It remains all quiet on the deliberative front in the murder trial of Karen Read as jurors went a third day without delivering a verdict.
“Itap aggravating. My vote is not guilty. I can’t believe itap lasted this long,” Kevin Colby, a Read supporter from Canton, told the Herald outside the courthouse at the end of the day. “I would hate to see a hung jury.”
Colby is one of a contingent of Read supporters who gather outside the 200-foot “buffer zone” surrounding the courthouse where Judge Beverly Cannone banned case-specific picketing and speech during the trial.
The “Free Karen Read” group had swelled to the size of a small army in the latter days of trial and into Wednesday, but on Thursday the crowd appeared to have waned somewhat as the deliberations drag on. Leaders among the troops were sure to mind the rules so they could stay and support Read by reminding others “No chanting in the buffer zone” as Read and her team approached their vehicles at the end of the day.
The case
Read, 44, of Mansfield, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. The second of the indicted charges features two “lesser included charge” options: involuntary manslaughter and motor vehicle homicide. Read can be convicted of or found not guilty of each one.
Prosecutors say that Read — drunk from a night out on the town and angry as her jealousy and discontent in her relationship grew — slammed her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend of about two years, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, and left him to freeze and die on the front yard of a fellow Boston cop in Canton.
Defense attorneys fought back throughout the trial, arguing that a network of Canton locals, local police and the regional hierarchy of the Massachusetts State Police worked to cover the murderous deeds of others and frame their client.
Judge Cannone convened court shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday and released jurors shortly before 3:45 p.m. Jurors did not ask any questions and attorneys did not make any arguments and the silence held both media in the courthouse and observers outside in suspense.
The only moments of action the entire day were at the beginning when the court day began and when court was called into session only to send jurors home. There were brief sidebars with attorneys at each session.
The jury, which has been narrowed to a final set of six men and six women, sat for a total of 30 days of trial, including Tuesday’s closing arguments, in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham and began their deliberation that afternoon. The case began on April 29.
The followers
While cheers from the tailgate culture that Read supporters developed outside the court house could still be heard — as well as false screams that a verdict had been reached — the crowd size had dwindled and the mood was worse than it was on Tuesday.
“I can’t believe itap taken as long as itap taken,” Read supporter Paul Harvey of East Boston told the Herald. “I would think they should’ve came back (in) 15 minutes, itap so clear. I’m trying to remain optimistic but itap concerning.”
Fellow Read supporter Jao Baptiste Delgado, of Canton, had a similar take: “It should’ve taken 5 minutes. I am getting a little nervous that this is taking too long.”
Harvey explained that the reason he and so many others have latched onto a case involving a “not very well-known person” who none of them had known beforehand can be summed up in a simple “philosophy”: “This is just a miscarriage of justice, that it could be any one of us. Thatap why we’re here.”
Others, like Colby, see her as a good woman who was dragged through the mud by a corrupt investigation. One 12-year-old boy who came out Thursday with a sign that says he has “a colostomy bag, ‘not a leaky balloon knot’ I am out-raged (sic).”
Itap a reference to the testimony of MSP Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the case, who referred to Read’s similar medical problems in terms that were seen as objectionable by all involved in the case that included the quoted insult.
Read met with the young supporter and took a picture with him.
“This is in the middle of what she’s going through. She always has a moment for anybody no matter what,” Colby said. “You’ve got to hand it to her.”
