The ju umpire selection began Tuesday for the second trial of Karen Reid, who was accused of murder and other charges in a hit-and-run allegedly leaving Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who died in a snowstorm in January 2022.
The first trial, at the age of 45, ended with an examiner, and the judge later rejected multiple requests to dismiss the case.
This time, almost half of the first group of potential ju judges told the judge that they already had an opinion on the case.
Karen Reed and John O'Keefe: Internal evolution of Boston murder mystery since July
Karen Reed arrives for ju selection on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts for trial in Norfolk County Superior Court. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Read on Tuesday around 8:55am, wear a gray pantsuit and carry a water bottle. She gave a thumbs up to the supporters who welcomed her on the court stairs.
Inside, her powerful legal team is squared with the special prosecutor who previously defended gang Whitey Bulger.
Judge Beverly Canone read the charges to more than 90 people in the first group of potential ju judges and then began questions at hearings that were closed to the public.
During the open section, 76 members of the ju umpire pool raised their hands and admitted they had heard of the incident. 40 had already formed opinions. The 16 people said they already have prejudices or biases that are either praised or against the prosecution.
Check out this for full coverage of the second Karen's Read Trial
Judge Beverly Canone will listen at Karen Reed's hearing on November 26, 2024 at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Reuters/Leba Sardanha)
The two admitted that they had “difficulty” following the judge's instructions regarding the burden of evidence against the defendant, reasonable doubt, and presumed innocence.
Another 36 people told the court that they would sit on the ju apprentice for weeks and cause “severe difficulties.”
The selection of ju judges is expected to take several days, and the exam itself could run between six and eight weeks, Cannone said.
Karen Reed's supporters will meet on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts, during a ju-jury election for reading trial outside Norfolk County Superior Court. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Karen Reed Update: Lead Investigator on the Second Trial of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe's Death
Reed will be charged with double murder after leaving the scene of a fatal accident in connection with O'Keefe's death on January 29, 2022. He was 46 years old and was found in the snow outside another police officer's house, after a group of people went to an afterparty to close out their night's drinking.
That night, Easter tore the area, and an autopsy revealed he had died of head and hypothermia trauma. However, the inspector has set the method of death “undecided.”
Karen Reed's second murder trial begins with the death of her boyfriend: what do you know?
Waterfall Bar and Grill, 643 Washington Ave., Canton, Massachusetts, read by Karen, John O'Keefe, Jennifer McCabe and friends spent the night before O'Keefe died in January 2022. (Richard Beetham from Fox News Digital)
Both supporters for reads frequently gathered outside the court at her first trial and other hearings.
Canon told the ju judges on Tuesday that protesters would not be outside protesters, but would see full evidence of the case, and that the fate of the prosecution's case is their only hands.
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“John Adams said we are not men, we are the government of law, and the law must be deaf to the public's screams,” she said. “He said that public opinion on a particular subject may flow in decline, but the law must be stable, reliable and even responsible.”
ATF Agent Brian Higgins will speak at the Karen Reed Murder Trial at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (via Stuart Cahill/The Boston Herald, AP, pool)
Karen's ju umpire joins her defense team for a retrial
Reed denied the charges, pleaded not guilty and claimed she was framed as part of a police cover-up.
The investigator's actions at her first trial could have influenced the ju judge's inability to reach the consensus.
According to a text message revealed at her first trial, Reed and O'Keefe were fighting on the morning of January 28, 2022.
They drank in Canton, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, and met a group of friends and acquaintances at another bar just minutes before their last call.
McCarthy's CF at 614 Washington Avenue in Canton, Massachusetts. (Richard Beetham from Fox News Digital)
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Brian Albert, a Boston police officer like O'Keefe, invited the group to his house for an afterparty. O'Keefe was found dead on the lawn the next day.
At the first trial, witnesses testified that Reid and O'Keefe had never been inside, and prosecutors allege that she was caught up in another fight before attacking him on the other side at 24 mph.
Reed countered that someone else killed him in the snowstorm and left him on Albert's grass.
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Canon on Monday ruled that Reid's defense could not attempt to blame Albert's nephew Colin Albert for his crimes.
Karen Reed and John O'Keefe will pose for a dateless photo. (Karen Reed)
Other potential third-party perpetrators floating through the defense include Brian Albert himself and ATF agent Brian Higgins.
The judge said that Reid's defense could not name them during the opening statement, but that they could introduce evidence during the trial that they believe they were pointing out rather than her.
Witness Brian Albert testifies at Karen Reed's first trial in Norfolk County Superior Court, held on Friday, May 10, 2024 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (AP photo/Charles Krupa, pool)
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Canon also blocked testimony from a former FBI agent named Michael Easter, who was expected to side with the prosecutor and scrutinise alleged failures from police in the investigation.
Chief investigator Michael Proctor, former Massachusetts trooper, was fired last month after an investigation into a threaded text message he sent about reading while investigating O'Keefe's death, which was read in court at the first trial.
He is no longer a trooper, but his name is on the second witness list, along with 149 others.
