a month and goes to work for a street vendor selling cocteles de curiles — clam cocktails. The stand, one of dozens at the marketplace, sits along a busy road near the border of Koreatown and Pico Union, two densely populated neighborhoods with a large number of Korean and Central American immigrants, an area likely to be targeted by federal agents. Gongora, 64, knows this and that the $50 she makes a day is not worth the risk of deportation but there is still a life to be lived and bills to pay, and above all, she needs the money for the medication she uses to manage her cholesterol and diabetes. Medicine that is starting to run out. Everyday, thousands of street vendors set up shop on a piece of pavement in Los Angeles and beyond to make a living and create a path out of poverty or have their own bricks-and-mortar one day. These self-starters are American citizens, immigrants living in the country legally and illegally, and are part of a $504-million industry in L.A., according to estimates from the Economic Roundtable, a nonprofit public policy research organization. But the immigration raids that are taking place across the city, sparking protests, sporadic violence and the rare deployment of the National Guard and U.S. Marines have brought economic hardship, forcing vendors who are illegally in the country to choose between staying home safely or risking deportation to provide for themselves and their families. 'They're fearful of stepping out of their home,' said Gloria Medina of Strategic Concepts in Organizing and Policy Education, a grassroots organization based in South L.A. 'Some [families] have made a decision that one will stay at home and one will risk going to work because if one is risking going to work and gets caught up in a raid, at least there is one parent at home that children can come back to and those are really hard decisions folks have to make.' Medina said some families are afraid of falling into debt as they're unable to pay bills. There are also expenses like college tuition for their kids, medicine for chronic diseases and caring for their elderly parents. She said some parents send their U.S.-born children to pay the utility bills, which comes with its own risks. 'Yes, my teenage son or daughter can go and run these errands for the family so that we can, you know, keep the gas on and keep the lights on and the water running,' Medina said. 'But there's still a fear of making sure that they're not going to be mistakenly kidnapped or snatched up in a raid.' Some of those hardships extend to workers who go door-to-door to sell products for companies such as Avon and Mary Kay. Daniel Flaming of the Economic Roundtable said street vendors play a crucial role in the local economy, purchasing products from suppliers and selling them. 'I think the reality is that street vendors have been marginalized and it would be horrifying to be out there in the street with a cart when ICE guys are roaming around looking for folks to pick up,' he said. 'Their carts are an important equity to them and it seems like they're at risk of being handcuffed and having their carts become abandoned property.' In a statement to The Times, the office of Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, whose district includes Koreatown and Pico-Union, said it has been working with immigrant rights organizations and day labor centers to host 'Know Your Rights' workshops, distribute flyers to businesses and deliver groceries to people who are afraid to leave home. Additionally, her office said it has been organizing other safety events to train people on how to deal with federal agents. Earlier this year, Sen. Maria Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) introduced Senate Bill 635 that aims to prevent immigration enforcement agents from accessing street vendor data collected by local governments, prohibiting sidewalk vending programs from inquiring the immigration status of vendors and prohibiting code enforcement officers from assisting federal agents. 'Street vendors are pivotal to California's culture and economy, and nationally they have been huge contributors to their communities,' she said in a written statement. 'Now more than ever, California must come together to uplift and empower microbusinesses across the State.' The bill was also co-sponsored by several groups including Inclusive Action for the City, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, Community Power Collective and the Public Counsel among others. Since then, individuals and groups have stepped up efforts to assist vendors. Among them is K-Town for All, a volunteer-led grassroots organization that serves Koreatown's homeless community. In recent weeks, the group has raised tens of thousands of dollars to help vendors with their wages, bills and other expenses and has helped 80 families so far, according to the group's Instagram account. 'We'll buy out our immigrant vendors so they can afford to stay safe at home and provide our unhoused neighbors with fresh, filling delicious food,' a June 11 post read. 