Latest news with #JohnOKeefe
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Karen Read grand juror to plead guilty to leaking details about federal investigation
Karen Read grand juror to plead guilty to leaking details about federal investigation A Massachusetts woman who served as a grand juror in the federal investigation into the Karen Read murder case is expected to plead guilty to criminal contempt on Tuesday. Jessica Leslie, 34, of Dracut, admitted to leaking information presented to a federal grand jury to unauthorized individuals, including the names of various witnesses, when she was charged in federal court in Boston earlier this month. Federal prosecutors alleged that the leaks occurred between August 2022 and March 2024. Leslie's attorneys were able to reach a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that will result in two years of supervised release. Read, who was under investigation in connection with the murder of her Boston police officer boyfriend, faced no federal charges. Last month, a Norfolk Superior Court jury acquitted her of murder and manslaughter in the death of John O'Keefe. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Fox News
2 days ago
- Fox News
Father of vindicated Karen Read warns concerned Americans 'the next Karen Read could be you' in new interview
Karen Read's father, Bill Read, opened up about his family's experience throughout her three-and-a-half-year legal saga in a candid new podcast interview. His 45-year-old daughter faced murder and other charges in the Jan. 29, 2022, death of her then-boyfriend, John O'Keefe, a Boston cop whom prosecutors alleged she mowed down with a Lexus SUV and left to die in a blizzard. The defense argued that she had never struck him, police had conducted a faulty investigation, and someone else had killed him. After a mistrial, jurors the second time around found her not guilty of all homicide-related charges and found her guilty of driving under the influence of liquor. Speaking with Billy Bush on his live show, "Hot Mics with Billy Bush," the elder Read said he believes his daughter had been the target of a corrupt investigation from the start and that she wouldn't have put up such a fight if she had had something to hide. "I can tell you, as a parent, no parent, no loved one, no significant other in this life should go through what my wife and I and our daughter have gone through these three and a half years, so I say to everyone out there, take back your government," Read said. "If you don't like what your leaders are doing in the criminal justice system, get them out. Take back your government, because the next Karen Read could be you." The younger Read and O'Keefe spent the night of Jan. 28, 2022, drinking in Canton, Massachusetts. They went to two bars before driving to an after party at the home of another Boston cop named Brian Albert. Prosecutors and the defense disagree about what had happened after they had gotten there just after midnight. At around 6 a.m., Read and two friends returned to the address to find O'Keefe dead on the front lawn under a dusting of snow. Police initially charged her with drunken driving manslaughter and fleeing the scene, but prosecutors later secured an indictment for the more serious charge of second-degree murder. Jurors ultimately cleared her of all of those allegations but agreed that she had drunk alcohol before getting behind the wheel. "We're very close. She is very candid. She's very truthful, and had she hurt John O'Keefe, she told me, she said, Dad, 'If I thought I hurt him, I'd own up to it. . . . But I did not strike him,'" the elder Read told Bush. "And I believed her." If you don't like what your leaders are doing in the criminal justice system, get them out. Take back your government, because the next Karen Read could be you. Plus, he said, the state's case was unconvincing and weak. "When you just look at the evidence, the wounds to the body, the lack of damage to the car, and then couple that with the physics, the science, the medical testimony..." he said. He took particular issue with the autopsy photos, and he said that's what had prompted her to reach out to attorney Alan Jackson, the Los Angeles lawyer who added a jolt to her legal team at trial. "Karen Read is the engine, the transmission in this bus. She's the fifth attorney," her father said. Imagine waking up every day in your 70s for 3 1/2 years knowing the people elected to serve you and assigned to protect you are trying to put your daughter in prison for life for something she did not do. That was Bill Read's reality. Read, who went up to every sidebar with her lawyers at trial, already had a prominent Boston-area attorney, David Yannetti, when she brought in Jackson and Elizabeth "Liza" Little. For her second trial, she also added New York's Robert Alessi. Bush also asked Read about his own relationship with O'Keefe. Could he have seen him as a son-in-law if things got that far? "I can't say that," he said, adding, "I liked the man." GET REAL-TIME UPDATES DIRECTLY ON THE TRUE CRIME HUB They really bonded over sports, he said. "I saw John O'Keefe as really an athlete," he said. "You could see his style throwing the football with him. You could see he had it in his blood." He also said that his daughter can't have kids of her own but crafted a bond with O'Keefe's niece and nephew, whom he had adopted after their parents died. SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER "Karen was never going to be able to biologically have children, and I'm not sure that she would be necessarily one that would willingly embrace children. But those two children, she saw as an opportunity to provide a female presence in their life," he said. O'Keefe's niece testified against his daughter at trial and is a plaintiff in the family's wrongful death lawsuit against her. But jurors still found too many holes in the state's case. "Imagine waking up every day in your 70s for 3 ½ years knowing the people elected to serve you and assigned to protect you are trying to put your daughter in prison for life for something she did not do," Bush told Fox News Digital. "That was Bill Read's reality." Read received a year of probation for the drunken driving conviction. She is still facing a wrongful death lawsuit from O'Keefe's family, which her civil defense team asked the court to dismiss earlier this month. The case prompted the residents of Canton, Massachusetts, to demand an independent audit into their local police department, which found no evidence of a "conspiracy to frame" Read but faulted local police for a series of mistakes, including failure to photograph the victim's body before it was moved, failing to lock down the crime scene and conducting witness interviews outside of headquarters. State police also launched an internal probe into the lead homicide detective, Michael Proctor, who was fired for sharing confidential information with civilians outside of law enforcement and drinking on the job. He is appealing his dismissal. There was also a federal grand jury empaneled in the case, and one of the jurors pleaded guilty to leaking secret information earlier this week.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Fox News
