The prosecution in Karen Read‘s murder case is now seeking phone records from her mother, part of their planned questioning of her father in January’s retrial of some of Massachusetts’ most controversial criminal charges in years.
The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office wants the records of all phone calls made by Janet Read between Dec. 30, 2021, and Jan. 30, 2022, according to a filing in Norfolk Superior Court Friday.
Karen Read is accused of fatally hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe with her SUV early on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, and prosecutors say she called both her mother and her father, William Read. She also allegedly texted with her father, too.
Prosecutors are looking to call William Read to testify in the retrial — he wasn’t called in her initial trial, which ended with a hung jury — because they believe his daughter told him she felt she might have hit something, something he said in a news interview. But his phone records indicate they spoke on a call for nearly four minutes before Read left the scene where O’Keefe’s body was found — prosecutors are seeking unaired footage from the William Read TV interview as well.
As for Janet Read, prosecutors are hoping to use her phone records “as potential impeachment evidence depending on the testimony of William Read,” Friday’s motion says. They can also help determine how often Karen Read called her mother overnight, as she did between dropping O’Keefe off at the house outside of which he was found dead and when his body was found hours later.
NBC10 Boston is reaching out to Read’s attorneys for comment.
She has pleaded not guilty to the three charges against her, including second-degree murder, and alleges she’s the victim of a widespread coverup.
Led by new special prosecutor Hank Brennan, the prosecution has cast a wider net of evidence since the mistrial, seeking information from news organizations, including NBC.
