Judge Declines to Dismiss Murder Case Against Karen Read After July Mistrial

Karen Read looks toward the jurors, as they are greeted by Judge Beverly J. Cannone during her trial at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., on July 1, 2024. Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool

DEDHAM, Mass.—A judge ruled that Karen Read can be retried for murder and leaving the crime scene in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, dismissing arguments that jurors told lawyers after the mistrial that they had unanimously agreed she wasn’t guilty on the two charges.

Read, 44, is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a January 2022 snowstorm. Her two-month trial ended in July when jurors declared they were hopelessly deadlocked and a judge declared a mistrial on the fifth day of deliberations.