Two teens are facing charges for bringing a gun to a school playground in Ludlow, Massachusetts, earlier this year.
The arrests stem from an incident on the evening of May 15, where Ludlow police said they received several 911 calls about teen…
Massachusetts
2024 Boston Harborfest kicks off Monday
Boston Harborfest kicks off Monday as the U.S. Navy vessel USS Oscar Austin sails into the Boston Harbor.
The festival’s kickoff ceremony starts at 11:50 a.m. Monday at Downtown Crossing, with a ceremonial cake cutting event.
This year’s celebration, organizers say, also coincides with Navy Week. An event to kickoff Navy Week is scheduled for 10 a.m. at City Hall, with the mayor’s proclamation and a flag raising event.
The multi-day festival began in 1982, and features hundreds of activities to celebrate American independence, honor Boston’s colonial roots and showcase the city’s harbor.
Harborfest will also include historical reenactments, Freedom Trail tours, live entertainment and other activities. The festival runs through July 4.
Why do people care so much about the Karen Read case?
The Karen Read murder trial is one of the most-watched cases in years in Massachusetts. People across the country — and the globe — are tuning in to find out if she’ll be found guilty of killing John O’Keefe.
But what is is about this case in particular that is generating such interest? We asked Brandi Churchwell, host of the “13th Juror Podcast,” for her thoughts during Friday’s episode of NBC10 Boston’s “Canton Confidential,” and she explained that there are multiple reasons.
Read is charged with second-degree murder in the January 2022 death of O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend. She’s accused of dropping him off at another officer’s house party in Canton, Massachusetts, after a night of drinking, and then hitting him with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm. Her defense team argues she was framed, and that the evidence shows O’Keefe was beaten up by someone else inside the house, bitten by a dog and left outside.
“I think the first thing that grabs your attention is it’s a female defendant,” Churchwell said. “Female murder defendants are maybe 10-15% of what we see, so an attractive female definitely is the first thing.”
She said the fact that the victim, O’Keefe, was “an attractive Boston cop with a heart of gold” also plays into it, expecially given that he took in his niece and nephew after the death of his brother and sister-in-law.
“And then I think what makes this one so different is that there’s also this alternate theory, and we normally don’t have that. We have the theory that maybe somebody else did it or maybe it was an accident, but a whole different scenario of who’s responsible is something that we normally dn’t have, so many people have gotten really invested in this.”
Adding to the intrigue is the defense argument that the Alberts, owners of the home where O’Keefe was found dead, were involved in some way but used their considerable influence in Canton to steer investigators away from them.
“Especially because it’s this family we’re told is using their political and law enforcement connections to set up this outsider for whatever people think happened,” Churchwell said. “Instead of just, ‘Are they guilty, are they not?’ it’s become ‘Which one of these is guilty?’ and she’s fighting against this system, and then people get emotionally invested in it because it becomes everybody’s fight. They’re looking at her as she’s getting railroaded by the corrupt police system and they want to look at it as this could be me, this could be my family members. People become invested in feeling like they’re fighting with her.”
The tension is even more apparent online, Churchwell said, where people can hide behind their anonymity.
“People have gotten very emotinally invested, and online it’s almost like that protection of being anonymous behind the keyboard and you don’t have to take responsibility for how low you go when fighting I think that has caused a level that goes beyond passion at this point,” she said. “There is a level of almost toxicity where people are so angry and wanting to tell everyone else why their version of what happened is right and anybody else could not possibly have any idea of what’s going on.”
Jurors were scheduled to return to court Monday morning to continue their deliberations.
With the jury deadlocked, what’s next in the Karen Read murder trial?
Jurors in the Karen Read murder trial sent a note to Judge Beverly Cannone on Friday saying they had been unable to reach a unanimous verdict. The judge ultimately sent them back to continue deliberating, but what happens if they remain deadlocked?
Morjieta Derisier, criminal defense attorney with Baystate Law Group, said on NBC10 Boston’s “Canton Confidential” Friday that there are a number of scenarios in play.
“If you’re at an impasse with a hung jury, that means they’re really not sure,” she said. “That’s not a win for the prosecution. That’s a win for the defense team, because they at least have some people who believe [Read] is not guilty in some respects.”
“Then the coin is back in the prosecution’s hand as to whether or not they’re going to retry, and it’s not always a guarantee. They may not, so at that point it’d be a win for the defense because you’re not sure if they’re gonna retry.”
At the same time, Derisier said if the judge pushes the jury too hard to reach a decision, that could become an issue upon appeal.
“If jurors feel like they’re being pushed too much, now you have an issue upon appeal, which will unravel a lot of this,” she said.
Tuey-Rodriguez instructions
If the jury comes back to the judge a second time and again says they can’t reach a unanimous verdict, Derisier said Cannone could still send them back to continue their deliberations. But at that point, she’d probably give them some instruction.
“She can send the back again. I think official Tuey-Rodriguez instructions will be read to them. When you listen to those instructions it pretty much tells them they’re the best people to make this decision. It gives them some encouragement or it’s supposed to that they’re the ones who should decide this case. After that, it really becomes the question if she keeps sending them back.”
“It’s a really long instruction,” she added. “The key phrase is that the jury sitting now is the best group to decide the case because they’ve heard all the evidence, they’ve heard all the facts.”
Would prosecutors seek to retry Karen Read?
And if Read is found not guilty, would there be further investigation into who is guilty of killing John O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend?
“The prosecution still has a duty to find justice for the O’Keefe family,” Derisier said. “They may very well retry Karen Read. They may drop some of the major charges, the second degree murder, maybe just go for the manslaughter charges or involuntary manslaughter at that point.”
“The investigation is hard, because there are so many inconsistencies,” she added. “It would be very hard to go back and find new evidence. They have the evidence they already have, and I don’t think at this point there’s any other further investigation they can do outside of what they already have.”
“Of course there could be new evidence that’s introduced,” said Sue O’Connell, NBC10 Boston commentator and analyst. “There could be somebody, if something happened and they know and they didn’t share it that could come forward, and that could impact the O’Keefe family getting the answers they deserve and justice in some form being served for John O’Keefe. But I can’t predict the future and I can’t predict if that would happen and when it would happen.”
Read is charged with second-degree murder in the January 2022 death of O’Keefe. She’s accused of dropping him off at another officer’s house party in Canton, Massachusetts, after a night of drinking, and then hitting him with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.
Her defense team argues she was framed, and that the evidence shows O’Keefe was beaten up by someone else inside the house, bitten by a dog and left outside.
Jurors were set to resume their deliberations in the case on Monday morning.
Here are new laws going into effect in Mass. Monday
It’s July 1, which means newly signed state laws go into effect across the country, including in Massachusetts.
One the laws improves roads and bridges, which gives funding to cities and towns that need upgrades to older structures for …
Man accused in series of stabbings in Mass. to face judge
A Massachusetts man accused of series of stabbings on the South Shore, and a murder in Connecticut, is set to face a judge Monday.
Jared Ravizza allegedly stabbed four girls at a Braintree movie theater and two workers at a Plymouth McDonald’s in May.
Police chased Ravizza down to Sandwich, where he was arrested after he crashed his car.
Ravizza, who’s from the Martha’s Vineyard town of Chilmark, has been undergoing mental evaluations. He’s also been investigated in connection with a deadly stabbing in Deep River, Connecticut.
