It was an uncommon day within the case of Karen Read: a extra subdued motions listening to because the almost 2-year-old case strikes nearer towards trial.
“I don’t want to change the trial date for this,” Judge Beverly Cannone stated from the Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham Friday. “This case will go to trial March 12th.”
The case of Read, a Mansfield lady indicted for the homicide of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe — her boyfriend of two years on the time — in late January 2022, has ignited passionate followers who’ve handled the proceedings nearly like sporting occasions.
Waves of individuals, most of whom appear to be on the protection’s facet, attend each listening to. Most of them keep outdoors across the courthouse steps with indicators calling for Read’s case to be dismissed or blaring protection principle tropes that time towards the culpability at two others for O’Keefe’s demise. Other followers pack the courtroom gallery.
Another 125 or extra individuals signed on to Zoom to comply with the listening to remotely. At one level a person may very well be heard saying “Free Karen Read, free Turtleboy” from Zoom. The court docket clerk rapidly muted him.
Friday’s listening to passed off on the final day for evidentiary motions to be filed earlier than the trial takes place — tentatively scheduled for March 12, a date Judge Cannone appears decided to maintain.
Prosecutor Adam Lally and protection attorneys David Yannetti, Alan Jackson and Elizabeth Little argued over a sequence of motions, which Cannone took beneath advisement however didn’t instantly rule on.
The first was a protection movement requesting entry to communications involving Jennifer McCabe and Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor and his spouse Elizabeth Proctor. The protection has argued that there’s a “personal relationship” between McCabe and Proctor, who’s an MSP detective assigned to analyze the Read case.
The protection has leveled a third-party culpability principle to exculpate Read for O’Keefe’s homicide and have fingered McCabe and Boston Police Officer Brian Albert, the proprietor of the house at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, the place O’Keefe’s physique could be present in heavy snow within the entrance yard, as these finally chargeable for O’Keefe’s demise.
Kevin Reddington, a lawyer for McCabe, argued in opposition to the protection getting access to these data. He stated it was not solely a violation of his consumer’s privateness however he additionally disparaged the reasoning behind the movement, stating that the connection between McCabe and Trooper Proctor was distant at greatest.
This is a creating story.
Source: www.bostonherald.com”