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Karen Read retrial kicks off with wire-to-wire drama, lawyers brawl in tense hearing after jurors sent home

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Karen Read retrial kicks off with wire-to-wire drama, lawyers brawl in tense hearing after jurors sent home

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Karen Read’s retrial in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe kicked off Tuesday with expected fireworks almost immediately – and they continued after Judge Beverly Cannone sent jurors home for the day with a heated hearing on late discovery disclosures.

Both sides painted entirely different versions of events as they delivered their opening statements to the jury, but after the panel left for the day, Cannone called for a new hearing Friday and accused the defense of violating one of her orders on reciprocal discovery.

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Defense attorney Alan Jackson opened with a challenge to the heart of the prosecution’s case: that O’Keefe died from injuries sustained when Read’s Lexus SUV allegedly struck him during a nor’easter.

“The evidence in this case will establish, above everything else, three points,” he said. “There was no collision with John O’Keefe. There was no collision. There was no collision.”

KAREN READ DEFENSE FACES ‘HIGH-WIRE’ ACT AS RETRIAL’S OPENING STATEMENTS KICK OFF, EXPERTS SAY

Attorney Alan Jackson gives his opening statement at Karen Read’s second murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass.  (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan told a different story in his own opening statement, minutes earlier, saying to jurors that Read, allegedly drunk and angry, intentionally hit the gas and rammed O’Keefe with the back bumper, then left him on the ground, where he was later found with severe head injuries and hypothermia.

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Both cases may hinge on whether a pair of defense experts are allowed to testify about their conclusions.

UNFAZED KAREN READ STARES DOWN LINGERING QUESTIONS ABOUT ‘DOG BITES,’ TEXTS WITH RETRIAL READY FOR KICKOFF

After jurors left, the sides argued in a heated motion hearing about whether expert testimony from the ARCCA crash-reconstruction firm should be allowed. 

Judge Beverly J. Cannone addresses potential jurors as jury selection continues for the murder retrial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Dedham, Mass.  (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

Two experts from the firm testified during the first trial, disputing the prosecution’s version of events.

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Brennan told the judge that prosecutors have become aware of additional conclusions from the experts – new information that his team would not have time to adequately prepare for because disclosures have not been made.

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Defense attorney Robert Alessi said it was Brennan’s team that caused delays in discovery by revising its own expert disclosures in March, with just weeks to go before Read’s retrial kicked off with jury selection on April 1.

John O’Keefe pictured in an undated photo. O’Keefe died on Jan. 29, 2022. His girlfriend, Karen Read, was charged with hitting him with her Lexus SUV and fleeing the scene.  (Courtesy of Karen Read)

“At a prior hearing, I found a violation of the defense’s reciprocal discovery obligations,” Cannone said. “It was clear to me, and I found that it was deliberate. This appears to me contrary to what you’ve argued, Mr. Alessi, that this is another violation of my order and of the reciprocal discovery violations. We need to figure all of this out before you’re allowed to call these witnesses.”

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To accomplish that, she ordered a voir dire hearing with the ARCCA experts Friday morning. Jurors will not be present all day.

Grace Edwards, an Essex County trial attorney who has been following the case, said the end-of-day hearing left her floored.

“They still don’t have the sallyport video,” she said, referring to Read’s defense and police surveillance footage from the day her SUV was first impounded. “They played hide the video. This feels harsh.”

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan gives his opening argument with his cell phone at Karen Read’s second murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass.  (Stuart Cahill /The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

Brennan had previously asked Cannone to exclude the ARCCA team, and Edwards predicted that whatever new testimony ARCCA is expected to bring could be problematic for the commonwealth.

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“She barely allowed this to begin with. She can’t be happy about this,” said Paul Mauro, a former NYPD inspector who has been following the case. “Very bad news for the defense.”

KAREN READ DEFENSE FACES ‘HIGH-WIRE’ ACT AS RETRIAL’S OPENING STATEMENTS KICK OFF, EXPERTS SAY

Read appeared to disagree, smiling when she met reporters outside on courthouse steps.

“I feel great,” she said. “Today went well. We prepped hard, and I’m just proud of my team.”

Karen Read returns to court following the lunch break with her defense attorney Robert Alessi at her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Dedham, Mass.  (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

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When asked why Jackson didn’t start his opening statement like fellow defense counsel David Yannetti did last year, telling jurors she had been “framed,” she replied, “We don’t like reruns.”

