Karen Read murder trial: Mistrial declared after jury deadlocks and an investigator is relieved of duty

CNN
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A choose declared a mistrial within the homicide trial of Karen Learn, the Massachusetts lady accused of drunkenly driving into her police officer boyfriend and leaving him to die in January 2022, in a case that includes accusations of an unlimited police cover-up and investigative misconduct.

And the state trooper who helped lead the investigation – a person who admitted on the stand that he’d despatched sexist and offensive textual content messages concerning the defendant to mates – was relieved of obligation Monday after the mistrial was declared, the Massachusetts State Police stated.

The mistrial was declared after the jury twice advised the choose Monday that it couldn’t attain a verdict after spending days deliberating Learn’s destiny. Jurors additionally stated Friday they may not attain a unanimous resolution.

Learn, 45, pleaded not responsible to prices of second-degree homicide, vehicular manslaughter whereas intoxicated, in addition to leaving the scene of an accident leading to dying in connection to the 2022 dying of John O’Keefe, who was her boyfriend and a Boston police officer.

“We thank the O’Keefe household for his or her dedication and dedication to this lengthy course of,” stated Morrisey after the mistrial was introduced. “They maintained sight of the true core of this case – to search out justice for John O’Keefe.”

The commonwealth intends to retry the case with a brand new jury following the mistrial, in response to Norfolk District Lawyer Michael Morrissey. Learn may face life in jail if convicted, in response to Massachusetts regulation.

Learn’s lawyer Alan Jackson, in the meantime, stated prosecutors within the case had “failed miserably they usually’ll proceed to fail,” in response to video outdoors the courthouse offered by CNN affiliate WCVB.

“Regardless of how lengthy it takes, irrespective of how lengthy they hold attempting, we won’t cease preventing,” Jackson stated. “People, that is what it seems to be like whenever you carry false prices towards an harmless particular person.”

The Massachusetts choose overseeing the trial gave jurors a so-called “dynamite cost” Monday morning, directing them to proceed their deliberations after they indicated for a second time Monday they may not attain a unanimous verdict. The Tuey-Rodriguez cost instructs jurors to rethink their positions whereas considering the opinions of panelists with whom they don’t agree.

Norfolk County Superior Court docket Choose Beverly Cannone learn the cost round 11 a.m. after jurors despatched a notice saying, “Regardless of our dedication to the obligation entrusted to us, we discover ourselves deeply divided by elementary variations in our opinions and mind-set.”

Jurors had resumed deliberations Monday morning on the choose’s course, after first saying on Friday they may not attain a unanimous resolution. Cannone on Friday requested the jury to proceed to deliberate, however determined towards studying the Tuey-Rodriguez cost, which case regulation cautions towards offering prematurely.

The jury of six males and 6 ladies had been contemplating a verdict since noon June 25, weighing the proof in a case that includes accusations of an unlimited police cover-up in addition to improper conduct and sexist textual content messages from a lead investigator.

On each Friday and Monday, Norfolk County Assistant District Lawyer Adam Lally argued towards the choose issuing the Tuey cost, saying the jury had not but deliberated sufficient, citing partly the complexity of the case and the excessive quantity of proof and witness testimony. Protection lawyer David Yannetti, in the meantime, urged the choose to problem the cost, saying Monday jurors had now twice indicated they’re “hopelessly deadlocked.”

On Monday, Cannone sided with the protection, telling the courtroom she’d decided the jury had carried out the requisite “due and thorough deliberation.”

“I’ve by no means seen a notice like this, with reporting to be at an deadlock,” the choose stated.

If prosecutors search one other trial, they may take a special method, maybe bringing a lesser cost than second-degree homicide if prosecutors decide their proof failed to fulfill the usual required or utilizing totally different consultants or totally different testimony, trial lawyer Misty Marris stated.

“It’s an opportunity to establish what the errors or holes within the case might need been,” Marris stated. “And it does give the protection that benefit, as a result of they know now, particularly whenever you’re in a position to communicate to the jurors after the actual fact, you study lots. You study lots about what motivated them.”

The guts of the trial stemmed from what occurred on one wintry night in Canton, Massachusetts, greater than two years in the past.

On the evening of January 28, 2022, Learn and O’Keefe went out ingesting at two bars with mates. Shortly after midnight, the couple climbed into Learn’s SUV and drove to the Canton house of certainly one of O’Keefe’s fellow Boston cops for an after-party, courtroom paperwork present.

Within the morning, O’Keefe’s physique was discovered bruised and battered within the snow outdoors the house, authorities stated. Prosecutors have alleged Learn and O’Keefe, who had an at-times tumultuous relationship, received into an argument that evening, and that she drunkenly backed into him with a automobile and fled the scene, leaving him to die within the chilly.

“What the constellation of the details and the proof ineluctably show right here is that the defendant drove her automobile in reverse at 24.2 miles per hour for 62.5 toes, struck Mr. O’Keefe, inflicting these catastrophic head accidents, leaving him incapacitated and freezing him to dying,” prosecutor Lally stated in closing arguments Tuesday.

In distinction, Learn’s protection has accused off-duty police contained in the Canton house of fatally beating O’Keefe, dumping his physique on the garden after which conspiring by fabricated proof and false testimony to border Learn.

“Girls and gents, there was a cover-up on this case, plain and easy,” protection lawyer Jackson stated. “You’ll certainly say to your self, ‘I don’t wish to consider it, I don’t wish to consider that might occur in our neighborhood,’ however sadly over these previous eight weeks you’ve seen it proper earlier than your eyes.”

The closing arguments represented the tip of a homicide trial that has garnered curiosity each native and widespread, together with accusations of witness tampering, a federal probe into the investigation, and teams of pink-wearing supporters chanting to “Free Karen Learn.”

The prosecution’s case has additionally been hampered by a collection of missteps and weird investigative practices. Most notably, a lead investigator within the case, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, admitted he despatched a collection of sexist and offensive texts about Learn in a personal group chat, calling her a “whack job,” mocking her medical points and commenting to coworkers he had discovered “no nudes” whereas looking her cellphone for proof, WCVB reported.

Proctor was relieved of obligation Monday after the state police discovered of the mistrial, state police Col. John Mawn stated in a web-based submit Monday night.

“This follows our earlier resolution to open an inside affairs investigation after details about severe misconduct emerged in testimony on the trial. This investigation is ongoing,” Mawn’s submit reads.

CNN has sought remark from the State Police Affiliation of Massachusetts.

Proctor apologized for the “unprofessional” feedback on the stand, however the vulgar texts had been sharply criticized out and in of courtroom, together with from the governor.

“It’s utterly unprofessional,” Gov. Maura Healey advised WCVB of the texts. “It does hurt, frankly, to the dignity and the integrity of the work of women and men throughout the state police and regulation enforcement. In order a former lawyer common and as governor, I’m disgusted by that.”

CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian, Jennifer Henderson and Zoe Sottile contributed to this report.