Judge rejects defense dismissal motion in Read case

By Canton Citizen

The highly anticipated murder trial of Karen Read will proceed as scheduled beginning April 16 after Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone on Tuesday tossed out a defense motion to dismiss the case.

Karen Read confers with Attorney Alan Jackson. (Image courtesy of CCTV)

Defense attorneys for Read had cited a pattern of alleged deception and misconduct on the part of prosecutors and investigators as reasons to throw out the charges—including what they claimed were new revelations that came to light in documents shared by the U.S. Attorney’s Office as part of an ongoing federal probe into the state case.

However, in her 24-page ruling, Cannone concluded that none of the issues raised by the defense amounted to malicious or intentional harm. “Given the extensive evidence supporting the indictments, to the extent that the commonwealth improperly put before or withheld any evidence from the grand jury, it is unlikely that it affected the outcome of the proceedings,” she wrote.

Defense attorneys had also alleged that prosecutors improperly withheld a key piece of exculpatory evidence in the case — cell phone data analysis that they believe shows that a key witness in the case had googled “[how] long to die in cold” several hours before the victim was found unconscious in the snow. They also told Judge Cannone that the timing of the search had been confirmed by an FBI expert, a claim that Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally then vehemently disputed.

On the claim that prosecutors had withheld evidence of the early search after it showed up in a subsequent data extraction, Cannone found that it was not the prosecution’s fault and rather was due to technical limitations.

“Because the commonwealth could not have withheld information it did not have and was not aware existed at the time of the grand jury, the defendant has not established that the commonwealth withheld exculpatory evidence,” she wrote.

While prosecutors contend that Read and Read alone is responsible for striking and killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV in the early hours of January 29, 2022 on Fairview Road, Read has maintained her innocence of all charges, with her lawyers arguing that she’s a victim of a frame job and cover-up involving multiple prosecution witnesses and members of law enforcement.

In her ruling, however, Cannone, however, indicated that there is substantial evidence to support the prosecution’s case, including statements Read allegedly made to multiple witnesses suggesting that she could have struck O’Keefe.

With the trial now just weeks away, Cannone said she is planning to have full sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays and half-day sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Additional information in the case will appear in future issues of the Citizen.

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