A jury found Karen Read not guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, but guilty of a lesser charge of drunk driving.
Here’s the latest:
Dozens of Read supporters, dressed mostly in pink, were camped out waiting for the verdict. They gathered behind barricades and across the courthouse each morning to catch a glimpse of Read. Once she would pass, the crowd would retire to beach chairs where they would swap stories and details about the case.
The crowd, some of whom come waving American flags or posters supporting Read or denigrating the prosecution, said they are there because Read could have been one of them. The tight-knit group of mostly women argues the Read case woke them up to a corrupt justice system, and they hope their movement can reform it. Some of them have been out here long before the first trial started.
A jury found Karen Read not guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend but guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving.
The jury handed down its decision after deliberating for at least 22 hours since June 13.
Prosecutor Hank Brennan opened his closing argument Friday by saying Read callously decided to leave O’Keefe dying in the snow, fully aware that he was gravely injured. He argued that she made the “choice to let” O’Keefe die, going further than prosecutors in the first trial in spelling out a motive.
Brennan said Read’s blood-alcohol level was two to three times the legal limit, after the couple downed multiple drinks at two Canton bars. The couple, whose “toxic” relationship was “crumbling,” had an argument on the way to the house party that increased tensions and ultimately led to O’Keefe’s death, the prosecutor said.
“She was drunk, she hit him, and she left him to die,” Brennan said.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson began his closing argument Friday by repeating three times: “There was no collision.” He told the jury that Read is an innocent woman victimized by a police cover-up in which law enforcement officers sought to protect their own and obscure the real killer.
He repeatedly attacked the lead investigator in the case, former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired after sharing offensive and sexist texts about Read with friends, family and co-workers. He said Proctor’s “blatant bias” tainted every aspect of the corrupt and flawed investigation and noted how prosecutors refused to put him on the stand, as they did during the first trial.