Current:Home > InvestDistrict attorney appoints special prosecutor to handle Karen Read’s second trial-Angel Dreamer Wealth Society D1 Reviews & Insights
District attorney appoints special prosecutor to handle Karen Read’s second trial
View Date:2024-12-23 21:20:29
BOSTON (AP) — A Massachusetts district attorney on Wednesday appointed a special prosecutor, who has represented James “Whitey” Bulger and other prominent clients in the past, to take on the Karen Read murder case.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said in a statement that Hank Brennan will lead the state’s retrial in January. A former prosecutor and defense attorney, Morrissey said Brennan has worked for 25 years in state and federal courts and and has experience “with complex law enforcement matters.”
Read, 44, is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a January 2022 snowstorm. Her two-month trial ended in July when a judge declared a mistrial and a second trial is scheduled for January.
“I assume full responsibility and all obligations for prosecuting this case and will do so meticulously, ethically and zealously, without compromise,” Brennan, who has the title of special assistant district attorney, said in a statement. “I have two core obligations. The first is to make certain the Karen Read receives a fair trial ... The second is to ensure that the facts surrounding John O’Keefe’s death are fully fairly aired in the courtroom without outside influence.”
A lawyer for Read did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In August, Judge Beverly Cannone ruled that Read can be retried for murder and leaving the crime scene in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, dismissing arguments that jurors told lawyers after the mistrial that they had unanimously agreed she wasn’t guilty on the two charges.
Earlier this month, lawyers for Read filed an appeal on that ruling with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally, who prosecuted the first case, said Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
After the mistrial, Read’s lawyers presented evidence that four jurors had said they were actually deadlocked only on a third count of manslaughter, and that inside the jury room, they had unanimously agreed that Read was innocent of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident. One juror told them that “no one thought she hit him on purpose or even thought she hit him on purpose,” her lawyers argued.
But the judge said the jurors didn’t tell the court during their deliberations that they had reached a verdict on any of the counts. “Where there was no verdict announced in open court here, retrial of the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy,” Cannone said in her ruling.
veryGood! (5)
Related
- Judge recuses himself in Arizona fake elector case after urging response to attacks on Kamala Harris
- WNBA star Candace Parker 'nervous' to reintroduce herself in new documentary: 'It's scary'
- 43 Malaysians were caught in a phone scam operation in Peru and rescued from human traffickers
- Shooting at Pennsylvania community center kills 1 and injures 5 victims
- Olivia Munn began randomly drug testing John Mulaney during her first pregnancy
- Why Travis Kelce Could Be The 1 for Taylor Swift
- Luxembourg’s coalition under Bettel collapses due to Green losses in tight elections
- Economics Nobel Prize goes to Claudia Goldin, an expert on women at work
- Food prices worried most voters, but Trump’s plans likely won’t lower their grocery bills
- Latin group RBD returns after 15-year hiatus with a message: Pop is not dead
Ranking
- 2024 'virtually certain' to be warmest year on record, scientists say
- 6 Ecuadorian suspects in presidential candidate's assassination killed in prison, officials say
- Colts QB Anthony Richardson knocked out of game vs. Titans with shoulder injury
- Dyson Flash Sale: Score $250 Off the V8 Animal Cordfree Vacuum
- New Mexico secretary of state says she’s experiencing harassment after the election
- Senior Taliban officials visit villages struck by earthquake that killed at least 2,000 people
- Powerball jackpot climbs to $1.55 billion after no winner in Saturday's drawing
- Coast Guard: 3 rescued from capsized vessel off New Jersey coast
Recommendation
-
Groups seek a new hearing on a Mississippi mail-in ballot lawsuit
-
The auto workers’ strike enters its 4th week. The union president urges members to keep up the fight
-
College football Week 6 grades: We're all laughing at Miami after the worst loss of year
-
Terence Davies, filmmaker of the lyrical ‘Distant Voices, Still Lives,’ dies at the age of 77
-
The ancient practice of tai chi is more popular than ever. Why?
-
Eminem and Hailie Jade Are the Ultimate Father-Daughter Team at NFL Game
-
Opinion polls show Australians likely to reject Indigenous Voice to Parliament at referendum
-
Bills LB Matt Milano sustains knee injury in 1st-quarter pileup, won’t return vs Jaguars