Karen Read murder case: Judge denies prosecution request for defense communications

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Mar 25, 2025

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BOSTON — Prosecutors in the Karen Read murder case will not be given communications between the defendant and her lawyer in the early days of the case.

Special prosecutor Hank Brennan verbally argued in a hearing Tuesday that Read had “waived” her right to the privileged communications by speaking publicly about the contents of communications between herself and attorney David Yannetti. Brennan filed a motion for the communications last week.

Defense attorney Robert Alessi began his challenge to the request by stressing that the text messages sought during the three-day period immediately following victim John O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022, are privileged and that the privacy of communications between a defendant and her attorney are “sacrosanct” and constitutionally protected.

The request, Alessi said, “should unsettle every criminal defense attorney in this commonwealth and it probably does.”

Before Alessi got far in his argument, however, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly J. Cannone cut him off because she had already made up her mind.

“I understand the Commonwealth’s request is narrow and tailored ... but I’m not going to give you this information, Mr. Brennan,” Cannone said. “Your motion is denied.”

The hearing is the last one scheduled before jury empanelment starts on April 1. Concerns over the empanelment process are set to be argued at Tuesday’s hearing.

So far, the parties have addressed Brennan’s communications request, the ability of the defense to raise a third-party culprit defense and Brennan’s request for unedited footage of Read interviews for the docuseries “A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read,” which aired over five parts last week on the network ID, or Investigative Discovery, and streamed on MAX.

Read, 45, is accused of striking O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years and a 16-year Boston police officer, with her car and leaving him to die in a major snowstorm on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road, in Canton.

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