Karen Read murder case ends in a mistrial after deadlocked jury

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — A judge declared a mistrial Monday after jurors deadlocked in the polarizing and much-watched case of Karen Read, a woman accused of striking her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.

Prosecutors say they intend to retry the case in which the defense asserted that Read had been framed by police.

On the fifth day of deliberation, jurors sent Judge Beverly Cannone a note saying they remained at an impasse in the case involving the January 2022 death of John O’Keefe. Within moments, a trial that had lasted two months and featured over 600 pieces of evidence and more than 70 witnesses was over.

“Folks, this is what it looks like when you bring false charges against an innocent person,” defense attorney Alan Jackson told reporters on the steps of the courthouse. “The commonwealth did their worst. They brought the weight of the state based on spurious charges, based on compromised investigation and investigators and compromised witnesses. Guess what, they failed.”

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey thanked the O’Keefe family in a statement “for their commitment and dedication to this long process.”

“They maintained sight of the true core of this case — to find justice for John O’Keefe,” Morrissey said.

Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, faced second-degree murder and other charges in the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police who was found outside a Canton home of another Boston police officer. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.

Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away.

The defense sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider other suspects, including Albert and other law enforcement officers at the party.

On Friday, a jury foreperson told the judge that they hadn’t