The special prosecutor was appointed Karen Read's second murder trial, who was accused of killing her Boston police boyfriend, John O'Keefe, who asked the court in a last-minute filing Friday to block her defense from stating that he would not blame his police officers or one of their dogs, or in his opening statement next week.
In two motions a few days before the retrial began, Hank Brennan, a specially appointed assistant district attorney, argued that the defense plan used harm photos to achieve O'Keeffe's right arm violated previous orders, prohibiting the defense from trying to blame others for blaming others before attempting to establish evidence during the trial.
“The order made by the Commonwealth is that the defense attorney declared in the opening speech that any victim’s injury was caused by any person or animal in the home of 34 Fairview Road,” he wrote. “Based on the defense’s claim to impose abrasions on the victim’s weapons in the opening speech, the Commonwealth noted that the court ruled that the defense was excluded from any reference to any claim that referred to a third-party culprit, and that any reference to a lawsuit claim by a third-party offender would be the culprit for improvement before establishing a practicable evidence that permits evidence.”
Judge Karen Read grants defense video access to allow dog bites expert – Limited
Karen reads photos in a booking photo after arresting Boston police boyfriend John O'Keefe in 2022. (Massachusetts Police)
According to prosecutors, O'Keefe died in a Massachusetts state where some of his law enforcement colleagues and their spouse spent the night in town on January 28, 2022, where they attended a party.
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Read was accused of strikes with her Lexus SUV amid drunken arguments before leaving the scene and was found dead on the front lawn of Boston police officer Brian Albert.
Albert, who invited a group to his house, had a German shepherd named Chloe.
Judge Karen Read defends her center for the final deadline for crash reconstruction experts
Karen Read’s defense hosted a poster committee containing information they claimed that caused their client to lose clients in the murder of John O'Keefe. (John Tlumacki/by Getty Images The Boston Globe)
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O'Keeffe's cause of death was determined to be severe head trauma and hypothermia, but his hand and right arm were also injured.
The motion comes the day after Justice Beverly Canada denied a motion for prosecution that excluded the defense experts for dog bites and partially approved the defense motion to limit the testimony of prosecution experts on the same subject.
Karen Read appeared at a pretrial hearing in the Norfolk County Superior Court. She is charged with murdering her boyfriend John O'Keefe. (John Tlumacki/by Getty Images The Boston Globe)
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Dr. James Crosby will be allowed to prove prosecution about dog bites, but will not be allowed to say that his analysis is excluded.
Authorities found John O'Keefe outside a state in Massachusetts on the morning of January 29, 2021. (Boston Police Department)
Read without pleading guilty.
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Her first trial ended at a deadlock last year, and she filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that partially, unannounced results should prove that two of the three charges she faced were left behind.
The opening statement of her retrial is scheduled to begin Tuesday.
