DEDHAM, Massachusetts (WBZ NewsRadio) — Judge Beverly Cannone abruptly suspended a motion hearing in the Karen Read murder case Tuesday after receiving information from the prosecution that she said caused "grave concern."

Read is charged with second degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe. She is accused of hitting O'Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a friend's house in 2022.

Her first trial ended with a hung jury last year. The new trial is set to start in April.

Cannone said the information that prompted her to suspend Tuesday's hearing "may have profound effects on this defense and defense counsel."

Read More: Mass. SJC Denies Bid To Drop Two Charges Against Karen Read

Shortly before Cannone suspended the hearing, Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan presented arguments about the defense's communications with ARCCA crash reconstructionists.

ARCCA Inc. is a consulting company hired by the federal government to investigate Read's SUV. During the first trial, the defense called on crash reconstructionists from ARCCA to testify as part of its broader argument that Read was the victim of a coverup.

The prosecution has brought concerns about the two reconstructionists testifying in the second trial. Brennan alleged that the defense and the reconstructionists had more communication before they testified in the first trial than the defense had previously let on. He also alleges that ARCCA billed the defense for $23,925.

"It's not the ARCCA witnesses that I have the issue with," Brennan said. "It's the fact that I don't have adequate discovery."

Tuesday's hearing also centered around the defense's attempt to retrieve reports, communications and notes from a separate case in which a former Stoughton police officer is accused of grooming and murdering a 23-year-old woman named Sandra Birchmore.

Read's defense argued documents from the Sandra Birchmore case are pertinent to their own case because the two cases have overlapping witnesses and investigators.

Tuesday's was the first hearing since the Supreme Judicial Court denied a bid from the defense to drop the second degree murder and leaving the scene charges against Read.

Read's team on Tuesday appealed that decision in federal court.

WBZ NewsRadio's Brooke McCarthy (@BrookeWBZ) reports.

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