Crime

Read “is not only seeking to poison the jury … but she also has one foot outside of Massachusetts now that her home has been sold,” the family’s attorney claimed.

The family of Boston police officer John O’Keefe is once again opposing efforts to delay their wrongful death trial, arguing they have ‘compelling reasons’ to ‘lock’ testimony of Karen Read, O’Keefe’s alleged killer.

O’Keefe’s family sued Read in Plymouth Superior Court in August, alleging she was driving drunk and hit O’Keefe – her boyfriend of two years – before leaving him for dead on January 29, 2022. The trial is also called CF. McCarthy’s and the Waterfall Bar & Grille, the two Canton bars that served Read and O’Keefe in the hours before his death.

Read and Waterfall filed motions to delay the wrongful death trial pending the outcome of the ongoing criminal case against Read, but O’Keefe’s family opposed both attempts.

“Not only is Defendant Read using the media to poison the jury, but any delay also risks damaging the evidence, including the memories of witnesses,” Marc Diller, the family’s attorney, wrote last week in response at the request of Waterfall.

He added: “The O’Keefe family also has compelling reasons to withhold the testimony of Karen Read, who not only seeks to poison the jury with her regular communications with the media, journalists and/or bloggers, but who has also a foot ahead. from Massachusetts now that his house is sold.

Read listed his Mansfield home for $849,900 in July; Zillow records indicate a sale of the property is pending.

The Waterfall had argued that suspending the civil case would “preserve the resources of the parties and witnesses” and “promote judicial economy.” Read requested a hearing on his own initiative to stay, although it remains unclear when a judge might rule on the request.

In an NBC “Dateline” special that aired last Friday, Read admitted that she had “several” drinks before heading to an afterparty on Fairview Road shortly after midnight on Jan. 29. However, she denied feeling weakened. . Prosecutors say Read had nine drinks total that night and was still legally drunk hours later.

The 44-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Her lawyers claim she was framed as part of a cover-up by law enforcement and that O’Keefe entered the Fairview Road home — owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer — and was severely beaten.

Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial on July 1, and a retrial is scheduled to begin on January 27.

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Abby Patkin is a general assignment reporter whose work covers transit, crime, healthcare and everything in between.

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