First to take the stand was Commonwealth’s witness Timothy Nuttall, a paramedic who checked O’Keefe when an ambulance arrived at the scene around 6 a.m on Jan. 29, 2022. 

He testified that while first responders were attempting to give O’Keefe CPR, Read said, “I hit him. I hit him. I hit him.”

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But on cross-examination, Jackson was quick to call Nuttall’s memory into question, noting that during Read’s first trial last year, he testified that Read said the phrase only twice. 

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He also confronted Nuttall with his own testimony about what O’Keefe was wearing – which turned out to be wrong when he testified about it last year. Then he replayed dashcam video of paramedics on the scene, asking him to walk through it and pointing out where his testimony did not line up with what was on the screen.

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Nuttall appeared uncomfortable at times, as Jackson questioned his memory, his prior testimony, and his timeline of events repeatedly. But he insisted that he heard Read say “I hit him,” repeatedly.

Canton Fire Department paramedic Timothy Nuttall shows how to do a Carotid Pulse at Karen Read’s second murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday, April 22, 2025 in Dedham, Mass.  (Stuart Cahill/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)

The second witness was Kerry Roberts, a friend of O’Keefe’s whose son was the same age as his adopted nephew. Although she grew up with the victim, she said they became closer after he adopted his sister’s orphaned children following a family tragedy.

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Roberts was one of the people Read called on the morning of O’Keefe’s death.

She said she was driving Read and Jennifer McCabe as they looked for him that morning. After first searching his house and coming up empty, they went to the Albert home – where McCabe and other friends and acquaintances had gone for an after-party the night before.

KAREN READ AND JOHN O’KEEFE: INSIDE EVOLUTION OF BOSTON MURDER MYSTERY SINCE JULY MISTRIAL

Karen Read pictured in a booking photo after her arrest in connection with her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, in 2022. (Massachusetts State Police)

“As we approached the house, Karen from the back seat is now screaming, ‘There he is! There he is! Let me the F out of this car,’ kicking the back door to get out,” Roberts testified.

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Visibility was poor, she said, and she couldn’t see O’Keefe until Read went up to a body-sized “mound” on the front lawn.

Judge Cannone sent jurors home for the day after that testimony. Roberts is expected to return to the stand Wednesday morning.

Authorities discovered John O’Keefe outside a Canton, Massachusetts, home on the morning on Jan. 29, 2021.  (Boston Police Department)

The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks after taking more than two weeks to seat a jury.

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Read could face a maximum of life in prison if convicted of the top charge, second-degree murder.



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Northeast

Man with machete shot and killed by police, who then find 3 more dead inside home: officials

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Man with machete shot and killed by police, who then find 3 more dead inside home: officials

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Officials in Piscataway, New Jersey, noted Tuesday that an individual with a machete was shot and killed by police, who then found the subject’s mother and grandparents dead inside a home, WABC reported.

Piscataway Mayor Brian Wahler noted that the suspect’s father dialed 911, the outlet noted.

When authorities arrived at the home, the man had a machete, authorities said, according to the outlet. Authorities attempted to utilize tasers against the man but indicated it did not stop the suspect, WABC noted. 

He allegedly charged at law enforcement officers with the weapon, and they opened fire and killed him, the outlet reported.

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EERIE SURVEILLANCE VIDEO SHOWS ‘PERSON OF INTEREST’ IN UNSOLVED OHIO DENTIST MURDER CASE

Authorities with the Piscataway Police Department responded to a 911 call about someone with a knife. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)

After the shooting, police found three people dead in the home, a press release from the New Jersey attorney general’s office notes.

“The Office of Public Integrity and Accountability is investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting that occurred on Monday, January 5, 2026, in Piscataway Township in Middlesex County, New Jersey,” the release states.

Preliminary information indicated that authorities with the Piscataway Police Department had responded to a 911 call from someone who reported a person with a knife, the release indicates.

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OFF-DUTY DEPUTY SHOT AND KILLED WHILE WORKING SECURITY JOB IN TEXAS, SUSPECT APPREHENDED

Police shot a man armed with a knife Jan. 5, 2026, in New Jersey. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)

“Officers subsequently shot and killed a man armed with a knife who they encountered at the residence,” the press release noted.

“A 2019 law … requires the Attorney General’s Office to conduct investigations of a person’s death that occurs during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody. It requires that all such investigations be presented to a grand jury to determine if the evidence supports the return of an indictment against the officer or officers involved,” the release explains.

