Authorities are investigating a stabbing incident in Holbrook, Masachusetts early Saturday morning.
Holbrook Police say they responded to a 911 call reporting at stabbing in the area of 166 Longmeadow Drive at around 3:30 a.m.
When they arr…
Massachusetts
Things to know about the Karen Read murder case, which could go to a retrial
Prosecutors in Massachusetts say they plan to retry Karen Read for the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend. She’s accused of striking him with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm. The judge declared a mistrial after jurors said they couldn’t agree.
Karen Read was facing second degree murder and two other charges for allegedly striking John O’Keefe with her SUV and then leaving the scene as she dropped him off at a fellow officer’s house after a night of drinking.
Both sides will be in court July 22 to consider next steps. Plenty of questions remain unanswered. A federal investigation of how law enforcement handled O’Keefe’s death continues, and Read’s defense claims four jurors have indicated that the jury found her not guilty on several charges.Double jeopardy claim
The defense this week filed a motion to dismiss the charges of second degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. Defense lawyers say they’re aware of four jurors who said the jury had unanimously concluded that Read was not guilty on those charges, and they couldn’t agree only on the remaining manslaughter charge.
Partial verdicts are possible in Massachusetts, but the defense motion said Judge Beverly Cannone abruptly declared the mistrial in open court without first questioning jurors about where they stood on each charge, or giving the prosecution and defense a chance to raise questions.
If the court requires more information before invoking double jeopardy, Read’s team said the judge should hold a “post-verdict inquiry” to confirm that the jurors unanimously found her not-guilty on the two counts.
And if Cannone does agree to hold such a hearing, there’s a real chance prosecutors could be barred from retrying Read for murder and leaving a deadly accident scene, if it’s shown the jury did unanimously agree to acquit, according to Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University who is not involved in the case.‘Legally inappropriate’.
Prosecutors asked the court Friday to deny the defense request, describing the defense motion as an “unsubstantiated but sensational post-trial claim,” based on “hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.”
“Contrary to the defendant’s claims, throughout the jury deliberations the defendant was given a full opportunity to be heard, the jury’s communications to the court explicitly indicated an impasse on all charges, and the court carefully considered alternatives before declaring a mistrial,” prosecutors wrote.
The jury “did not reach any verdicts partial or otherwise,” prosecutors wrote.
Prosecutors also argued the defense was given a chance to respond and, after one note from the jury indicating it was deadlocked, told the court that there had been sufficient time and advocated for the mistrial declaration. Prosecutors wanted deliberations to continue, which they did before a mistrial was declared the following day.What’s a judge to do?
Some Massachusetts trial court veterans defended the judge’s response to the deliberations.
Brad Bailey, a former state and federal prosecutor and longtime criminal defense lawyer, said Cannone declared a mistrial on all the charges because that is what she heard from the jury: Jurors repeatedly said they were deadlocked but never indicated they had reached a decision on any of the charges.
Juries are routinely instructed “that any communication with the judge should not reveal what actually is going inside the jury room in terms of the nature and substance of their deliberation,” but it’s not unusual for jurors to declare themselves deadlocked “on all counts,” or to announce decisions on only some counts, Bailey said.
Michael Coyne, the dean at the Massachusetts School of Law, said he found it “curious” that jurors never indicated they had reached a verdict on some of the counts — if indeed they had. “That is the unusual part — If in fact they had reached consensus on some, why didn’t they report it to the court?”
Since the jurors left the verdict forms blank, Coyne expects prosecutors to make the case that they “didn’t reach consensus on anything,” he said.Juror secrecy, for now
The jurors’ identities have not been released yet, and none are believed to have spoken with the media. A week after declaring the mistrial, Cannone ordered a 10-day hold on naming them publicly, citing “a risk of immediate and irreparable injury should the list be made available to the public at this time.” She noted that people surrounding the case had been charged with intimidation. The ruling aims to protect the jurors’ privacy if they want to remain anonymous, but doesn’t prevent them from volunteering to speak publicly.
The order could be extended out of concern for “potential violence to those jurors if their names and other identifying information was disclosed,” Coyne observed, but he predicted that pressure to release their names will grow.
“We all wanted to know the names before to see if anyone would speak,” the dean said. “Now it’s even more pressing because the defendant is saying the jurors reached a verdict on counts one and three. We ought to know what they are actually saying about that.”
The lead investigator, State Trooper Michael Proctor, was relieved of duty after the trial revealed he’d sent vulgar texts to colleagues and family, calling Read a “whack job” and telling his sister he wished Read would “kill herself.” He said that was a figure of speech and that his emotions had gotten the better of him.
The defense also suggested he should’ve stepped aside from the investigation because he had personal relationships with several of the people involved in the case. Read’s lawyers also questioned the sloppiness of the police work: The crime scene was left unsecured for hours; the house, owned by Boston Police Detective Brian Alpert, wasn’t searched; bloodstained snow was scooped up with red plastic drinking cups; and a leaf blower was used to clear snow.
Proctor was relieved of his duties after the trial but was still being paid until Monday, when a state police hearing board changed that suspension to without pay, effective immediately. Meanwhile an internal affairs investigation could result in charges against him, and there’s a federal probe into state law enforcement’s handling of the case. The U.S. Attorney’s office said it neither confirms nor denies investigations.
