Latest news with #Cannone
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Yahoo
Important ruling made on day 17 of Karen Read retrial as judge issues message for the jury
An important ruling was made by Judge Beverly Cannone on day 17 of testimony in the retrial of Karen Read. Right after the jury was sent home for the weekend, Cannone announced that she's not going to penalize the prosecution for entering new evidence. One of Read's lawyers called it an 'ambush.' What you need to know about the trial of Karen Read 'We are getting near the end and there will be no more comment,' Yannetti said. Karen Read wished reporters a good weekend but that was it outside of court after the ruling did not go in her favor. 'The defendant has not persuaded me of undue surprise or unfair prejudice by this information,' Cannone said. A prosecution expert shifted the timing of a 'trigger' event that was recorded by Read's Lexus. That data is expected to be compared to the last movement of John O'Keefe's phone. 'There is no changes in the time,' Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan said. 'Because their expert made an improper conclusion. It's not our fault.' A State Police scientist, Andre Porto, testified that DNA from John O'Keefe and two other individuals were found on Read's taillight, and a broken cocktail glass found at the crime scene. 'The DNA profile was interpreted as a mixture of three contributors,' Porto said. And Judge Cannone has a new message for the jury: 'Just think, just listen,' she said. 'Don't talk. Don't make any facial expressions. No muttering under your breath. No audible noises because people need to hear what's going on.' We don't know what prompted those remarks to the jury. Boston 25 Investigative Reporter Ted Daniel says he personally saw one juror visibly react to testimony, but that's it. The trial resumes on Monday. Miss anything from Week 4 of the retrial? Ted Daniel has you covered with a full recap on the Boston 25 News Youtube page. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Judge Lifts Buffer Zone Outside Karen Read Trial
A ban on protests within a 200-foot 'buffer zone' outside a Massachusetts courtroom was lifted by the judge in Karen Read's trial Thursday, opening the door to quiet demonstrations in the public areas outside the building.'Quiet, offsite demonstrations on public property, in areas and at times that do not interfere with trial participants' entrance into or exit from the Courthouse, and that do not interfere with the orderly administration of justice, and that are not intended to influence any trial participants in the discharge of their duties are specifically outside the scope of the Buffer Zone restrictions,' Judge Beverly Cannone wrote in a decision released Thursday. Cannone had ordered the buffer zone, she said, to prevent protesters from intimidating jurors and witnesses and making so much noise as to disrupt the proceedings. A federal judge refused to issue a preliminary injunction against the buffer zone, finding that a group of protesters was unlikely to be able to show that its First Amendment rights outweighed the right to a fair the protesters' lawyer, Mark Randazza, told the First Circuit appellate court last week that his clients would agree to remain silent, protest only on streets and sidewalks off courthouse property and stay away when jurors entered and left the courthouse. 'The First Amendment is back from vacation in Massachusetts,' Randazza said in a statement. 'After treating courthouse sidewalks like North Korea with better landscaping, the First Circuit reminded everyone that free speech doesn't take vacations just because one judge or police department is offended.' Cannone reversed herself after the First Circuit Court of Appeals issued a Per Curiam in which jurists urged a reconsideration. "Read's case has become something of a cultural phenomenon. It has drawn headlines, controversy, and, as relevant here, throngs of demonstrators near the Norfolk County Courthouse (the "Courthouse"). The prior behavior of some of those demonstrators - including loud protests and the display of materials directed toward trial participants - frames a potential conflict between the state court's effort to conduct a fair trial and demonstrators' right to express their views," the court wrote. Read, 45, is charged with hitting her Boston cop boyfriend John O'Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowbank after a night of drinking. Her Los Angeles defense attorney Alan Jackson insists that O'Keefe died after a fight with another cop inside the house of another officer where his body was found and then framed Read. The controversy swirling around the case intensified when text messages from the lead police investigator in the case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, wrote in a group text that included his supervisors that he had searched Read's phone for nude photos of her. He also called her 'whackjob cunt,' ridiculed her for having a chronic illness, made disparaging comments about her body and said that he hoped she would kill herself. He was fired in March. On Thursday, jurors heard evidence about whether it was possible that O'Keefe was punched in the face prior to his body being found in the snow. Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a Commonwealth of Massachusetts medical examiner, testified during cross-examination that she did not find any injuries on O'Keefe's body consistent with being struck by a vehicle. 'You did not include in your autopsy in any fashion, any discussion of whether Mr. O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with a motor vehicle accident, did you?' a member of Read's defense team Robert Alessi asked. 'I did not,' Scordi-Bello answered.'Did you evaluate it at all in your autopsy?' Alessi said. 'Whether Mr. O'Keefe had any injuries consistent with a motor vehicle accident?' 'Yes, I did examine his lower extremities,' Scordi-Bello said. 'That is protocol in any case of suspected impact with a motor vehicle. So I did examine his legs and I did not see any evidence of an impact site.' O'Keefe's manner of death was ultimately listed as undetermined after Scordi-Bello was unable to come to a homicide ruling based on available evidence at the time of the in the case is in its fourth week. Jurors were sent home on Tuesday after Read fell ill.
