DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the trial of Karen Read unanimously concluded she was not guilty of murder or of leaving the scene of a deadly accident, and were deadlocked on only the remaining manslaughter charge before the judge abruptly declared a mistrial, her defense team said Monday.
The disclosure was made in a defense motion Monday in which they argued that retrying Read on those two counts “would violate" the double jeopardy protections in the U.S. and Massachusetts constitutions. If the court needs additional information, the defense said, it should approve a “post-verdict inquiry” in which they are allowed to “seek additional proof from the jurors” regarding their having “unanimously acquitted the defendant of two of the three charges against her.”
Read's attorney Alan Jackson also submitted an affidavit detailing how he had been contacted directly by a juror, and Read's attorney David Yannetti submitted one in which he said that he had been contacted by two individuals who had received information “from two distinct jurors.”
In a statement, the Norfolk District Attorney's Office said it is “examining the motion in anticipation of filing a response. We look forward to picking a new trial date on July 22.”
Judge Beverly Cannone also ordered Monday that the names of the jurors in the case not be released. In making her ruling, she said there “is a risk of immediate and irreparable injury should the list be made available to the public at this time.”
She did not specify the potential risk but said that people associated with the case had been charged with intimidation.
Read was accused of ramming into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a snowstorm in January 2022.
A judge made the mistrial declaration on the fifth day of deliberations after jurors declared that they were hopelessly deadlocked. The defense said she announced the mistrial without questioning the jurors about the individual charges, and without giving lawyers for either side a chance to comment.
The motion filed in Norfolk County Superior Court said one juror told the defense team that jurors voted 12-0 to acquit Read of second-degree murder and of leaving the scene of an accident in which there was a death. The lawyers also received second- and third-hand accounts about two other jurors, both indicating there was agreement on acquitting Read of second-degree murder. The motion asked for the murder and leaving-the-scene charges to be dismissed.
Jurors were deadlocked, however, on the charge of manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, the juror told the attorneys.
Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, faced second-degree murder and other charges in the death of O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police who was found outside a Canton home of another Boston police officer. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
The defense contended O’Keefe was killed inside the home after Read dropped him off at the gathering and that the officers chose to frame her because she was a “convenient outsider.”
A turning point in the two-month trial came when the lead investigator, State Trooper Michael Proctor, was forced to acknowledge and apologize for sending offensive texts about Read to friends, family and fellow troopers during the investigation.
Proctor also admitted texting his sister that he wished Read would “kill herself,” which he claimed was a figure of speech and that “emotions got the best of me.” He apologized for some of the language he used but insisted they had no influence on the investigation.
Proctor acknowledged in his testimony that he is friends with the brother of Brian Albert and his wife — though he insisted it had no influence on the investigation and that he had never been to their house before O’Keefe’s death. Brian Albert is a Boston police officer who hosted the house party in Canton where O’Keefe’s body was found in the front yard.
Massachusetts State Police relieved Proctor of duty after the trial, saying the move followed the agency’s previous decision to open an internal affairs investigation about potential serious misconduct.
On Monday, the state police hearing board ruled that Proctor should be suspended without pay. An internal affairs investigation into Proctor is ongoing.
The State Police Association did not respond to a request for comment and a phone number for Proctor could not be found.
Defense attorneys David Yannetti, center left, and Alan Jackson, center, speak to reporters as Karen Read, center right, looks on in front of Norfolk Superior Court, Monday, July 1, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. A judge declared a mistrial Monday after jurors deadlocked in the case of Read, who was accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by striking him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Karen Read smiles during a news conference in front of Norfolk Superior Court, Monday, July 1, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. A judge declared a mistrial Monday after jurors deadlocked in the case of Read, who was accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend by striking him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
An Israeli airstrike hit a mosque in central Gaza and Palestinian officials said at least 19 people were killed early Sunday. Israeli planes also lit up the skyline across the southern suburbs of Beirut, striking what the military said were Hezbollah targets.
The strike in Gaza hit a mosque where displaced people were sheltering near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. Another four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.
The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men, while another man was wounded.
In Beirut, the strikes reportedly targeted a building near a road leading to Lebanon’s only international airport and another formerly used by the Hezbollah-run broadcaster Al-Manar.
Israel and Hezbollah have traded fire across the Lebanon border almost daily since the day after Hamas’ cross-border attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 Israelis and took 250 others hostage. Israel declared war on the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip in response. As the Israel-Hamas war reaches the one-year mark, nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in the territory, and just over half the dead have been women and children, according to local health officials.
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed in Lebanon in the latest conflict, most of them since Sept. 23, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
Here is the latest:
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said one person was killed and 10 others were wounded in a stabbing and shooting attack in the southern city of Beersheba.
Sunday’s attack at the city’s central bus station came on the eve of the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack into Israel, which ignited the war in Gaza. The country is on high alert as it prepares to hold memorial ceremonies.
Israel’s police did not identify the assailant but said they were treating it as a terror attack. Palestinians have carried out a number of stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks since the war began.
The attack comes a few days after seven people were killed in a shooting attack in Tel Aviv last Monday. In that attack, two Palestinian men opened fire on a crowd inside the city’s light rail and around the station before being killed by security forces in the area.
VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis issued a new appeal for peace “on every front” is his Sunday Angelus prayer and spoke of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas against Israel.
“Brothers and sisters, tomorrow it will be a year since the terrorist attack by Hamas against the people of Israel, to whom I renew my closeness,” the pontiff said. He called for the “immediate liberation" of the hostages still held in Gaza.
The pope called for a day of prayer and fasting on Monday, the first anniversary of the attack - which he said sparked a war that has taken a heavy toll on Palestinian civilians in Gaza.
“From that day the Middle East has fallen into worse suffering because of destructive military actions that continue to hit the Palestinian people,” the pontiff said. "It is most of all innocent civilians, they must receive the necessary humanitarian aid.”
The pope repeated his plea for “an immediate ceasefire on every front," including Lebanon.
"Let’s pray for Lebanese people, especially for the people in the south forced to leave their villages.”
TEL AVIV, Israel — Ahead of the anniversary of Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli military on Sunday displayed thousands of weapons seized from the militant group.
The military, which created the display at a sprawling army base south of Tel Aviv, said it has retrieved more than 5,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Gaza and destroyed double that number, as well as seized thousands of other items including drones, explosives, RPGs, scuba equipment, machine guns, sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and weapons manufactured both inside Gaza and in Iran, Russia and North Korea.
The army also displayed homemade explosives it said Hamas used to burst through the border barrier on Oct. 7. It said they were crafted specifically after years of studying Israel’s border during years of Hamas-organized violent protests along the fence, including as early as 2018.
“What Hamas did on Oct. 7 was storm Israel with all their abilities at one time,” said military spokesperson Lt. Col. Nadav Shoshani. He said that the Israeli military had seized the weapons from Hamas, and Hezbollah in Lebanon, to study the types of weapons used as well as track where they came from.
As Israel prepares for a day of somber memorials marking a year since the attacks, the military said it was increasing troop presence in Israel’s south to protect memorials taking place along the Gaza border.
A large memorial planned by bereaved families was expected to draw a crowd of more than 40,000 in Tel Aviv, but will be broadcast with only direct family members and media in attendance due to warnings from the military of possible rocket attacks from Lebanon.
BEIRUT — The southern suburbs of Beirut were hit by more than 30 strikes overnight, the heaviest bombardment since Sept. 23, when Israel began a significant escalation in its air campaign against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency reported Sunday.
The targets included a gas station on the main highway leading to the Beirut airport and a warehouse for medical supplies, the agency said.
Some of the overnight strikes set off a long series of explosions, suggesting that ammunition stores may have been hit.
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron called for “a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza,” saying it's urgent to avoid escalating tensions in the region, his office said.
Macron drew strong criticism from Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by saying "the priority is … that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza.” He made the comments in an interview with France Inter radio, which was recorded on Tuesday and aired Saturday.
France doesn’t deliver any weapons to Israel, Macron said.
Netanyahu released a video statement in which he called out the French president by name and referred to such calls as a “disgrace.”
In a statement, Macron’s office said “France is Israel’s unfailing friend. Mr. Netanyahu’s words are excessive and irrelevant to the friendship between France and Israel.”
“We must return to diplomatic solutions,” it added.
The statement also said that Macron had demonstrated his commitment to Israel's security when France mobilized its military resources in response to the Iranian attack. French authorities did not provided details about France’s role.
Macron has called for an immediate cease-fire in both Gaza and Lebanon.
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — An apparent Israeli airstrike early Sunday killed at least 18 people in central Gaza, Palestinian medical officials said.
The strike hit a mosque sheltering displaced people near the al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah, the hospital said in a statement.
An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead were all men. Another two men were critically wounded, the hospital said.
The Israeli military did not immediately comment about the strike on the mosque.
The latest strikes add to the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza, which is now nearing 42,000 according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. The ministry does not differentiate between civilian and militant deaths, but many of the dead were women and children.
BEIRUT — Powerful new explosions rocked Beirut’s southern suburbs late Saturday as Israel expanded its bombardment in Lebanon, also striking a Palestinian refugee camp deep in the north for the first time as it targeted both Hezbollah and Hamas fighters.
Thousands of people in Lebanon, including Palestinian refugees, continued to flee the widening conflict in the region, while rallies were held around the world marking the approaching anniversary of the start of the war in Gaza.
The strong explosions began near midnight after Israel’s military urged residents to evacuate areas in Beirut’s Haret Hreik and Choueifat neighborhoods. AP video showed the blasts illuminating the densely populated southern suburbs, where Hezbollah has a strong presence. They followed a day of sporadic strikes and the nearly continuous buzz of reconnaissance drones.
Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory.
Smoke rises from a destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
A man checks the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Emergency workers inspect a building that was hit in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Israeli soldiers pray at a staging area in northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
An Israeli soldier prays at a staging area in northern Israel, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People check the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Smoke rises from a destroyed building at the site of an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)
Mourners gather around the bodies of Palestinian men who were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Deir al-Balah, Gaza, Sunday, Oct. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)
