Vindicated Karen Read thanks 'greatest' legal team as jurors deliver not guilty verdict in boyfriend's death
Karen Read, finally vindicated after two murder trials in the 2022 death of her former boyfriend, Boston cop John O'Keefe, thanked a vocal crowd of supporters Wednesday, minutes after jurors found her not guilty of all homicide-related charges.
She will serve a year on probation for drunken driving.
Read's father, William Read, credited her legal team for the result — which spared her the maximum punishment of life imprisonment as well as multi-year stints behind bars on a series of lesser charges.
"I want to acknowledge the greatest team of attorneys," he told her cheering supporters from the courthouse steps. "Our first one that we found was David Yannetti. We added Alan Jackson and Liza Little. Bob Alessi you know about, all right. It was a fantastic team, but we needed them all to defeat this."
He also thanked Read's vocal supporters and internet "content providers."
But it was her legal team that put in the legwork. They were already high-powered lawyers from a trio of America's largest cities: Boston, New York and Los Angeles. Now they've risen to new heights, experts say.
"All those lawyers can write their tickets in terms of what type of high-profile cases they want to handle moving forward, but I'm sure they want to take a break after this one," said Maryland attorney Randolph Rice, who represents the family of Rachel Morin, a mother of five whose murder on a hiking trail at the hands of a fugitive illegal immigrant prompted congressional hearings.
"Trials like these take it out of you, both physically and emotionally," he told Fox News Digital. "I've seen some lawyers that like to step back and do smaller cases for a while, and others like the high and want to get right back and do another one."
But he said viewers can expect to see them making the rounds on TV and in additional documentaries.
Read famously sat down for numerous interviews after her first trial — an unorthodox move that prosecutors attempted to use against her by playing soundbites for the jury. She also spoke out repeatedly during the trial, but her lawyers remained tight-lipped due to the court's gag order.
"I think this catapults them into a stratosphere of representing celebrities and big cases, which furthers their fame, as long as they keep winning," Rice said.
The Los Angeles-based Jackson has already put that theory into action. He delivered the opening and closing for the defense. He previously prosecuted music producer Phil Spector for the murder of actress Lana Clarkson and defended actor Kevin Spacey from Nantucket groping charges.
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Little works for the firm where Jackson is a partner: Werkman Jackson and Quinn.
Robert Alessi is a partner at the international law firm DLA Piper. Read added him to the team ahead of her second trial, in which he translated complex data through questioning of experts who discussed the details of their fields and findings.
And David Yannetti — Read's Boston lawyer and the local lynchpin — may have the most to gain.
Even Hank Brennan, the special prosecutor who also came into the case with a high profile as the former lawyer for mobster Whitey Bulger, will likewise see a boost in his business, according to Jack Lu, a retired Massachusetts judge and Boston College law professor.
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"They will all be flooded with new clients," Lu told Fox News Digital. "Brennan will be catapulted to stardom because anyone can see his talent. I would say Yannetti and Brennan's practices go national."
As for Read, prominent lawyer turned legal analyst Linda Kenney Baden expects her to file a slew of new lawsuits against the investigators who charged her.
"Especially a civil rights lawsuit against [Michael] Proctor," she said, referring to the former homicide detective who lost his job over texts he sent about Read's case.
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