USA Today
23-04-2025
- USA Today
Who is Judge Beverly Cannone? What to know about judge in Karen Read trial
Who is Judge Beverly Cannone? What to know about judge in Karen Read trial Show Caption Hide Caption John O'Keefe's family files wrongful death lawsuit against Karen Read A wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Boston police officer John O'Keefe accuses Karen Read of knowingly hitting O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die. Scripps News The South Shore is back in the national spotlight as Karen Read's second trial begins this week. Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her SUV outside a Canton home in 2022. The case sparked a media frenzy during Read's first trial last year, which ended in a hung jury. At the center of the trial is Superior Court Judge Beverly J. Cannone, who also presided over last year's proceedings. A longtime judge for Massachusetts' Superior Court, Cannone is a South Shore native who was once a public defender. Here's what to know about her. Judge Beverly Cannone grew up and still lives on the South Shore Cannone grew up in Quincy and lives in Norwell. According to a 2009 Patriot Ledger article, Cannone's father, the late John Prescott, was a Norfolk County prosecutor in the early 1970s and later a public defender who ran the Boston office of the Massachusetts Defenders Committee. She is one of six children and her mother, the late Gertrude Prescott, worked in the Quincy Public School system, according to an obituary published in The Patriot Ledger. Where did Judge Beverly Cannone go to college? A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Cannone earned a bachelor's degree from the school in 1982, according to her profile on Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly. She went on to earn a juris doctorate degree from the New England School of Law in 1985. After graduating from law school, Cannone was a public defender for 25 years in Middlesex, Plymouth and Norfolk counties. Gov. Deval Patrick nominated Beverly Cannone to District and Superior Court After 25 years as a criminal defense lawyer, former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick nominated Cannone to Quincy District Court in 2009. Five years later in 2014, Patrick nominated Cannone to Superior Court. Cannone has presided over some of the South Shore's most high-profile cases, including the trial of Emanuel Lopes, who was convicted of killing Weymouth police officer Michael Chesna. Read's defense team asked Cannone to recuse herself Back in 2023, Read's defense team asked Cannone to recuse herself from the case, citing concerns about her "ability to maintain fairness." She denied the request. Online speculation circulated at the time that Cannone may have had personal connections to some of the witnesses, but she said the claims were untrue. Read's lawyer Alan Jackson also alleged at the time that Cannone routinely failed to act on defense motions in a timely manner. Melina Khan is a trending reporter for the USA TODAY Network - New England, which serves more than a dozen affiliated publications across New England. She can be reached at MKhan@
CBS News
22-04-2025
- CBS News
Who is the judge in the Karen Read trial? What to know about Beverly Cannone.
The Karen Read case has gained national attention, with her second trial now underway in Dedham, Massachusetts. So who is the judge? Here's what to know about Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone. Cannone oversaw Read's first trial, which ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury . She's back for the second trial. Cannone grew up in Massachusetts and went to the University of Massachusetts, followed by New England School of Law. For 24 years, Cannone worked as a public defender for the Committee for Public Counsel Services. Cannone was attorney-in-charge for the Dedham office. In 2002, she received the Massachusetts Bar Association's Access to Justice Defender of the Year award. In 2009, Cannone was appointed by Gov. Deval Patrick as a judge in Quincy District Court. Patrick then appointed her to Norfolk Superior Court in 2014. Read's defense attorneys have frequently been at odds with Cannone in the courtroom. During a hearing in July 2023, Alan Jackson asked Cannone to recuse herself from the case, claiming she was unable to be impartial. Jackson presented a message between witness Jennifer McCabe's brother-in-law Sean McCabe and a reporter in which Sean McCabe purportedly wrote, "Auntie Bev??? Whose seaside cottage do you think we're gonna bury your corpse under?" Cannone declined to recuse herself , then rebuked the defense's allegations against her. "That simply is not the truth," Cannone said about accusations that she knew people involved in the case. "I can tell both parties I don't know Sean McCabe. As far as I know, I have never spoken to him, or had any contact with him. I've never interacted with him and certainly I've never socialized with him or any family members, or any witnesses who have been said here in court." Defense attorneys also took issue with Cannone's handling of deliberations in the first trial. Jurors have said they were unanimous in a vote behind closed doors to acquit Read on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. Jurors said they remained deadlocked on the charge of manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol. Cannone declared a mistrial, but Read's defense argued two of the charges should be dismissed because of double jeopardy. They have appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court after several unsuccessful lower level appeals. In advance of