A brand new trial date has been set for January after a mistrial was declared this summer season within the case of Karen Learn, the Massachusetts lady accused within the 2022 dying of John O’Keefe, her police officer boyfriend.
Learn appeared in court docket Monday, and a brand new jury trial was scheduled for Jan. 27. It was her first look since a choose declared a mistrial this month after jurors mentioned they may not attain a verdict within the homicide trial.
The choose’s ruling got here on the fifth day of deliberations and after a nine-week trial in a courthouse exterior Boston.
Prosecutors had argued that Learn, 44, a monetary analyst, and O’Keefe had a rocky relationship that culminated along with her backing her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend and leaving him for lifeless within the snow Jan. 29, 2022, in a Boston suburb.
Learn’s attorneys argued that O’Keefe’s dying was a cover-up carried out by regulation enforcement officers.
After the mistrial was declared, Learn’s protection crew mentioned prosecutors had relied on compromised investigators and a compromised investigation.
“We won’t cease combating,” lawyer Alan Jackson mentioned.
Along with second-degree homicide, Learn was additionally charged with motorized vehicle manslaughter whereas driving underneath the affect and leaving the scene of a collision inflicting dying.
Her attorneys have requested the choose to dismiss two of the fees, second-degree homicide and leaving the scene of a lethal accident, saying in court docket filings that jurors unanimously agreed to acquit Learn on these expenses.
Prosecutors have opposed the protection’s request, describing it as “legally inappropriate” and premised on conjecture and rumour. The choose has not weighed in.
Along with a tentative trial begin date, Norfolk Superior Courtroom Choose Beverly Cannone additionally scheduled a listening to on a movement to dismiss for Aug. 9 and a trial convention for Jan. 14.
O’Keefe, 46, a Boston police officer for 16 years, was discovered unresponsive and later pronounced lifeless. The health worker discovered the reason for dying to be blunt drive trauma to the top and hypothermia.
Learn has mentioned she dropped O’Keefe off on the gathering and didn’t see him till the subsequent morning, when she discovered his physique on the garden of a fellow regulation enforcement officer.
Learn’s attorneys alleged that she was framed by officers who sought to hide a beating that they mentioned O’Keefe sustained through the occasion on the residence the place his physique was discovered.
The protection alleged that the lead investigator within the case, Massachusetts state Trooper Michael Proctor, manipulated proof, didn’t correctly examine O’Keefe’s dying, despatched a sequence of slurs and vulgar messages about Learn to mates, household and supervisors and ran a biased investigation.
Proctor was suspended with out pay this month.
He testified that he made derogatory feedback about Learn in texts however denied that the texts affected his capacity to be neutral.