Karen Read defense claims 5th juror says jury was unanimous she was not guilty of murder

Karen Read’s defense team says a fifth juror has come forward to tell them that the jury was unanimous in believing Read was not guilty of two of the charges against her, including second-degree murder, bolstering its call to dismiss those charges in the new trial.

“The defense respectfully renews its contention that the jury acquitted Ms. Read on Counts 1 and 3, or, alternatively, there was no manifest necessity for a mistrial as to those counts, and therefore the Double Jeopardy protections of the federal and state Constitutions require that those counts not be retried,” the defense supplemental memo filed late Thursday states.

The memo is the latest in a string of filings that began with the defense’s motion, filed July 8, to dismiss the second-degree murder (Count 1) and leaving the scene of an accident causing death (Count 3) charges against Read.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, faced those charges, as well as another of manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence (Count 2), in a nine-week trial that ended in mistrial on July 1, the fifth day of jury deliberations.

The charges stem from the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, Read’s boyfriend of two years at the time of his death in the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors say Read struck him with her SUV outside a Canton home and left his body on the lawn to freeze and die.

The initial motion was predicated on the defense’s claim that three jurors came forward to tell them that the jury, which had indicated it was at an impasse through multiple notes during deliberations, was only hung in consideration of manslaughter or a lesser charge under manslaughter jurors could consider.

Those two jurors were subsequently joined by a fourth, according to a July 10 supplemental memo, and now a fifth. They are all anonymous and identified only by a letter: A, B, C, D and E, respectively.

A supporting affidavit filed by defense attorney Alan Jackson said Juror E contacted him on Wednesday.

“Juror E explained that the jury was ‘unanimous on 1 and 3’ that karen Read was NOT GUILTY of those charges,” Jackson wrote in the affidavit. “Juror E went on to state that the only count on which the jury was deadlocked was in relation to the ‘lower charges’ on Count 2. I took that to mean the lesser included offenses associated with Count 2.”

The case is back at Norfolk Superior Court for hearing on Monday.,

Originally Published: July 19, 2024 at 5:25 p.m.