'No one should have to risk getting kidnapped just to provide for their families.' Though the immigration raids have taken a toll on families, they have also shown how people come together to protect the most vulnerable, said Medina, the executive director of SCOPE. 'As we're seeing so much ugliness and hate and how its been manifesting in our communities, at the same time we're seeing unity, joy and mutual aid,' she said. 'It's a beautiful thing that we need to elevate.' In Canoga Park, some 25 miles from Koreatown, Jackie Sandoval, 25, loaded pans and utensils into a van at the end of a workday. Sandoval sells empanadas, costilla de puerco — pork ribs — and other dishes at her sidewalk stand. She said the usual vendors that line up next to her on the block are staying home because of the immigration raids. 'They aren't selling because they are scared,' she said. Lyzzeth Mendoza, a senior organizer with Community Power Collective, which advocates for vendors, said nearly all of the 500 vendors that her group works with are undocumented or are in the process of seeking to become U.S. citizens. Since the immigration sweeps, about half of the vendors are going out, she said. In some neighborhoods, even the American citizens are staying home, hurting vendors' business. 'There's definitely a chill effect,' Mendoza said. Maritza Hernandez, 47, has worked as a vendor for two decades and sells crepes from a stand in the San Fernando Valley. She said the raids have made her feel angry and powerless. 'We're easy targets,' she wrote in an email. A Mexican national, Hernandez said she has to help pay the medical bills of mother and stepfather, who are also street vendors. But working in the U.S., she has helped put her children on a path out of poverty. She said one son graduated from Brown — an Ivy League university — and is pursuing a nursing career; the other son is studying at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to become a chef. 'We don't want to be a burden on the country,' she wrote. 'We're contributing, paying our taxes, being good citizens, educating ourselves and our children so that tomorrow they can return and contribute to their communities.' Even before the raids, some vendors faced pushback in the neighborhoods where they operated, with business owners and residents saying they were unlicensed and dumping grease into the sewer system and leaving food on the sidewalk. Los Angeles City Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who represents Van Nuys, Panorama City, Lake Balboa and other neighborhoods in the Valley, said that her office has seen a decrease in the number of vendors in the district since the raids. 'They face tough decisions, balancing the fear of increased ICE activity with the urgent need to support their loved ones,' she said. But not all vendors fear deportation. In MacArthur Park, Manuel Guarchaj, 52, sat next to a white van last week selling produce to residents of a nearby apartment complex. The immigration raids, he said, have scared away customers. 'I used to get 80 to 100 people a day,' he said. 'Now, maybe 40. People are afraid.' He said he's not afraid if immigration agents catch him and deport him back to Guatemala, mostly because his children are all grown up and have their own families. 'I came to this country by the grace of God,' he said. 'And it will be by that same grace that I'll return home.' Back at the marketplace sitting by the edge of Koreatown and Pico-Union, Gongora rushed to tend to a customer. The sun was melting the ice keeping his bags of sour cream cool, and the fruit was becoming discolored with flies beginning to circle. Few customers were at the marketplace. Among them was Brie Monroy, 45, who traveled more than an hour from San Bernardino with her mom, niece and nephew to visit and support the vendors. 'I wasn't sure if they were going to be here,' she said. But Monroy had not stopped by Gongora's stand, who worried that if no customers came by, she may be out of a job with no family to help her. Six years ago, her husband died of kidney disease, just five months after burying her brother-in-law. 'Everything fell apart after that,' she said. 'I was sad and cried a lot; I got sick and lost the house the three of us once shared.' Alone with no family, she began working for street vendors to survive. Now the raids are putting that lifeline at risk along with her health. She's down to a couple weeks worth of pills to manage her diabetes and cholesterol and is reluctant to go out and get more. 'I haven't gone because of the immigration raids,' she said. Short in stature and wearing a blue apron, Gongora let out a big sigh and cried, using her fingers to wipe her tears. 'It's been so difficult,' she said. A few feet from her, the woman she works with asked her to double-check an order with a customer. As quickly as the tears had come, they stopped. Gongora excused herself and power walked past several vendors until she reached the customer to complete the sale.
