Karen Read's defense makes last-minute request as jury deliberates on murder charges for a second time

Daily Mail​

5 hours ago

Attorneys representing Karen Read filed a last-minute motion to avoid a second deadlock as the jury in her murder trial begins to deliberate - but it was quickly denied by the judge.
The former adjunct college professor is accused of drunkenly ramming her SUV into her boyfriend former Boston police officer John O'Keefe and leaving him to die in blizzard conditions on January 29, 2022.
She is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.
Read, 45, previously faced the charges at a trial last year. But after five days of deliberations, Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial as the jurors remained split on whether she intentionally killed her boyfriend.
In order to avoid that from happening again, Read's defense team filed a motion on Monday to amend the verdict slip - which they called 'unclear and otherwise confusing.'
They claimed jurors can only see a 'not guilty' option on the drunk driving manslaughter charge - rather than four guilty options on lesser charges including involuntary manslaughter and drunk driving, according to CBS News.
'Respectfully, the present verdict slip is unclear and otherwise confusing,' the defense attorneys wrote in the motion.
'This lack of clarity and reluctant risk of confusion and error can easily be minimized by tailoring and clarifying the verdict slip to better aid the jury in memorializing the verdict,' they argued. 'Indeed, there is no compelling reason not to do so.'
They add that the way the 'imbalanced presentation visually favors the guilty options and risks creating bias towards a guilty verdict in degradation of Ms. Read's rights, in addition to creating the risks of confusion and errors.'
Their amended slip, they noted, only 'presents formatting changes, not substantive changes.'
But Cannone denied the motion as jurors began their first full day of deliberations, ruling that the current verdict slip 'is consistent with Massachusetts law and is to [be] viewed in conjunction with the jury instructions.
'A copy of the jury instructions was sent to the jury with the verdict slip on Friday,' she wrote.
Speaking outside of the courthouse following the ruling, Read told reporters about her concerns with the verdict slip.
'I think what happened last year with the same verdict form explains that the jurors themselves found it confusing and have said as much,' she argued.
'So we just wanted to avoid that again and apparently the court is not concerned, so we'll just move forward and wait on the jury.'
When she was then asked how she is feeling about the pending verdict, Read said: 'I feel well, I feel strong and the jury will do the right thing.'
Read (pictured) has long maintained her innocence and insisted that she was framed by his police officer friends
Read has long maintained her innocence and insisted that she was framed by his police officer friends.
Read's attorneys have portrayed her as the victim, saying O'Keefe was actually killed inside Albert's home and then dragged outside.
They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a 'convenient outsider' who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
But prosecutors noted that O'Keefe and Read had been drinking with a group of friends at the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton - about 14 miles south of Boston, when they were invited to Albert's home for an afterparty.
Read has even admitted to having several alcoholic drinks beforehand, but said she decided to drop her boyfriend at the afterparty before she returned to his house.
The couple had been dating for two years at the time of O'Keefe's death. He had been serving on the Boston Police Department for 16 years.
According to Read's version of events, she woke up at 4am to find that O'Keefe never returned home, leading her to frantically drive out to try and find him.
After finding O'Keefe's body outside Albert's home, which party attendees claimed he never entered, first responders on the scene alleged that Read repeatedly told them she hit him while in a panicked state.
O'Keefe's cause of death was ultimately listed as blunt force trauma and hypothermia after police say he was left outside in a blizzard. At the center of Read's defense has been claims that the investigation was inappropriately handled by dishonorably discharged State Trooper Michael Proctor, who sent vulgar text messages about Read.
He was fired over texts that included calling Read a 'whack job' and a 'c***.'
In other messages, he joked about rummaging through her phone for nude photos during the investigation, and remarked that she had 'no a**.'
In his closing arguments on Friday, defense attorney Alan Jackson once again hit out at Proctor, arguing that the prosecution could only feign a case because 'their investigation was flawed from the start because their investigator was corrupted from the start by bias, personal loyalties,' according to the Boston Herald.
He also argued that experts agree 'there was no collision,' and concluded by saying 'reasonable doubt abounds.'
Supporters signal to Read, as the jury deliberated on Monday
But prosecutor Hank Brennan said the story of how O'Keefe died is 'simple.'
'Ms. Read was with Mr. O'Keefe and she got drunk. She drank. She was two to three times over the legal limit and they went to a party, an afterparty and they were fighting.
'...She got drunk, she hit him, she left him to die. It's that simple.'
Yet jurors still had not reached a verdict by the end of the day on Monday, when Judge Cannone told them to clear their heads before they come back on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, outside, massive crowds came out to support Read and watched trial coverage on their phones.
They donned pink shirts and signed 'I love you' as the suspect walked past.