Karen Read‘s defense team came out swinging in her murder trial with accusations that the lead investigator searched her phone for nude photos and texted his friends that he “wished she would kill herself.”
Her lawyer, David Yanetti, didn’t mince words during his opening statements Monday morning. “Karen Read was framed” for her Boston cop boyfriend’s death in January 2022, he said.
Her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, was found dead in the snow outside another Boston police officer’s Canton, Massachusetts, home during the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022.
His girlfriend, Read, was charged with his murder. Prosecutors said there had been at least a month of animosity between the couple, including a “screaming match” during a New Year’s trip, where Read accused O’Keefe of cheating on him.
Karen Read departs Norfolk Superior Court following a day of jury selection, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is accused of running into her Boston police officer boyfriend with her SUV in the middle of a nor’easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)
Read’s lawyer’s opening statement was “concise” and “dynamic,” while the prosecution’s argument “was hard to follow,” said Angelo Petrigh, a clinical associate professor at Boston University Law.
“People were paying attention as the defense was giving their synopsis of their theory,” Petrigh told Fox News Digital immediately after opening statements. “The prosecution didn’t have that. I don’t have a concise theory of what the prosecution is, and how it ties in to everything.
“On the flip side, the defense did all those things very well. They gave a very concise refrain. She was framed and here’s why she was framed ..and they kept going through the evidence and tying it back to that theory.”
KAREN READ MASSACHUSETTS TRIAL: 3 THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT WOMAN CHARGED WITH OFFICER BOYFRIEND’S MURDER
Each side had 45 minutes to present their argument to the jury. The opening statement and conclusion are the two times the competing sides can speak directly to the jury.
“You want your openings to be concise, coherent summaries of the evidence that’s coming,” Petrigh said. “You want them to characterize witnesses. You want to have your theory being put forward. And I’m worried the prosecution really did not do that very well here.”
Karen Read speaks with lawyers in court…
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