After a mistrial was announced this summer for a Massachusetts woman charged in the 2022 death of her police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, Karen Reed has a new trial date set for January.
Reid appeared in court Monday, and a new jury trial is scheduled for Jan. 27. It was Reed’s first appearance since the judge declared a mistrial earlier this month after jurors said they could not reach a verdict in the murder case.
The judge’s ruling came on the fifth day of deliberations and after a nine-week trial in a court outside Boston.
Prosecutors argued that Reid, 44, and O’Keefe had a rocky relationship Jan. 29, 2022 in the snow in the suburbs of Boston.
Reid’s attorneys argued that O’Keefe’s death was a cover-up by law enforcement officials.
After the mistrial was announced, Reid’s defense team said prosecutors relied on compromised investigators and a compromised investigation.
“We will not stop fighting,” said Alan Jackson.
In addition to second-degree murder, Reed was charged with motor vehicle homicide.
Her lawyers They requested the judge to dismiss the two chargesJurors unanimously agreed to acquit those charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, court filings said.
The lawyers objected to the request, describing it as “legally irrelevant” and based on guesswork and hearsay. The judge has yet to weigh in.
In addition to a tentative trial start date, Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannon scheduled a motion to dismiss trial for Aug. 9 and a pretrial conference for Jan. 14.
O’Keefe, 46, a Boston police officer for 16 years, was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead. The medical examiner ruled his cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.
Reid said he dropped O’Keefe off at the meeting and didn’t see him until the next morning, when his body was found on the lawn of a fellow law enforcement officer.
Reid’s attorneys alleged that officers tried to cover up the beating during a party at the house where O’Keefe’s body was found.
Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case, tampered with evidence, failed to properly investigate O’Keefe’s death, sent slanderous and bad news about Reed to friends, family and supervisors and conducted a biased investigation. .
He was suspended without pay earlier this month.
He has testified that he made derogatory comments about what he had read in the books. But the rejected texts affected his impartiality.
