The mistrial was declared after jurors sent Cannone notes that they were deadlocked, first on Friday and then Monday morning. After the latter, the judge gave Tuey-Rodriguez instructions — sometimes referred to as “dynamite” instructions designed to break deadlocked juries in Massachusetts.
In the final memo to Judge Cannone Monday afternoon, the jurors described themselves as being at an insurmountable impasse, with “sharply divided” views on the evidence.
“Continuing to deliberate would be futile and would only serve to force us to compromise these deeply held beliefs,” the jurors wrote in a note that the judge read aloud in the courtroom.
“I’m not going to do that, folks,” Cannone told the jury in court, dismissing them and declaring a mistrial. O’Keefe’s family members appeared upset after the announcement, while Read approached the podium with a smile to hug the family and supporters who had gathered.
In a statement announcing their intention to retry Read, prosecutors thanked O’Keefe’s family.
“They have not lost sight of the real goal of this case: to bring justice to John O’Keefe,” the statement read.
The trial, which began in April, has captivated the nation as supporters have tried to decipher its conflicting accounts. Prosecutors have portrayed Read and O’Keefe as locked in a volatile, years-long relationship that boiled over after a night of drinking when Read reversed his SUV into O’Keefe and fatally hit him before fleeing. Defense attorneys have suggested that Read, a former stock analyst and adjunct professor, was framed by police who had turned on their colleague and sought to cover up a deadly fight.
Despite the seriousness of the charges, the trial had the feel of a whodunit for true-crime fans and conspiracy theorists who saw a compelling combination of a telegenic murder suspect, a soured romance and an alleged law enforcement conspiracy in a city where investigators were closely tied to the subjects.
“It was a perfect mix of factors,” Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University, said of the Read trial. “You have a woman charged with homicide, which is pretty rare; the victim is a police officer; and it’s a small town, so a lot of people can relate to the dynamic.”
The case polarized trial observers, who gathered outside the courthouse throughout the trial. Read’s supporters, wearing pink shirts and holding “Free Karen Read” signs, confronted her detractors, who shouted in unison, “I hit him! I hit him!” in reference to Read’s alleged outcry after O’Keefe’s body was found.
The fervor over Read’s trial has at times spilled into the courtroom. Cannone ordered Aidan Kearney, a local blogger known as “Turtleboy,” to leave the courtroom while at least seven witnesses were testifying, arguing that his presence could have a “chilling effect” on their testimony, according to CBS Boston. Kearney was charged last year with witness intimidation after sharing videos of himself He confronted witnesses and released personal information about an investigator involved in the case. He denied accusations of harassment and said he was exercising his First Amendment rights.
Last year, District Attorney Morrissey took the rare step of releasing a video statement months before the trial to condemn the conspiracies and call for them to end.
“Innuendo is not evidence,” Morrissey said.
The prosecution and defense have agreed on few facts, except that on the night of January 28, 2022, O’Keefe and Read were drinking at the Waterfall Bar in Canton, Massachusetts, where they encountered Boston Police Sergeant Brian Albert and were invited to a party at his home. After Read drove O’Keefe in his black Lexus SUV to Albert’s party without going inside, accounts diverge.
Prosecutors said the couple argued before Read dropped O’Keefe off and that she fatally struck him with her car as she made a U-turn and then fled the scene. Prosecutors argued their theory was supported by data from Read’s SUV as well as a broken taillight on his car and hair on the vehicle.
Defense attorneys have argued that Read was used as a scapegoat, arguing that O’Keefe was beaten in Albert’s home before being thrown out onto the lawn during a snowstorm, where it was staged to make it appear that Read had hit him. The defense has pointed out that Albert’s home was never searched for signs of a fight involving O’Keefe, and argued that scratches on O’Keefe’s arms indicated he had been attacked by Albert’s dog, a 70-pound German shepherd mix named Chloe. They have also pointed to conflicts of interest between investigators in the case and those at the party. The prosecution has denied any police cover-up or conspiracy.
O’Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the Boston police force, was found unconscious outside Albert’s home and was later pronounced dead at a hospital. An autopsy revealed he died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
Central to the prosecution’s case was testimony from several first responders who were called to the scene after Read found O’Keefe’s body outside Albert’s home. They testified that they heard Read scream hysterically, “I hit him! I hit him! Oh my God! I hit him!” Prosecutors, According to the AP, there are also angry phone messages Read allegedly sent to O’Keefe hours before her death, as well as a voicemail she left for O’Keefe moments after leaving the house party. in which they said she was “angry” and yelling at O’Keefe.
The defense was bolstered by reports from an FBI investigation into O’Keefe’s death that said his injuries did not appear to be from a vehicle collision, and by damning testimony from Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, a lead investigator in the case. Proctor faced scathing questions about messages he shared with friends in which he called Read “crazy” and hoped she would kill herself, bolstering the defense’s argument that hostile law enforcement had a conflict of interest. Proctor also admitted telling colleagues that he had found no nude photos of Read when he searched her phone.
Read did not testify during the trial. She told reporters outside court on Tuesday: “There are no charges against me. … After eight weeks, it’s all smoke and mirrors, and they’re digging into my private life and trying to find a motive that never existed.”
The end of the trial marks the beginning of a separate process for O’Keefe’s family, her longtime friend Tara Kerrigan wrote in an April essay in Boston Magazine. “I prayed that it would be over soon so that his family could finally begin a process that the circus around John’s death denied them,” Kerrigan wrote. “The chance to grieve in peace.”
