Karen Read's defense pushes to get charges dropped in her murder case

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Karen Read's defense pushes to get charges dropped in her murder case

2024-10-25 09:12 Last Updated At：09:20

BOSTON (AP) — Attorneys for Karen Read filed a motion to the state's highest court Thursday in an attempt to bolster earlier arguments that two of her charges in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend should be dismissed.

Their brief was in response to one filed by prosecutors earlier this month to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, arguing against dropping the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene — leaving only a manslaughter charge.

Read is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. Read’s attorneys argue she is being framed and that other law enforcement officers are responsible for O’Keefe’s death. A judge declared a mistrial in June after finding that jurors couldn’t reach an agreement. A retrial on the same charges is set to begin in January.

The defense brief argues that trying Read again on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene would be unconstitutional double jeopardy.

The defense attorneys said five jurors came forward after her mistrial to say that they were deadlocked only on a manslaughter count and had agreed that she wasn’t guilty on the other counts. But they hadn't told the judge.

The defense also argues that affidavits from the jurors “reflect a clear and unambiguous decision that Ms. Read is not guilty” and support their request for a evidentiary hearing on whether the jurors found her not guilty on the two charges.

Read's defense attorneys cited a ruling in the case of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, in which a federal appeals court earlier this year ordered the judge who oversaw his trial to investigate the defense’s claims of juror bias and determine whether his death sentence should stand.

"Under the Commonwealth’s logic, no defendant claiming that the jury acquitted her but failed to announce that verdict would be entitled to further inquiry, no matter how clear and well-supported her claim," according to the defense brief.

The defense also argued that the judge abruptly announced the mistrial in court without first asking each juror to confirm their conclusions about each count.

“There is no indication that the court gave any consideration to alternatives, most notably inquiry regarding partial verdicts,” according to the defense brief. “And counsel was not given a full opportunity to be heard. The court never asked for counsel’s views, or even mentioned the word mistrial.”

In August, a judge ruled Read can be retried on those charges. “Where there was no verdict announced in open court here, retrial of the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy,” the judge, Beverly Cannone, said in her ruling.

In its brief to the court, prosecutors wrote that there’s no basis for dismissing the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of the accident.

They noted in the brief that the jury said three times that it was deadlocked before a mistrial was declared. Prosecutors said the “defendant was afforded a meaningful opportunity to be heard on any purported alternative.”

“The defendant was not acquitted of any charge because the jury did not return, announce, and affirm any open and public verdicts of acquittal,” they wrote. “That requirement is not a mere formalism, ministerial act, or empty technicality. It is a fundamental safeguard that ensures no juror’s position is mistaken, misrepresented, or coerced by other jurors.”

Prosecutors said Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away. An autopsy found O’Keefe had died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.

The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.

Obama, Springsteen boost Harris as she warns of ‘brutally serious’ consequences if Trump wins

2024-10-25 09:15 Last Updated At：09:20

CLARKSTON, Ga. (AP) — Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama lent their star power to Kamala Harris’ quest for the presidency on Thursday, as the vice president implored Georgia voters to consider the “brutally serious” consequences if Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.

Harris asked voters to imagine who'll be sitting in the Oval Office just three months from now and think about the new president's priorities.

“It’s either Donald Trump in there stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list,” she said. “You have the power to make that decision.”

The presence of Springsteen, whose career spans five decades, and former President Obama, still one of the biggest names in Democratic politics, highlights how Harris is leaning on some of the most noteworthy names in the party to help her deliver her closing message and lambast her opponent.

Obama, who got a rousing reception from the rally crowd at a packed high school football stadium outside Atlanta, told his audience, “I get why people are looking to shake things up, but what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump would shake things up in ways that are good for you."

Harris echoed that message in her speech, warning that “the consequences of him being president again are brutally serious.”

The lengthy rally ran well behind schedule and seemingly took a toll on attendees. While the vast majority of seats remained full, hundreds of people streamed out of the event early as Harris spoke after hours of programming.

The other speakers wasted no time attacking Trump.

Obama argued his successor was always “trying to sell you stuff,” was someone who only cares about "his ego, his money, his status,” and regularly gives lengthy speeches that are “just word salad."

