A timeline of Karen Read’s murder trials
By Eric Levenson, CNN
(CNN) — Karen Read is expected back in a Massachusetts court to face a second murder trial in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend in a case that has rallied pink-wearing supporters to her cause in their belief of a vast criminal conspiracy.
Read, 45, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death.
The case stems from the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, whose body was found bruised and battered in the snow on January 29, 2022, outside the home of a fellow officer in the suburb of Canton, Massachusetts.
Her murder trial last year ended in a mistrial after the jury deadlocked on the charges and reported it could not come to a unanimous verdict.
Read’s retrial began April 1 with jury selection. Opening statements are set to begin Tuesday, and the trial is expected to last about six to eight weeks.
Here’s a look at a timeline of the entire case, from the key six-hour period surrounding O’Keefe’s death and the ensuing legal battle over who is responsible.
O’Keefe’s death and Read’s arrest
January 28, 2022: Read, of Mansfield, and O’Keefe went out drinking at two bars with friends.
January 29, 2022: Shortly after midnight, the couple climbed into Read’s SUV and drove to the Canton home of Brian Albert, one of O’Keefe’s fellow officers, for an after-party, court documents show.
O’Keefe got out of the vehicle, and Read then drove home. What happened next remains in dispute.
Early the next morning, Read and two others drove around in a snowstorm to look for O’Keefe and found his body in the front yard of the Canton house, according to court documents.
Prosecutors allege a drunken Read struck O’Keefe with the vehicle while driving in reverse and then fled, leaving him to die in the snowy cold.
However, her defense has accused off-duty officers inside that Canton home of killing O’Keefe and framing Read. Additionally, some of O’Keefe’s injuries were caused by a dog attack rather than a vehicle collision, the defense has argued.
January 31, 2022: A medical examiner determined O’Keefe suffered multiple skull fractures, consistent with blunt-force trauma that led to bleeding in the brain. He also had two swollen black eyes and several abrasions and scrapes on his right arm, the autopsy ruled. Hypothermia was a contributing factor in his death, the autopsy ruled.
February 1, 2022: Read was arrested on a manslaughter charge, according to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office.
February 2, 2022: At her arraignment, Read pleaded not guilty and was freed on bail.
June 9, 2022: A grand jury indicted Read on an upgraded charge of 2nd-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said.
April 18, 2023: Aidan Kearney, a Massachusetts blogger who goes by the name “Turtleboy,” posted a story about the case titled “Canton Cover-Up Part 1,” alleging Read was framed. He has since written over 500 articles on Read’s case, garnering a sizable following.
May 3, 2023: Read’s defense argued in a pretrial hearing that O’Keefe was involved in a fight inside Brian Albert’s home in Canton, according to CNN affiliate WBZ. They argue O’Keefe was beaten, wounded by a dog and dumped outside to die and that police had engaged in a cover-up.
August 25, 2023: Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey released a video statement slamming conspiracies and harassment of witnesses in Read’s case.
“Innuendo is not evidence. False narratives are not evidence,” he said. He said the evidence showed O’Keefe never entered Albert’s home, and 11 people have given statements saying they never saw him in the home.
October 11, 2023: Kearney, the blogger who goes by the name “Turtleboy,” was charged with one count of conspiracy and eight counts of intimidation of a witness related to the case, according to CNN affiliate WCVB. Kearney has denied all wrongdoing.
December 20, 2023: Kearney was indicted on 16 charges in all, WCVB reported.
The first trial
April 15, 2024: Due to sizable “Free Karen Read” protests, the court ordered a buffer zone that bans anyone from protesting within 200 feet of the courthouse during the trial.
April 16, 2024: Jury selection began.
April 24, 2024: A jury was seated.
April 29, 2024: Opening statements in her murder trial began.
May 17, 2024: Jennifer McCabe, who was with Read when they discovered O’Keefe’s body, took the stand to discuss a Google search on her phone “hos (sic) long to die in cold” on the morning of O’Keefe’s death. McCabe testified Read directed her to make that search upon finding the body, while the defense has said McCabe searched the phrase hours earlier.
