Karen Read murder case speeds up
The judge in the case of accused murderer Karen Read says that she’s not pushing back the trial date of March 12 even as both sides ask for an extension due to the feds indicating they will make some sort of disclosure in the case.
“I think it’s premature at this time to continue the trial date so I’m not going to do that,” Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone said in a 20 minute hearing yesterday afternoon that made the Read case, which has been surrounded by circuslike attention and antics, feel relatively normal.
The request for an extension filed in a joint motion is largely because of the involvement of federal prosecutors, who have had a nearly spectral presence recently in the case and whose intentions were not made any clearer yesterday afternoon.
Read defense attorney David Yannetti said that both his team and prosecutors received an email from the U.S. Attorney’s office for the District of Massachusetts late Wednesday evening stating that the office would make some sort of disclosure within the coming days regarding the case.
That disclosure, whose contours are unknown, he said, is subject first to a protective order that both the Norfolk District Attorney’s office and the defense team must sign off on that limits how they can use that information. Following an agreement to such a protective order, the federal prosecutors would then need a federal judge to sign off on the contents of the disclosure.
Yannetti said his team is fine with the protective order as written whereas prosecutor Adam Lally said he had some problems with the wording but that he believes those problems can be easily resolved and he can sign off on the amended version.
The rest of the hearing dealt with the behind-thescenes efforts regarding evidence discovery.
Cannone set the next hearing date for Feb. 26 at 2 p.m.
Read was indicted on charges including seconddegree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, at the end of January 2022. Prosecutors say Read, 43, of Mansfield, struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV while purportedly dropping him off at an after party at the then-home of fellow Boston cop Brian Albert, 34, in Canton.
Her defense attorneys have argued a third-party culpability defense.