Prosecutors and protection attorneys agreeing on one thing for as soon as?
Each Karen Learn’s legal professionals and the Norfolk DA’s Workplace are collectively pushing for a delay to her high-profile homicide trial subsequent 12 months.
The opposing sides on Monday filed a joint movement to proceed the trial date from Jan. 27 to April 1, 2025.
The movement was from Learn’s attorneys, Alan Jackson and David Yannetti, together with the particular prosecutor for the Norfolk DA’s Workplace, Hank Brennan.
“The joint request will allow both the Commonwealth and defense adequate time to prepare for the trial, accommodate the schedule of new witnesses, including expert witnesses, will allow for the testing and disclosures by the experts timely before trial, and will result in a far more efficient and streamlined presentation of evidence by both parties,” the Norfolk DA’s particular prosecutor and Learn’s protection attorneys wrote.
Learn, 44, of Mansfield, was charged in Norfolk Superior Court docket on June 9, 2022, with second-degree homicide (Rely 1), motorcar manslaughter (Rely 2), and leaving the scene of a collision inflicting loss of life (Rely 3).
She’s accused of mowing down her boyfriend of two years, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, together with her SUV and leaving him to freeze and die on a Canton entrance garden within the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
A trial ended on July 1 with a hung jury, and a brand new trial is scheduled to start on Jan. 27. Learn’s attorneys shortly after the primary trial ended mentioned that jurors got here ahead to say that they have been unanimously able to acquit Learn on Counts 1 and three, and have been solely held on Rely 2 however didn’t know methods to point out a partial verdict.
This data, Learn’s group argues, means she ought to solely be retried on the manslaughter cost within the upcoming proceedings. Norfolk Superior Court docket Decide Beverly Cannone disagreed and denied their movement, so Learn’s group took it to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court docket. Norfolk prosecutors are combating again there, and a decision is pending.
In the meantime, the Norfolk DA’s Workplace not too long ago filed a discover that they intend to re-test forensic proof forward of the second trial.
“Further, the Commonwealth has provided notice to the defense that it has retained a biomechanical engineer who is expected to testify at trial,” reads Monday’s joint movement.
The timeframe of that forensic testing is unclear as of now. The Norfolk DA’s Workplace additionally mentioned it expects to have new specialists testify through the second trial, and the protection will want time to answer such specialists.
The joint movement reads, “The Commonwealth is doing everything in its power to be as expeditious as possible to properly prepare for this trial and ensure the defendant is given a fair trial.”