SEATTLE POLICE UNION CONDEMNS NEW SOCIALIST MAYOR’S DRUG ENFORCEMENT APPROACH AS ‘SUICIDAL EMPATHY’

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Law enforcement shot a person armed with a knife in New Jersey. (Kyle Mazza/UNF News/Shutterstock)

 

According to a post on X, New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association President Peter Andreyev noted, “We are aware of the horrific crime in Middlesex County tonight. All our members that were involved are being evaluated. Thank you to all who have reached to offer support.”

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Boston, MA

Battenfeld: Michelle Wu should demand better security after Boston Medical Center rape

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Battenfeld: Michelle Wu should demand better security after Boston Medical Center rape


In the middle of Michelle Wu’s orchestrated inaugural celebration, prosecutors described a senseless hospital horror that unfolded at Boston Medical Center – a rape of a partially paralyzed patient allegedly by a mentally ill man allowed to freely roam the hospital’s hallways.

It happened in September in what is supposed to be a safe haven but too often is a dangerous campus. Drug addicts with needles frequently openly camp in front of the hospital, and in early December a security guard suffered serious injuries in a stabbing on the BMC campus. The alleged assailant was finally subdued by other security guards after a struggle.

In the September incident, prosecutors described in court this week how the 55-year-old alleged rapist Barry Howze worked his way under the terrified victim’s bed in the BMC emergency room and sexually assaulted her.

“This assault was brutal and brazen, and occurred in a place where people go for help,” Suffolk County prosecutor Kate Fraiman said. “Due to her partial paralysis, she could not reach her phone, which was under her body at the time.”

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Howze, who reportedly has a history of violent offenses and mental illness, was able to flee the scene but was arrested two days later at the hospital when he tried to obtain a visitor’s pass and was recognized by security. Howze’s attorney blamed hospital staff for allowing him the opportunity to commit the crime and some city councilors are demanding answers.

“This was a horrific and violent sexual assault on a defenseless patient,” Councilor Ed Flynn said. “The safety and security of patients and staff at the hospital can’t be ignored any longer. The hospital leadership must make immediate and major changes and upgrades to their security department.”

Flynn also sent a letter to BMC CEO Alastair Bell questioning how the assailant was allowed to commit the rape.

Where is Wu? She was too busy celebrating herself with a weeklong inaugural of her second term to deal with the rape at the medical center, which is near the center of drug-ravaged Mass and Cass.

If the rape had happened at a suburban hospital, people would be demanding investigations and accountability.

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But in Boston, Wu takes credit for running the “safest major city in the country” while often ignoring crimes.

Wu should intervene and demand better security and safety for the staff and patients at BMC.

Although the hospital is no longer run by the city, it has a historic connection with City Hall. It is used by Boston residents, many of them poor and disabled or from marginalized communities. She should be out front like Flynn demanding accountability from the hospital.

Boston Medical Center, located in the city’s South End, is the largest “safety-net” hospital in New England. It is partially overseen by the Boston Public Health Commission, whose members are appointed by the mayor.

BMC was formed in 1996 by the Thomas Menino administration as a merger between the city-owned Boston City Hospital, which first opened in 1864, and Boston University Medical Center.

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Menino called the merger “the most important thing I will do as mayor.”

When he was appointed CEO by the hospital board of trustees in 2023, Bell offered recycled Wu-speak to talk about how BMC was trying to “reshape” how the hospital delivers health care.

“The way we think about the health of our patients and members extends beyond traditional medicine to environmental sustainability and issues such as housing, food insecurity, and economic mobility, as we study the root causes of health inequities and empower all of our patients and communities to thrive,” Bell said.

But the hospital has been plagued by security issues in the last few years, and a contract dispute with the nurses’ union. The nurses at BMC’s Brighton campus authorized a three-day strike late last year over management demands to cut staffing and retirement benefits.

Kirsten Ransom, BMC Brighton RN and Massachusetts Nurses Association co-chair, said, “This vote sends a clear message that our members are united in our commitment to make a stand for our patients, our community and our professional integrity in the wake of this blatant effort to balance BMC’s budget on the backs of those who have the greatest impact on the safety of the patients and the future success of this facility.”

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Pittsburg, PA

Gov. Josh Shapiro launches re-election campaign; speeches planned in Pittsburgh and Philly

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Gov. Josh Shapiro launches re-election campaign; speeches planned in Pittsburgh and Philly






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