Karen Read’s defense team’s decision to not call her to the witness stand is a gamble that could help or hinder her case after the prosecution played her damaging interview clips in her second murder trial – allowing the jury to hear Read’s version of events in her own words. 

Read is facing the possibility of life in prison for the alleged murder of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe. The prosecution claims Read struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV in a drunken argument, leaving him to freeze to death in the front yard of a friend’s house party shortly after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. 

Read’s defense team insists her vehicle never made contact with O’Keefe and there was no collision. 

“When I first came to practice, it was ‘never put your client on stand, ever,’” New York City defense attorney Louis Gelormino told Fox News Digital. “But I tend to disagree with that sometimes. I think we have gotten our biggest wins when we put our client on the stand.” 

Lu said the defense has not attempted to address the video clips or provide context regarding Read’s version of events at this point in the trial. 

“So, the same trial plus the damaging video, where the jury almost convicted, is bad for the defense,” Lu said. 

As the defense continues calling witnesses, the notable absence of Read’s own testimony will likely only be fully felt once the jury reads its verdict, with the prosecution acting as the only side that opted to include her own words in the courtroom.  

“Based on the fact that they had a hung jury the last time, [the defense has] a decent case,” Gelormino told Fox News Digital. “So do you want to mess that up with having her defend her actions and character for the next two or three days on the stand? That’s a tough decision.”