Karen Reed trial marred by means of homicide of Boston officer boyfriend

The mistrial got here after jurors despatched notes to Cannon explaining that they had been hopelessly deadlocked, first on Friday after which on Monday morning. Later, the pass judgement on gave the Tui-Rodriguez instruction — every so often referred to in Massachusetts because the “dynamite” instruction — to wreck a deadlocked jury.

In ultimate notes given to Cannon Monday afternoon, jurors reported they had been at an deadlock and that their perspectives at the proof remained “sharply divided.”

“Proceeding to planned can be futile and would power us to compromise those deeply held ideals,” jurors wrote in a be aware, which the pass judgement on learn aloud within the court.

Cannon instructed the jury in court docket, “I am not going to try this, guys,” disregarding them and stating a mistrial. Contributors of O’Keefe’s circle of relatives regarded distressed after the announcement, whilst Reid smiled and rushed to the gallery and hugged circle of relatives and supporters who had been there.

Prosecutors thanked O’Keefe’s circle of relatives in pronouncing plans to retry Reed.

“They didn’t forget about the actual center of this situation — to deliver justice to John O’Keefe,” the remark stated.

The trial, which started in April, captivated the country as fans attempted to know its dueling plots. Prosecutors described Reed and O’Keefe as embroiled in a risky love affair that boiled over after an evening of consuming when Reed rear-ended his SUV and fatally struck O’Keefe earlier than fleeing. Protection legal professionals instructed that Reed, a former fairness analyst and adjunct professor, was once framed by means of government Who was once attacking his co-worker and looking to duvet up a perilous battle.

In spite of the severity of the costs, the trial has taken on a suspenseful saga for true crime enthusiasts and conspiracy theorists who noticed a novel aggregate of a telegenic feminine homicide suspect, a soured love affair and an alleged regulation enforcement conspiracy in a town the place investigators had been carefully connected to the topics.

“It was once an excellent mixture of numerous components,” Daniel Medved, a professor of regulation and legal justice at Northeastern College, stated of the Reed trial. “A lady is accused of homicide, which could be very uncommon; the sufferer is a police officer; and it is a small the town, so numerous other people can determine with the dynamic.”

The case polarized spectators of the trial, who accumulated outdoor the courthouse all the way through the complaints. Supporters of Reed, dressed in red shirts and keeping indicators that learn “Unfastened Karen Reed”, faced her fighters, who chanted in unison, “I hit her! I hit her!” This was once in connection with Reed’s alleged screams after discovering O’Keefe’s frame.

The thrill surrounding Reed’s trial every so often spilled over into the court. Consistent with CBS Boston, Cannon ordered Aidan Kearney, a neighborhood blogger referred to as “Turtleboy,” to depart the court all the way through the illusion of a minimum of seven witnesses, arguing his presence may just “intimidate” their testimony. Kearney was once charged with witness intimidation after sharing movies of himself closing yr. confronting witnesses and posting non-public details about the investigator within the case. He has denied the allegations of harassment and stated he was once exercising his First Modification rights.

District Lawyer Morrissey took the uncommon step closing yr of liberating a video remark months earlier than the trial wherein he denounced the conspiracies and suggested a halt to them.

“A sign isn’t proof,” Morrissey stated.

The prosecution and protection agreed on few information, except for that at the evening of January 28, 2022, O’Keefe and Reed drank on the Waterfall Bar in Canton, Massachusetts, the place they met Boston Police Sergeant Brian Albert and had been invited to a birthday party at his house. The tale diverges after Reed drove O’Keefe in his black Lexus SUV to Albert’s birthday party with out letting her in.

Prosecutors stated the couple had a battle earlier than Reed dropped O’Keefe off and that she fatally struck him along with her automobile whilst creating a three-point flip, then fled. Prosecutors argued their concept was once supported by means of automobile knowledge from Reed’s SUV in addition to a damaged taillight on her automobile and hair at the automobile.

Protection legal professionals stated Reed was once getting used as a scapegoat, arguing that O’Keefe was once crushed in Albert’s house earlier than being thrown onto the garden in a storm from snow, the place he was once trussed up in a technique to make it seem like Reed had hit him. The protection famous that Albert’s house was once by no means looked for indicators of a battle involving O’Keefe, and argued that scratches on O’Keefe’s fingers instructed he have been attacked by means of Albert’s canine, a 70-pound German Shepherd combine named Chloe. Additionally they pointed to a warfare of hobby between investigators within the case and the ones provide on the birthday party. Prosecutors denied any police coverup or conspiracy.

O’Keefe, who have been with the Boston Police Division for 16 years, was once discovered subconscious outdoor Albert’s house and was once later pronounced useless at a health facility. An post-mortem made up our minds he had died from hypothermia and blunt power trauma.

The important thing to the prosecution’s case was once the testimony of a number of first responders who had been referred to as to the scene after Reed discovered O’Keefe’s frame outdoor Albert’s house. They testified that they heard Reed scream in a frenzied voice, “I hit him! I hit him! Oh my God! I hit him!” Prosecutors, Consistent with the AP, it additionally pointed to indignant telephone messages Reed allegedly despatched to O’Keefe hours earlier than she died, and a voice message he left for O’Keefe in a while after she left a space birthday party. wherein he stated she was once “boiling with anger” and screaming at O’Keefe.

The protection was once reinforced by means of a record from the FBI investigation into O’Keefe’s demise, which said her accidents weren’t led to by means of a automobile collision, and by means of testimony from Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator within the case. Proctor confronted sharp questions on messages he shared with buddies wherein he referred to as Reed “loopy” and was hoping she would devote suicide, supporting the protection’s argument that there was once a warfare of hobby in opposed regulation enforcement. Proctor additionally admitted to telling co-workers how he discovered no nude footage of Reed when he searched her telephone.

Reed didn’t testify all the way through the trial. He instructed journalists outdoor court docket on Tuesday: “There is no case towards me. … 8 weeks later, it is smoke and mirrors, and it is going thru my non-public lifestyles and looking to fabricate a reason that by no means was once.”

For O’Keefe’s circle of relatives, the top of the trial marks the start of a special procedure, his longtime buddy Tara Kerrigan wrote in an essay in Boston Mag in April. “I prayed it might finish quickly so his circle of relatives may just in the end start a procedure that has been denied them by means of the spectacle surrounding John’s demise,” Kerrigan wrote. “An opportunity to grieve in peace.”