Karen Read murder trial will be held in smaller courtroom

BOSTON — The Karen Read murder trial, which has become a hot-button case not only locally but for true crime lovers across the nation, will be held in a much smaller courtroom.

Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone also reiterated during a hearing Thursday that attorneys could not directly raise the federal probe into the Read investigation or that the Massachusetts State Police investigator, Trooper Michael Proctor, is under internal review.

Opening arguments in the trial are scheduled for Monday morning. Cannone will allow 45 minutes for each side. The defense is barred from introducing their third-party killer theory during their opening, but can argue an “inadequate investigation.”

While every hearing and even jury selection took place in the main courtroom of the Superior Court in Dedham, the trial will take place in courtroom 25 down the hall. The change came because Read’s defense team expressed concerns about some juror seats having a poor view of the witness stand. It had been previously discussed that the courtroom has limited seating for spectators.

“We’re in that very small courtroom now at your request,” Cannone said. She added that doing this change “months ago would have been much better.”

Read, 44, of Mansfield, is charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death in the Jan. 29, 2022, death of John O’Keefe, 46, a 16-year member of the Boston Police Department and Read’s boyfriend of two years. She was indicted in June 2022 and has pleaded not guilty. Her defense has argued someone else killed O’Keefe and police and prosecutors have orchestrated a cover-up.

Thursday started with rulings on about 15 motions in roughly as many minutes. Those were the easy ones, to which both sides agreed for the most part, or that Cannone had previously ruled on and just confirmed that everyone was on the same page.

Of note among those is that neither side is to bring up Holden-based blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney. Kearney has written extensively about the Read case and is the de facto leader of the “Free Karen Read” contingent that has demonstrated at every hearing. Those followers, called “Turtle Riders,” are now subject to a 200-foot “buffer zone” away from the courthouse during trial.

Cannone said if Turtleboy is brought up “spontaneously” during testimony, then the subject is fair game. Kearney is allowed to observe the trial, unless a former lover of his shows up and a restraining order against him kicks in.

The judge also said there is to be no direct mention of the federal probe into the Read investigation, and the “undetermined” cause of death would be redacted from the death certificate presented at trial.

What Cannone did not rule on is another heady issue: whether Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey will be forced to testify. Cannone said that the defense could revisit their arguments to have Morrissey take the stand at the conclusion of the prosecution’s case.

Defense attorney David Yannetti said that it “isn’t usual” to have a DA testify, but he wants Morrissey to take the stand to be questioned on the conflict with the Canton Police Department and for the unprecedented public statement Morrissey released about the case.

“He injected himself into this case personally and made representations that we should be allowed to challenge,” Yannetti said.

Now the jury will have all this beginning next week.