A judge in Massachusetts declared a mistrial on Monday in the high-profile murder case against Karen Read, the suburban Boston woman who was accused of killing her boyfriend, a police officer, after a night out drinking.
The circumstances surrounding the death of the boyfriend, John O’Keefe, during a blizzard in 2022 became an obsession for people in the Boston region and a global audience of true-crime fanatics, as well as conspiracy theorists who are certain that Ms. Read has been framed.
The jurors began deliberating early last week, and twice signaled to the court that they were having trouble reaching a unanimous verdict. In a note to Judge Beverly J. Cannone of Norfolk Superior Court on Monday morning, they wrote that they were “deeply divided by fundamental differences in our opinions and state of mind,” and that “consensus is unattainable.”
The judge then read them last-ditch instructions about the importance of reaching a verdict. But hours later, the jurors declared themselves deadlocked, and Judge Cannone declared a mistrial. It remains to be seen if prosecutors will opt to try the case again.
During the trial, lawyers for Ms. Read, 44, picked apart the prosecution’s assertion that she intentionally struck Mr. O’Keefe after a night out drinking in January 2022, leaving him to die of head injuries and hypothermia as a blizzard raged. They proposed an alternate theory: that he was fatally beaten at a late-night party hosted by another Boston police officer in Canton, Mass., and then dumped outside in the snow.
“The incontrovertible fact is, you have been lied to in this courtroom,” Alan Jackson, a lawyer for Ms. Read, said during closing arguments. “One lie begets another, and it’s a malignancy that grows — and that, folks, is how a cover-up is born.”
Ms. Read, who previously worked at an investment firm and taught college finance classes, pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter, and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. She faced penalties ranging from five to 20 years in prison for manslaughter, 10 years for leaving the scene, or life in prison for murder.
Ms. Read embraced family members inside the courtroom after the judge declared a mistrial. She ordered lawyers to return to court on July 22 to discuss next steps.
Prosecutors asserted that the couple had been fighting and that Mr. O’Keefe, 46, had recently tried to end the relationship. They told jurors that Ms. Read had repeatedly claimed responsibility for her boyfriend’s death in the first moments after his body was discovered, as described by several emergency responders who were called to the scene.
“‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,’” Adam Lally, an assistant district attorney for Norfolk County, said during closing arguments. “Those are the words of the defendant, and you heard testimony from four witnesses who overheard those statements.”
Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminology at Northeastern University, said he had anticipated that a hung jury might be possible because of the strong feelings on both sides of the case about Ms. Read’s guilt or innocence. He predicted that the prosecution would not retry the case unless new evidence emerges.
“Can you imagine prosecutors trying to push this boulder of a case uphill again?” he said. “Won’t it just slide back and crush them?”
The defense’s claim — that law enforcement officers conspired to cover up the true circumstances of Mr. O’Keefe’s death and instead frame Ms. Read for the murder — was embraced by a legion of believers, most with no personal ties to the defendant. They included many local residents, as well as people around the country who watched the trial daily online or on television and then flocked to social media to dissect the testimony.
Members of the Free Karen Read movement rallied outside Norfolk County Superior Court whenever the trial was in session and took their protests on the road on weekends. Their passion was encouraged by a local blogger known as Turtleboy, who championed Ms. Read’s cause and was charged last year with intimidating witnesses. He is due back in court this month.
Close followers of the case obsessed over evidence, including shards of red plastic found near Mr. O’Keefe’s body, said to be from Ms. Read’s broken taillight; lacerations on his arm that skeptics said resembled dog bites; and a hotly contested Google search by a woman who was at the house party that night, asking how long it takes to die in the cold.
The state’s case was not helped by defense witnesses who testified that Mr. O’Keefe’s injuries were not consistent with those resulting from a vehicle strike — or by vulgar and misogynistic text messages sent by the lead investigator in the case, Michael Proctor, a Massachusetts state trooper. In texts sent to friends, the trooper joked about searching for nude photos on Ms. Read’s phone, mocked her health problems, critiqued her appearance and said he hoped she killed herself.
Still, the prosecution reminded jurors in closing arguments, the investigator’s “indefensible” texts did not discuss framing Ms. Read or planting evidence.
“Why? Because it didn’t happen,” Mr. Lally said.