Read's second trial, Cannone clashed with Jackson again, this time over crash reconstruction witnesses who testified during the first trial and are expected to testify again as defense witnesses in the second trial. Cannone admonished the defense team during the March pretrial hearing for "repeated misrepresentations" to the court, though she declined to remove any attorneys from the case. While on the bench at Norfolk Superior Court, Cannone oversaw another trial that ended in a mistrial and subsequent second trial. Cannone was the judge in the trial of Emanuel Lopes, who was charged with killing Weymouth Police Sgt. Michael Chesna and innocent bystander Vera Adams in 2018. Jurors deliberated in Norfolk Superior Court for days after getting the case in 2023, but could not decide whether Lopes was a murderer or mentally ill. Cannone declared a mistrial and dismissed the jurors. In early 2024, not long before Read's first trial got underway, Cannone oversaw Lopes' second trial. After six days of deliberations, jurors found Lopes guilty of murder. WBZ-TV legal analyst Katherine Loftus said it is not uncommon for judges to stay on for retrials after overseeing a mistrial. Loftus said normally, Superior Court judges rotate every three months. But in Read's case, Cannone was specially appointed to retain jurisdiction by the Chief of Courts. "It makes the most sense for the judge who understands what happened through the first trial to stay on it," Loftus said. "I don't think it's about wanting to stay on the case. I think it's about the logistics of it. It's fairly common with serious Superior Court jury trials for the judge to retain jurisdiction from the first trial to the second trial." Retired Massachusetts judge Jack Lu told WBZ's Kristina Rex that Cannone is presiding over a unique case when it comes to Read's trial. "Judge Cannone is presiding over a first. Social media conspiracy theories click-free driven has now entered the Massachusetts criminal system," Lu said. Lu said Cannone's handling of the case is a key moment in her career. "Judge Cannone was a widely respected defense lawyer, having received an award for Defender of the Year. She has many years in trial experience from before she was a judge, defending the most difficult cases," Lu said. "This case is Judge Cannone at the top of her game, an apex for her life's work so far."
Boston Globe
16-04-2025
- Boston Globe
In Karen Read pretrial hearing, prosecution and defense haggle over alleged bite evidence
Prosecutors say Advertisement Chloe, who lived in the home at the time, was later relocated to Vermont, according to prior testimony. Advertisement 'I don't see how he can testify that this either was or was not this particular dog,' Cannone said. Brennan said there's 'definitive evidence' in the expert's opinion to show 'that the dog named Chloe was not the cause of those wounds. That is the whole purpose of having the mold of Chloe. ... The spacing itself is so distinguishable between the molds and the spacing on Mr. O'Keefe's arm. It is an objective, a specific and a substantive basis, to draw a conclusion that there is no way to a degree of certainty that these wounds were caused by Chloe's mouth.' He said the government expert 'did use a mold, but he didn't use the overlay,' so there 'should be no discussion with regard to Chloe on inclusion [as the wound source] or exclusion basis.' Cannone took the matter under advisement but told Brennan, 'it's an uphill battle for you, I'll tell you that.' Read's Both sides also locked horns Wednesday on whether defense experts from Advertisement The analysts were initially retained by the Justice Department which In February 2024, ARCCA Read attorney Alan Jackson said the federal government gave the defense permission only late last month to independently retain the experts, and that the defense will turn over any new reports they produce to prosecutors immediately. 'This is the very issue I've been concerned about since the beginning of this case,' said Brennan, who joined the prosecution last fall, his voice slightly raised. He said prosecutors still don't believe they have 'full disclosure' of the ARCCA witnesses' relationship with the defense. At the first trial, they told jurors the defense hadn't paid them, but in discovery for the retrial, it emerged that the witnesses billed the defense for about $23,000 following the mistrial. Jackson accused Brennan of exhibiting 'feigned indignation' about the witnesses on Wednesday. He also noted that Cannone 'hadn't ruled that we could even use ARCCA until just a few weeks ago.' Cannone also spoke at sidebar Wednesday with Advertisement She spoke with the two to ascertain whether Kearney, if called as a witness in Read's case, would assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. If so, he would be exempt from a sequestration order keeping most named witnesses outside the courtroom when they're not testifying. 'I find ... that he does have a valid Fifth Amendment right,' Cannone said following the sidebar conference. 'I find that there's a valid basis for him to invoke that Fifth Amendment privilege, and I find that if he were called to testify, he would in fact invoke that Fifth Amendment privilege. So based on that, he will be exempt from the sequestration order,' except for when the witnesses he allegedly intimidated are testifying. Opening statements are scheduled for Tuesday of next week. 'All right, thank you all,' Cannone said as Wednesday's hearing drew to a close. 'We'll see you Tuesday.' Material from prior Globe stories was used in this report. This story will be updated. Travis Andersen can be reached at
