Karen Read prosecutors can't have parents' phone records, judge rules
DEDHAM - A motion from prosecutors in the Karen Read case to get access to her parents' cell phones ahead of her second trial has been denied by Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone.
Karen Read's parents' phone records
In a ruling issued Friday, Cannone held that "despite the detailed arguments articulated in the supporting memorandum and at oral argument, the affidavit in support of the motion is insufficient on it's face and fails to meet" legal requirements.
Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan, a private criminal defense attorney working for the Norfolk County District Attorney's office to prosecute Read in her second trial, had filed a motion to get access to both William and Janet Read's phone records.
Brennan was seeking a month's worth of phone records from 2022, he told the court in oral arguments on Tuesday, November 26.
At the same hearing, Read's attorney Elizabeth Little called the prosecution's request a "fishing expedition," saying it was invasive.
Prosecutors allege that Karen Read called her mother three times in the middle of the night on January 28 into January 29, 2022, the night that Read's boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe died. Brennan argued that a month's worth of phone records would demonstrate that it was unusual for Read to call her parents at these hours, which he said would be "strong evidence that she knew she had done something terrible, struck John O'Keefe, and left him behind."
Prosecutors already have access to Karen Read's phone data from the night in question. Judge Cannone held that they failed to meet the legal requirements in Massachusetts, which require an affidavit filed by an attorney to "establish with specificity the relevance of the requested documents," in part.
Prosecutors indicated that they plan to call William Read, Karen's father, as a witness in her second trial, which is scheduled for January 27, 2025.
Karen Read rulings
Judge Cannone has not yet ruled on a motion from both prosecutors and Read's attorneys to delay the trial to April.
She has also not yet ruled on prosecutors' motions to access unedited footage of news interviews with Karen Read ahead of her second trial.
Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She has pleaded not guilty. Her first trial ended on July 1 in a mistrial due to a hung jury.
Read wants two of the charges, second-degree murder and leaving the scene, to be thrown out, but the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has not yet ruled on that request.