The trial of Karen Read, the Mansfield woman accused of murdering Boston police Officer John O’Keefe in January 2022, could take as long as six weeks.
“I’m just throwing at a dartboard, but based on what I know, if the Commonwealth’s case takes three to four weeks, I think our case would probably take two weeks,” Read defense attorney Alan Jackson said at a hearing Tuesday morning.
Following the hearing, Judge Beverly Cannone denied a defense motion to dismiss the case. Read’s case is scheduled to go to trial on April 16.
That dismissal motion argued that the indictment of Read should be tossed because prosecutors presented deceptive evidence to the grand jury and withheld exculpatory evidence. Specifically, the defense has alleged that law enforcement sources have engaged in a conspiracy to frame their client, largely due to interpersonal relationships with the Albert family, who owned the home where O’Keefe’s body was found on the front lawn.
In her 24-page ruling, Cannone summarized the defense’s arguments, weighed them and concluded that, “Given the extensive evidence supporting the indictments, to the extent that the Commonwealth improperly put before or withheld any evidence from the grand jury, it is unlikely that it affected the outcome of the proceedings.”
Read’s defense declined to comment.
Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said that, “We look forward to presenting the case to a jury as soon as possible.”
Prosecutors accuse Read, 44, of Mansfield, of backing her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, and leaving him to die in the cold at the end of January 2022. Prosecutors say that taillight pieces were located in the area where O’Keefe’s body was found on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton where Read and O’Keefe were supposed to meet up with others for an afterparty following a night of drinking at two bars downtown.
The defense has countered with a third-party culprit theory that alleges that then-owner of the 34 Fairview Road home Brian Albert, a fellow BPD officer, or others inside that home actually killed O’Keefe and that the investigators in the case have conducted a massive coverup to frame their client.
The California-based Jackson was speaking from Zoom. Fellow defense attorney David Yannetti was also absent from court for undisclosed reasons. The absence of both lead defense attorneys at Tuesday’s hearing did not please Cannone, who reminded Jackson that counsel arguing motions were “to be present here in court today.”
This was the second hearing in less than a week in the Read case. While lasting merely 20 minutes or so, the parties still had time to quibble over the last remaining background pieces before the case goes to trial.
When asked how much reciprocal discovery the defense had provided the prosecution, Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said “Nothing. Absolutely nothing.”
Likewise, Tanis Yannetti — attorney David Yannetti’s sister who works at the same firm — said that the defense would be happy to comply with discovery obligations when Lally and his team comply with their obligations first.
At the last hearing, David Yannetti said he had expected to file a separate motion to dismiss the indictments by the end of the day, which was the last day such motions could be filed.
That motion was not filed due to an unspecified “strategic decision,” according to Tanis Yannetti. Because it was not filed, Judge Cannone waived it.
