Karen Read Judge warns lawyers for ‘misrepresentations’

Crime

“According to all the evidence, I conclude that … the required frankness of all lawyers has not been shown here,” said Judge Beverly Cannone on Tuesday.

By Abby Patkin

Updated on March 18, 2025 | 1:05 pm

6 minutes to read

Karen LeeThe lawyers received a severe warning on Tuesday from the judge that supervises their case of murder, who said that lawyers have made “repeated misrepresentations” with respect to accident reconstructionists who previously testified the defense.

The defense team scrutiny For its management of Experts from Arcca Inc., an engineering consulting firm initially hired by federal authorities to investigate the case. While Read lawyers previously indicated that experts were working independently and had not paid the defense, later admitted having paid experts Almost $ 24,000 after the null trial of last year of Read.

“According to all the evidence, I conclude that … the required frankness of all lawyers has not been shown here,” said Judge Beverly Cannone on Tuesday. “I find that the defense lawyer has made repeated misrepresentations in court, and concluded that they were deliberate regarding the relationship with the witnesses of Arcca.”

Cannone also found a “flagrant violation” of the defense team Rule 14 obligations For sharing the discovery prior to the trial, although he called read for a sidebar before discussing possible sanctions. When pointing out the “strong desire” to read his legal team as he is, the judge finally refused to revoke permission for lawyers outside the state of Read to continue practicing the law in Massachusetts.

Cannone also denied the motion of prosecutors to prevent Arcca witnesses from testifying at the next new Read trial, although he concluded his comments with a strong warning for the defense.

“The frankness with the court is essential,” said Cannone. “It is the fundamental obligation of all lawyers who appear in this court and all courts in Massachusetts. A lawyer is as good as his word, and I need to be able to take advice in his word.

What was heard on Tuesday?

The prosecution and defense were in court on Tuesday to join the loose bass before the read trial next month. Dozens of pending motions remain, including a burst of requests prior to the trial, both parties presented during the last week. Many of them are Movements in Liminethat help determine the evidence, witnesses and the arguments that the Prosecutor’s Office and the defense can appear to the jury.

Reading, 45, is accused in the death of his boyfriend in January 2022, Boston police officer John O’Keefe. Prosecutors claim that drunk after a bar jumping night and deliberately backed their SUV in O’Keefe while leaving him at Canton’s house of Boston’s official partner Brian Albert.

However, Read lawyers argue that it was a “convenient strange” framed in a police conspiracy to protect Alberts, a well -connected local family. The defense has presented an alternative theory that O’Keefe entered the house for a later party and was beaten, attacked by the family’s dog and finally thrown out in the snow.

The first Read trial ended with a jury hanging last July. She must be judged again next month.

What are lawyers looking for?

As the second trial approaches, prosecutors are one more time Looking for Bar Read by raising a guilty defense of third parties to blame someone else for O’Kefe’s death. Meanwhile, the defense has asked Cannone to keep certain witnesses outside the courtroom before and after testifying. Brian Albert and other witnesses, including his sister -in -law Jennifer McCabe and his nephew Colin Albert, sat with O’Kefe family members during the final arguments in the trial of last year.

“At least one jury who was sitting in this case told a reporter in Vanity Fair that he felt intimidated by his presence in the final arguments, ”said defending lawyer Elizabeth Little.

Little requested that the witnesses be kidnapped from the Court Chamber “to protect there from being any kind of improper influence or intimidation or even the potential that a jury could feel that way, as we know that at least one did in this case.”

The special prosecutor Hank Brennan argued that the request “does not seem to have any basis in the law, in courtesy.”

Both parties also agreed on Tuesday not to train witnesses after having begun their testimony. Another defense request seeks to keep the Norfolk district prosecutor Michael Morrissey and the Massachusetts State Police out of contact with the jury.

The defense also sought to prohibit the mention of an incident that occurred during a group trip to read and O’Keefe took Aruba during the New Year’s Eve in 2021. During the first Read trial, two of O’Kefe’s friends, the sisters Laura and Marietta “Etta” Sullivan, they testified that. accused of anger o’Keefe to deceive her During the trip.

Although the prosecutors previously pointed out the incident of Aruba as evidence that the relationship was agitation, the defense lawyers argued that it is not relevant in the case of Read murder. This time, Brennan said prosecutors do not intend to introduce evidence on the incident of Aruba in his case in chief.

Another defense request seeks to exclude any mention from harassment Witnesses in the case have supposedly faced due to their connection. Several witnesses testified that they have been harassed by people who are not involved in the case, and defense lawyer Alan Jackson described his “inadmissible and very, highly harmful” testimony.

“There were very obviously vile acts that were described during the course of the first trial in the testimony of these witnesses,” Jackson said. “To the extent that they occurred, obviously they are not in any way, in any way, conded by the defense, by Mrs. Read, or any person related to the defense in this case. And in no way are they connected to Mrs. Read or defense.”

Brennan said he could understand the basis of Jackson’s application, “but turning it into a speech that absolutely challenges reality and seriously indicates the history and facts of this case are beyond me.”

Pointed out the communications of Read and Information exchange With the controversial blogger of Turtleboy Aidan Kearney, a firm defender of his innocence. Someone “would have to choose to be foreign” to believe that the information was not used to intimidate and harass witnesses, Brennan argued.

He also said that the interrogation of the defense team last year “opened the door” to the testimony about harassment, which would otherwise be part of the case of prosecutors. Jackson said defense lawyers would be aware of moving forward and could look for Cannone’s guide before asking certain questions. Cannone did not immediately intervene in the application on Tuesday.

Separately, prosecutors and defense lawyers have presented grieving motions about whether to admit that the results of a blood analysis read at the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton the morning that O’Keefe died. A former state forensic scientist previously testified that a retrograde analysis of the test results put the alcohol content in Read blood between 0.135% and 0.292% Around the moment the prosecutors say that O’Kefe was injured in death.

Prosecutors have also asked Cannone to restore the 200 feet damping zone She got around the Superior Court of Norfolk during the last Read trial. However, they are requesting an extended shock absorber on one side of the court after they say that protesters can still be heard inside during the jury’s deliberations. Prosecutors also request an application mechanism to ensure that the shock absorber does their job.

Another delay?

Before the audience ended for the day, Jackson asked Cannone to retreat the beginning of the Read’s light trial Federal Appeal Earrings. The defense is trying to say goodbye to two of the Read positions, arguing that the jury in his first trial agreed to acquit it for second degree murder and leave the scene of a fatal accident.

The matter is now before the United States Court of Appeals after a federal judge and the Supreme Judicial Court of the State denied the previous Read requests.

If the Federal Court of Appeals takes measures on the case of Read, “that would put the trial in agitation,” Jackson argued. While both parties intend to present their summaries earlier next week, it is not clear how long the court could take.

Cannone did not rule immediately, although he expressed concern about the time and resources that have been prepared for jury selection in April.

“Months and months ago, we obtained the jury commissioner’s office in this to obtain the number of jurors we need from April 1,” he said. “That process will take additional months … if we change the date. So that is very problematic.”

The lawyers are expected to discuss the matter more on Thursday.

Separate, Brennan said that the case of prosecutors is expected to take about three and a half weeks, or approximately 24 days, to appear at the trial. Jackson estimated that the defense case can spend a week and a half or two weeks.

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Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches public transport, crime, health and everything else.