Jury begins deliberating whether Karen Read is guilty of murder in Boston police boyfriend’s death

DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — Jurors in the murder trial of Karen Read began deliberations without a verdict Friday after weeks of testimony in a highly divisive case in which the prosecution’s theory of jaded love turned deadly was countered by a defense claim that a cast of tight-knit Boston-area law enforcement killed a fellow police officer.

Read, 45, is accused of fatally striking her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, 46, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow outside a house party where other local police and a federal agent were closing out a night of drinking in 2022. She’s charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene. If convicted on the most serious charge, she faces life in prison.

Jurors went home for the weekend and will resume on Monday.

Read’s defense said O'Keefe was beaten, bitten by a dog, then left outside a home in the Boston suburb of Canton in a conspiracy orchestrated by the police that included planting evidence.

The first Read trial ended July 1 in a mistrial due to a hung jury.

The state's case was led by special prosecutor Hank Brennan, who called fewer witnesses than prosecutor Adam Lally, who ran the first trial against Read.

Describing O’Keefe as a “good man” who “helped people,” Brennan on Friday said O’Keefe needed help that night and the only person who could lend a hand — call 911 or knock on a door — was Read. Instead, she drove away in her SUV.

“She was drunk. She hit him and she left him to die,” he said, repeating the phrase twice.

Brennan again referenced Read’s statement about the possibility that she backed into O’Keefe, which the defense has pointed out came not from police reports but from a voluntary interview she did for a documentary series. In the television interview, Read said, “I didn’t think I hit him,” but acknowledged she could have “clipped him.”

He bolstered that with the testimony from first responders, several of whom heard Read say, “I hit him,” multiple times.

“She is now coming to terms with the moment. Her fear is realized,” he told jurors when she uttered those words. “She is facing the reality of what she had done. Her emotions are overwhelming.”

Brennan then played a video clip in which Read questioned whether she said, “I hit him,” so many times at the scene, words that he said validate what the first responders heard.

In the first trial, the state called Michael Proctor, a Massachusetts state trooper who was the lead investigator in the case. Proctor was later fired after a disciplinary board found he sent sexist and crude text messages about Read to his friends, family and co-workers. Prosecutors never called Proctor, but he was referenced repeatedly by attorneys during the trial.

“I'm not saying you shouldn’t be disgusted by the text messages. You should. They are not defensible,” Brennan said. “I don’t stand here and defend impropriety. I don’t. But that doesn’t change the physical evidence, the scientific evidence and the data."

The evidence and data Brennan repeatedly referenced included a broken cocktail glass that O'Keefe was holding after he got out of the SUV and pieces of Read's broke rear taillight from the scene.

Brennan also said the data on Read’s Lexus SUX proved she reversed the vehicle and accelerated after dropping O'Keefe at the party. She was drunk, he said, and the pair had argued on the way to the party which had added fuel to an already “toxic” and “crumbling” relationship.

Defense attorney Alan Jackson began his closing argument by repeating three times: “There was no collision.”

“There is no evidence that John was hit by a car. None. This case should be over right now, done, because there was no collision,” he said.

Jackson told the jury that Read is an innocent woman victimized by a police cover-up in which law enforcement officers led by ringleader Proctor sought to protect their own and obscure the real killer. He said pieces of taillight were planted. And he and zeroed in on federal agent Brian Higgins, who exchanged flirtatious text messages with Read, leading the defense to question if that led to a fatal confrontation. Higgins was present at the party.

“What happened inside that house, that basement or that garage? What evidence was there for investigators to look into? What did they ignore?” Jackson asked, noting the “obvious dog bites" on O’Keefe’s arm and the head injury from his falling backward onto a hard surface.

Jackson also dismissed the witnesses who heard Read claim she “hit” O'Keefe at the scene. “It wasn’t a confession. It was confusion,” said Jackson, noting that it was normal to ask those kinds of questions when someone is experiencing grief or in shock.

Jackson also argued the state had failed to show how Read could have hit O'Keefe with her SUV — insisting they admitted not knowing how Read hit him and showing a crash simulation of a dummy being hit but admitting they weren't sure where O'Keefe was standing. The defense also argued Read's taillight was damaged when she backed out of O'Keefe house and hit his car, not when she hit him.

“The truth is Karen Read is not guilty not because of technicalities but because the facts, the law, the science, the physics, the data they all say so. They demand it," Jackson said. “The Commonwealth doesn’t have a theory about how John was hit by the car. They haven’t even shown you that it’s possible he was hit by a car.”

At the end of court Friday, a supporter handed Jackson a bouquet of pink flowers for Read, and he gave it to her when they got in a car. As she left, Read told reporters, “We’ve done everything we can."

Whittle reported from Scarborough, Maine.

