We could not know their names, however the Karen Learn jurors have definitely been speaking since a mistrial was declared within the white-hot homicide case on July 1 — and it might impact the upcoming second trial.
“If you’re a citizen of Greater Boston, you’re aware of the Karen Read case,” former Suffolk District Lawyer Daniel Conley, who served from 2002 to 2018 earlier than shifting into personal observe with Mintz in Boston, informed the Herald Friday.
Learn, 44, is accused of placing her boyfriend of two years, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, along with her automobile and leaving him to freeze and die on a Canton entrance garden on Jan. 29, 2022.
In response to the protection crew, three nameless jurors got here ahead to say that the jury was held on solely one of many three prices in opposition to the Mansfield monetary analyst. On July 8, the protection crew filed a movement to have the costs of second-degree homicide and leaving the scene of an accident inflicting demise dismissed based mostly on this data.
The protection asks Norfolk Superior Courtroom Choose Beverly Cannone to formally dismiss these prices and that the second trial solely strive Learn on Depend 2, which is motorized vehicle manslaughter whereas below the affect, and its two lesser included cost choices of involuntary manslaughter and motorized vehicle murder.
The movement will most likely be introduced up — if not instantly argued — throughout the subsequent listening to on the Dedham courtroom, scheduled for Monday at 2 p.m. The purpose of the “Trial Assignment Conference” listening to, which was scheduled the identical day the case was declared a mistrial on the fifth day of jury deliberations after 9 weeks of testimony, is to set a brand new trial date.
The listening to will happen three weeks to the day since mistrial, a interval marked not solely by the movement to dismiss but in addition a proper order to impound the jury checklist — first briefly after which indefinitely after a juror got here ahead and stated they feared “personal injury” ought to the names be launched.
Dismissal arguments
Because the movement to dismiss was filed, the crew has submitted supplemental memos and supporting affidavits from protection legal professional Alan Jackson indicating a fourth and, on Friday, a fifth juror got here ahead with the identical intel.
“Given the unambiguous post-trial evidence, it would simply be wrong to require the defendant to obtain two acquittals from two different juries for the same crime,” the newest submitting states.
Their arguments didn’t sway prosecutors on the Norfolk District Lawyer’s workplace, who fired again on the movement to dismiss, saying that “The defendant’s unsubstantiated but sensational post-trial claim that the ‘jury reached a unanimous decision to acquit’ lacks any merit or legal foundation.”
“The hearsay comments and juror statements about what happened are legally irrelevant as the jury failed to reach any verdicts,” the 15-page DA opposition states.
Former 16-year prosecutor Conley thinks the DA’s opposition has a degree.
“My review of the current law suggests that the motion will likely be denied,” Conley informed the Herald Friday. “My reading of the current law is that there was no verdict. … No matter what four or five jurors think or say, that is not a final verdict under the Massachusetts Rules of Criminal Procedure.”
Regardless, retired Essex Superior Courtroom Choose Jack Lu informed the Herald on Friday, “those are substantial arguments the judge has to consider.
“The lawyers have to be ready to argue this (the motions) on Monday,” he added. “And if I were one of the lawyers I would be worried about what we were going to cover and I would be ready for anything.”
Scheduling
A case can solely develop into as carefully watched by this many individuals as successful TV present if it comes with loads of unpredictable twists and turns. So, for 2 consultants the Herald spoke with, it’s exhausting to foretell the way it will end up.
“I’m not a very particularly good guesser, but I would predict that this will be scheduled for retrial very fast, and the only thing that would delay it is appeals to higher courts,” Lu stated. “I get the sense from the judge’s very fast scheduling that this may be headed to a very fast retrial.”
He stated that the usual could be to schedule the second trial in October, December, February or March. However, as “what happens in this case is a challenge to predict” he might see a scheduled date as late as Could however most likely a lot sooner — possibly as quickly as September.
Each Lu and former Conley predict that each time the case is tried, it ought to go a lot sooner than the preliminary marathon of a trial which started with jury choice on April 16 and resulted in mistrial on July 1. Lu stated each side already had their “dry run.”
“This was a very long trial,” Conley stated. “So if I were on either side I would ask how can I streamline this, narrow the evidence a bit, how do I get more focused and boil my case down.”
I believe, Flint, you do be taught from trial one, and that is talking within the summary, however each the prosecution and protection could resolve that ‘Oh, you know, we might not need that witness, that witness wasn’t useful, that witness could have confused the case.’”
“Both sides, I expect, will do a forensic review and decide how they want to proceed in trial two,” he continued.
Large downside for prosecutors
Regardless of the predictions for a sooner, extra streamlined trial — the place, as Conley stated, “a lot of the preliminary issues have already been solved” — a serious downside within the prosecution’s case was uncovered throughout testimony: lead investigator Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor.
Proctor’s conduct was so dangerous throughout the investigation — and evaluation he himself admitted to throughout his two intense days on the witness stand — that forward of the trial, the MSP put him below inside overview and the feds opened a probe into the investigation. After the investigation, the company suspended Proctor with out pay.
“If the Norfolk DA’s office decides to move forward,” Conley stated, “it’s going to make a difficult job more difficult.”
Proctor texted buddies and different cops admittedly unprofessional issues, like calling Learn each a “babe” and a “whack job,” joking about searching for nudes on her cellphone and finally telling his sister that he hopes Learn “kills herself.”
Prosecutor Adam Lally, Conley stated, “did what I think any prosecutor would do, which was to present everything, the good, the bad and the ugly in front of the jury before the jury before the defense did.”
