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Karen Read case: Reporter will not be ordered to turn over off-the-record notes
Judge Beverly Cannone's ruling comes as another national media outlet announces a docuseries on Karen Read's case.
A Boston magazine journalist who penned a 2023 deep dive into the Karen Read murder case will not have to turn over her handwritten notes from an off-the-record interview with Read, Judge Beverly Cannone said Friday.
Cannone’s ruling marked the reversal of an earlier order granting prosecutors’ request for unredacted recordings, notes, and correspondence between Read and reporter Gretchen Voss. Voss had filed a motion urging Cannone to reconsider her previous decision, arguing the confidential notes were different than Voss’s on-the-record material.
After reviewing the notes in question and hearing from several First Amendment and journalism advocacy organizations, Cannone ultimately agreed.
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“The Court concludes that the content of the ‘off the record’ notes at issue are of a different character than the unredacted recordings of the ‘on the record’ interviews produced pursuant to the Court’s previous Order,” the judge wrote.
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Voss, she added, “has articulated a compelling argument that requiring disclosure of the notes poses a greater risk to the free flow of information than the other materials produced.”
Boston magazine is now owned by Boston Globe Media Partners, which also owns Boston.com.
Prosecutors allege Read, 44, deliberately backed her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, following a drunken argument outside another officer’s home in Canton in January 2022. But Read’s lawyers say she was a “convenient outsider” framed in a widespread coverup, suggesting instead that O’Keefe was attacked after entering the home for a party.
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Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury last July. She’s due to stand trial again in April.
Separately, Read’s lawyers have appealed to the state’s Supreme Judicial Court in a bid to drop two of the charges against her, and O’Keefe’s family has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Read and the two Canton bars she and O’Keefe visited in the hours before he died. The SJC has yet to rule on Read’s appeal, and the wrongful death lawsuit against Read is on hold pending her criminal trial.
In the meantime, the high-profile case continues to captivate mainstream media and true crime fanatics alike.
The Investigation Discovery network announced a three-part series on the case Monday, joining ABC, NBC, Fox News, and myriad other national outlets in covering the sensational case. “A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read” will premiere over three nights from March 17 to 19, with episodes available to stream on Max.
Netflix has also said it’s working on a three-part documentary about the case.
Read returns to court for a hearing Feb. 6.
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