A lawyer who represented Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger will prosecute Karen Read, whose murder trial in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend ended with a hung jury, when the case is retried, officials said Wednesday.
In a statement, Norfolk County, Massachusetts, District Attorney Michael Morrissey said he appointed attorney Hank Brennan to lead the effort to retry Read as special assistant district attorney. Morrissey described Brennan as a skilled former prosecutor and a longtime defense attorney with expertise in complex law enforcement matters.
Brennan said in a statement released by the DA’s office that he had two core obligations — to ensure that Read gets a fair trial and to see that all the facts surrounding the death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, are “fully and fairly aired in the courtroom without outside influence.”
“I assume full responsibility and all obligations for prosecuting this case and will do so meticulously, ethically, and zealously, without compromise,” he said.
Brennan was a longtime lawyer for Bulger, the crime boss who was killed in a federal prison in West Virginia in 2018.
O’Keefe, who worked for the Boston Police Department for 16 years, was found unresponsive in the front yard of a now-retired Boston police sergeant on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
Read was charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.
Prosecutors alleged that she ran O’Keefe over with her Lexus SUV and left him for dead outside the home in Canton, just south of Boston.
Read claimed innocence. Her lawyers alleged that she was framed by other law enforcement officers and that she was the subject of a biased state police investigation.
After five days of deliberations, the jury said it could not reach a verdict, and the judge declared a mistrial. A new trial is scheduled for Jan. 27.
The lead prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally, will remain on the team that will retry Read, Morrissey’s statement said.
The lead state police detective who investigated O’Keefe’s death — and admitted in court that he made disparaging comments about Read to friends, family members and supervisors — was suspended without pay days after the trial ended.
The detective, Michael Proctor, is the subject of an ongoing internal affairs investigation that the former top official at the Massachusetts State Police attributed to allegations of serious misconduct raised at Read’s trial.
Proctor testified that the comments were “regrettable” and “unprofessional,” but he said they did not affect the integrity of the investigation. Proctor has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
