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Karen Read’s lawyers say a fifth juror has confirmed the jury was a unanimous ‘not guilty’ on murder charge
The juror allegedly said the jury was only deadlocked on the count of OUI manslaughter and its lesser included offenses.
Another juror in Karen Read’s murder trial has confirmed the jury unofficially decided to acquit Read of two of the three charges against her, including second-degree murder, lawyers for the Mansfield woman said Thursday.
More on Karen Read:
The juror, identified in court documents as “Juror E,” contacted defense attorney Alan Jackson and said the jury unanimously agreed Read was “not guilty” of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, Jackson said in a new affidavit.
According to Jackson, “Juror E went on to state that the only count on which the jury was deadlocked was in relation to the ‘lower charges’ on Count 2,” manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence. The OUI manslaughter charge carried lesser included offenses of involuntary manslaughter and motor vehicle homicide.
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Read, 44, is accused of intentionally backing her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, outside a home in Canton following a night of drinking in January 2022. Her lawyers maintain she was framed in a vast coverup, and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten inside the home and dumped outside in the snow.
Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in Read’s case earlier this month after jurors said they were deadlocked and “starkly divided” over the evidence.
However, Read’s lawyers now say they’ve heard from five jurors — three directly, two indirectly — that the jury had actually reached a unanimous “not guilty” conclusion on two of the charges. The defense has filed a motion to dismiss those charges, though prosecutors allege their request is “premised upon hearsay, conjecture, and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.”
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Read is due back in court for a status conference on Monday.
Read Alan Jackson’s latest affidavit:
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