Karen Read defense faces 'high-wire' act as retrial's opening statements kick off, experts say
Karen Read's retrial in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, kicks off Tuesday with opening statements, months after jurors deadlocked on the case and prosecutors had to start over. But experts expect a tough fight for the former financial analyst.
Read, 45, is charged with murder, manslaughter and fleeing the scene for allegedly striking O'Keefe with her Lexus SUV during a snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022. He was found on fellow officer Brian Albert's front lawn hours later with signs of hypothermia and traumatic injuries to his head.
Read has pleaded not guilty, denied killing O'Keefe and alleged she is being framed, attempting to sow reasonable doubt in prosecutors' claims and asserting that someone else killed O'Keefe and had ties to and influence over the investigation.
Albert hosted an after-party that evening, inviting a group of friends and acquaintances to drop by after the local bars closed at midnight. Attendees testified that O'Keefe never came inside.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan and lead defense attorney Alan Jackson are slated to begin opening statements Tuesday. Experts say observers should expect fireworks.
For the retrial, Judge Beverly Cannone has placed limits on how the defense can raise its theory that an alternate perpetrator is responsible for O'Keefe's death.
"Like a high-wire specialist, Alan is going to dance the line," said Linda Kenney Baden, a high-profile defense attorney who has been following the case. "Sometimes when you do that, you fall off or, in this case, Brennan is going to try to push him off objecting."
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She said limiting what the defense can say in their opening about a potential third-party culprit is a severe hurdle for Read's team.
"Judge Cannone is going to cut the defense off at its kneecaps," she said. She noted that David Yannetti, another one of Read's lawyers, opened the first trial by claiming she had been framed.
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"She did not cause his death, and that means that somebody else did," Yannetti told the court in April 2024.
He pointed to the controversial lead investigator, Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired last month as a result of an internal investigation into his conduct.
Now that Proctor is no longer a member of law enforcement, the prosecution actually may have an easier time overcoming his sultry text messages in the eyes of the jury, according to Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor.
"Now that Proctor’s been fired, the prosecution can own these bad facts and get ahead of them," he said Monday. "By ‘fronting’ the unprofessional and embarrassing evidence impeaching Proctor for the jury, and showing Proctor has been terminated for his misconduct, the commonwealth will have a better chance of securing a conviction this time."
Retrials tend to go better for prosecutors, who know what to expect from witnesses for the defense, said Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago-based attorney and adjunct professor at Northwestern University's School of Law.
"I think she faces a major uphill climb," he told Fox News Digital. "They have many witnesses locked into their story. As for a prediction, I say the prosecutors are going to win this case as they are going to be loaded for bear with respect to her expert witnesses."
Defense experts were key to Read's strategy in the first trial, when they testified that O'Keefe's injuries were inconsistent with being struck by an SUV.
Another attendee of the after-party was Brian Higgins, an ATF agent. Higgins and Read exchanged romantic text messages, and he testified that she once kissed him outside O'Keefe's house.
Speaking outside the courthouse last week, Read left open the possibility of taking the stand in her own defense, something she opted not to do last year. Since then, she's given multiple media interviews, appearing on TV and in print to share her side of the story.
Brennan, a specially appointed assistant district attorney brought in to spearhead the second trial, asked the court to appoint a third-party reader to read text messages between the defendant and the victim to the jury in court. Her defense opposed the move in writing Friday, arguing that an appointed reader could potentially drum up unfair prejudice with an over-dramatic inflection.
During the first trial, Massachusetts State Trooper Nick Guarino read the texts. The defense argued that was standard procedure.
Read the defense opposition to ‘independent readers’:
In the months since her first trial ended in a mistrial, the former lead investigator saw himself fired by the Massachusetts State Police over his handling of the investigation, which included sharing confidential materials in text messages that included lewd and unprofessional remarks about Read.
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He joked that he'd searched her confiscated phone for nude photos, called her a "c---" and said he wished she'd kill herself.
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The defense also raised evidence-collection and chain-of-custody concerns surrounding Read's vehicle, fragments of the taillight authorities said they recovered at the scene and other key items.
Close to the time of his death, she allegedly left him a voicemail saying, "I hate you." The two had also argued the morning before his death, but they went out drinking that night.
A key part of the retrial is expected to include expert testimony about injuries found on O'Keefe's right arm, which the defense argues were caused by a dog and is potential evidence that he wasn't killed by a vehicular strike but rather in a fight.
The defense will call Garrett Wing, a dog trainer, and the prosecution will have testimony from Dr. James Crosby.
The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks after taking more than two weeks to seat a jury.
Read could face a maximum of life in prison if convicted.