Filing by Karen Read's defense appears to signal she won't testify in her retrial

CNN

2 days ago

A new court filing by Karen Read's defense team could indicate she will not testify in her retrial for the January 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, as questions swirl about whether she will take the stand in the case's waning days.
Proposed jury instructions filed by Read's defense attorneys Monday include a section on Read's 'Right not to Testify,' directing jurors not to hold that choice against her during their deliberations. Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death.
'As you know, Ms. Read did not testify at this trial,' the instruction – which would be read to jurors by Judge Beverly Cannone – begins. 'You may not hold that against her. Ms. Read has an absolute right not to testify because, as I've explained, she is presumed to be innocent and does not have to do anything to convince you she is innocent.'
The filing, released by the court Wednesday morning, is not final, and it does not prevent the defense from ultimately putting Read on the stand.
The defendant, when speaking to reporters in recent days – including as recently as Tuesday, after the proposed instructions were filed with the court – has not ruled out testifying. Asked whether she would testify, Read told reporters, 'I'm ambivalent,' according to CNN affiliate WCVB.
'And by ambivalent, I could get on board with either one,' she said. 'I could feel strongly either way.'
Prosecutors have accused Read of drunkenly striking O'Keefe with her SUV by reversing into him outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home shortly after midnight on January 29, 2022. But Read's defense contends she has been framed, and that off-duty law enforcement officers inside that home were responsible for O'Keefe's death – allegations they have strongly denied.
Read did not testify in her first trial, which ended when her deadlocked jury repeatedly informed Cannone it could not come to a unanimous decision on the charges.
But jurors in the retrial have already heard from Read multiple times. Throughout their case, prosecutors played numerous clips taken from interviews Read provided journalists or documentary film crews. One such film, 'A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read,' was produced by Investigation Discovery, which is owned by CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.
Prosecutors have used those clips to rebut the defense's arguments or to highlight inconsistencies in Read's own statements.
For instance, though her defense's contends she is the victim of a cover-up, the final clip played before the Commonwealth rested its case in chief showed Read wondering aloud whether she had, in fact, struck O'Keefe, acknowledging that her attorney said she may have 'some element of culpability.'
Referring to her attorney, David Yannetti, Read says in the clip: 'I said, 'David, what if … what if I ran his foot over? Or what if I clipped him in the knee and he passed out or went to care for himself and threw up or passed out?''
'And David said, 'Then you have some element of culpability,'' Read says.
This story has been updated with additional information.