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Karen Read, the woman accused of killing her Boston cop boyfriend during a January nor’easter, is set to go on trial for a second time this week after her first prosecution ended with a hung jury.
Read, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a deadly accident in connection with John O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022. He was 46 and found in the snow outside another police officer’s house hours after a group of people went there for an after-party to cap off a night out drinking.
She was originally charged with manslaughter – typical in a deadly hit-and-run case – but authorities later tacked on the murder charge.
Judge Beverly Cannone presides over jury selection during the Karen Read trial at Norfolk County Superior Court, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. (David McGlynn/New York Post via AP, Pool)
April 16, 2024 to July 1
Read’s first trial stretched on for weeks and ended with a hung jury. Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial.
Prosecutors accused Read of a drunken hit-and-run. Her defense argued that O’Keefe had been attacked inside the home and suffered injuries to his arm caused by a dog before being carried outside and left in the storm.
Officer John O’Keefe (Boston Police Department)
March 19, 2025
After a months-long internal investigation into the lewd text messages he sent about Read in the initial investigation, Proctor was fired from the Massachusetts State Police after a 12-year career.
March 31
On the eve of jury selection for Read’s second trial, Cannone released several impactful rulings on the case.
She rejected the defense’s attempt to have a former FBI agent testify about failures to meet police protocol with the initial investigation and limited the scope of arguments the defense would be allowed to raise regarding potential third-party culprits, including Albert and ATF Agent Brian Higgins, both of whom were present at both the Waterfall bar and Albert’s house the night O’Keefe died.
ATF Agent Brian Higgins speaks at the Karen Read murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court, May 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)
The witness list also revealed Proctor would take the stand, even after his firing, and so would Aidan Kearney, a local blogger and prominent Read supporter who has been accused of witness intimidation.
April 1
Jury selection in Read’s second trial kicked off in Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
