Karen Read adds juror from first trial to legal team
Karen Read's legal team has added a new member, according to a new court document filed on Wednesday. The new attorney is Victoria George, an alternate juror from her first trial.
George was just added as an attorney appearing on behalf of Karen Read to her criminal case, which is set for retrial beginning with jury selection on April 1.
Karen Read adds new lawyer
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a Canton home in 2022. She stood trial last year but a hung jury led to a mistrial. Read claims she is being framed by several people, including law enforcement.
According to the Board of Bar Overseers, George is now working for David Yannetti's law firm. Yannetti is Karen Read's longest serving attorney.
George was a juror in Read's first trial who was selected as an alternate on the day of closing arguments and who therefore did not participate in deliberations.
When reached by WBZ-TV George said "no comment" because she is "under a gag order."
"It's so unusual that I think it probably has never happened, maybe in the history of the country before," WBZ legal expert Katherine Loftus said.
Who is Victoria George?
George is a civil attorney in Massachusetts. She has spoken to WBZ-TV several times, most recently revealing her identity on March 5 in an exclusive statement.
"I was a fair-minded juror who left this trial questioning the integrity of the system long before the defense filed a motion to dismiss with allegations of jury tampering. It is the Read case itself—and the fact that it is still being brought—that has left many in Massachusetts wary, distrustful, and scared of our system. As a lawyer, this reality saddens me even more because I remember how much faith I had in our system as an optimistic law student," she wrote.
The statement came on the day defense attorneys made arguments on behalf of their motion to dismiss, which special prosecutor Hank Brennan opposed. Judge Beverly Cannone denied the motion on Tuesday.
"Mr. Brennan made an impassioned argument today regarding his alleged concern that some might be questioning the 'fabric of our entire judicial system.' If he truly would like to address that problem, I have a few suggestions," George said on March 5. "Perhaps the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office should be more focused on remedying the systemic issues plaguing it and affiliated police departments rather than continuing to spend millions of taxpayer dollars prosecuting a case with so many evidentiary issues that it calls into question whether they are even following their ethical obligations as prosecutors. The Commonwealth has a duty to protect the rights of defendants, and I, for one, would love to see them do so."
Can former juror join Read's legal team?
Unlike in other situations where Judge Cannone has prohibited attorneys – like New York's Mark Bederow – from joining Karen Read's team, George is already licensed in Massachusetts and therefore likely legally can join the team.
"It feels wrong. But sometimes, just because something feels wrong in the law doesn't mean there is a legal reason why it can't happen," Loftus said. "I've gone through, you know, all the master rules of professional ethics and conflict of interest, and I don't think there is legally any precedent for Attorney George, not to enter an appearance. I don't think there's any basis that the court could take her off the case."
