Photo: Chaiel Schaffel/WBZ NewsRadio
Updated 6/13/25 3:29 p.m.
DEDHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Jurors in the Karen Read murder retrial began deliberations Friday after lawyers gave closing arguments earlier in the day. This comes after weeks of testimony in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her car and leaving him in the snow to die outside of 34 Fairview Rd. in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. The defense claims Read has been framed. Her first trial in 2024 ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury.
She is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
Judge Beverly Cannone gave the defense and the prosecution 75 minutes each for closing arguments. The defense went first, with attorney Alan Jackson delivering their closing arguments. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan delivered them for the Commonwealth.
Jackson repeatedly said there was no evidence that O'Keefe was hit by a vehicle. "The science, there's an old saying, is known as the silent witness," he said. "It doesn't lie, it doesn't forget, and notably, it doesn't take sides."
He also argued that the police did not do enough to investigate this case, and that the lead investigator — fired Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor — was biased and corrupt.
"A man, a police officer, is found dead on the front lawn and no one secures the scene," Jackson said. "No tape, no preservation of evidence, no crime scene log, no search warrants, no consent searches, no photographs of the house interior. They didn't treat the house as a crime scene, and shamefully, they didn't even treat the yard as a crime scene."
During the Commonwealth's turn, Brennan argued there were multiple first responders on the scene where O'Keefe's was body who testified they heard Read said "I hit him."
"I know that doesn't reconcile with the boogeyman Proctor and the bad government. I know it doesn't reconcile with no DNA on this piece or that piece. I know it doesn't reconcile with everybody setting up the girl," he said. "I know that doesn't reconcile but the reality is you have independent core people who hear her say 'I hit him, I hit him.'"
After closing arguments and a lunch break, the judge read jury instructions and chose a foreperson. Six jurors were then randomly selected to be alternate jurors who will not participate in deliberations unless another juror needs to leave because of an emergency.