Grand juror charged with leaking confidential information in Karen Read case
A grand juror in a federal proceeding related to the Karen Read case in suburban Boston has been charged with leaking confidential information about closed-door hearings. Jessica Leslie has already agreed to a plea deal that includes a single-day sentence, for which she will be credited time served, according to court documents, plus two years of probation, court records show. The case was filed on July 11, and she signed the plea deal three days later. Jurors found Read not guilty of all homicide-related charges in the death of her former boyfriend, former Boston cop John O'Keefe, whom prosecutors alleged had been killed in a collision with Read's SUV. Read's defense denied the vehicle ever struck him. Jurors rejected most of the state's case and found her guilty of drunken driving. Read the federal complaint: Federal prosecutors said Leslie leaked details from a May 26, 2022, grand jury proceeding to multiple people -- spilling the names of witnesses who appeared before the panel, details of their testimony and other evidence that was under seal. The recipients of the leaks were not identified in court documents. While the filings do not specifically identify the case Leslie was a grand juror on, a source close to the investigation confirmed to Fox News Digital it was related to Karen Read. Read's first trial on charges of murder, drunken driving manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a deadly accident ended with a deadlocked jury last year. A second trial cleared her of the most serious charges. She is still facing a wrongful death lawsuit brought by O'Keefe's family. The lawsuit also names two bars Read and O'Keefe were drinking at in the hours before his death – C.F McCarthy's and the Waterfall Bare and Grille, both in Canton. The O'Keefes filed the lawsuit in August 2024, after Read's first trial ended with a deadlocked jury. The court put it on hold until her second trial ended. Read is accused of "knowingly and deliberately" changing her story, concocting "a conspiracy" and publicizing a "false narrative, thereby frustrating Justice for JJ." JJ was O'Keefe's nickname, and the family alleges Read's narrative caused them "aggravated emotional distress." Read's civil lawyers asked a judge to dismiss the case last week.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Juror in Karen Read Case to Plead Guilty to Violating Grand Jury Secrecy
NEED TO KNOW Jessica M. Leslie, 34, will plead guilty to federal criminal contempt for leaking sealed grand jury information, including witness names and testimony, related to the Karen Read case Leslie's plea deal includes a one day prison sentence, deemed served, and 24 months of supervised release The plea news comes shortly after Read's acquittal on murder and manslaughter charges in the death of her boyfriend and Boston police officer John O'KeefeA woman on the grand jury in the high-profile Karen Read case will plead guilty to a federal charge after prosecutors claim she leaked the names of witnesses to the public while that information was under seal. Jessica M. Leslie, 34, was charged on Friday, July 11, with one count of criminal contempt and has agreed to plead guilty to the charge, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Massachusetts said in a press release. She will make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston at a later date and a plea hearing has yet to be scheduled. According to the charging document obtained by PEOPLE, Leslie allegedly 'disclosed information presented to the grand jury to unauthorized individuals' between Aug. 11, 2022 and March 4, 2024. That information includes, 'the names of various witnesses appearing before the grand jury and the substance of their testimony and other evidence presented to the grand jury, all while said information was under seal and not subject to disclosure,' the charging document states. While the charging document does not mention Karen Read, sources confirmed to ABC News that the charge is related to that case. According to the plea agreement obtained by PEOPLE, Leslie agreed to a sentence of one day in prison, deemed served, and 24 months of supervised release. The plea news comes nearly a month after Read, 45, was acquitted of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and other related offenses in connection with the 2022 death of her boyfriend John O'Keefe. She was, however, found guilty of operating under the influence. She was accused of killing her boyfriend of two years, who was a Boston police officer, by drunkenly running him over after a night out together in January 2022. After her arrest, Read pleaded not guilty to all charges and staunchly maintained her innocence, saying she was the target of a law enforcement cover-up. Read was originally tried in 2024, but it ended in a mistrial in July of that year after the jury couldn't reach a verdict. She faced her second trial beginning in April 2025. Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up for for breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases. After she was acquitted of the most serious charges on June 18, Read addressed her supporters outside the courthouse in Dedham, Mass. 'I would not be standing here without these amazing supporters who have supported me and my team financially and more importantly, emotionally," Read said as the crowd erupted into more cheers and applause, PEOPLE previously reported. She added, "No one has fought harder for justice for John O'Keefe than I have — and my team." Read the original article on People
