Crime

Karen Read returns to court for final hearing before retrial

The countdown is on to Karen Read's second murder trial, and she and her lawyers were back at Norfolk Superior Court Wednesday to tie up some loose ends.

Karen Read, left, and defense attorney Alan Jackson address potential jurors in front of Judge Beverly J. Cannone during jury selection on Monday, April 14, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe

By Abby Patkin

updated on April 16, 2025

1 minute to read

The countdown is on to Karen Read’s second murder trial, and she and her lawyers were back at Norfolk Superior Court Wednesday for a hearing to tie up some loose ends.

The lawyers argued over several matters, including anticipated expert testimony, the admissibility of internal affairs findings against law enforcement personnel, and prosecutors’ request for an independent reader to recite text messages Read exchanged with her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.

More on Karen Read:

Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in O’Keefe’s January 2022 death. Prosecutors contend Read rammed O’Keefe with her SUV in a drunken rage while dropping him off at a house party hosted by Brian Albert, another Boston officer.

However, Read’s lawyers allege she was framed in a widespread coverup intended to protect Albert’s well-connected family and friends. The defense has floated an alternate theory that O’Keefe was attacked after joining the afterparty at Albert’s home in Canton.

Judge Beverly Cannone previously ruled Read’s lawyers can raise a third-party culprit defense during her trial, though she barred them from trying to suggest that Brian Albert’s nephew, Colin Albert, was in some way responsible for killing O’Keefe. While skeptical, Cannone offered the defense more leeway for their claims purportedly implicating Brian Albert and one of his friends, Brian Higgins.

Higgins was also present at Albert’s home early on Jan. 29, 2022, and defense attorney David Yannetti suggested Higgins had motive to harm O’Keefe after exchanging flirty texts with Read, who “ghosted” Higgins shortly before her boyfriend’s death.

The upcoming trial will be Read’s second, after her first murder trial ended with a hung jury last July. Jury selection for the retrial wrapped Tuesday, and Cannone set opening statements for April 22.