Supreme Court denies Karen Read's request to halt her trial

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Apr 9, 2025

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DEDHAM, Mass. — The Karen Read murder retrial has nearly enough jurors seated to begin, which it will since the U.S. Supreme Court declined the defense’s request to stay the court case.

Attorneys in the case against the Mansfield former financial analyst and Bentley College lecturer picked up three more jurors among the 58 potential jurors called on Wednesday, making a total of 15 jurors seated for trial: eight men and seven women.

Attorneys want to have at least 16 jurors in the final pool to leave a healthy number of alternates by the end of the trial — which Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly J. Cannone told potential jurors could take as long as eight weeks — that there will be enough to safely have 12 deliberating jurors. Any remainder would be deemed alternates.

Read told reporters outside of court the previous day that opening statements in her trial could begin Tuesday.

Read, 45, of Mansfield, is accused of striking Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, 46, her boyfriend of about two years, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a major snowstorm on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.

Efforts to dismiss

She was tried last year on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death, but that ended in a mistrial on July 1, 2024, after the jury reported an impasse through three notes.

Since Read’s last trial, the defense has mounted efforts to have charges tossed. So far, those efforts have failed before Cannone, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, the federal district court in Boston, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

The Supreme Court

On April 1, the same day jury selection began, appellate defense attorney Martin Weinberg filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to consider Read’s case. He has also asked for the Supreme Court to issue a stay to the state courts until it has decided whether it will take up Read’s case.

On Wednesday, Associate Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson denied the request to stay the proceedings.

Also on Wednesday, however, Read’s Supreme Court docket reported that her request for their review of her double jeopardy claims was “Distributed for conference” with a consideration date of April 25, during which the court will decide whether it will take up the case.

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