DEDHAM, Mass. (Court TV) — With weeks to go until her second murder trial is set to begin, prosecutors in Karen Read‘s murder case are looking to block her defense from blaming anyone else for her boyfriend’s death.
FILE – Karen Read and her defense team and the prosecution file motions in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Nov. 13, 2024 (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool, file)
Read is facing a retrial on several charges, including second-degree murder, after her first ended in a mistrial last summer. Prosecutors say Read hit and killed her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her vehicle after a night out drinking. Read’s defense, meanwhile, has claimed she is the victim of a wide-ranging cover-up.
Among a flurry of motions filed this week in the case was one from the prosecution asking Judge Beverly Cannone to bar the defense from blaming a third party for O’Keefe’s death at trial.
“The defense position has chronically been fluid and unsubstantiated,” Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan said in the motion.
In her first trial, Read’s defense suggested that O’Keefe was killed inside the home where he was found, but never offered a specific theory as to how that may have happened. “The defendant has yet to make a proffer of substantial probative value that any other individual is culpable for her crimes,” Brennan said. “The arguments previously set forth by the defendant in pre-trial motions contain only vague inferences, rank speculation and scant details of who, if anyone, had the motive, intent and opportunity to kill the victim. A third-party culprit is simply a defense tactic to unjustly prejudice the prosecution and confuse the jury.”
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To that end, Brennan filed additional motions asking for the defense to be barred from making any reference to “bad character” or alleged misconduct on the part of any witness without prior court permission. Referencing the defense tactics at the first trial, Brennan said, “the defense has engaged in a comprehensive campaign to inundate the public with its claims and has repeatedly declared or implied that the Commonwealth, the prosecutors, the Court, trial court employees, and witnesses are corrupt, declaring that virtually every civilian witness, police officer, and first responder was complicit in a cover-up of evidence and implying that nearly every witness is a liar.”
Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor testifies during Karen Read’s trial, Wednesday, June 12, 2024 in Norfolk Super Court in Dedham, Mass. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
Among the witnesses Read’s attorney has pointed to is Trooper Michael Proctor, who served as the lead investigator in the case for the Massachusetts State Police. Proctor came under fire for inappropriate text messages found on his phone referencing Read and the investigation, and has faced disciplinary action as a result.
“Michael — and so many others in his line of work — see horrible things every day and may at times need to vent personally,” Courtney Proctor, Michael’s sister, said in a statement to Court TV. “Who among us has not said something regrettable in moments of stress, shock or sadness? And how would you feel if the contents of your personal phone were questionably released to the public without full context?”
In a statement released Thursday, Proctor’s family spoke out on his behalf, claiming he has been “defamed, maligned and falsely labeled corrupt by the alleged murderer, her family, her defense team, and a mob of her followers.”
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Motions filed by the defense indicate a continued effort to introduce accident reconstruction experts from ARCCA as unbiased and unpaid, despite an invoice and communications revealed at a previous hearing.
While witnesses are typically sequestered from the trial and not allowed to view testimony until after they have left the witness stand, the defense has filed a motion asking for some of the prosecution’s witnesses to continue to be barred from the courtroom even after they finish testifying. The defense noted that members of the Albert and McCabe families returned to court after testifying and sat with the O’Keefe family.
Read and her attorneys are scheduled to return to court on March 18 and 19 to argue the motions ahead of her trial, scheduled to begin on April 1.