Karen Read, is surrounded by reporters as she and her legal team leave the Dedham, Mass. courthouse, after the judge issued instructions to the jury in Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Prosecutor Hank Brennan, left, speaks to jurors during closing arguments in the murder trial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Karen Read, right, gestures to supporters as she and attorney Alan Jackson, left, leave the Dedham, Mass. courthouse, after the judge issued instructions to the jury in Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Defense attorney Alan Jackson speaks to jurors during closing arguments in the murder trial of Karen Read, at right, in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool) /// [EXTERNAL]

A costumed Karen Read supporter who declined to be identified, center, gathered with fellow supporters waiting for Read to arrive at the Dedham, Mass. courthouse, for closing arguments of her trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

Judge Beverly Cannone speaks to jurors before closing arguments in the murder trial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool) /// [EXTERNAL]

Defendant Karen Read, second from left, defense attorneys and prosecutors meet at side bar with Judge Beverly Cannone, right, before closing arguments during the murder trial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool) /// [EXTERNAL]

Defendant Karen Read smiles at her family before closing arguments during her murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 13, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool) /// [EXTERNAL]

Supporters of Karen Read gather prior to the day's session outside Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 12, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Prosecutor Hank Brennan questions accident reconstruction specialist Dr. Daniel Wolfe during the murder trial of Karen Read in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Stockwell/The Lowell Sun via AP, Pool)

Defense attorneys Robert Alessi, left, and David Yannetti, confer before the Karen Read's murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, June 6, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Judge Beverly Cannone speaks to jurors at the start of Karen Read's murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, June 6, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Defendant Karen Read listens as accident reconstruction specialist Dr. Daniel Wolfe testifies during her murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Defense attorney Alan Jackson questions accident reconstruction specialist Dr. Daniel Wolfe while holding a 2021 Lexus SUV taillight assembly during Karen Read's murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, June 6, 2025.(Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

Karen Read and her defense attorneys listen as accident reconstruction specialist Dr. Daniel Wolfe testifies during Read's murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Friday, June 6, 2025. (Mark Stockwell/The Sun Chronicle via AP, Pool)

PARIS (AP) — France’s far-right leader Marine Le Pen returned to court Tuesday to appeal an embezzlement conviction, with her 2027 presidential ambitions hanging on the outcome of the case.

Le Pen, 57, is seeking to overturn a March ruling that found her guilty of misusing European Parliament funds. She was given a five-year ban from holding elected office, two years of house arrest with an electronic bracelet, a further two-year suspended sentence and a 100,000-euro ($116,800) fine.

“I hope I'll be able to convince the judges of my innocence,” Le Pen told reporters Monday. “It’s a new court with new judges. The case will be reset, so to speak.”

The appeals trial is scheduled to last for five weeks, with a verdict expected at a later date.

She was seen as the potential front-runner to succeed President Emmanuel Macron in the 2027 election until last year's ruling, which sent shock waves through French politics. Le Pen denounced it as “a democratic scandal.”

Her National Rally party has been coming out on top in opinion polls, and Le Pen alleged that the judicial system brought out “the nuclear bomb” to prevent her from becoming France’s president.

The appeal trial, involving Le Pen and 11 other defendants, is scheduled to last for five weeks. A panel of three judges at the appeals court in Paris is expected to announce its verdict at a later date, possibly before summer.

Several scenarios are possible, from acquittal to another conviction that may or may not bar her from running in 2027. She could also face an even tougher punishment if convicted anew — up to 10 years in prison and a 1-million euro ($1.17 million) fine.

In March, Le Pen and other party officials were convicted of using money intended for EU parliamentary assistants who instead had other duties between 2004 and 2016, in violation of EU rules. Some actually did work for the party, known as the National Front at the time, in French domestic politics, the court said.

In handing down the sentence, the judge said Le Pen was at the heart of a “system” set up to siphon off EU parliament funds — including to pay for her bodyguard and her chief of staff.

All suspects denied wrongdoing, and Le Pen argued the money was used in a legitimate way. The judge said Le Pen and the others did not enrich themselves personally.

The legal proceedings initially stemmed from a 2015 alert raised by Martin Schulz, then-president of the European Parliament, to French authorities.

The case and its fallout weigh heavily on Le Pen’s political future after more than a decade spent trying to bring the far right into France’s political mainstream. Since taking over the party from her late father, Jean-Marie Le Pen, in 2011, she has sought to shed its reputation for racism and antisemitism, changing its name, expelling her father in 2015 and softening both the party’s platform and her own public image.

That strategy has paid dividends. The National Rally is now the largest single political group in France’s lower house of parliament and has built a broad network of elected officials across the country.

Le Pen stepped down as party president in 2021 to focus on the presidential race, handing the role to Jordan Bardella, now 30.

If she is ultimately prevented from running in 2027, Bardella is widely expected to be her successor. His popularity has surged, particularly among younger voters, though some within the party have questioned his leadership.

Le Pen's potential conviction would be “deeply worrying for (France's) democracy,” Bardella said Monday in a New Year address.

Far-right party National Rally president Jordan Bardella speaks during his New Year address to the press, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen arrives at National Rally president Jordan Bardella's New Year address to the press, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, center, is framed by Louis Aliot, left, and conservative lawmaker Eric Ciotti during National Rally president Jordan Bardella's New Year address to the press, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026 in Paris. (AP Photo/Christophe Ena)