Accused assassin Karen Learn’s protection crew is promising to file a brand new movement to dismiss her case — this time for “extraordinary governmental misconduct.”
The pending declaration was a footnote in a movement filed this week demanding that the Commonwealth of Massachusetts pay for the prices incurred by an skilled, Matthew Erickson, who made a “futile” journey from out of state to investigate safety digital camera footage from the Canton Police Division after being invited by prosecutors to take action.
Upon the arrival of the IT and cell machine forensic analyst at USAForensic LLC to Canton from Phoenix, Arizona, nonetheless, the footage was already destroyed, based on the movement.
“Because the Commonwealth failed to preserve the original video evidence, Mr. Erickson’s trip to Massachusetts was futile,” the movement signed by protection attorneys Alan Jackson and David Yannetti states.
“Accordingly, in the interests of justice, this Court should order that the Commonwealth, not Ms. Read, pay the cost of having her expert travel out-of-state to obtain a copy of the video surveillance footage, which the Canton Police Department (an agent of the Commonwealth) failed to adequately preserve.”
The “misrepresentation” got here at a “significant expense to Ms. Read,” the movement states: $12,229.57.
Nonetheless, a footnote on web page 2 reveals that that is merely an appetizer for a a lot bigger movement.
“A Motion to Dismiss for Extraordinary Governmental Misconduct based on the destruction of this, and other, exculpatory evidence is forthcoming,” the footnote reads. “This motion should not be deemed a waiver of any such claims or issues.”
Motions to dismiss are par for the course on this case that has captured headlines for years.
Forward of Learn’s first trial final yr, a doc dump revealed a beforehand sealed 49-page movement to dismiss. This movement was based mostly on alleged failures of the prosecutor’s presentation of the case to the grand jury, which they are saying was “predicated entirely on flimsy speculation and presumption,” and the sufferer of “questionable and biased investigation.”
Then got here the mistrial, adopted by a string of protection appeals, based mostly notably on the protection’s claims that various jurors had mentioned the jury wasn’t really held on all three costs in opposition to Learn, however simply one in every of them — and hadn’t identified they might ship a partial verdict.
Learn, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of hanging Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, along with her automobile and leaving him to freeze and die on a Canton entrance garden on Jan. 29, 2022. For that she was indicted on three costs: second-degree homicide (Depend 1), manslaughter whereas working a motorized vehicle below the affect (Depend 2) and leaving the scene of an accident leading to demise (Depend 3).
The jurors allegedly indicated it was solely Depend 2, OUI manslaughter, they couldn’t attain a choice on and that they had been able to acquit on the others. Due to this, Learn’s attorneys say, it will be “Double Jeopardy” to cost her with homicide a second time. Norfolk Superior Court docket Choose Beverly J. Cannone denied that movement and the protection crew has since appealed to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket.
Learn’s second trial is scheduled to start on April 16.
