Karen Read murder trial: Mistrial declared after jury deadlocks

CNN
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A choose declared a mistrial within the homicide trial of Karen Learn, the Massachusetts girl accused of drunkenly driving into her police officer boyfriend and leaving him to die in January 2022, in a case that includes accusations of an enormous police cover-up and investigative misconduct.

It was the second time Monday the deadlocked jury advised the choose it couldn’t attain a verdict after spending days deliberating Learn’s destiny. Jurors additionally stated Friday they might not attain a unanimous determination.

Learn, 45, pleaded not responsible to expenses of second-degree homicide, vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated, in addition to leaving the scene of an accident leading to dying in connection to the 2022 dying of John O’Keefe, who was her boyfriend and a Boston police officer.

“We thank the O’Keefe household for his or her dedication and dedication to this lengthy course of,” stated Morrisey after the mistrial was introduced. “They maintained sight of the true core of this case – to seek out justice for John O’Keefe.”

The commonwealth intends to retry the case with a brand new jury following the mistrial, in keeping with Norfolk District Lawyer Michael Morrissey. She might face life in jail if convicted, in keeping with Massachusetts legislation.

Learn’s lawyer Alan Jackson, in the meantime, stated prosecutors within the case had “failed miserably and so they’ll proceed to fail,” in keeping with video exterior the courthouse offered by CNN affiliate WCVB.

“Regardless of how lengthy it takes, irrespective of how lengthy they hold making an attempt, we won’t cease combating,” Jackson stated. “People, that is what it appears to be like like whenever you carry false expenses in opposition to an harmless individual.”

The Massachusetts choose overseeing the trial gave jurors a so-called “dynamite cost” Monday morning, directing them to proceed their deliberations after they indicated for a second time Monday they might not attain a unanimous verdict. The Tuey-Rodriguez cost instructs jurors to rethink their positions whereas considering the opinions of panelists with whom they don’t agree.

Norfolk County Superior Court docket Choose Beverly Cannone learn the cost round 11 a.m. after jurors despatched a notice saying, “Regardless of our dedication to the obligation entrusted to us, we discover ourselves deeply divided by basic variations in our opinions and mind-set.”

Jurors had resumed deliberations Monday morning on the choose’s path, after first saying on Friday they might not attain a unanimous determination. Cannone on Friday requested the jury to proceed to deliberate, however determined in opposition to studying the Tuey-Rodriguez cost, which case legislation cautions in opposition to offering prematurely.

The jury of six males and 6 ladies had been contemplating a verdict since noon June 25, weighing the proof in a case that includes accusations of an enormous police cover-up in addition to improper conduct and sexist textual content messages from a lead investigator.

On each Friday and Monday, Norfolk County Assistant District Lawyer Adam Lally argued in opposition to the choose issuing the Tuey cost, saying the jury had not but deliberated sufficient, citing partly the complexity of the case and the excessive quantity of proof and witness testimony. Protection lawyer David Yannetti, in the meantime, urged the choose to situation the cost, saying Monday jurors had now twice indicated they’re “hopelessly deadlocked.”

On Monday, Cannone sided with the protection, telling the court docket she’d decided the jury had carried out the requisite “due and thorough deliberation.”

“I’ve by no means seen a notice like this, with reporting to be at an deadlock,” the choose stated.

If prosecutors search one other trial, they might take a unique strategy, maybe bringing a lesser cost than second-degree homicide if prosecutors decide their proof failed to satisfy the usual required or utilizing totally different specialists or totally different testimony, trial lawyer Misty Marris stated.

“It’s an opportunity to determine what the errors or holes within the case may need been,” Marris stated. “And it does give the protection that benefit, as a result of they know now, particularly whenever you’re in a position to converse to the jurors after the actual fact, you be taught so much. You be taught so much about what motivated them.”

The center of the trial stemmed from what occurred on one wintry night in Canton, Massachusetts, greater than two years in the past.

On the night time of January 28, 2022, Learn and O’Keefe went out consuming at two bars with buddies. Shortly after midnight, the couple climbed into Learn’s SUV and drove to the Canton house of one in all O’Keefe’s fellow Boston cops for an after-party, court docket paperwork present.

Within the morning, O’Keefe’s physique was discovered bruised and battered within the snow exterior the house, authorities stated. Prosecutors have alleged Learn and O’Keefe, who had an at-times tumultuous relationship, received into an argument that night time, and that she drunkenly backed into him with a car and fled the scene, leaving him to die within the chilly.

“What the constellation of the info and the proof ineluctably display right here is that the defendant drove her car in reverse at 24.2 miles per hour for 62.5 toes, struck Mr. O’Keefe, inflicting these catastrophic head accidents, leaving him incapacitated and freezing him to dying,” prosecutor Lally stated in closing arguments Tuesday.

In distinction, Learn’s protection has accused off-duty police contained in the Canton house of fatally beating O’Keefe, dumping his physique on the garden after which conspiring via fabricated proof and false testimony to border Learn.

“Women and gents, there was a cover-up on this case, plain and easy,” protection lawyer Jackson stated. “You’ll absolutely say to your self, ‘I don’t need to consider it, I don’t need to consider that might occur in our group,’ however sadly over these previous eight weeks you’ve seen it proper earlier than your eyes.”

The closing arguments represented the tip of a homicide trial that has garnered curiosity each native and widespread, together with accusations of witness tampering, a federal probe into the investigation, and teams of pink-wearing supporters chanting to “Free Karen Learn.”

The prosecution’s case has additionally been hampered by a sequence of missteps and weird investigative practices. Most notably, a lead investigator within the case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, admitted he despatched a sequence of sexist and offensive texts about Learn in a non-public group chat, calling her a “whack job,” mocking her medical points and commenting to coworkers he had discovered “no nudes” whereas looking her cellphone for proof, WCVB reported.

Proctor apologized for the “unprofessional” feedback on the stand, however the vulgar texts have been sharply criticized out and in of court docket, together with from the governor.

“It’s fully unprofessional,” Gov. Maura Healey advised WCVB of the texts. “It does hurt, frankly, to the dignity and the integrity of the work of women and men throughout the state police and legislation enforcement. In order a former lawyer normal and as governor, I’m disgusted by that.”

CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian, Jennifer Henderson and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.