4 of 16 jurors for Read trial seated on first day
Judge also rules defense can argue someone else killed O’Keefe
DEDHAM — The noise went on for hours, a dull, unyielding static buzz shielding the quiet conversations between Judge Beverly J. Cannone, the lawyers in the murder case against Karen Read, and the parade of prospective jurors they quizzed about the case.
Nearly 100 potential members of the jury filled up the aged Norfolk Superior courtroom’s hard wooden pews at the start of the day Tuesday. One by one, Cannone called them up to the huddle — and one by one dismissed nearly all of them. By the end of the day, four of 16 jurors needed for the trial had been seated, according to both the prosecution and defense.
So went the first day of what is perhaps the most high-profile murder trial in Norfolk County in a century, an inauspicious start to what’s expected to be a months-long frenzy.
Cannone also ruled Tuesday that Read’s lawyers are allowed to move ahead with their defense that someone other than Read killed her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, but they cannot make that argument in their openings — it must be presented alongside evidence.
“I’m going to give you a chance to develop it through relevant, competent, admissible evidence,” she told defense attorneys Alan Jackson and David Yannetti.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of intentionally and drunkenly hitting O’Keefe with her SUV after dropping him off at a house party in Canton during a blizzard on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors say she did so after a night of barhopping as their relationship fell apart amid allegations of cheating.
Read has pleaded not guilty and
claims she’s the victim of a massive, multiagency law enforcement coverup. Her lawyers have maintained that people at the party — defense have said three in particular had the opportunity and motive — beat O’Keefe and left him for dead in the snow in the front of the home, which is owned by a fellow Boston police officer.
A jury of 12 will determine her fate, though the court will also seat four alternates. A conviction of second-degree murder, the most serious charge she faces, would result in a life sentence with the possibility of parole, according to state law.
On Tuesday morning, nearly 100 potential jurors filed into the courtroom, where they heard Cannone stress that those selected to decide Read’s fate must base their decision solely on the evidence presented at trial, rather than the tsunami of pretrial publicity and demonstrations outside the courtroom that have become a staple of the contentious case.
“John Adams said that we are a government of laws, not of men, and that the law must be deaf to the clamoring of the public,” Cannone said.
Court recessed for the day around 3 p.m. after it had churned through all those assembled. Jury selection resumes Wednesday morning.
Cannone told prospective jurors that the trial is expected to last six to eight weeks, and she asked a series of questions to gauge whether they knew any named witnesses or if they had formed any opinions about the case. Prospective jurors were told to raise their numbered jury cards to answer in the affirmative.
Asked whether they’d heard about the case, some 70 people in the pool raised their hands, prompting giggles in the courtroom. About two dozen said, when asked, that they had formed an opinion about the case, and approximately a dozen said they felt they had a bias that would render them unable to serve on the jury.
The jury pool began filling out written questionnaires after Cannone’s introductory remarks, and then people were questioned individually at sidebar as the white noise rumbled.
Read sat quietly, alone at the defense table, as her lawyers, the prosecution, and Cannone spoke to each juror. As the day came to a close, she turned to look at the back of the courtroom where some of her supporters, who had been demonstrating outside, had been allowed to come in to sit in the back, all wearing pink. She gave them a big smile.
The case has become the center of a media firestorm, with national reporters in town to cover it. Adding to the speculation is the fact that Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office has convened a federal grand jury to investigate law enforcement’s handling of the case, and federal authorities have provided thousands of pages of sealed materials to prosecutors and Read’s defense team.
In a hearing on Friday, Yannetti, an attorney for Read, named three potential thirdparty culprits who were in the Canton home on the night in question: the now-retired Boston police officer who owned the home, his nephew, and a federal law enforcement agent who her attorneys say had a romantic interest in Read.
Yannetti said the federal agent, Brian Higgins, was friends at the time with the owner of the Canton home, Brian Albert. He said Higgins had a “prior romantic interest” in Read and did not expect to see her with O’Keefe at a bar earlier that night. He cited text messages and phone calls among some of the parties, and other testimony, including from Higgins that he had destroyed his phone, to support the theory.
Lawyers for the men have said that they are not targets of the federal investigation, and none have been charged in connection with the case.
Assistant Norfolk District Attorney Adam Lally said Friday that Read’s lawyers are mischaracterizing the content of sealed grand jury materials to advance their theory.
“In regard to Mr. Higgins, that was a fanciful story,” Lally told the court. “But again, there’s actually no actual evidence of most of those things, or at least the imputations, or the connotations, that counsel wants to put behind that.”
Also Tuesday, prosecutors submitted a court filing listing the names of 87 potential government witnesses, while the defense listed 77 names, with significant overlap between the two lists. Among the listed potential defense witnesses is Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey, who has defended the integrity of his office’s investigation. After court recessed, prospective juror Ray Ruggiero told reporters he was happy he had been excused from the jury given the daunting length of time expected for the trial.
As for the day in general and being questioned by all the lawyers and judge, he smiled and said, “It was an experience.”