Karen Read asks Supreme Court to halt second trial in ex-boyfriend John O’Keefe’s death

Karen Read, who is facing murder charges in Massachusetts over the death of her ex-boyfriend, asked the Supreme Court to halt her upcoming trial in a filing Monday.

Her attorneys argue that in her first trial last year the jury agreed unanimously that Ms. Read was not guilty of second-degree murder and a separate charge over leaving the scene of a collision where a death occurred. But the jury was deadlocked on the third charge, of manslaughter.

The jury’s complete findings, though, were never announced because a mistrial was declared when the panel declared itself hopelessly deadlocked. As a result, the decisions to acquit on some of the charges never became legally official.

The petition, which was presented to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, says bringing at least the first two charges against her would be charging her twice for the same crime.

“Read’s petition contends that her scheduled retrial on two of the three counts pending against her, including a charge of second-degree murder, will violate the Double Jeopardy Clause because the jury in her first trial reached a final and unanimous, but unannounced, decision that she is not guilty of those charges,” read her filing.

“Read’s petition contends that the jury’s decision that she is not guilty of Counts 1 and 3 constitutes an acquittal and precludes re-prosecution on those counts,” it read.

Jury selection in her second trial has begun and it’s set to continue unless the high court intervenes.

Ms. Read’s lawyers learned of the previous jury’s findings after a juror came forward with the information, which was then later confirmed by others with inside information about the jury’s deliberation. They said the jury form was confusing.

Ms. Read was charged in June 2022 with three indictments related to second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in a death.

Prosecutors charge that she killed her boyfriend John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, after hitting him with her car and leaving him outside during a snowstorm the previous January. She has denied any wrongdoing.

Ms. Read has argued she is being framed by other police officers.

Her first trial began in April 2024, but a mistrial was announced July 1, 2024.