Karen Read’s high-profile Massachusetts retrial is underway as of April 1, 2025. Today is day two of jury selection, and thus far, two jurors have been seated. It will prove to be difficult for the prosecution and defense to find unbiased individuals who are not familiar with her case. On the first day of selection, during group questioning, over half of the people confirmed that they have seen, heard of, or talked about Read’s case. Of those individuals, 56 have already formed an opinion on her situation.
Jury Selection
On Wednesday, April 2, the Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, had 87 jurors lined up in addition to 35 others who were brought back after being sent home the day before. This second set of potential jurors is already forming similar results, as over half of them have discussed the case, and a good number have formed opinions.
WBZ-TV legal analyst Katherine Loftus said, “The likelihood of finding a large swath of people in Norfolk County that have not heard of the Karen Read case is just unrealistic.” She continued, “So really, they have to go to the next inquiry, which is, despite having heard of it, can you still sit on this jury?”
Karen Read’s Charges
Karen Read is facing second-degree murder charges, along with manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a crime. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Her first trial in 2024 resulted in a mistrial due to a hung jury, although they were only undecided on one charge.
Read has been accused of hitting and killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, leaving him to die in the snow outside of a fellow officer’s Canton home in 2022. Her defense is that people are trying to frame her, and her boyfriend was killed by fellow law enforcement and dragged out of the house, and left in the snow.
Timeline of Events
On the night of January 28, 2022, Karen Read and her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, went bar hopping with a group of friends. Read allegedly over-consumed alcoholic beverages and proceeded to drive O’Keefe to a fellow Boston police officer’s home, Brian Albert.
According to officials, the two had a strained relationship. In the early hours of January 29, 2022, Karen Read left an explicit voicemail to O’Keefe about how much she hated him. Later that morning, closer to 5 a.m., Read wakes up frantically at home, realizing O’Keefe is not there. The last thing she remembers is drinking too much and dropping him off at Albert’s.
Read and two other women began searching for O’Keefe and came across him lying in the snow outside the home where he was dropped off. He had died of blunt impact injuries to the head and hypothermia. The medical examiner who performed the autopsy confirmed there were no signs that a physical altercation occurred.
On June 10, 2022, a grand jury indicted Karen Read on second-degree murder charges, manslaughter, and leaving the scene. She made bail and has been out ever since. Her first trial began on April 16, 2024, and after nearly three months of arguments and testimony from both sides, the jury began deliberation. It took them almost a week before a mistrial had to be declared due to their indecision.
The Infamous Retrial
Karen Read’s case will go down in history as the present-day Jodi Arias or Marie Boucher, depending on the outcome. She has been vocal about her innocence since the beginning. There are a lot of moving parts, and the verdict is unforeseeable. This is something you do not want to miss. If you want to tune in to watch the trial, CBS News Boston will be live streaming from opening statements through the verdict.
