Defense pushes for charges to be dismissed in Karen Read case

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — A defense attorney for Karen Read implored the court Friday to consider new evidence that several jurors acquitted her on two charges and not force her to be re-prosecuted on them in connection with the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend.

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

“We have evidence here that the jury acquitted Ms. Read,” defense lawyer Marty Weinberg told the court. “What could be more central to the core values of our criminal justice system than to make a judicial determination with a respected and experienced Superior Court judge whether that is so or not and, if it's so, stop her re-prosecution?”

A new trial is set to begin Jan. 27.

In several motions since the mistrial, the defense contends four jurors have said the jury unanimously reached a not guilty verdict on second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident and were deadlocked on the remaining manslaughter charge. Trying her again on those two charges would be unconstitutional double jeopardy, they said.

They also reported that one juror told them “no one thought she hit him on purpose or even thought she hit him on purpose.”

Weinberg requested that Judge Beverly Cannone consider a range of options to prove the jury acquitted Read on the two charges.

She could poll the jury, Weinberg said, on whether they reached a verdict on the three counts or bring in the four jurors to be questioned anonymously. If she didn’t want to accept the defense declarations, he added, she could authorize the defense lawyers to ask the jurors “whether or not they would execute an affidavit that could be two sentences — we reached a final decision unanimously to acquit Ms. Read on counts 1 and 3.”

“Your honor has a lot of discretion in terms of how to get to the bottom line, which is what is the truth here,” Weinberg said.

Prosecutors have described the defense’s request to drop charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident as an “unsubstantiated but sensational post-trial claim” based on “hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations.”

Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally urged Cannone to dismiss the defense motion.

Lally argued that the jury never indicated they had reached a verdict on any of the charges, were given clear instructions on how to reach a verdict, and that the defense had ample opportunity to object to a mistrial declaration.

“There was no verdict slip that was returned stating anything in this case,” Lally said. “The two charges that the defendant now complains of dealt with a simple choice. There was a box for guilty and a box for not guilty. Neither was checked. Neither was returned to the court at any point in time. There is no verdict in this case.”

Cannone said she would take the matter under advisement.

Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, had been out drinking with O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police who was found outside the Canton, Massachusetts, home of another police officer. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.

The defense argued O’Keefe was killed inside the home after Read dropped him off and that those involved chose to frame her because she was a “convenient outsider.”

Karen Read listens to arguments from lawyers over some of the murder charges against her at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Attorney Martin Weinberg makes his argument to dismiss two of the charges against Karen Read, who faces charges in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, following a mistrial last month, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Judge Beverly Cannone listens to arguments from both sides in the case against Karen Read, who faces charges in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, following a mistrial last month, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Peggy O'Keefe, mother of John O'Keefe, who Karen Read is accused of ramming with her SUV and leaving for dead in a snowstorm in January 2022, watches as attorney Martin Weinberg argues to have some of the murder charges against Read dismissed following a mistrial last month, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally argues against dismissing some charges against Karen Read, who faces charges in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, following a mistrial last month, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Karen Read listens to her attorney, Martin Weinberg, who was making motions to dismiss two charges against her, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

Karen Read listens to her attorney, Martin Weinberg, who was making motions to dismiss two charges against her, at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, Aug. 9, 2024. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)

FILE - 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., Monday, July 1, 2024. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool)

BOSTON (AP) — A study that explores the feasibility of using pigeons to guide missiles and one that looks at the swimming abilities of dead fish were among the winners Thursday of this year’s Ig Nobels, the prize for comical scientific achievement.

Held less than a month before the actual Nobel Prizes are announced, the 34th annual Ig Nobel prize ceremony at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was organized by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine’s website to make people laugh and think. Winners received a transparent box containing historic items related to Murphy’s Law — the theme of the night — and a nearly worthless Zimbabwean $10 trillion bill. Actual Nobel laureates handed the winners their prizes.

“While some politicians were trying to make sensible things sound crazy, scientists discovered some crazy-sounding things that make a lot of sense,” Marc Abrahams, master of ceremonies and editor of the magazine, said in an e-mail interview.

The ceremony started with Kees Moliker, winner of 2003 Ig Noble for biology, giving out safety instructions. His prize was for a study that documented the existence of homosexual necrophilia in mallard ducks.

“This is the duck,” he said, holding up a duck. “This is the dead one.”

After that, someone came on stage wearing a yellow target on their chest and a plastic face mask. Soon, they were inundated with people in the audience throwing paper airplanes at them.

Then, the awards began — several dry presentations which were interrupted by a girl coming on stage and repeatedly yelling “Please stop. I'm bored.” The awards ceremony was also was broken up by an international song competition inspired by Murphy's Law, including one about coleslaw and another about the legal system.

The winners were honored in 10 categories, including for peace and anatomy. Among them were scientists who showed a vine from Chile imitates the shapes of artificial plants nearby and another study that examined whether the hair on people's heads in the Northern Hemisphere swirled in the same direction as someone's hair in the Southern Hemisphere.

Other winners include a group of scientists who showed that fake medicine that causes side effects can be more effective than fake medicine that doesn't cause side effects and one showing that some mammals are cable of breathing through their anus — winners who came on stage wearing a fish-inspired hats.

Julie Skinner Vargas accepted the peace prize on behalf of her late father B.F. Skinner, who wrote the pigeon-missile study. Skinner Vargas is also the head of the B.F. Skinner Foundation.

“I want to thank you for finally acknowledging his most important contribution,” she said. “Thank you for putting the record straight.”

James Liao, a biology professor at the University of Florida, accepted the physics prize for his study demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout.

“I discovered that a live fish moved more than a dead fish but not by much,” Liao said, holding up a fake fish. “A dead trout towed behind a stick also flaps its tail to the beat of the current like a live fish surfing on swirling eddies, recapturing the energy in its environment. A dead fish does live fish things.”

Professor James Liao displays a stuffed fish while accepting a prize for physics for demonstrating and explaining the swimming abilities of a dead trout during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

A team of researchers perform a demonstration during a performance showing that many mammals are capable of breathing through their anus while accepting the 2024 Ig Nobel prize in physiology at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

People in the audience throw paper airplanes toward the stage during a performance at the Ig Nobel Prize ceremony at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

FILE - Students walk past the "Great Dome" atop Building 10 on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge, Mass, April 3, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)