DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) 鈥� Karen Read鈥檚 began Tuesday with a prosecutor saying the defendant鈥檚 own words will bolster evidence that she killed her police officer boyfriend three years ago and a defense attorney calling the case 鈥渢he definition of reasonable doubt.鈥�
Read is accused of striking her boyfriend, John O鈥橩eefe, with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party in Canton, a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Boston. She with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
Prosecutors say Read intentionally backed into O鈥橩eefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense says that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O鈥橩eefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.
A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.
The biggest difference in the current trial is the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. Brought in as a special prosecutor after the mistrial, the former defense attorney has represented a number of prominent clients, including notorious Boston gangster James 鈥淲hitey鈥� Bulger.
Brennan began his opening statement Tuesday by describing the firefighter who raced to the scene in near-blizzard conditions and found Read and two other women surrounding O鈥橩eefe鈥檚 body on the ground.
鈥淗e stepped out into bedlam,鈥� he said.
The firefighter then asked Read what had happened, he said.
鈥淵ou鈥檒l hear her words, 鈥橧 hit him. I hit him. I hit him,鈥� Brennan said. 鈥淪he admitted what she had done that night.鈥�
Brennan told jurors that 鈥渇acts and data鈥� will lead them to the truth, and that Read鈥檚 own statements will confirm it. He played a clip from a television interview in which Read said, 鈥淚 mean, I didn鈥檛 think I 鈥榟it him鈥� hit him, but could I have clipped him? Could I have tagged him in the knee and incapacitated him? He didn鈥檛 look mortally wounded, as far as I could see. Could I have done something that knocked him out, and in his drunkenness and in the cold, he didn鈥檛 come to again?鈥�
But Defense Attorney Alan Jackson began his opening statement by saying the prosecution鈥檚 case was based on a 鈥渂razen and flawed assertion that is untethered to the facts and the evidence.鈥�
鈥淛ohn O'Keefe did not die from being hit by a vehicle,鈥� he said. "The facts will show that. The evidence will show that. The data will show that. The science will show that and the experts will tell you that.鈥�
Many of the factors that made the must-see television will feature in the second. Most of the same witnesses are back as are Read鈥檚 aggressive defense team and dozens of her supporters camped out near the courthouse 鈥� many carrying 鈥淔ree Karen Read鈥� signs and wearing pink. Read, who has been featured in several documentaries about her case, has become a minor celebrity.
On Tuesday, a few dozen of Read's supporters, many holding American flags, stood in front of the courthouse before moving a block away to comply with a court-ordered buffer zone. Those who were reuniting hugged each other, while others took time to bring newcomers up to speed on the case.
鈥淚'm here for justice,鈥� said Ashlyn Wade, a Read supporter from Canton. 鈥淭he murderer going to jail and Karen being exonerated, that would be justice.鈥�
The prosecution, however, stands to benefit from a pretrial ruling from Judge Beverly Cannone barring defense attorneys from mentioning potential third-party culprits in their opening statements. They can develop a case against two law enforcement officers but cannot implicate Albert鈥檚 nephew, Colin Albert, as they did in the first trial.
鈥淚 view it as a blow to the defense strategy but not a knockout punch,鈥� Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University, said of the ruling. 鈥淎ll the defense needs to do is create reasonable doubt about Karen (Read's) guilt, and that doesn鈥檛 require pointing to an alternative perpetrator as a matter of law.鈥�
Jackson called the prosecution's case 鈥渢he literal definition of reasonable doubt" in his opening statement and said the heavy burden of proof will not be met given that "every piece of this case was handled by a disgraced investigator with a motive to protect his friends鈥�
鈥淏y the end of this trial, you鈥檒l conclude that Karen Read is not guilty," he said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 the victim of a botched and biased and corrupted investigation that was never about the truth, folks. It was about preserving loyalty.鈥�
One of the key witnesses will be former State Trooper Michael Proctor. He led the investigation but after a disciplinary board found that he sent about Read to his family and colleagues. Jackson called him a 鈥渃ancer鈥� that infected every step of the investigation and characterized him as both the key to the state's case and its Achilles' heel.
Legal experts expect prosecutors to focus on as they did during the first trial 鈥� her volatile relationship with O'Keefe and their night of heavy drinking. They also predict the prosecution will lay out a stronger and more coherent case that Read clipped O'Keefe with the back of her SUV and sent him tumbling to the ground 鈥� using data from her car, video and stronger expert testimony.
鈥淭he Commonwealth will focus on the theme drilled into us since middle school 鈥� Drinking, Driving, Deadly Consequences,鈥� Michael Coyne, the dean of Massachusetts School of Law at Andover, said in an email.
Michael Casey, The Associated Press
