Week 1 of the Karen Read murder trial is set to end Friday, but the same can't be said about the jury selection process.
Four spots remain on the jury panel after what was an eventful day. According to the defense, one juror that was previously chosen to serve on the trial was excused for a hardship. It's uncertain what exactly that hardship was but they've been replaced and now a total of 12 jurors are seated.
As far as the trial, new documents filed in court Thursday reveal a report from a Virginia-based lab about DNA tests. The results are connected to a piece of hair that was discovered on Read's SUV after her boyfriend John O'Keefe, a former Boston police officer, was found dead.
Prosecutors have given the report to Read's lawyers, but the judge hasn't made a ruling on if the data will be allowed in court.
Also, Read's attorneys spent time arguing for a fair cross-examination of Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor, who was the lead state investigator on the case.
Simply put, they want the jury to know he's under an internal affairs investigation for his handling of this case. The state believes that isn't necessary.
Thursday was already established as the last day of the process for the week, with no jury selection process on Fridays. A new pool of prospective jurors is expected to return to the courtroom in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Monday.
Also Thursday, a Supreme Judicial Court justice upheld the court-ordered buffer zone that keeps demonstrators 200 feet away from the courthouse and from holding signs and wearing pro-Karen Read clothes.
However, demonstrators appealed the decision to the full Supreme Judicial Court, claiming "the Superior Court had no authority to create the buffer zone outside the courthouse and its curtilage."
"The buffer zone is an unconstitutional prior restraint on all forms of 'demonstration' regardless of relation to the criminal case that spurred the creation of the zone," the group of demonstrators argued.
Karen Read and her lawyers entered the courtroom just before 9 a.m. Thursday. About 52 jurors are expected in the jury pool.
Seven more people had been impaneled Wednesday from a pool of 85 people, joining the four jurors chosen Tuesday
We got new insight Wednesday on how the people who will eventually consider the high-profile charges are being screened. NBC10 Boston obtained the jury questionnaire from the clerk's office of the Norfolk Superior Court.
The questionnaire includes 29 questions, starting with one that summarizes the case:
"It is alleged that on January 29, 2022, while intoxicated and operating her motor vehicle in Canton, MA, the defendant, Karen Read, killed her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, an off-duty Boston Police officer. Is there anything about the description of the case, the charges, or the that the victim was an off-duty police officer, that causes you to believe that you cannot be fair and impartial in this case?"
Potential jurors have the option to respond yes, no or not sure to that and the other questions, which cover religious beliefs, law enforcement, media attention and if they think Read should have to prove her innocence.
Read the full document here:
Judge Beverly Cannone asked the group a series of questions as well. Nearly 60 of the people said they'd heard about the high-profile case while two dozen said they’ve already formed an opinion.
That isn't surprising to attorney and legal analyst Katherine Loftus, given the attention the case has generated.
Before jury selection began on Wednesday, Read's lawyers stood to bring what they described as a "serious issue" to the court's attention. It wasn't immediately clear what the issue was — they told the judge they hadn't discussed it with prosecutors yet, leading to a series of conversations.
The issue appeared to be resolved after about 30 minutes — jury selection resumed and the 85 potential jurors entered, were sworn in and were receiving information from Cannone.
More than 100 potential jurors were called to the courthouse Tuesday, but only four jurors have been seated — nearly 80% of the first 90 jurors called were sent home because they revealed they were familiar with this case.
Prior to the start of jury selection Tuesday, 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, admissable 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.
After a brief sidebar with lawyers for both sides, court went into recess around 9:45 a.m. The proceedings resumed shortly after 10 a.m., with Cannone giving a brief overview of the jury selection process and how the trial will work to about 100 potential jurors who had been brought into the courtroom.
She then read the full list of possible witnesses, including dozens of police officers, firefighters, doctors and other medical professionals. Also included on the list of witnesses were numerous Canton residents, O'Keefe's father, two juvenile relatives of O'Keefe, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey and journalist Gretchen Voss, who wrote a feature story about the case for Boston Magazine last year.
Defense lawyer David Yannetti said at a hearing Friday that Read's legal team intends to use a third-party culprit defense. Yannetti said an affidavit by a forensic pathologist states that O'Keefe's injuries were consistent with being in a fight, not being hit by a car.
He said three people — Brian Albert, Colin Albert and Brian Higgins — all had a motive, the opportunity and means to attack John O'Keefe.
The Commonwealth called Yannetti's arguments speculation, saying they lacked actual evidence and instead were nothing more than "fertile imagination."
Cannone 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.
"This is just a best estimate," she said. "Sometimes trials go longer, sometimes they go shorter."
The case has seen heavy media attention, which was evident during jury selection. Some 70 of the 90 potential jurors brought in Tuesday said they had heard of the case.
"Lawyers and the media often overestimate the extent to which the public is aware, or knows about the case," said David Davis, who has been a Cambridge-based jury consultant for 35 years.
His resume includes working with prosecutors to pick a jury for the OJ Simpson double murder trial.
Mark Geragos, who worked on the Scott Peterson trial, says he always worries about a juror's real motives, especially in cases like Read's, with the buzz online.
"My biggest worry on cases this like this, is what I call stealth jurors, jurors who have an agenda and want to get on a trial one way or another," he explained. "One of the greatest tail tale signs if someone is a stealth juror is if they want to serve on the jury, because in my experience, having done this hundreds of times, very few people are eager to serve on a jury."
Dozens of supporters of Read were already lining the streets near the courthouse Tuesday morning, carrying signs with messages saying "Free Karen Read" and "Framed."
Cannone considered dozens of motions filed by both sides on Friday. Experts say as many as many as 150 potential jurors could be brought to the Dedham courthouse each day. Legal analysts say selecting an unbiased jury won’t be easy.
"What the court has in front of them in selecting an unbiased jury is going to be extraordinarily difficult," said legal analyst Michael Coyne.
"From my perspective, they both have fairly legitimate arguments, so it's going to be a very interesting trial to see what actual evidence is submitted on each of their behalf," said attorney Katherine Loftus.
The judge did approve a motion that allows the prosecution to do background checks once the jury is selected.
