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Judge denies request for parents’ phone records

Judge denies request for parents’ phone records


Crime

Judge Beverly Cannone sided with Read’s attorneys and agreed that prosecutors’ requests did not meet legal requirements.

Judge denies request for parents’ phone records

Karen Read turned to her lawyers after a hearing at Norfolk Superior Court in July. Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe

The supervising judge karen readThe Read murder case has denied prosecutors’ requests to access the phone records of Read’s parents, Janet and William Read.

Judge Beverly Cannone sided with Read’s attorneys and agreed that prosecutors failed to meet the legal requirements for a pretrial motion seeking third-party records.

“Despite the detailed arguments articulated in the supporting memorandum and oral argument, the affidavit in support of the motion is insufficient on its face,” Cannone wrote Friday in response to both motions.

During a hearing on Tuesday, prosecutors said Read He called his parents and texted his father. after she allegedly ran over her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her truck shortly after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022. Read, 44, is accused of leaving O’Keefe to die in a snowstorm after a night at the bar. jumping, although her lawyers maintain that she was framed in a police cover-up.

“The inference that a 40-something woman called her parents at 1:30 in the morning after this tumultuous event is compelling evidence that Ms. Read knew she had done something terrible, she knew she had hit John O’Keefe, and she knew she had left him behind,” special prosecutor Hank Brennan alleged during the hearing.

He explained that he searched phone records from a month before O’Keefe’s death to establish whether it was unusual for Read to call his parents in the middle of the night.

“In the absence of other calls, it’s horribly notable that she’s calling her parents in a panic at 1:30 in the morning,” Brennan said.

Read’s attorneys strongly opposed the motions, with defense attorney Elizabeth Little describing the requests as a “fishing expedition” and a “serious invasion” of privacy.

Several motions remain pending, including a joint request by prosecutors and defense attorneys to delay Read’s retrial until April. Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial in July, and she is currently scheduled to be tried again in January.

Ahead of his upcoming retrial, Read has added another attorney to his high-powered legal team: New York City Attorney. Roberto Alessi. His next hearing is December 12.

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Abby Patkin is a general news reporter whose work covers public transportation, crime, health, and everything in between.