DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) 鈥 Karen Read鈥檚 second murder trial began Tuesday with a prosecutor saying the defendant鈥檚 own words will bolster evidence that she killed her police officer boyfriend three years ago and a defense attorney calling the case 鈥渢he definition of reasonable doubt.鈥
Read is accused of striking her boyfriend, John O鈥橩eefe, with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party in Canton, a suburb about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of Boston. She with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
Prosecutors say Read intentionally backed into O鈥橩eefe after she dropped him off at the home of a fellow Boston officer Brian Albert and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense says that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O鈥橩eefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.
A last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile. Speaking briefly to reporters Tuesday afternoon, Read said she is innocent and praised her legal team.
鈥淚 can鈥檛 be prouder, and I鈥檓 fortunate to have them,鈥 Read said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e got the truth.鈥
The biggest difference in the current trial is the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. Brought in as a special prosecutor after the mistrial, the former defense attorney has represented a number of prominent clients, including notorious Boston gangster James 鈥淲hitey鈥 Bulger.
In opening statements Tuesday, Brennan told jurors that 鈥渇acts and data鈥 will lead them to the truth, and that Read鈥檚 own statements will confirm it. The first witness he called was paramedic Timothy Nuttall, who testified that when he responded to the scene that morning, a frantic Read said, 鈥淚 hit him. I hit him. I hit him.鈥
鈥淪he admitted what she had done that night,鈥 said Brennan, who also played a clip from a television interview in which Read said, 鈥淚 mean, I didn鈥檛 think I 鈥榟it him鈥 hit him, but could I have clipped him? Could I have tagged him in the knee and incapacitated him? He didn鈥檛 look mortally wounded, as far as I could see. Could I have done something that knocked him out, and in his drunkenness and in the cold, he didn鈥檛 come to again?鈥
But defense attorney Alan Jackson told jurors that Read never said 鈥淚 hit him鈥 and that prosecutors are trying to twist her other statements into a confession.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 a person trying to make sense of an unexplainable circumstance, a natural concern of a bereaved significant other, a woman desperately trying to piece together what could have happened on this tragic night,鈥 he said.
Cross-examining the paramedic, Jackson noted that Nuttall testified at the first trial that Read said 鈥淚 hit him,鈥 twice, not three times. But Nuttall insisted Tuesday that she said it three times.
Jackson said in his opening statement that the prosecution鈥檚 case was based on a 鈥渂razen and flawed assertion that is untethered to the facts and the evidence.鈥
鈥淛ohn O'Keefe did not die from being hit by a vehicle,鈥 he said. "The facts will show that. The evidence will show that. The data will show that. The science will show that and the experts will tell you that.鈥
Many of the factors that made the must-see television will feature in the second. Most of the same witnesses are back as are Read鈥檚 aggressive defense team and her supporters camped out near the courthouse. Read, who has been featured in several documentaries about her case, has become a minor celebrity.
On Tuesday, a few dozen of Read's supporters, many holding American flags, stood in front of the courthouse before moving a block away to comply with a court-ordered buffer zone. Those who were reuniting hugged, while others took time to bring newcomers up to speed on the case.
鈥淚'm here for justice,鈥 said Ashlyn Wade, a Read supporter from Canton. 鈥淭he murderer going to jail and Karen being exonerated, that would be justice.鈥
The prosecution, however, stands to benefit from a pretrial ruling from Judge Beverly Cannone barring defense attorneys from mentioning potential third-party culprits in their opening statements. They can develop a case against two law enforcement officers but cannot implicate Albert鈥檚 nephew, Colin Albert, as they did in the first trial.
鈥淚 view it as a blow to the defense strategy but not a knockout punch,鈥 Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University, said of the ruling. 鈥淎ll the defense needs to do is create reasonable doubt about Karen (Read's) guilt, and that doesn鈥檛 require pointing to an alternative perpetrator as a matter of law.鈥
Jackson called the prosecution's case 鈥渢he literal definition of reasonable doubt" in his opening statement and said the heavy burden of proof will not be met given that "every piece of this case was handled by a disgraced investigator with a motive to protect his friends鈥
鈥淏y the end of this trial, you鈥檒l conclude that Karen Read is not guilty," he said. 鈥淪he鈥檚 the victim of a botched and biased and corrupted investigation that was never about the truth, folks. It was about preserving loyalty.鈥
One of the key witnesses will be former State Trooper Michael Proctor. He led the investigation but after a disciplinary board found that he sent about Read to his family and colleagues. Jackson called him a 鈥渃ancer鈥 that infected every step of the investigation and characterized him as both the key to the state's case and its Achilles' heel.
The state's second witness Tuesday was Kerry Roberts, a friend of O'Keefe's who testified that Read called her at 5 a.m. the day after the house party, screamed 鈥淜erry! Kerry! Kerry! John鈥檚 dead!鈥 and hung up. Roberts then went to O'Keefe's house with Read to search for him and then to the Albert home.
Roberts said she couldn't see anything when they pulled up but that Read said, 鈥渢here he is," and jumped out of the car.
鈥淪he ran right over to the mound of snow," Roberts said. 鈥淥nce she got to it, you could tell it was a mound of snow the length of a body.鈥
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Associated Press writers Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, and Patrick Whittle in Portland, Maine, contributed to this report.
