Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs The judge presiding over Karen Read’s retrial approved the prosecution’s request for new evidence related to print and television interviews on Thursday.Read is facing charges of second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She is accused of hitting her boyfriend John O’Keefe, who worked as a Boston police officer for 16 years, with her car and leaving him to die in 2022.Judge Beverly Cannone granted a motion filed by the prosecution asking for access to unredacted audio recordings, notes and texts between Karen and a reporter from a series of interviews with Boston Magazine in 2023. Cannone also granted another motion to allow prosecutors to obtain unredacted footage from a WFXT interview with her parents, William Read and Janet Read.A similar motion was filed before Karen’s first trial, but it was denied “on narrow grounds.”
Karen Read and her defense team and the prosecution file motions in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. The judge presiding over Read’s retrial granted the prosecution access to new evidence…
Karen Read and her defense team and the prosecution file motions in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. The judge presiding over Read’s retrial granted the prosecution access to new evidence on Thursday.
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Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool
A hearing on the motions was held on November 26. Cannone took the motions under advisement following the proceeding.Special prosecutor Hank Brennan said the original audio given to the prosecution from one of the Boston Magazine interviews was over 75 percent redacted.”What has happened in this interview is that we have three attorneys, a defendant and a reporter having a free reign of interview and then later deciding what parts of the interview they want the public to hear, what parts of the interview they want the Commonwealth to have possession of,” Brennan said at the hearing.Brennan said he intends to use the evidence to show how Read’s story has changed over time.An attorney for the reporter, Robert Bersche, mentioned that he previously appeared before the court for a similar motion.”The commonwealth has simply made no persuasive showing as to why the decision should be any different now,” Bertsche said.Last week, Cannone denied a motion from prosecutors seeking phone records from William and Janet. She ruled that the motion is “insufficient on its face and fails to meet” legal requirements.Brennan argued that calls from Karen to her parents around 1:30 a.m. are “strong evidence that Ms. Read knew she had done something terrible,” while defense attorney Elizabeth Little called the motion a “gross” invasion of privacy.The next hearing in the case is scheduled for December 12.Read’s first trial began on April 16. The judge declared a mistrial on July 1 after the jury stated it was deadlocked on the fifth day of deliberations.Cannone has not yet ruled on a joint motion filed by the prosecution and defense to change the start date of the retrial to April 1 of next year. The trial is currently scheduled to begin on January 27.Do you have a story Newsweek should be covering? Do you have any questions about this story? Contact [email protected].
