The jury has been seated in the Karen Read trial, according to the defense, after a weeklong jury selection process.
The update clears the way for the highly anticipated trial to begin on Monday, and it's possible the judge may authorize a slight change of venue when opening arguments are made.
Nineteen jurors have been selected from hundreds who were interviewed, according to the defense. On Thursday and possibly Friday, that group will be pared down to the 16 who will sit for the trial, four as alternates. The jury will still need to be sworn in.
The number of jurors has fluctuated throughout the five-day process, with several allowed to drop out because of hardships.
There is more that will need to be decided before the trial begins, with several motions outstanding. Judge Beverly Cannone is set to rule on them at a hearing Thursday at 10 a.m., the defense said.
Read was harassed as she made her way up the front steps into Norfolk Superior Court Wednesday morning by a man calling her a "cop-killer." She 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.
Eighty-five people were in the jury pool for the final round of jury selection Wednesday.
But before jury selection began, Cannone 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.
The defense has said that Wednesday was the only other day of court on the schedule this week, which suggested opening statements in the trial may not be presented until next week.
Also Wednesday, filings were expected 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.
