12 picked as jury selection in Read trial ends for week
4 more needed to fill slate in murder case
Jury selection concluded for the week Thursday in the sensational murder trial of Karen Read, the Mansfield woman accused of backing her SUV into her boyfriend and leaving him for dead during a blizzard in Canton in 2022.
The session in Norfolk Superior Court finished in the early afternoon with 12 jurors seated. Sixteen will ultimately be selected with four designated as alternates. Jury selection resumes Monday.
Two additional jurors were seated Thursday, while one who’d been chosen previously was excused due to a hardship, Read’s attorney Alan Jackson said.
The attorneys in the case and Judge Beverly J. Cannone conducted more than four hours of jury selection on Wednesday, seating seven jurors. Selection began Tuesday, when the court sat four jurors out of a pool of around 90.
On Thursday morning, around 55 potential jurors filed into Cannone’s courtroom.
Prosecutors say Read drunkenly and intentionally backed her SUV over John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, after dropping him off at a house party in Canton after a night of bar-hopping on Jan. 29, 2022. The couple’s relationship had been falling apart, prosecutors say, amid allegations of cheating.
Lawyers for Read maintain she’s being framed as part of a massive police coverup and that O’Keefe was actually beaten by people at the party and left for dead. His body was discovered the following morning in the snowy front lawn of the home, which was owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer. Read has pleaded not guilty to seconddegree murder and other charges.
Each day of jury selection, new prospective jurors file in and hear the same words from Cannone: “Our system of justice simply doesn’t work without you,” she says, walking the jurors through the facts of the case and telling them that despite the intense media focus, it will be decided in the courtroom.
Prosecutors and defense lawyers then introduce themselves to the jury pool. On Wednesday and Thursday, Read did, too, saying, “Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.”
Cannone then asks several questions, to which jurors are asked to raise a numbered white card if the answer is yes. When asked if they’ve heard of the case,
Protesters, pushed back from the courthouse by a buffer order from Cannone, continue to proclaim that Read is innocent, wearing pink in a show of support.
a majority of hands fly up. The court officers read the juror numbers out loud to be recorded. Then the next questions: Has anyone formed an opinion about the case? And does anyone believe they have a bias against one side or the other?
About 40 prospective jurors said Thursday that they’d heard of the case. Twenty said they’d formed an opinion about it, and eight said they believed they have a bias.
Next, they fill out a 29-question form. Many of the questions are standard in jury questionnaires, including whether the potential juror can be fair and impartial, whether they believe the defendant has to prove their innocence, and whether they have any religious or philosophical beliefs that could make it difficult to follow the law.
Multiple questions focus on attitudes around drunken driving, law enforcement, and domestic violence.
The survey asks if people have ever taken part in demonstrations that were either supportive or critical of law enforcement. It asks if people have witnessed a car crash, been in a relationship that included domestic violence, or donated money to an anti-drunk-driving organization such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Another question reads, “Do you, any family members, or any close friends, reside in or conduct regular business in Canton, MA?” The town, residents have told the Globe, is sharply divided over the case.
People are meant to select “yes,” “no,” or “not sure” in response to each question. Both the prosecution and defense had submitted questions to the judge for the questionnaire, including many that were agreed upon, according to court filings.
After they have filled out the questionnaire, each person is interviewed in sidebar, a quiet conversation among the prospective juror, Cannone, prosecutors Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin, and defense attorneys Jackson, David Yannetti, and Elizabeth Little. The court turns on a dull, steady white noise to drown out their discussion.
The highly anticipated trial is expected to last several weeks.
The case has drawn heavy media coverage and become a topic of intense speculation. Acting US Attorney Joshua S. Levy’s office convened a 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.
Protesters, pushed back from the courthouse by a buffer order from Cannone, continue to proclaim that Read is innocent, wearing pink in a show of support.
Before prospective jurors entered the courtroom Tuesday, Cannone said from the bench that lawyers for Read won’t be permitted to raise a third-party culprit theory — the argument that someone else committed the crime — during opening statements but will have a chance “to develop it through relevant, competent, admissible evidence” as the trial progresses.
During a hearing last Friday, Read’s attorneys named three potential suspects who were in the Canton home on the night in question: the now-retired police officer who owned the home, his nephew, and a federal law enforcement agent who her attorneys say had a romantic interest in Read.
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.