Karen Read murder retrial: Jury selection day 3 ends with 10 total jurors

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Apr 3, 2025

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BOSTON — On the third day of juror selection in the Karen Read retrial attorneys brought the total number of jurors in the final pool to 10.

Attorneys added seven to the final jury pool during the previous two days and ended with 10 on the third day: five men and five women. There was a total of 19 jurors selected for trial in the first go-around. That meant seven of them would serve as alternates, though the alternates wouldn’t be selected until just before deliberations begin after all the evidence and closing arguments have been presented.

Jury selection has been a difficult process, as expected, as the vast majority of jurors have indicated each day that they have at least heard of the Read case, with another majority of those also indicating they had already formed an opinion.

Read, 45, is accused of striking John 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 on Jan. 29, 2022.

She was tried last year on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death, but that ended in mistrial on July 1, 2024, after the jury reached an impasse.

Read’s defense team shortly thereafter filed motions arguing that it wasn’t really an impasse and that five jurors had come forward to say that they were ready to acquit Read of the charges of murder and leaving the scene of an accident and were only hung on the manslaughter charge.

That revelation, the defense argued, was tantamount to acquittal and thus to try Read again on those charges would be a violation of her constitutional right to Double Jeopardy protections.

So far, the courts have disagreed. The argument failed with trial Judge Beverly Cannone; the Supreme Judicial Court, which upheld Cannone’s ruling; and U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV.

The defense then appealed to the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld Saylor’s ruling.

There has been legal movement in the background during each of the three days of jury selection.

In addition to a continued back-and-forth from the sides on the qualification or disqualification of expert witnesses, Wednesday and Thursday brought nearly identical motions from the defense for the clerk’s list of jurors for Norfolk County, where the trial takes place and the domicile of all potential jurors.

“Now comes the defendant, Karen Read (‘Ms. Read’ or ‘Defendant) (sic) in the above captioned matter to request the updated Clerk’s List of Jurors for Norfolk County. Ms. Read asks for this list to be released to her, her lawyers, a jury consultant, and two law clerks who are working with Ms. Read’s legal team,” the Thursday motion states in full.

The motions differ only in the dates included in the name, as Wednesday’s is titled “Defendant’s April 2, 2025 Motion Requesting the Clerk’s List of Jurors” whereas the Thursday filing has “April 3” in the title. Also, the defense team picked up another clerk in the interim, as the earlier motion references only “a law clerk.”

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