With the Karen Read trial now expected to open in just days, the judge overseeing proceedings is expected to rule on several outstanding motions that may affect how the highly scrutinized prosecution unfolds.
Lawyers were due back in Norfolk Superior Court Thursday at 10 a.m. for a motions hearing. There are several outstanding issues that Judge Beverly Cannone has yet to rule on, including whether the entire trial should be moved to a smaller courtroom.
“The court will likely decide some of them before the trial begins likely on Monday, but others will be taken under advisement,” NBC10 Boston legal analyst Michael Coyne said.
Read is accused of fatally hitting her boyfriend John O’Keefe, a former Boston police officer, with her SUV after a night out in Canton, though she has long maintained she is innocent and that authorities covered up who really killed O’Keefe.
On Wednesday, jury selection ended after a five-day process. Nineteen jurors were picked from hundreds interviewed, according to the defense, and the group will be whittled down to 16: 12 jurors and four alternates. The jury still needs to be sworn in.
The number of jurors fluctuated throughout the five days of jury selection, with several allowed to drop out because of hardships.
More on the Karen Read case
Cannone has said she was open to moving proceedings to a different courtroom at Norfolk Superior Court after Read’s lawyers had argued that poor sight lines in the current room’s jury box violate their client’s constitutional right to confront witnesses face-to-face.
“In order to advance to the merits of this case without further delay or collateral distraction, I will consider moving the trial across the hall to Courtroom 25,” she said, while noting that trials have been conducted in the current room for over 100 years.
But she pointed out that the other room is smaller, and that “the only people who really can fit in that courtroom will be the press, the victim’s family and the defendant’s family.”
Read’s lawyers had submitted images of defense attorney David Yannetti on the stand, claiming at least six jurors will only see the back of witnesses’ heads.
Also Wednesday, filings were due in the dispute over the court-ordered buffer zone outside the courtroom. Karen Read supporters have appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court over a ruling requiring demonstrators to keep at least 200 feet away from the courthouse and, for those inside the court, preventing them from holding signs or wearing pro-Karen Read clothes.
The lawyer who filed the petition argues that the order violates the First Amendment.
Prior to the start of jury selection last week, Cannone announced that she’s not going to exclude the defense from using a third-party culprit defense during the trial.
Prosecutors had filed a motion seeking to prevent the defense from making such an argument.
“I’m going to give you a chance to develop it through relevant, competent, admissible evidence,” she said. “But you cannot open with it.”
Read is accused of killing O’Keefe in January of 2022. Prosecutors say she hit him with her SUV and left him in a blizzard, but her attorneys say she’s being framed as part of a massive coverup. The defense claims O’Keefe was attacked inside the home.
Cannone has said she expects the Read trial to last somewhere between 6-8 weeks once a jury is seated. She said the schedule will include full days on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
