Who to know earlier than the Karen Learn retrial begins

Listed below are the folks it’s best to know forward of the Karen Learn retrial beginning with jury empanelment on Tuesday.

Additionally learn: The Herald’s information to the main developments forward of the retrial.

The sufferer: John O’Keefe was a 16-year Boston Police officer when he died at 46 within the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022. He was “not only a dedicated police officer, he was an exemplary guardian, son, brother, uncle and friend and we were so fortunate to have him as a part of our lives,” said a GoFundMe to help his niece and nephew financially after O’Keefe’s dying. The rationale for the drive was as a result of O’Keefe took the youngsters in when his older sister and her husband, Kristen and Stephen Furbush, each died in 2013 and 2014. O’Keefe’s mom, Peggy O’Keefe, and youthful brother, Paul O’Keefe, are mainstays within the prosecution gallery of the courtroom.

The accused: Karen Learn, 45, is accused of backing her Lexus LX570 SUV into O’Keefe, her boyfriend of almost two years on the time, at maybe 24 mph forward of a serious snowstorm and leaving him to freeze and die on the entrance garden of 34 Fairview Street in Canton. The Mansfield monetary analyst and Bentley School lecturer was first charged in Stoughton District Court docket on Feb. 2, 2022, simply days after O’Keefe’s dying. She was indicted for O’Keefe’s homicide that June. She has pleaded not responsible and has been out on bail the complete time. Her mother and father, William and Janet Learn and brother Nathan Learn attend each listening to.

The protection

Boston legal professional David Yannetti has represented Learn from the start and stays on the protection desk. Learn employed Los Angeles attorneys Alan Jackson and Elizabeth Little, well-known for defending Kevin Spacey in Nantucket, to the crew in September 2022.

The protection crew has expanded even additional after the primary trial. It added Boston legal professional Martin Weinberg, normally a federal courtroom specialist, as “limited appearance counsel” for Learn per week after the mistrial to argue the dismissal motions and federal appeals. Learn then added New York Metropolis-based Robert Alessi to the crew final November and he has already been a daily motions arguer in pre-trial hearings and Yannetti says will “be with us for the re-trial, from start-to-finish.” Lastly, on Wednesday, the crew added legal professional Victoria George, a controversial choose as she was an alternate juror within the final Learn trial.

The prosecution

The 2 prosecutors from the primary trial, Adam Lally and Laura McLaughlin, are nonetheless a part of the crew for the retrial however there’s a new chief on the prosecution crew: longtime protection lawyer Hank Brennan. He famously defended notorious Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger in his 2013 federal felony case after which Bulger was sentenced to two consecutive life phrases.

Norfolk DA Michael Morrissey, who’s himself listed on the protection witness listing as a result of they accuse him of meddling within the case by issuing a public assertion decrying their principle, appointed Brennan as particular prosecutor final September.

Lastly, Caleb Schillinger represented the prosecution in the course of the protection’s appeals to the Supreme Judicial Court docket and the federal courts.

The decide: Norfolk Superior Court docket Decide Beverly J. Cannone is returning for spherical two. The Quincy native and longtime public defender was first appointed as a Quincy District Court docket decide in 2009 and was appointed to the Superior Court docket by by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2014.

Third-partiers: The protection has mounted what known as a “third party culprit” protection, at the very least in apply. Yannetti has named three folks as doable different culprits: Brian Albert, a BPD sergeant who owned the property that was the location of O’Keefe’s dying; Brian Higgins, an ATF agent and Albert’s good friend who was there that evening and has romantic curiosity in Learn; and Colin Albert, Brian Albert’s nephew, who the protection argues had beef with O’Keefe. The speculation hinges largely on one other individual they are saying is concerned within the conspiracy: Jennifer McCabe, who made an online seek for “hos long to die in cold” at a hotly contested time.

The blogger: Holden-based Aidan Kearney blogs, produces movies and runs a social media empire below the “Turtleboy” model that because the protection first unveiled their principle has turn out to be a hotbed of zealously pro-Learn content material. He serves because the de facto chief of the “Free Karen Read” motion and is indicted himself on greater than a dozen counts of witness intimidation within the Learn case. Kearney covers the trial and his followers will possible be seen — carrying Learn-support pink — simply exterior the “buffer zone” across the courthouse.

Initially Revealed: March 29, 2025 at 9:43 PM EDT