Boston Globe
4 hours ago
- Boston Globe
Threat of Iranian retaliation sparks questions about US terrorism readiness amid Trump immigration crackdown
Nearly half of all agents in the bureau's 25 largest field offices are now devoted to immigration, according to Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up The shift has been symbolic, too: When Trump took office, the FBI website listed its top priority as 'Protect the US From Terrorist Attack.' With Kash Patel, a Trump loyalist, now in charge of the bureau, its website now lists 'Crush Violent Crime' as its top priority, with 'Defend the Homeland' second. Advertisement Meanwhile, at the Department of Homeland Security, ProPublica reported this month that Thomas Fugate, a 22-year-old recent college graduate and former Trump campaign worker with no apparent national security experience now In response to the US airstrikes over the weekend, Tehran reportedly sent communications to Washington threatening to activate 'sleeper cells' to carry out terror attacks domestically, and Advertisement Though Iran indicated its reportedly telegraphed 'You've seen under the Trump administration a shift of resources away from counterterrorism … to focus instead on the mass deportations that they've been pursuing, and I do believe that that puts Americans more at risk,' said Representative Seth Magaziner, a Rhode Island Democrat who serves on the House Homeland Security Committee. In response to an inquiry from the Globe, a FBI spokesperson said the bureau 'does not comment on specific operational adjustments or personnel decisions. However, we continuously assess and realign our resources to respond to the most pressing threats to our national security and to ensure the safety of the American people.' DHS declined to comment. Advocates for the administration's aggressive immigration crackdown — which has been defined by high-visibility deportation raids — have argued that it actually supports the counterterrorism mission at hand. Speaking about the Iran strikes on Sunday, Vice President JD Vance argued on NBC News that people in the country illegally might pose a terror threat. Zack Smith, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, pointed to the millions of people in the country who have not been fully vetted by authorities. 'It is more critical than ever for federal law enforcement to find these individuals and to enforce our nation's immigration laws,' said Smith, because 'these individuals were never vetted and law enforcement currently has little, to no, information about them.' Advertisement Federal authorities have not specifically connected how people in the US illegally could fit into Iran's plans. It's also not clear exactly how much staffing power and resources the federal counter-intelligence apparatus has lost to immigration efforts since Trump took office. Beyond the question of refocusing resources, the federal government simply has fewer people at its disposal, thanks to Trump and Elon Musk's workforce cuts. Since the administration offered voluntary buyouts in February, the Department of Justice, which houses the FBI, lost 4,000 employees. There are further plans to eliminate an additional 1,500 FBI positions, In general, however, the federal government has been gradually reducing its focus on counterterrorism after the surge following Sept. 11, but it's not clear the country has become more vulnerable because of Trump's shift in resources, said Alex Plitsas, who leads the counterterrorism project at the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative at the Atlantic Council think tank. 'The terrorists only have to be right once. We have to be right every single time,' he said. 'It becomes a question of knowing what we don't know … that's the tough part of the equation.' The nature of warfare and terrorism has changed dramatically just in the last few years, said Tim Roemer, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana who served on the 9/11 Commission, which produced the definitive report on those terrorist attacks. He argued those changes should require particular vigilance and attention on the part of federal authorities. Advertisement 'Leading up to 9/11, we found the FBI moved substantial resources over time to white-collar crime and some domestic priorities,' Roemer said, even though 'the crumbs were certainly leading us to the belief that terrorism was on the rise. We don't want to make those kinds of mistakes in the future.' According to some experts, Iran's ability to inflict retaliatory pain on the US has evolved significantly. Despite being severely punished by the airstrikes and generally depleted, the Iranian regime is 'continuing to find new ways to land a blow,' said Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran program director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that is harshly critical of the Islamic Republic. Notably, in November 2024, US officials announced that they had neutralized an Iranian plot to assassinate Trump during the 2024 campaign. Iranian officials brushed off the charge and blamed Israeli agents for fomenting the claim. For the US, 'the big question is, one wonders how they have adapted to the threat?' Taleblu asked. While not immediately concerned about the balance of federal resources, he argued that more can and should be done. 