Karen Read retrial kicks off with wire-to-wire drama, lawyers brawl in tense hearing after jurors sent home
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Karen Read’s retrial in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe kicked off Tuesday with expected fireworks almost immediately – and they continued after Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors home for the day with a heated hearing on late discovery disclosures.

Both sides painted entirely different versions of events as they delivered their opening statements to the jury, but after the panel left for the day, Cannone called for a new hearing Friday and accused the defense of violating one of her orders on reciprocal discovery.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson opened with a challenge to the heart of the prosecution’s case: that O’Keefe died from injuries sustained when Read’s Lexus SUV allegedly struck him during a nor’easter.

“The evidence in this case will establish, above everything else, three points,” he said. “There was no collision with John O’Keefe. There was no collision. There was no collision.”

Karen Read in a mugshot standing in front of a gray wall, wearing a blue-gray sweater with buttons

Karen Read pictured in a booking photo after her arrest in connection with her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, in 2022. (Massachusetts State Police)

“As we approached the house, Karen from the back seat is now screaming, ‘There he is! There he is! Let me the F out of this car,’ kicking the back door to get out,” Roberts testified.

Visibility was poor, she said, and she couldn’t see O’Keefe until Read went up to a body-sized “mound” on the front lawn.

Judge Cannone sent jurors home for the day after that testimony. Roberts is expected to return to the stand Wednesday morning.

Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe

Authorities discovered John O’Keefe outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home on the morning on Jan. 29, 2021.  (Boston Police Department)

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 of the top charge, second-degree murder.

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