Karen Read prosecutors push back on jury claims
Prosecutors in the Karen Read case have filed their response to the defense’s request to dismiss two of the three charges against her in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
The defense claimed this week they’ve heard from a number of jurors who said they unanimously agreed to acquit Karen Read on two of the three charges, and so the defense says those charges should be dismissed.
But prosecutors say the defense’s arguments are based on “…hearsay, conjecture, and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.”
Prosecutors call the defendant’s claims quote “unsubstantiated” and “sensational” that the jury ever reached any unanimous decision on any of the charges.
Prosecutors say the jury was very clear in its notes to the judge that they were deadlocked.
In addition, prosecutors say the defense had the opportunity to request an inquiry as to what charge or charges the jury was deadlocked on but never did.
“It would be interesting at some point if we could find out what went wrong here, why the jury if this is true, did not understand that they could have made individual decisions on the individual counts, and it was not all or nothing.” said Peter Elikann, a criminal defense attorney.
Karen Read’s legal team tells NBC10 Boston that they are working on a “strong reply” that will be filed next week.
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AG’s investigation into Sandra Birchmore case ‘very active,’ lawyer says
At a hearing in the ongoing wrongful death lawsuit filed in civil court by the estate of Sandra Birchmore, a lawyer for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office revealed new details about a criminal investigation, sharing that it’s still ongoing, three years after the woman’s death.
“There is an ongoing investigation, it continues to be very active,” said Lisa Maki, general counsel for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, in a video appearance in court Friday.
Birchmore died in February 2021 when she was three months pregnant. Her death was ruled a suicide, with no foul play involved.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline or chat live at 988lifeline.org. You can also visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional support.
But a year later, Stoughton’s police chief announced that three former police officers had had inappropriate sexual relationships with Birchmore, one starting when she was underage. And while no criminal charges have been filed in the case, her estate has filed a civil lawsuit alleging “wrongful death, negligence, negligent supervision, negligent retention, pain and suffering, and emotional distress” over what it describes as a yearslong grooming scheme.
The lawsuit names the officers — they’ve denied the allegations — as well as the town and Stoughton police, and Friday’s hearing in Norfolk Superior Court was in that case.
Resources for victims of sexual assault are available through the National Sexual Violence Resources Center and the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800-656-4673, and Massachusetts provides this list of statewide and resources for sexual assault survivors.
Lawyers for the officers argued they would like access to files from the Attorney General’s Office as they continue to wage a defense against the wrongful death suit.
“We are on track for trial, your honor. My client has one opportunity to prove his innocence here, and the Attorney General’s Office could go on for years,” said David Bae, an attorney for one of the officers.
Maki, the lawyer for the Attorney General’s Office, argued that releasing any documents could compromise the ongoing investigation.
“To the extent there is a homicide investigation taking place that the Attorney General’s Office is not handling, it would not do anything to interfere with an ongoing homicide investigation,” she said.
The judge didn’t rule after the roughly 40-minute hearing, instead asking Maki to provide more details about the files her office has within 30 days.
The case, which stunned the town of Stoughton when details were released in 2022, has attracted new attention in recent weeks, because of another case playing out in the same court, which involves allegations of police misconduct.
“People are upset, rightfully so. They see what happened in the Karen Read case, and they feel like the same thing is happening in Sandra’s case, that there is a cover-up here,” said Melissa Berry, who runs the Justice for Sandra Birchmore social media pages.
More on the Sandra Birchmore case
At the time of her death, Birchmore was living in Canton, the town where Read is accused of fatally striking her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, with an SUV in a snowstorm. Read denies the charges, and claims law enforcement framed her, which the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office denies. Investigators have not announced any links between the Birchmore and Read cases.
“People are angry and they want this young woman to get justice, and that is all I want,” Berry said.
Last month, Stoughton Police Chief Donna McNamara issued a statement saying that she was left “profoundly disturbed and troubled” by a forensic report about Birchmore’s death that she said had been filed in the civil lawsuit.
NBC10 Boston has not reviewed the report, but The Boston Globe reported that, in it, a former New York City chief medical examiner found that Birchmore’s death was a homicide, not a suicide. Without mentioning its findings, McNamara said that the report warrants further high-level examination.
“While I am not a trained medical examiner, and I am not qualified to draw any direct conclusions, the findings certainly warrant further examination at the highest level. As always, we will continue to assist with any effort to ensure that truth and justice prevail,” McNamara wrote in her letter, in which she acknowledged her department’s continued cooperation with investigators.
A representative for the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office after the letter was released that multiple law enforcement agencies were still reviewing information involving’s Birchmore’s death.
The case has shined a light on allegations of abuse in the Explorers program, a police mentorship program through which Birchmore met the Stoughton officers accused of having sexual relationships with her. This year, The Marshall Project said it found at least 193 other allegations of inappropriate behavior from law enforcement, including grooming and sexual abuse, involving the Explorers program in the last 50 years.
The Boy Scouts, which created the program, told The Marshall Project at the time it has been committed to youth safety, and that “appropriate measures” are taken when “a leader in one of our programs has abused a position of trust” hold them accountable.
