Supreme Court Declines Karen Read’s Application to Halt Murder Retrial

Karen Read’s attorneys wanted to delay state court proceedings until their client’s petition for a writ of certiorari was adjudicated.

Karen Read arrives for jury selection for her trial at Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., on April 1, 2025. Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Attorneys for accused killer Karen Read were unsuccessful in securing a stay from the nation’s highest court of her second trial after a mistrial in July 2024.

Read, 44, is accused of having struck her police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with an SUV during a snowstorm in January 2022. He was left unresponsive outside the house party of a fellow Boston police officer in Canton.

O’Keefe, a 16-year police veteran, was 46 when he died in 2022.

Read’s attorneys asked the U.S. Supreme Court to delay state court proceedings until their client’s petition for a writ of certiorari is adjudicated.

Litigating parties file a petition for a writ of certiorari when they want the U.S. Supreme Court to review the rulings of a lower court. In this case, Read’s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review the rulings of the Superior Court of Massachusetts in Norfolk County.

“Her scheduled retrial on two of the three counts pending against her, including a charge of second-degree murder, will violate the Double Jeopardy Clause because the jury in her first trial reached a final and unanimous, but unannounced, decision that she is not guilty of those charges,” Read’s attorneys Michael Pabian and Martin G. Weinberg stated in her April 1 application.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson denied the request on April 9 without issuing an opinion, allowing the Massachusetts state court trial to proceed while the U.S. Supreme Court decides whether to entertain the merits of the case this term.

The high court justices are scheduled to revisit the case on April 25.

Under the U.S. Constitution’s double jeopardy clause, a person cannot be prosecuted twice for the same offense.

Prosecutors allege that Read had been drinking when she dropped O’Keefe off at the Canton house party just after midnight, and that during a three-point turn, she rammed O’Keefe and then drove away, allegedly returning hours later to find him in a snowbank.

Initially, in February 2022, Read was arrested and charged with manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death. She was subsequently indicted in June 2022 on charges including second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.

Read has denied the allegations and maintained her innocence.

During the first trial, Read’s defense attorneys said that it was possible that a police officer killed O’Keefe at the house party, implying corruption and suggesting their client was set up. Prosecutors said that Read intentionally struck her boyfriend.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Canton Police Department and Read’s attorney for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Read had worked as a financial analyst and Bentley College adjunct professor before the incident.

The town of Canton commissioned an audit of the Canton Police Department following O’Keefe’s death. It was released on April 6.

The report’s findings include that first responders should have photographed O’Keefe where he was found before he was moved and that critical witness interrogations should have been done at the department after O’Keefe was taken to a hospital. The 206-page study stopped short of affirming corruption.

“Attorneys for Ms. Read claimed that Mr. O’Keefe was assaulted, and his body was later placed outside of 34 Fairview Road, Canton, MA, as part of an alleged coverup by law enforcement,” auditors wrote on page 92 of the report. “Note: Our team has not discovered any information that would indicate that any actions by Canton PD officers or detectives were a part of a conspiracy to frame any individual for the murder of Mr. O’Keefe.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

From NTD News