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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court heard arguments Wednesday from Karen Read’s lawyers and prosecutors over the defense’s push to have two of Read’s three charges dropped.
At Read’s murder trial, Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in July when the jury told the court for a third time they were at an impasse.
Read is charged with hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him for dead during a blizzard in January of 2022. Read maintains she is innocent and is being framed as part of a police cover-up.
After a mistrial was declared, the defense said multiple jurors told them they had Read not-guilty on two charges, second-degree murder and leaving the scene, and that the only charge they were deadlocked on was manslaughter.
Read More: Judge Orders Delay In Karen Read Civil Case Until Criminal Trial Ends
Defense attorney Martin Weinberg argued before the SJC that retrying Read on all three counts would amount to double jeopardy, violating her Fifth Amendment right. He requested the jury be brought in and questioned, which he argued would show that the two charges should be dropped.
“We’re not impeaching a verdict, we’re explaining a note,” Weinberg said. “We’re asking the jury to resolve an ambiguity within the note that the trial court didn’t realize, in part because they didn’t provide an opportunity for argument [and] in part because they use a procedure that’s totally at odds with this court’s [established jurisprudence].”
The prosecution also made arguments before the SJC. The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office said shortly after the mistrial was declared they would retry the case.
“The judge did inform counsel that the jury was at an impasse. And I would argue at this point it is clear that a mistrial is inevitable or unavoidable,” prosecutor Caleb Schillinger said.
Weinberg argued that the judge should have questioned the jury about the status of deliberations after they sent their third note saying they were deadlocked. Schillinger argued, however, that the judge did not have an obligation to do that.
Read’s second criminal trial is set to begin in January of next year in Norfolk Superior Court, but both the defense and the prosecutors in the case filed a joint motion this week to delay the trial until April.
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