Fox News
13-07-2025
- Fox News
Karen Read lands lucrative book deal while witnesses face continued harassment after acquittal
EXCLUSIVE IMAGES: Life is moving on for all the key players except John O'Keefe's family after a Massachusetts jury found his former girlfriend Karen Read not guilty of all homicide-related charges in his death outside a midnight house party during a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022. O'Keefe's niece and nephew, who he took in after their parents died, are orphaned for a second time. Read has a book deal – and a TV series about her saga in the works. But she's also facing a wrongful death lawsuit, which requires a lesser standard of guilt to hold her liable. Her civil team filed a motion to dismiss earlier this week. An outside investigation by the FBI found no alternate suspects and dispelled allegations of corruption leveled at local and state police. But prosecutors and investigators who led the case are facing a reckoning. The Albert family, former owners of the property where Read and two other women found O'Keefe dead under a sheet of snow, just celebrated a wedding. Jennifer McCabe, a key witness in both of Read's trials and one of the women with Read that morning, is the new bride's aunt. At the wedding, attendees pitched in to hire private security after Read's supporters allegedly circulated the venue online. Local police made their presence known, too. A marked SUV was parked at the foot of the church steps. Kerry Roberts, a friend of O'Keefe's who was also present with McCabe and Read when they found his body, told Fox News Digital she is among the witnesses facing an ongoing harassment campaign, along with the Alberts, the McCabes and O'Keefe's immediate family. "I don't know why they're making Jen McCabe a villain," she said in a phone interview. "All she did was answer the same phone call I did. Karen called her. She didn't call Karen. It's so stupid and bizarre." The victim's mother, Peggy O'Keefe, is dealing with harassment of her own, including a woman seen dancing on video at the foot of her driveway after Read's acquittal. Roberts said the Norfolk District Attorney's Office told her to stop contacting their witness advocate after the trial, even as strangers continue to throw things at her house, call her family "murderers" in the supermarket and mock her children. "We put our a--es on the line for three and a half years, two trials, to help the state of Massachusetts, and you're not going to help us when we're being harassed?" she said. "It's not worth it to put my family through ever again, and not be protected at all. It's sick. It's absolutely sick." There's an ongoing witness intimidation case against Aidan Kearney, a Canton blogger who goes by the name Turtleboy, but while Roberts is not one of his alleged victims, she says she faces rude comments and other harassment from random members of the community. After baseball games, kids on the team opposing her son might tell him "Free Karen Read" while lining up to shake hands, she said. She filed a complaint against her mailman, who allegedly muttered a vulgarity into her doorbell camera when he saw a "Justice for John O'Keefe" sign at her house. Now someone else delivers her letters. "My message to people is don't ever be a witness," she said. "If this happens to you, you're not gonna be protected at all." Read's lead defense lawyer Alan Jackson returned to Los Angeles in time for the Fourth of July holiday, where he was seen cruising in a Shelby Cobra replica – powered by a 351 Stroker he described as "a fire-breathing dragon." "[It's] taking a while to come down," he told Fox News Digital. "But I'm slowly getting back into my rhythm." He already has another deadly crash case lined up – the defense of Fraser Bohm, a 22-year-old from Malibu facing four counts of murder in a high-speed wreck that killed four sorority girls from Pepperdine University in October 2023. SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER Bohm is due back in court next month after Jackson asked for more time to prep a defense for his new client. Michael Proctor, a former homicide detective with the Massachusetts State Police, lost his job but may still resurface in the upcoming murder trial of Brian Walshe – who is accused of killing his wife Ana outside Boston. Her remains have not been found. Proctor worked that case, too, and Walshe's lawyers have argued his presence tainted the investigation. That trial is scheduled to kick off in October. State police fired Proctor after he sent lewd texts about Read to his friends – officially faulting him for sharing law enforcement sensitive information with civilians – and for drinking on the job. His former supervisor, Yuri Bukhenik, was also reassigned in the wake of Read's second trial out of the homicide unit in Norfolk County and to an administrative post in Boston, according to Boston 25. Read's defense alleged a cover-up by state and local police, alternately insinuating they got lazy in the investigation and failed to do a thorough job or outright framed her. Hank Brennan, the high-powered defense attorney hired as a special prosecutor to lead Read's second trial, reportedly raked in more than $550,000 for his work, according to the Boston Herald. That's a reasonable sum for a private lawyer, said retired Massachusetts judge and Boston College law professor Jack Lu, but also much more than a deputy district attorney on the state payroll would have made: "Probably $130,000 annually." Brennan put in long days and likely worked through weekends, while keeping his private practice open at the same time, he added. And while in a rare public statement he slammed the prevalence of witness intimidation and apologized for not securing a conviction, O'Keefe's supporters indicated they appreciate his work on the case. "The jury pool was completely tainted is all I can say," Roberts told Fox News Digital. "Hank did so much work. He was a genius. He really was. Nobody could've gotten it done. Which is wicked sad."
