Karen Read, appeared in court again on Tuesday during a motions hearing ahead of her retrial for murder

Overcome, Judge Beverly Cannone dramatically ended Read’s murder trial hearing after evidence bombshell

Read, 44, is facing charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal accident – after being accused of running down cop boyfriend John O’Keefe, 46, on Jan. 28, 2022

Karen Read and two other women found O’Keefe unconscious in a snowbank with skull fractures, swollen eyes and hypothermia the morning after

Read maintains she’s not guilty, claiming she is the victim of a coverup orchestrated to protect those responsible, his friends, some in law enforcement

Karen Read, [center], appeared in a Boston court again on Tuesday during a motions hearing ahead of her retrial after she was accused of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in the death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe

Judge Beverly Cannone abruptly ended a hearing before the retried murder case of Karen Read on Tuesday after new information gave her ‘grave concern.’ 
16-year Boston police officer John O’Keefe was found dead around 6am on January 29, 2022, in the snow bound driveway of a house where his girlfriend Karen Read dropped him off for a party around 12.45am. Most of the people at the gathering were connected to law enforcement, including home owner, Boston police Sergent Brian Albert.
Read said she found O’Keefe dead when she turned up to pick him up the following morning in contrast to state prosecutors who allege that Read hit her boyfriend with her SUV, before leaving out in the cold snowy night to die. All along, Read has maintained that she was framed.
Before Judge Cannone called for the unplanned recess on Tuesday, special prosecutor Hank Brennan revealed in court that Read’s defense team had communicated with accident reconstruction experts from ARCCA Inc. hired by the FBI about their testimony before Read’s first trial. 
Brennan read what appeared to be emails between the defense and ARCCA and pointed out a $23,925 bill that he said the ARCCA sent to the defense. 
‘The commonwealth, as I understand it, was not aware of any promised rewards or inducements or payments,’ Brennan said. ‘They relied on a reciprocal discovery order of this court for that information.’ 

Judge Beverly Cannone abruptly ended Karen Read’s motions hearing on Tuesday after new information gave her ‘grave concern.’ She said: ‘The commonwealth just provided the court with information that causes me grave concern. The implications of that information may have profound effects on this defense and defense counsel’

Calling out the bombshell payment request on Tuesday, Cannone, who was visibly trembling as she spoke, said: ‘The commonwealth just provided the court with information that causes me grave concern. 
‘The implications of that information may have profound effects on this defense and defense counsel. 
‘So, for that reason, I’m going to suspend today so that when we meet again to address these issues, all affected will be appropriately prepared.’ 
Judge Cannone had previously declared a mistrial in July of last year after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict before ruling in August that Read, who appeared in court again on Tuesday for the pretrial motions hearing, could be retried on all three charges. 

Karen Read [left], was accused of ramming her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, [right], with her SUV while drunk in January 2022 before leaving him to die in a snowstorm. Read has is being re-tried after the initial prosecution ended in a mistrial last year July

Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in July of last year after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict. A month later Cannone then ruled that Read could be retried on all three charges

Boston.com reported that in the emails, the ARCCA’s director of accident reconstruction Daniel Wolfe also praised defense attorney Alan Jackson’s questioning and allegedly wrote, ‘if you don’t want me to say this, that’s fine.
‘That’s not trial by ambush, that’s getting duped,’ Brennan said. ‘I don’t care if the ARCCA witnesses testify at trial. I don’t care about their opinions. But I care that it’s unfair, imbalanced, and hidden.’ 
The hearing is set to continue on February 25. 
Read also filed a habeas corpus claim in US District Court in Boston on Tuesday and asked for two of her charges to be dismissed. 
Last week, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rejected the motion to dismiss both counts after Read’s lawyers argued jurors in her first trial unofficially agreed to acquit her of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
The defense also argued that a retrial on all charges would violate Read’s double jeopardy protections.  
Read has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of crime in the wake of her boyfriend John O’Keefe’s death, in uncertain circumstances two years ago.
Police said she rammed her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV while drunk in January 2022, before leaving him to die in a snowstorm. 

