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CBS News
5 days ago
- General
- CBS News
What to expect from Alan Jackson in Karen Read's second trial
The Karen Read trial has garnered national attention, and one of the key figures in the case is defense attorney Alan Jackson. Here's what to know about Read's high-profile lead attorney as the prosecution has rested its case and the defense took over. The prosecution in Read's second trial rested on Thursday, handing the case over to the defense team made up of Jackson, David Yannetti, Bob Alessi and Elizabeth Little. Who is Alan Jackson? Jackson is a criminal defense attorney from the law firm Werksman Jackson & Quinn. A biography on the firm's website describes Jackson as "one of the country's most sought-after criminal defense attorneys." According to the firm, Jackson has tried more than 85 cases to a jury verdict, and has a 96% success rate. Jackson was the lead prosecutor for the Los Angeles Count District Attorney's office during the case against music producer Phil Spector, who was convicted of killing actress Lana Clarkson. "His client list reads like a who's who of Hollywood celebrities, NBA stars, billionaire CEOs, and foreign dignitaries—all turning to him for 'must-win' cases," Jackson's biography reads. Karen Read's lawyer Alan Jackson Prosecutors accuse Read of hitting and killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her SUV after a night of drinking and leaving him to die in the snow. When Read was first arrested, her only attorney was Yannetti. In the recently released HBO documentary "A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read," Yannetti, Read and Jackson discussed how the defense team expanded. Yannetti said it became clear the case was going to require a lot of work. Read said in the documentary that she called the Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Institute. A professor told her to look into actor Kevin Spacey's case on Nantucket, where he was accused of groping an 18-year-old. Jackson represented Spacey, and the felony charge of indecent assault and battery was eventually dropped. Read said she looked into the case, and that was how she learned about Jackson's work. "I got an email and the subject line of the email with something along the lines of 'Murder of a Boston Cop.' I took one look at the autopsy photos of John O'Keefe, and I saw his arm, and I said, 'Are you kidding me? He was hit by a car?'" Jackson recounted in the documentary. Read's attorneys have argued that injuries to O'Keefe's arm were caused by a dog during the alleged fight. With Jackson added to Read's defense team, the case began to garner national attention. Karen Read and attorney Alan Jackson look at the empty jury box while listening to Judge Cannone during Read's murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, May 21, 2025. Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool What to expect from Alan Jackson WBZ-TV legal analyst Katherine Loftus noted that compared to Read's first trial, Jackson took a bit of a back seat during the prosecution's case in the retrial. Alessi, not Jackson, cross-examined several key witnesses. That included the medical examiner and several forensic experts. Loftus said she believes that will change during the defense's case, which Read told reporters will take 1.5 to 2 weeks compared to just two days the first time. "I think [Alan Jackson] is probably going to take the majority of the defense case," Loftus said. "They really have two potential ways they can go. We might know right off the bat as soon as we see who the first witness is whether they are going to go with what they did trial No. 1, which was this framing, third party, point the fingers. Or if they're really going to focus on the police, Michael Proctor, conflict of interest, substandard, you can't find her guilty." Karen Read trial Jackson and Read's legal team have not been allowed to speak publicly about the case since March 7. That's when Cannone approved a gag order in the case, applying to all attorneys from both sides. As a result, Read has served as a de facto spokesperson throughout her second trial. Regularly when court ends for the day, Read speaks to reporters while leaving Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham with her legal team. Inside the courtroom, Jackson has had several fiery exchanges with witnesses. In Read's first trial, Jackson had contentious exchanges with Brian Albert, Brian Higgins, Colin Albert, and Jennifer McCabe. Read's defense has argued these are some of the people at the center of an alleged attempt to frame Read for O'Keefe's death. Jackson has also clashed with Judge Beverly Cannone on several occasions since joining the case. During a March 2025 hearing ahead of Read's second trial, Cannone accused Jackson of making "repeated misrepresentations to the court." The judge met with Read and her attorneys privately during the hearing. Cannone decided not to revoke Jackson's credential to practice in Massachusetts, which he is required to have because he is an out-of-state lawyer. After that hearing, WBZ-TV's Kristina Rex asked Read outside court how she felt about her attorneys staying on the case. "Amazing. Amazing," Read said. "There's no other attorneys I'd rather have than my attorneys."
