In the Most Massachusetts Move Ever, Karen Read's Prosecutor Has Been Replaced. With Whitey Bulger's Defense Lawyer.

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

The murder trial of Karen Read ended in a mistrial on July 1st. And a retrial is scheduled for late January. Which gives the whole case sort of the feel of a league during its offseason. Occasionally one of the teams does something that makes the news. The bloggers and social media accounts who were fully invested in covering ever aspect of the regular season when it was still going struggle to find ways to produce daily content. Mostly they just rehash highlights from May and June and offer up a few cold takes. 

And every so often an update comes along that's noteworthy. Like a police officer from Stoughton, the town next to Canton, getting arrested by the feds and charged with the murder of a young woman he'd impregnated. A case that had been "investigated" by the same Massachusetts State Police unit that charged Read with murdering Officer John O'Keefe, but which failed to implicate the Stoughton cop. Or someone involved gives an interview, like Read sitting down to talk to 20/20.

Well, if I'm going to keep hammering away at my 5,000th sports metaphor since I started posting about Karen Read, then this would appear to be Free Agency season. Where the teams are revamping their lineups and signing new aquisitions. In the latest roster move, the Norfolk County District Attorney's office just signed a new starting pitcher. Someone who's familiar to fans of Massachusetts-based criminal trials:

Source - On Wednesday, Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced that a defense attorney would be stepping in as a special assistant DA to retry the case. Adam Lally was the prosecutor during Read’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial when the jury said it could not come to a unanimous verdict. Read is facing several charges, including second-degree murder, for the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.

Morrissey named Hank Brennan, who he called a “highly respected and skilled former prosecutor and long-time defense attorney with over 25 years of experience in state and federal courts” to lead the retrial, WBTS reported. Morrissey said in the statement that Brennan would be working alongside the previous trial team, including Lally, Laura McLaughlin and Caleb Schillinger.

Brennan is no stranger to the public eye. According to his website, his recent clients included notorious mobster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger and Nancy Kerrigan’s brother, Mark, who was charged with his father’s death.

Donaldson Collection. Getty Images.

Just to emphasize the point, this doesn't mean that the prosecutors from the first trial have been fired. It just means the team has a new Ace. Lally might have drawn the ire of the Free Karen Read people and frustrated all the YouTube lawyers live-streaming the trial with his over-use of "What, if anything …" (my personal favorite will always be "Who, if anyone, was driving the ambulance?"). But he has not been benched. He's just not taking the mound for Game 1. This Hank Brennan will be taking the ball. 

What (if anything) this means, your guess is as good as mine. I've heard speculation that the DA understands he can't lay out that same prosecution's case as the last time, because it was such a major embarrassment to all involved. And perhaps this signals the Commonwealth intends to reduce or even drop some of the charges, given how badly it went the first time around. I

Or, it could simply be that my metaphor works and it was decided they need a better pitcher toeing the rubber because they need a win. And they see Brennan as an upgrade. 

What I can confirm is what I've been saying since this entire case first started pinging the nation's radar and getting attention from coast to coast. That if nothing else, this trial was us sharing Masshole culture with America. Irish cops. Butt dials. Catty fights on trips to Aruba. Guys getting texted that they're a "pussy" if they don't come out for drinks in a blizzard. "Sully's at the bar with us." "Jameson's and gingah." Cunts and balloon knots that leak poo. And most of all, everybody having some connection to everybody else. Living off the currency that fuels our entire state's economy: Favors. 

And with that, the Commonwealth is turning not only to the guy who helped defend the most notorious mobster in the state's history, but who also defended the brother of our local athlete who became a national obsession in the mid-90s. I don't begrudge the decision. And by no means whatsoever do I hold it against Brennan that he was on those defense teams. I say again what Hunter S. Thompson said, "Even Satan deserves good counsel." More power to him that he's able to toggle back and forth between defense and prosecution like a lot of really great attorneys I know. 

What I am saying is that this is a reminder of something that's hard to wrap your brain around unless you're from here. And that is, as much as Boston tries to pass itself off as a major, international city, at its core, it's still just a small town. Where, like I said a paragraph ago, everybody is connected to everybody else. It's like One Degree of Separation around here.

One last thing I know for sure: Once the new trial begins in January, the Free Karen Read protesters have a ready made chant: