Opening statements are anticipated Tuesday within the trial of Karen Learn, who’s accused of inflicting the loss of life of her Boston police officer boyfriend however whose supporters contend is being framed for a homicide she didn’t commit.
Watch Stay: Karen Learn opening statements immediately
Prosecutors say Learn backed her SUV into John O’Keefe after dropping him off at a celebration and returned hours later to search out him lifeless. Protection attorneys say she was a sufferer of a conspiracy involving the police they usually plan, as they did within the first trial, to supply proof pointing to the true killer.
9 males and 9 ladies had been chosen to function the 12 jurors and 6 alternates.
Learn has been charged with second-degree homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene. A mistrial was declared final 12 months after jurors stated they had been at an deadlock. The second trial will look very similar to the primary, with the identical choose, most of the similar witnesses and several other of the distinguished protection attorneys.
A rocky relationship comes underneath scrutiny
Learn had labored as a monetary analyst and a Bentley Faculty adjunct professor earlier than being charged within the loss of life of O’Keefe, who was 46 when he died. The 16-year police veteran was discovered unresponsive outdoors the house of a fellow Boston police officer.
After an evening out ingesting, prosecutors say Learn, who’s 45, dropped O’Keefe on the home celebration simply after midnight. As she made a three-point flip, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe earlier than driving away. She returned hours later to search out him in a snowbank.
As on the first trial, prosecutors will attempt to persuade jurors that Learn’s actions had been intentional. They’re anticipated to name witnesses who will describe how the couple’s relationship had begun to bitter earlier than O’Keefe’s loss of life, together with his brother and sister-in-law, who testified that Learn informed her the couple had argued in Aruba after she caught O’Keefe kissing one other lady.
The protection blames a 3rd celebration for O’Keefe’s loss of life
The protection is predicted to painting the investigation into O’Keefe’s loss of life as shoddy and undermined by the shut relationship investigators had with the cops and different legislation enforcement brokers who had been on the home celebration.
Among the many key witnesses they are going to name is former State Trooper Michael Proctor, who led the investigation however has since been fired after a disciplinary board discovered he despatched sexist and crude texts about Learn to his household and colleagues. He’s additionally on the prosecution’s witness listing.
Proctor’s testimony was a key second throughout the first trial, when the protection urged his texts about Learn and the case confirmed he was biased and had singled her out early within the investigation, ignoring different potential suspects.
In addition they are anticipated to recommend Learn was framed, saying O’Keefe was truly killed inside the house throughout a combat with one other partygoer after which dragged outdoors. Within the first trial, protection attorneys urged investigators targeted on Learn as a result of she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to think about legislation enforcement officers as suspects.
Forward of the second trial, the 2 sides sparred over whether or not Learn’s legal professionals will likely be allowed to argue that another person killed O’Keefe. Decide Beverly Cannone dominated Monday that attorneys can’t point out potential third-party culprits of their opening statements however will likely be allowed to develop proof towards Brian Albert, a retired police officer who owned the Canton residence, and his buddy Brian Higgins. Attorneys can not implicate Albert’s nephew, Colin Albert, the choose stated.
A town-commissioned audit of the Canton Police Division launched March 30 discovered a number of errors with the investigation however no proof of a cover-up. It urged that first responders ought to have photographed O’Keefe the place he was discovered earlier than he was moved and that each one interviews of “critical witnesses” ought to have been achieved on the division after O’Keefe was taken to a hospital.
The protection’s double jeopardy argument fails
Quickly after the mistrial, Learn’s legal professionals got down to get the principle expenses dropped.
They argued Decide Cannone declared a mistrial with out polling the jurors to substantiate their conclusions. Protection legal professional Martin Weinberg stated 5 jurors indicated after the trial that they had been solely deadlocked on the manslaughter rely and had unanimously agreed that she wasn’t responsible of second-degree homicide and leaving the scene, however that they hadn’t informed the choose.
The protection stated that as a result of jurors had agreed Learn wasn’t responsible of homicide and leaving the scene, retrying her on these counts would quantity to double jeopardy. However Cannone rejected that argument, as did the state’s highest courtroom, a federal courtroom choose, and an appeals courtroom.
Prosecutors had urged Cannone to dismiss the double jeopardy declare, saying it amounted to “hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.”
Assistant District Legal professional Adam Lally argued that the jurors by no means indicated they’d reached a verdict on any of the fees and that the protection had ample alternative to object to the mistrial declaration.
A brand new prosecutor steps in
The second trial will probably look much like the primary. It will likely be held in the identical courthouse earlier than the identical choose, and dozens of Learn’s passionate supporters are once more anticipated to rally outdoors. The fees, main protection legal professionals and most of the practically 200 witnesses will even be the identical.
The largest distinction would be the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. A former prosecutor and protection legal professional who was introduced in as a particular prosecutor after the mistrial, Brennan has represented a number of distinguished shoppers, together with infamous Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger, and consultants assume he is perhaps extra forceful than Lally was in arguing the case.
What proof will likely be supplied?
Prosecutors are more likely to depend on eyewitnesses from the scene within the early days of the trial, relying on testimony from cops and firefighters who recalled Learn making feedback that implicated her within the killing.
In addition they are more likely to introduce proof of a damaged taillight on Learn’s SUV that prosecutors argue was broken when she hit O’Keefe and potential DNA from O’Keefe discovered on her automobile.
The protection’s purpose is to lift doubts concerning the prosecution case and plant the seed that she was framed. They’re anticipated to introduce proof of a sloppy police investigation, together with the failure to look the home and errors within the police log.
In addition they are anticipated to recommend {that a} hair discovered on the taillight was planted and the police investigation was marred by a battle of curiosity.
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