Karen Read, the girl accused of killing her Boston cop boyfriend throughout a January nor’easter, is ready to go on trial for a second time this week after her first prosecution ended with a hung jury.
Learn, 45, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a lethal accident in reference to John O’Keefe’s demise on Jan. 29, 2022. He was 46 and located within the snow exterior one other police officer’s home hours after a bunch of individuals went there for an after-party to cap off an evening out ingesting.
She was initially charged with manslaughter – typical in a lethal hit-and-run case – however authorities later tacked on the homicide cost.
Karen Learn and John O’Keefe are proven in an undated household picture. Learn is accused of fatally hanging him together with her SUV after an evening of ingesting, however her protection has argued she is being framed by a bunch of his former police colleagues. (Courtesy of Karen Learn)
By means of her first trial and in a number of media interviews afterward, she maintained her innocence and claimed another person killed O’Keefe.
Joseph Giacalone, a former NYPD sergeant and a felony justice professor at Penn State-Lehigh Valley, instructed Fox Information Digital he thinks prosecutors may have a tough time getting a conviction after the primary case fell aside.
The primary trial noticed allegations of a police cover-up, the arrest of an internet blogger accused of intimidating witnesses, the firing of the lead investigator and lingering questions on how O’Keefe died.
The Waterfall Bar and Grille is proven in Canton, Mass., on March 29, 2025. That is the place Karen Learn, John O’Keefe, Jennifer McCabe and buddies visited earlier than O’Keefe’s demise in January 2022. (Richard Beetham for Fox Information Digital)
KAREN READ’S 2ND MURDER TRIAL SET TO START IN DEATH OF BOYFRIEND COP: WHAT TO KNOW
Prosecutors allege that Learn backed into him together with her Lexus SUV, then drove away, leaving him to die within the snowstorm.
An post-mortem discovered the reason for his demise to be blunt-force trauma to the top and hypothermia. O’Keefe had cranium fractures, mind bleeding, swollen black eyes and cuts to his proper arm, however the forensic pathologist held off on calling it a murder, leaving the way of demise undetermined.
Dr. Daniel Wolfe, an skilled witness, testified that the harm to the rear finish of Learn’s car was not according to hanging a human head or arm. Prosecutors are looking for to have his testimony precluded the second time round.
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Karen Learn stands within the doorway as she waits to go away Norfolk Superior Court docket. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe through Getty Photographs)
His identify remained on a 150-person witness record unveiled Monday, together with that of Michael Proctor, the previous lead investigator who was fired from the Massachusetts State Police this month.
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The next is a timeline of key occasions within the case:
Jan. 28, 2022
Learn and O’Keefe went out in Canton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston about 15 miles from the town.
Though textual content messages launched at trial present that they had argued that morning, they went out collectively round 9 p.m. at C.F. McCarthy’s, an Irish bar. Round 11, they met buddies and acquaintances on the Waterfall Bar and Grille. The bar closed at midnight.
JUROR IN KAREN MISTRIAL JOINS HER DEFENSE TEAM FOR RETRIAL
C.F. McCarthy’s in Canton, Mass. (Richard Beetham for Fox Information Digital )
Jan. 29, 2022
Then-Boston Police Officer Brian Albert invited a bunch of individuals to his home on Fairview Highway for an after-party when the bar wrapped up service. This could possibly be the final time O’Keefe was seen alive in public.
JUROR IN KAREN MISTRIAL JOINS HER DEFENSE TEAM FOR RETRIAL
Early hours of Jan. 29
- 12 a.m.: O’Keefe and Learn are invited over to Albert’s home and given instructions. However witnesses have testified they by no means got here inside.
- 12:37 a.m.: Learn allegedly leaves a voicemail with an expletive for O’Keefe, saying, “John, I … hate you.” She was later accused of hitting him at about 24 mph after backing up 60 ft in her car.
- 2:27 a.m.: Jennifer McCabe allegedly appears up on Google how lengthy it takes to die within the chilly. She later testified that she did the search at Learn’s request.
- 6 a.m.: Learn returns to the Alberts’ dwelling with McCabe and one other particular person, they usually name 911 from exterior, the place O’Keefe was discovered lifeless, in line with a synopsis from CourtTV, which streamed the primary trial.
- 6:23 a.m.: McCabe makes use of her cellphone to seek for data on dying within the chilly for a second time.
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Karen Learn seems in Norfolk County Superior Court docket for a pre-trial listening to. She is charged with fatally working over her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, whose arm is proven with scratches and cuts on a poster in courtroom. (John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe through Getty Photographs)
Feb. 2, 2022
Learn was arrested on hit-and-run and manslaughter costs.
June 9, 2022
A superseding indictment accused Learn of second-degree murder.
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Decide Beverly Cannone presides over jury choice in the course of the Karen Learn trial at Norfolk County Superior Court docket, Thursday, April 18, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. (David McGlynn/New York Submit through AP, Pool)
April 16, 2024 to July 1
Learn’s first trial stretched on for weeks and ended with a hung jury. Decide Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial.
Prosecutors accused Learn of a drunken hit-and-run. Her protection argued that O’Keefe had been attacked inside the house and suffered accidents to his arm brought on by a canine earlier than being carried exterior and left within the storm.
Officer John O’Keefe (Boston Police Division)
March 19, 2025
After a months-long inside investigation into the lewd textual content messages he despatched about Learn within the preliminary investigation, Proctor was fired from the Massachusetts State Police after a 12-year profession.
March 31
On the eve of jury choice for Learn’s second trial, Cannone launched a number of impactful rulings on the case.
She rejected the protection’s try and have a former FBI agent testify about failures to fulfill police protocol with the preliminary investigation and restricted the scope of arguments the protection could be allowed to boost concerning potential third-party culprits, together with Albert and ATF Agent Brian Higgins, each of whom had been current at each the Waterfall bar and Albert’s home the evening O’Keefe died.
ATF Agent Brian Higgins speaks on the Karen Learn homicide trial at Norfolk Superior Court docket, Might 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. (Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald through AP/Pool)
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The witness list additionally revealed Proctor would take the stand, even after his firing, and so would Aidan Kearney, an area blogger and distinguished Learn supporter who has been accused of witness intimidation.
April 1
Jury choice in Learn’s second trial kicked off in Dedham, Massachusetts.
The Related Press contributed to this report.
