Defense Slams Prosecutors After Karen Read Mistrial as State Says It Will Retry Case

The sensational case ended Monday, July 1, when the judge declared a mistrial for the financial analyst and professor accused of murdering her police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe

Defense attorneys for Karen Read vowed to fight for their client after the judge declared a mistrial in the high-profile murder case.

"We have no quit," defense attorney Alan Jackson declared outside of court after the shocking conclusion to a months-long trial that held the nation in thrall.

The trial came to an end on Monday, July 1, when Norfolk County Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone in Dedham, Mass., declared a mistrial after jurors were unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

Prosecutor Adam Lally told the judge he wanted the jury to continue to deliberate after they told the judge a second time they were deadlocked.

In the end, Cannone decided that jurors, as they had said in notes to the judge, were unable to reach any kind of unanimous conclusion.

The Norfolk County District Attorney's Office said in a press release it "intends to retry the case."

“First, we thank the O’Keefe family for their commitment and dedication to this long process," they said in the statement. "They maintained sight of the true core of this case – to find justice for John O’Keefe. The Commonwealth intends to re-try the case.”

Read had been charged with second-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022.

Read, 44, was also charged with manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.

Jurors deliberated for 25 hours, but could not come to a unanimous decision.

When the mistrial was declared, Read hugged her family and supporters, News Nation reported.

Outside of court, Jackson stood in front of Read supporters, who were cheering and clapping, saying, “This is what it looks like when you bring false charges against a person,” NBC Boston reports.

“The Commonwealth did their worst.”

“They brought the weight of the state based on spurious charges based on (a) compromised investigation and investigators and compromised witnesses. This is what it looks like. And guess what? They failed. They failed miserably. And they'll continue to fail no matter how long it takes. No matter how long they keep trying, we will not stop fighting."

Jackson said, “Number one, I am in awe of the strength and courage of this remarkable client that I've had the privilege of representing since day one. And number two, I want to send a message to all of her supporters out there. Your support was invaluable. We are touched and we ask for your continued support.”

Related: Karen Read Murder Trial Is ‘a Circus,’ Says Friend Who Slams Claim She Killed Police Trooper Boyfriend (Exclusive)

Prosecutors claimed that Read drunkenly backed her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe, 46, and left him to die after dropping him off at a house party at the Canton, Mass., home of retired Boston police officer Brian Albert.

Read and her lawyers claimed that O'Keefe got into a fight at the party, was severely beaten, attacked by the owner's dog, then dragged into the yard.

O’Keefe was found unresponsive in the front yard of the home at 6 a.m. He was rushed to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead just before 8 a.m. A medical examiner determined that O'Keefe died of blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.

In their quest to prove reasonable doubt, Read's attorneys alleged that Albert and others know what happened that night and that Read was the victim of a massive coverup among local and state law enforcement officials and others who closed ranks to protect their own.

Related: Lead Investigator in Karen Read Case Admits on Stand He Texted that He Wanted Her to Die by Suicide

They claimed the case's lead investigator planted evidence of a broken taillight at the scene to protect people at the house that night, with whom he has longstanding personal ties, and provided experts who testified his injuries could not have come from a vehicle strike.

In his closing arguments, defense attorney Alan Jackson showed jurors a photograph of the mostly intact tail light of Read’s SUV when she went looking for O’Keefe after 5 a.m., when he failed to come home that night.

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