Judge in Karen Read trial asks jurors to try once more after they repeat they cannot reach unanimous verdict
Karen Read is seen during opening statements in her trial on April 29. The jury in the Read murder trial will resume deliberating on July 1.
(CNN) — The Massachusetts judge overseeing the Karen Read murder trial gave jurors a so-called “dynamite charge” Monday morning, directing them to continue their deliberations after they indicated for a second time they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
The Tuey-Rodriguez charge instructs jurors to reconsider their positions while taking into consideration the opinions of panelists with whom they do not agree. If they fail once again to reach a verdict, however, the judge may declare a hung jury, resulting in a mistrial for Read, who is accused of drunkenly driving into her police officer boyfriend and leaving him to die in January 2022.
Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone read the charge around 11 a.m. after jurors sent a note saying, “Despite our commitment to the duty entrusted to us, we find ourselves deeply divided by fundamental differences in our opinions and state of mind.”
“The divergence in our views are not rooted in a lack of understanding or effort,” the note said, “but deeply held convictions that each of us carry, ultimately leading to a point where consensus is unattainable.”
Cannone then read the Tuey-Rodriguez charge, saying while each juror’s verdict must be their own, they “ought to give proper respect to each other’s opinions and listen with an open mind to each other’s arguments.”
Jurors had resumed deliberations Monday morning at the judge’s direction, after first saying on Friday they could not reach a unanimous decision. Cannone then asked the jury to continue to deliberate, but decided against reading the Tuey-Rodriguez charge, which case law cautions against providing prematurely.
The jury of six men and six women has been deliberating Read’s fate since midday last Tuesday, weighing the evidence in a case featuring accusations of a vast police cover-up as well as improper conduct and sexist text messages from a lead investigator.
Read, 45, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. If found guilty of second-degree murder, Read faces a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to Massachusetts law.
The body of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, was found bruised and battered in the snow on January 29, 2022, outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer in Canton, Massachusetts.
On both Friday and Monday, Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally argued against the judge issuing the Tuey charge, saying the jury had not yet deliberated enough, citing in part the complexity of the case and the high volume of evidence and witness testimony. Defense attorney David Yannetti, meanwhile, urged the judge to issue the charge, saying Monday jurors had now twice indicated they are “hopelessly deadlocked.”
On Monday, Cannone sided with the defense, telling the court she’d determined the jury had conducted the requisite “due and thorough deliberation.”
“I’ve never seen a note like this, with reporting to be at an impasse,” the judge said.
Trial attorney Misty Marris said she believes the argument by Read’s defense team to give jurors the “dynamite charge” signals they feel confident in the prospect for a hung jury, which would indicate “at least a contingent of that jury pool was not buying the case of the prosecution; did not feel that the prosecution proved the case beyond a reasonable doubt.”
If the case ends in a mistrial, prosecutors would have to decide whether to try Read again in front of a new jury, something Marris said she felt would be likely, given the case’s high-profile nature.
But the state could take a different approach, she said, perhaps bringing a lesser charge than second-degree murder if prosecutors determine their evidence failed to meet the standard required or using different experts or different testimony.
“It’s a chance to identify what the mistakes or holes in the case might have been,” she said. “And it does give the defense that advantage, because they know now, especially when you’re able to speak to the jurors after the fact, you learn a lot. You learn a lot about what motivated them.”
Read faces up to life in prison
Prosecutors have alleged Read and O’Keefe, who had an at-times tumultuous relationship, got into an argument that night, and that she drunkenly backed into him and fled the scene, leaving him to die in the cold.
“What the constellation of the facts and the evidence ineluctably demonstrate here is that the defendant drove her vehicle in reverse at 24.2 miles per hour for 62.5 feet, struck Mr. O’Keefe, causing those catastrophic head injuries, leaving him incapacitated and freezing him to death,” prosecutor Lally said in closing arguments Tuesday.
In contrast, Read’s defense has accused off-duty police inside the Canton home of fatally beating O’Keefe, dumping his body on the lawn and then conspiring through fabricated evidence and false testimony to frame Read.
“Ladies and gentlemen, there was a cover-up in this case, plain and simple,” defense attorney Alan Jackson said. “You’ll surely say to yourself, ‘I don’t want to believe it, I don’t want to believe that could happen in our community,’ but sadly over these past eight weeks you’ve seen it right before your eyes.”
The closing arguments represented the end of a murder trial that has garnered interest both local and widespread, including accusations of witness tampering, a federal probe into the investigation, and groups of pink-wearing supporters chanting to “Free Karen Read.”
The prosecution’s case also has been hampered by a series of missteps and unusual investigative practices. Most notably, a lead investigator in the case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, admitted he sent a series of sexist and offensive texts about Read in a private group chat, calling her a “whack job,” mocking her medical issues and commenting to coworkers he had found “no nudes” while searching her phone for evidence, CNN affiliate WCVB reported.
Proctor apologized for the “unprofessional” comments on the stand, but the vulgar texts have been sharply criticized in and out of court, including from the governor.
“It’s completely unprofessional,” Gov. Maura Healey told WCVB of the texts. “It does harm, frankly, to the dignity and the integrity of the work of men and women across the state police and law enforcement. So as a former attorney general and as governor, I am disgusted by that.”
CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian contributed to this report.
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