“We do not need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator,” Obama said before offering Harris as someone “ready for the job.”

After arguing Trump is focused only on himself, Obama added, “If you elect Kamala Harris ... she will be focused on you."

Springsteen, too, focused on Trump.

After a performance of “The Promised Land," a ballad off his 1978 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Springsteen told the Georgia audience he was backing Harris because he wants “a president who reveres the Constitution.”

“There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear, Kamala Harris. She’s running to be the 47th president of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant," Springsteen added before playing "Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Dancing in the Dark.”

The Trump campaign called Harris' use of Obama and Springsteen “a desperate, last-ditch effort to salvage her spiraling campaign.”

“Relying on celebrities is nothing new for the party of Hollywood elites — and as voters realize the depths of Kamala’s incompetence and radicalism, she needs an added draw,” the campaign said in a statement.

Harris' rally in Clarkston — an eastern Atlanta suburb — reflected the suburb’s reputation as the “most diverse square mile in America.” The community has taken in waves of immigrants and refugees, and 40% of its population was foreign-born in 2020.

The DJ working the crowd before the event started called out not only to graduates of historically Black colleges and universities, but to West Indians. Among those in the snaking line to enter were people of Asian descent and women in hijabs.

Many attendees said they were trying to push their relatives and neighbors to the polls to vote for Harris, either through formal volunteer efforts or on their own. “I decided to go volunteer because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,” said Beverly Payne, who lives in Cumming, a Republican suburban stronghold north of Atlanta.

Payne said she is still working on persuading her mother but has already swung one Georgia vote to Harris. “My 85-year-old father has gone Democratic for the first time in his life,” she said.

Actor Samuel L. Jackson, director Spike Lee and actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry also spoke at the start of the event.

“No matter what kind of shenanigans, skullduggery and subterfuge, the okie-doke, we’re not going back,” Lee proclaimed.

Harris' run of events with celebrities will continue Friday when she travels to Texas for a Houston rally with Beyoncé, according to three people familiar with the matter. The singer is a Houston native, and her 2016 song “Freedom” has become Harris’ campaign anthem.

While the Friday rally is in a red state that even the most optimistic Democrat knows the vice president is unlikely to turn blue in November, the event Thursday in Georgia highlights that state's prominent place in her possible path to defeating Trump.

Democrats, led by then-former Vice President Joe Biden and Harris, won Georgia in 2020, becoming the first Democratic presidential campaign to win the Southern state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Harris’ campaign is hopeful she can keep the state blue in 2024.

Polls of likely voters in Georgia from NYT/Siena to Fox News to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution show a tight race between Trump and Harris.

Thursday's event is the first in the campaign’s “When We Vote We Win” concert series that aims to encourage Harris supporters to vote before Election Day.

Harris is not the only member of the Democratic campaign to lean on star power in the final days. Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, had events in North Carolina on Thursday alongside singer-songwriter James Taylor.

Democrats are known for leaning on high-profile surrogates in the final days of presidential races.

Springsteen has long been a supporter of Democratic presidential campaigns. The artist backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, even endorsing the would-be president in the contentious 2008 Democratic primary. He backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, performing at a Philadelphia rally on the eve of Election Day, and endorsed Biden in 2020. The New Jersey artist endorsed Harris earlier this month, calling Trump the "most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”

Beyoncé, too, backed Clinton in 2016, performing at an event in Cleveland alongside husband and rapper Jay Z just days before Election Day that year. And Taylor has become a staple at Democratic events and fundraisers.

But Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, despite the considerable star power behind her, serves as a warning for Democrats that energy provided by big-name artists like Springsteen and Beyoncé is often not enough to win an election.

Harris campaign advisers, though, see events like those in Georgia and Texas as major moments to mobilize voter enthusiasm and get out the vote before Election Day.

According to the Associated Press count, 2,025,645 people in Georgia have already voted early in-person, while an additional 134,336 mail-in ballots have been submitted in the 2024 general election.

Merica reported from Washington. Jeff Amy contributed to this report from Clarkston.