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan told the court that Read’s defense team communicated with accident reconstruction experts hired by the federal agency about their testimony before Read’s first trial. Brennan read what appeared to be emails between the defense and ARCCA and pointed out a $23,925 bill that he said the ARCCA sent to the defense

Defense attorneys accused investigators of focusing solely on Karen Read [center], because she was a ‘convenient outsider’ who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects. They introduced text messages, where State Trooper Michael Proctor, called Read a ‘whack job’ and a ‘c**t’ and referred to her as a ‘babe’ with ‘no a**,’ while also making light of her ‘Fall River accent’

O’Keefe, according to autopsy results, died from hypothermia and blunt force trauma. 
Read is a financial analyst and college professor from Mansfield. Her attorneys have portrayed her as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside.
They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a ‘convenient outsider’ who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
Read’s defense said their theory that she was framed in a vast police conspiracy was supported by texts State Trooper Michael Proctor, wrote about Read, which he was forced to read aloud in court last summer.

Boston police officer John O’Keefe, [photo], was found in a snowy driveway of his friend and colleague’s home. According to autopsy results, he died from hypothermia and blunt force trauma. His girlfriend , Karen Read, who dropped him off the night before, was accused of ramming him with her SUV while drunk in January 2022 before leaving him to die in a snowstorm 

Read and a female companion found O’Keefe lying on the snow-covered lawn the Alberts home, bleeding from his nose and mouth with swollen eyes, and Read began CPR.
When police and paramedics arrived, they found Read still trying to revive her boyfriend, her face covered in blood from giving him mouth-to-mouth.Read’s defense said their theory that she was framed in a vast police conspiracy was supported by texts >
Proctor wrote about Read, which he was forced to read aloud in court last summer. In the messages, he called Read a ‘whack job’ and a ‘c**t’ and referred to her as a ‘babe’ with ‘no a**,’ while also making light of her ‘Fall River accent’.

Homeowner, Police Sgt Brian Albert, [photo], his wife Julie and his brother Det. Kevin Albert, of the Canton Police Dept. were at his son’s birthday party on Jan. 28, 2022. The Alberts claim O’Keefe never made it to the party

Massachusetts State Police opened Internal Affairs Investigation into State Trooper Michael Proctor, [photo], the lead investigator in the case. He has connections with some those involved including the Alberts. Defense showed the court his disparaging remarks about Read

In other messages, he joked about rummaging through her phone for nude photos during the investigation.
Proctor claimed that ‘these juvenile, unprofessional comments had zero impact on the facts, the evidence and the integrity of the investigation’.
Read’s attorney Martin Weinberg argued that five jurors later said they were deadlocked only on the manslaughter count.
He added that they unanimously agreed in the jury room that she wasn’t guilty on the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene.
But they hadn’t told the judge.

Prosecutors said there’s no basis for dismissing the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene. While there’s nothing tying her to the fate that befell O’Keefe, prosecutors argued that Read’s lawyers should have sensed a mistrial was ‘inevitable or unavoidable’ and that they had every opportunity to be heard in the courtroom

Read has expressed her readiness to face a second trial, emphasizing that she is not bothered by the persons on the prosecution team: ‘I don’t care who I face.
‘I have the truth. I have the best attorneys. Do your worst.’
Read could end up in prison, a fate she said she ‘thinks about that every day,’ adding, ‘It doesn’t frighten me the way it did three years ago.’
Weinberg had urged the court to allow an evidentiary hearing where jurors could be asked whether they had reached final not guilty verdicts on any of the charges.
Prosecutors say there’s no basis for dismissing the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene. The defense team should have sensed a mistrial was ‘inevitable or unavoidable’ prosecutors insist and had every opportunity to be heard in the trial courtroom.