Scoop
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
OK GO'S AND THE ADJACENT POSSIBLE – The Grammy®-Winning Band's First Album In A Decade
OK Go returns with And the Adjacent Possible, the band's ambitious fifth studio album and first full-length release since 2014's Hungry Ghosts. Even for a band known for pushing boundaries, the album is wildly eclectic—postmodern and genre-dissolving, with nods to Phil Spector, Toni Visconti, and Nile Rodgers sandwiched between the fuzzy, psychedelic opener, 'Impulse Purchase,' and the meditative, Zen-like closer, 'Don't Give Up Now.' Glued together by the distinctive mixing of the band's longtime collaborator Dave Fridmann (The Flaming Lips, Spoon, Tame Impala, MGMT), the twelve tracks collectively paint a portrait of a band comfortable in its own chameleon skin. Listen to And the Adjacent Possible, released via Paracadute here: The band will deliver an extra special performance of 'Love,' its new single, on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Tuesday, April 15. Like the album's first track 'A Stone Only Rolls Downhill,' 'Love' is written from a father's perspective, but the weighty concerns of the first song give way to wonder and joy on this soaring new anthem. Advertisement - scroll to continue reading Damian Kulash says, 'You know that dream where you're somewhere familiar, maybe your childhood home, but there's a door, one that was never there before, leading to some impossible magical place? Having children did that to my understanding of love. Suddenly, a huge new ballroom opened up off of the little apartment I've inhabited so long: a whole new wing of love, grand and soaring and utterly overwhelming. It is endlessly amazing that we exist — little, conscious clusters of stardust occurring, apparently by chance, in the vast emptiness of the universe. And we get to experience love. It is unbelievable.' And since this is OK Go, of course there is a mind-melting music video. It always seems like the band can't possibly top themselves, but with today's release of the video for 'Love,' they've done it again. The single-take video features complex choreography between the band, 29 robots, and upwards of 60 mirrors to create a dazzling — and this time deeply moving — spectacle of infinite reflections and human-scale kaleidoscopes. Shot in the faded glory of a Budapest train station, the clip was concepted in partnership with creative agency SpecialGuest, co-directed by Damian Kulash, Aaron Duffy, and Miguel Espada, and produced by 1stAveMachine, with technology integration by SpecialGuestX. View the video for 'Love' here: Always looking for new ways to document their elaborate videos, OK Go's Damian Kulash, Timothy Nordwind, Andy Ross, and Dan Konopka wore Ray-Ban Meta glasses throughout the production to capture behind-the-scenes footage - watch HERE: Learn more about the Universal Robots in the video HERE: For a more in-depth behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the video courtesy of Project Management Institute - please view HERE: 'We're always drawn to spectacle and wonder,' says Kulash, 'and the goal, this time, was to take them somewhere more heartfelt and emotional than we have before. This song is so personal for me, and the infinite reflections bouncing between two mirrors are a perfect metaphor for the kind of overwhelming, reality-shifting love that I'm singing about. Two simple things come together, and new dimensions burst from them into existence. Magic unfurls endlessly. It's the impossible, right there before you. That's the kind of wonder that can bring me to tears.' Combined views of OK Go's previous video, the stunning moving mosaic for 'A Stone Only Rolls Downhill' that features 64 videos playing across 64 phones, has already surpassed five million. Directed by Kulash and Chris Buongiorno (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), it required more than a thousand takes, and over two hours and twenty minutes of single-take clips which are condensed into the final frame. Filmmaking magazine Shots marveled, 'Whenever a new OK Go video drops, the creative community's mixture of anticipation and professional jealousy is palpable." The album packaging also demonstrates boundless creativity and meticulous attention to detail. The first vinyl pressing, limited to 3,000, is a two-LP set on 180-gram, 45RPM discs in a foil-stamped gatefold with full-color inner sleeves. A 3-dimensional sculpture pops up when listeners open it. The packaging was designed by Yuri Suzuki and Claudio Ripol from Team Suzuki with 3D sliceform design and popup structure by Wombi Rose, Hà Trnh Quc Bo, and Emilio LaTorre for Lovepop. To listen to And the Adjacent Possible is to be taken on an emotional rollercoaster… in the best way possible. While the music is largely upbeat, the lyrics can be dark. OK Go's sardonic wit drives 'Impulse Purchase,' a playfully direct address to the algorithms that will choose its audience: 'Now, as a practical matter it's pointless/to address you directly here/Any probabilistic adjustments/will dissolve in the sea/of the everything-everyone-everywhere-ever-has-done that you swallowed before.' Even the brightly titled 'A Good, Good Day at Last' features lines like, 'Anger, she's more loyal/than her fickle sister Hope.' Yet rays of hope ('Love,' 'Don't Give Up Now') also abound. Track Listing – And the Adjacent Possible Impulse Purchase A Stone Only Rolls Downhill Love A Good, Good Day at Last Fantasy Vs. Fantasy This Is How It Ends Take Me with You Better Than This Golden Devils Once More with Feeling Going Home Don't Give Up Now