June 3, 2024: State Police Lt. Kevin O’Hara testified about finding pieces of broken taillight at the Canton home after his death. The defense has argued the taillight pieces were planted.
June 10, 2024: Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator and one of the prosecution’s key witnesses, admitted under oath that he sent a series of sexist and offensive texts about Read in a private group chat, calling her a “whack job c*nt,” mocking her medical issues and commenting to coworkers that he had found “no nudes” while searching her phone for evidence, according to CNN affiliate WCVB.
Proctor apologized for the “unprofessional” comments on the stand.
June 21, 2024: The prosecution rested its case after calling over 60 witnesses, including those inside the Albert family home the night of O’Keefe’s death, police investigators, medical experts and data analysts, according to WBZ.
June 24, 2024: The defense rested its case after calling a handful of witnesses, including medical experts and forensic analysts. Read did not testify.
June 25, 2024: In closing arguments, prosecutors argued Read killed O’Keefe by backing into him after a drunken argument. “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 Adam Lally said.
Her defense accused the off-duty police inside the Canton home of killing 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 jury began deliberations.
June 28, 2024: The 12-person jury sent a note saying it could not reach a unanimous verdict. Judge Beverly Cannone ordered them to continue deliberating.
July 2, 2024: The jury twice more reported it could not reach a unanimous verdict. One of the jury’s notes said, “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 judge declared a mistrial in Read’s murder trial.
That same day, Proctor, the state trooper, was relieved of duty, state police Col. John Mawn announced.
The aftermath and second trial
July 8, 2024: Read’s defense team filed a motion to dismiss two of the three charges against her, saying several jurors came forward to report the jury in deliberations had unanimously found her not guilty of the murder and leaving the scene counts but had deadlocked only on the charge of vehicular manslaughter. Charging her on the same counts again would be “double jeopardy,” they argued.
Prosecutors opposed the motion, arguing the jury did not formally report a verdict on any of the counts and the defense did not oppose the mistrial.
August 23, 2024: Judge Cannone rejected the defense’s attempt to throw out two of the charges and their “double jeopardy” argument.
September 11, 2024: Read’s legal team appealed the “double jeopardy” ruling to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.
September 18, 2024: Special prosecutor Hank Brennan was appointed to lead the retrial. Brennan is best known for defending mob boss James “Whitey” Bulger in 2013.
October 29, 2024: Vanity Fair published a two-part article featuring an extensive interview with Read.
Feb. 11, 2025: The state’s top court ruled Read can be retried on all the same charges, again rejecting the “double jeopardy” argument.
March 6, 2025: Kearney, the “Turtleboy” blogger, was charged with a new count of witness intimidation, according to WCVB.
March 17, 2025: Investigation Discovery released the five-part documentary series “A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read,” featuring interviews with Read and her defense attorneys. (Investigation Discovery, like CNN, is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery.)
March 19, 2025: The Massachusetts State Police fired Proctor, the state trooper, for violating four department policies, including sending vulgar text messages about Read, according to WCVB.
March 21, 2025: Cell phone data from Kearney’s phones – including messages between him and Read – will be allowed into evidence, a judge ruled, as prosecutors seek to show Read’s “consciousness of guilt,” WCVB reports.
March 26, 2025: An attorney who served as an alternate juror in Read’s first trial was hired by her legal defense team, WCVB reports.
March 27, 2025: The First Circuit Court of Appeals, a federal appeals court, rejected Read’s “double jeopardy” argument and affirmed she can be retried on all three counts.
April 1, 2025: Jury selection began in her second trial.
That same day, Read’s legal team filed an appeal with the US Supreme Court asking the justices to dismiss two of the charges due to the “double jeopardy” concerns.
April 15, 2025: An 18-person jury – nine men and nine women – was selected for Read’s trial.
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CNN’s Faith Karimi, Jean Casarez and Lauren del Valle contributed to this report.
