Karen Read, charged with murder in death of man from Braintree, asks for removal of bail

DEDHAM – The case against Karen Read is set to take another dramatic turn.

Defense attorneys for Read, the woman charged in connection with the death of her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, a Boston police officer from Braintree, were to ask a judge Friday for her bail to be removed.

Read is charged with second-degree murder in the death of O'Keefe, who she is accused of hitting with her vehicle outside a Canton home after a night of drinking on Jan. 29, 2022.

Patriot Ledger news partner WCVB is reporting Read's attorney is asking for his client to be released on personal recognizance, in part citing legal expenses and what he describes as evidence of her innocence.

What happened that night in Canton?

Prosecutors allege Read struck O'Keefe with her SUV and he was found unresponsive in the snow the following morning outside the Fairview Road home of a fellow Boston police officer.

O'Keefe was pronounced dead several hours later at Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton.

Read's bail was initially set at $100,000, but currently sits at $80,000. Her team is asking for bail to be dropped entirely.

Read's bills are piling up, her attorney says

The motion claims Read has lost her employment and income since being indicted, and now has to pay for private health insurance "at significant expense."

Her defense also claims that she has also incurred "considerable" legal fees and that the prosecution is uncooperative.

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"The defense in this case has had a difficult time obtaining even the most basic of discovery material from the Commonwealth," the motion states.

Read's team accuses the state of inadequacies in the investigation and claims Read is being forced to spend unspecified sums of money to hire her own experts.

"The Commonwealth has failed to interview crucial witnesses, has failed to preserve and/or test crucial evidence and has reached incomplete and/or faulty conclusions on the evidence they have purported to test and/or analyze," the defense wrote. "In order to properly defend herself, Ms. Read has had to retain numerous expert witnesses to do the work that the Commonwealth has neglected and/or refused to do."

The defense cites as an example that five people who were present in the area where O'Keefe's body allegedly lay were not interviewed by investigators until "a year-and-a-half" later. They added reports about those interviews were turned over by the prosecution Sept. 1.

More: Prosecutors: Defense waging 'fishing expedition' in death of Boston cop from Braintree

A DNA expert hired by her legal team disputes a finding by a state examination that a hair found in Read's Lexus was human, the lawyer claimed.

Read and her attorneys have repeatedly said others are responsible in the death.

Last month, a request from prosecutors to rein in statements made by the defense was denied by the judge, who also denied a defense request to remove herself from the case.

This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: Defense calls for bail removal in death of Boston cop from Braintree