'Iran is always operating in the background and in periods of crisis, one wonders if their regime is going to respond — naturally, I think assets should be devoted to this target set more,' he said. The Iranian regime has invested particularly heavily in its cyberattack capabilities, which experts continue to regard as a serious threat. From Advertisement The federal government launched the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in 2018 to respond to those kinds of threats. But that agency has The consequences of that loss of expertise could be significant, said Chris Painter, a former cybersecurity official at the White House and State Department under Barack Obama. 'There are certainly good people still at CISA, at the FBI, left in the intelligence community, but there are consequences when you significantly downgrade those activities and you prioritize other things,' he said. Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow for Middle East and Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said reports of shifts in US resources from counterterrorism to immigration concern him given Iran's global reach in conducting or funding cyber and conventional attacks. 'There's a history of the Iranians doing these kinds of things outside of the Middle East and it seems to me, based on what I read, that we are less prepared than we were as a result of the focus on immigration enforcement,' Cook said. Sam Brodey can be reached at
New York Post
4 hours ago
- New York Post
Karen Read case special prosecutor takes swipe at her, slams ‘campaign of intimidation and abuse' from her fans
The special prosecutor in Karen Read's retrial slammed her rabid fanbase's 'campaign of intimidation and abuse' in a scathing statement on Monday — less than a week after she was found not guilty of murdering her Boston cop boyfriend. Hank Brennan, who was assigned after Read's first case ended in a mistrial, also took a swipe at the financial analyst, declaring his investigation yielded no other suspects in the death of 46-year-old John O'Keefe. Brennan said he was 'disappointed' that his team 'could not achieve justice' for the O'Keefe family. Advertisement 5 Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan condemned the scare tactics used by Karen Read's fans throughout the trial. David McGlynn 'District Attorney Michael Morrissey appointed me, giving me full discretion to independently assess the case and follow the evidence no matter where it led. After an independent and thorough review of all the evidence, I concluded that the evidence led to one person, and only one person,' Brennan said in the statement. 'Neither the closed federal investigation nor my independent review led me to identify any other possible suspect or person responsible for the death of John O'Keefe,' Brennan wrote in a statement. Advertisement Read was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the drawn-out trial — but she was still found guilty of a lesser drunken driving charge. 5 Read was found not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter last Wednesday. David McGlynn 'The campaign of intimidation and abuse that has been waged, funded, and promoted in public and on social media is the antithesis of justice,' Brennan's statement continued. 'If this type of conduct becomes commonplace, it will threaten the integrity of our judicial system, affecting both victims and the criminally accused.' Advertisement 5 Brennan said that he was 'disappointed' they weren't able to 'achieve justice' for O'Keefe and his family. David McGlynn In the days following the verdict, many members of the jury admitted they struggled to determine whether or not Read was guilty of murder in part because of the 'poor investigation.' The case captured the country's attention and Read's supporters quickly grew to worship the financial analyst, even adopting sign language to communicate with her. Many waited outside the Needham, Mass. courthouse daily throughout the trial just so they could catch a glimpse of Read. Advertisement After the not guilty verdict was delivered, a sea of Read loyalists were there to greet her — and the heartbroken O'Keefe family soon after. Unperturbed, Read made a jarring statement, asserting that she was the one trying to do right by O'Keefe the entire trial, not the prosecution. 5 Read's fans were waiting outside last Wednesday dressed in pink and holding up the American sign language symbol for 'I love you'. David McGlynn 'No one has fought harder for justice for John O'Keefe than I have. Than I have and my team,' she said outside the court. The prosecution argued that Read slammed O'Keefe with her SUV during a blizzard and left him to die in a snowbank while she was drunk after a night of partying. 5 Read was still found guilty of a lesser charge for drunken driving. David McGlynn The defense, meanwhile, argued that Read was nothing but a scapegoat for the police who were purposefully conspiring against her. Advertisement O'Keefe's friends, the McCabe and Albert families, who served as key witnesses during the case, believed that the verdict was a 'miscarriage of justice.' 'Today we mourn with John's family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media. The result is a devastating miscarriage of justice,' they wrote last week.
