Karen Read Homicide Trial Update: A Motion Hearing, a Juror in Fear, Charges of Targeted Vandalism, and of Course a Netflix Doc on the Way
I know the look. I've seen it before and I see it now with alarming frequency as time passes and the problem only gets worse.
The pale skin. Dry mouth. Hollow, glassy eyes doing a middle distance stare that looks right through you, sizing you up. Interested in nothing about you other than evaluating whether or not you can hook them up. "Are you holding?" they might say. Curiously both angry and yet somehow indifferent toward you when you tell them "I got nothing for you."
I've thought about saying, "That's it. I'm cutting off your supply," for their own good. But that gesture would be futile. The fact is that Karen Read News Addiction hasn't gone away since the court case ended in a mistrial on the first day of July. It's merely that there's less of it on the streets for those looking for a fix.
When we last checked in:
... a couple of the law enforcement officers who investigated the killing of John O'Keefe of the Boston PD had been granted membership in what honest cops with integrity call The Rubber Gun Club by their respective departments:
Perhaps more significantly, Karen Read's defense signaled their intentions by hiring a veteran appeals lawyer with significant experience handling cases on a federal level. And filed a Motion to Dismiss which alleged - under pains and penalties of perjury - that no less than four of the jurors reached out to them to claim they had a unanimous vote of Not Guilty on the major charges, and only disagreed on the lesser included.
Well now it would appear Team Acquittal is filling out their roster with a new free agent signing:
Boston.com - Another juror in Karen Read’s murder trial has confirmed the jury unofficially decided to acquit Read of two of the three charges against her, including second-degree murder, lawyers for the Mansfield woman said Thursday.
The juror, identified in court documents as “Juror E,” contacted defense attorney Alan Jackson and said the jury unanimously agreed Read was “not guilty” of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, Jackson said in a new affidavit. …
Read’s lawyers now say they’ve heard from five jurors — three directly, two indirectly — that the jury had actually reached a unanimous “not guilty” conclusion on two of the charges. The defense has filed a motion to dismiss those charges, though prosecutors allege their request is “premised upon hearsay, conjecture, and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.” Read is due back in court for a status conference on Monday.
Sorry for anyone looking to score some high-grade, courtroom-quality stuff at that status conference today. But it's likely little more than what the name implies. Not so much the judge ruling on the defense or Commonwealth motions as it's just a "Where do we stand?" scheduling thing and ironing out any clerical issues. There will be others before this thing ever gets back to the Square One of jury selection. But it's fair to question now whether any of the State Troopers, ATF Agents and Canton PD officers who took the stand on the Commonwealth's behalf will still have jobs by the time we get there.
Or whether they'll be able to sucker in find enough people to fill the jury box, given the obsession the public had for the first trial. And these latest reports that one of the jurors filed an affidavit demanding all the jurors be kept anonymous, fearing for their safety:
"If juror names are made public, we will be constantly be threatened and harassed and there will likely be a physical confrontation at some point," it states.
Which says it all about the magnitude of this one particular case in the Masshole consciousness. Thousands of jury trials of varying degrees of consequence are conducted across the state every year. Personally I worked hundreds, ranging in significance from a co-defendant murder trial to a small claims dispute over a used, $500 wedding dress. (In the former, one was found guilty and the other walked out the courthouse that very day. In the latter, the jurors wanted to just give the plaintiff $25 each and call it a day.) And the fact the jury lists are public record and therefore available for anyone who asks has never come up before. At least not in my experience. You can make a great case they should be kept confidential in a world gone mad. But so far as far as I know, the Honor System has worked pretty well. Until now. Until this trial came along and no one could get the Commonwealth v. Karen Read monkey off their backs.
So good on Judge Cannone for making this case the rare exception and impounding that information, permanently. That decision might have been easier to make than usual, given these latest allegations out of the weird social practices in that cloistered enclave we call Canton, Massachusetts:
Canton is like Lord of the Flies, but with Clorox-filled balloons ruining pristine lawns, lug nuts getting loosened and tires being slashed. Allegedly. At least the little British twits on William Golding's island had the balls to look Piggy in the eye when they rolled a boulder down on top of him. At the next Canton Town Meeting, they ought to not let anyone speak unless they're holding the conch shell.
All of this will be important to keep in mind when the inevitable True Crime documentaries, docudramas and podcast series start doing their treatments on the entire sordid, dramatic, scandalous goatfuck that has been this case. And it appears that at least one production company doesn't see the need for an actual verdict to get going on their project:
Netflix certainly won't lack for material to fill three episodes. And if they're looking for a charming, telegenic, well-spoken voice of authority with knowledge of this case and experience both in the Massachusetts court system and appearing in documentaries, I know just the handsome silver fox.