Pre-trial arguments continue this week in Read case

Norfolk County prosecutors and attorneys for Karen Read, the woman charged with the murder of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, were due back in court yesterday to discuss new motions filed by the defense in advance of a previously scheduled pre-trial evidentiary hearing on May 25 (today) concerning access to the cell phone records of Brian Albert.

On the morning of January 29, 2022, O’Keefe was found bloodied and unconscious in the snow on the front lawn of Albert’s Fairview Road home and was pronounced dead hours later at the hospital. Prosecutors allege that Read, who had driven O’Keefe to Albert’s home after a night of bar-hopping in Canton Center, slammed into O’Keefe while making a three-point turn and then fled the scene.

Read, however, not only maintains her innocence; her attorneys contend that others are responsible for O’Keefe’s death and that the evidence points to a cover-up. They believe that some of that evidence is contained within Albert’s phone and will help to exonerate their client.

In the lead-up to the May 25 hearing, Read’s attorneys also filed motions to subpoena two witnesses, including Albert, to question them about the contents of their cell phones — including an alleged Google search for the phrase “ho[w] long to die in cold” made by one of the party guests at 2:27 a.m., several hours before O’Keefe was found.

Prosecutors countered with their own motions to quash the subpoenas and subsequently filed a motion to oppose the defense team’s request for the May 25 evidentiary hearing, asserting that it amounts to nothing more than a “fishing expedition.”

Further details on Wednesday’s hearing as well as Thursday’s evidentiary hearing, if the judge allows it to proceed, will be published in next week’s edition of the Citizen.

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Posted by Canton Citizen on May 25 2023. Filed under News, Police & Fire, Town Government. Both comments and pings are currently closed.