Karen Read defense faces 'high-wire' act as retrial's opening statements kick off, experts say

Karen Read's retrial successful the decease of her Boston constabulary serviceman boyfriend, John O'Keefe, kicks disconnected Tuesday with opening statements, months aft jurors deadlocked connected the lawsuit and prosecutors had to commencement over. But experts expect a pugnacious combat for the erstwhile fiscal analyst.

Read, 45, is charged with murder, manslaughter and fleeing the country for allegedly striking O'Keefe with her Lexus SUV during a snowstorm connected Jan. 29, 2022. He was recovered connected chap serviceman Brian Albert's beforehand tract hours aboriginal with signs of hypothermia and traumatic injuries to his head.

Read has pleaded not guilty, denied sidesplitting O'Keefe and alleged she is being framed, attempting to sow tenable uncertainty successful prosecutors' claims and asserting that idiosyncratic other killed O'Keefe and had ties to and power implicit the investigation.

Albert hosted an after-party that evening, inviting a radical of friends and acquaintances to driblet by aft the section bars closed astatine midnight. Attendees testified that O'Keefe ne'er came inside. 

UNFAZED KAREN READ STARES DOWN LINGERING QUESTIONS ABOUT 'DOG BITES,' TEXTS WITH RETRIAL READY FOR KICKOFF

Karen Read's booking photo (Massachusetts State Police)

Special authoritative Hank Brennan and pb defence lawyer Alan Jackson are slated to statesman opening statements Tuesday. Experts accidental observers should expect fireworks.

For the retrial, Judge Beverly Cannone has placed limits connected however the defence tin rise its mentation that an alternate perpetrator is liable for O'Keefe's death. 

"Like a high-wire specialist, Alan is going to creation the line," said Linda Kenney Baden, a high-profile defence lawyer who has been pursuing the case. "Sometimes erstwhile you bash that, you autumn disconnected or, successful this case, Brennan is going to effort to propulsion him disconnected objecting."

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John O'Keefe (Courtesy of Karen Read)

She said limiting what the defence tin accidental successful their opening astir a imaginable third-party culprit is simply a terrible hurdle for Read's team.

"Judge Cannone is going to chopped the defence disconnected astatine its kneecaps," she said. She noted that David Yannetti, different 1 of Read's lawyers, opened the archetypal proceedings by claiming she had been framed.

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"She did not origin his death, and that means that idiosyncratic other did," Yannetti told the tribunal successful April 2024.

He pointed to the arguable pb investigator, Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired past period arsenic a effect of an interior probe into his conduct.

Karen Read is shown with her attorneys, David Yannetti, left, and Alan Jackson during assemblage enactment astatine Norfolk Superior Court successful Dedham, Mass., connected April 15, 2025. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)

Now that Proctor is nary longer a subordinate of instrumentality enforcement, the prosecution really whitethorn person an easier clip overcoming his sultry substance messages successful the eyes of the jury, according to Neama Rahmani, a erstwhile national prosecutor.

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"Now that Proctor’s been fired, the prosecution tin ain these atrocious facts and get up of them," helium said Monday. "By ‘fronting’ the unprofessional and embarrassing grounds impeaching Proctor for the jury, and showing Proctor has been terminated for his misconduct, the commonwealth volition person a amended accidental of securing a condemnation this time."

Retrials thin to spell amended for prosecutors, who cognize what to expect from witnesses for the defense, said Andrew Stoltmann, a Chicago-based lawyer and adjunct prof astatine Northwestern University's School of Law.

Special Assistant District Attorney Hank Brennan introduces himself during assemblage enactment successful the execution proceedings of Karen Read astatine Norfolk Superior Court successful Dedham, Mass., connected April 15, 2025. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)

"I deliberation she faces a large uphill climb," helium told Fox News Digital. "They person galore witnesses locked into their story. As for a prediction, I accidental the prosecutors are going to triumph this lawsuit arsenic they are going to beryllium loaded for carnivore with respect to her adept witnesses."

Defense experts were cardinal to Read's strategy successful the archetypal trial, erstwhile they testified that O'Keefe's injuries were inconsistent with being struck by an SUV.

Another attendee of the after-party was Brian Higgins, an ATF agent. Higgins and Read exchanged romanticist substance messages, and helium testified that she erstwhile kissed him extracurricular O'Keefe's house.

ATF Agent Brian Higgins speaks during the Karen Read execution proceedings astatine Norfolk Superior Court successful Dedham, Mass., connected May 28, 2024. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald via AP/Pool)

Speaking extracurricular the courthouse past week, Read near unfastened the anticipation of taking the basal successful her ain defense, thing she opted not to bash past year. Since then, she's fixed aggregate media interviews, appearing connected TV and successful people to stock her broadside of the story.

Brennan, a specially appointed adjunct territory lawyer brought successful to spearhead the 2nd trial, asked the tribunal to name a third-party scholar to work substance messages betwixt the suspect and the unfortunate to the assemblage successful court. Her defence opposed the determination successful penning Friday, arguing that an appointed scholar could perchance drum up unfair prejudice with an over-dramatic inflection.

During the archetypal trial, Massachusetts State Trooper Nick Guarino work the texts. The defence argued that was modular procedure.

Read the defense opposition to ‘independent readers’:

In the months since her archetypal proceedings ended successful a mistrial, the erstwhile pb researcher saw himself fired by the Massachusetts State Police implicit his handling of the investigation, which included sharing confidential materials successful substance messages that included lewd and unprofessional remarks astir Read.

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He joked that he'd searched her confiscated telephone for nude photos, called her a "c---" and said helium wished she'd termination herself.

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Judge Beverly J. Cannone addresses imaginable jurors arsenic assemblage enactment continues for the execution retrial of Karen Read successful Norfolk Superior Court, April 14, 2025, successful Dedham, Mass. (Pat Greenhouse/Boston Globe via AP/Pool)

The defence besides raised evidence-collection and chain-of-custody concerns surrounding Read's vehicle, fragments of the taillight authorities said they recovered astatine the country and different cardinal items.

Close to the clip of his death, she allegedly near him a voicemail saying, "I hatred you." The 2 had besides argued the greeting earlier his death, but they went retired drinking that night. 

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A cardinal portion of the retrial is expected to see adept grounds astir injuries recovered connected O'Keefe's close arm, which the defence argues were caused by a canine and is imaginable grounds that helium wasn't killed by a vehicular onslaught but alternatively successful a fight.

The defence volition telephone Garrett Wing, a canine trainer, and the prosecution volition person grounds from Dr. James Crosby.

The proceedings is expected to past six to 8 weeks aft taking much than 2 weeks to spot a jury.

Read could look a maximum of beingness successful situation if convicted.