Karen Read team on the hook for hefty bill after Judge Cannone denies motion

The Karen Read team is on the hook for an expensive bill after Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone denied a motion that requested the Commonwealth pay for the work of a security camera expert hired by the defense.

Read’s attorney filed the motion late last month seeking a $12,229.57 reimbursement for fees and travel expenses paid to a defense expert hired to examine the security camera system at the Canton Police Station.

In the January filing, defense attorney Alan Jackson stated, “When our expert appeared at the Canton Police Department all relevant video surveillance footage and accompanying logs had been erased.”

In denying the defense’s motion, Cannone stated in a court filing that the defense should have known there was a chance the video they sought didn’t exist.

“In light of the averment of ADA Brennan and in light of Attorney Jackson’s acknowledgment during the hearing that he and ADA Brennan discussed his concerns regarding the likelihood of the video still existing, the motion to recover costs is denied,” Cannon wrote in her decision.

In December 2024, Read’s team intended to have their expert forensically image and obtain all video surveillance recorded at the police station between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022, the day of the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.

“All original DVR footage from the relevant date had been destroyed, at best, due to improper preservation by the Commonwealth” and the expert’s trip was “futile,” Read’s legal team stated.

Jackson said Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan informed them on Jan. 22, 2025, that an “unidentified officer at Canton PD downloaded the surveillance footage at issue on his work computer and cloud-based account.”

Citing a “waste of time and resources” in flying their expert back out to Canton, Jackson sought to recover the initial fees and travel expenses from the state.

“The Commonwealth’s repeated discovery violations, gamesmanship, and apparent attempts to ‘hide the ball’ have cost Ms. Read significant funds,” Jackson stated.

Read is accused of hitting O’Keefe, her boyfriend, with her Lexus SUV on Jan. 29, 2022, and leaving him to die after a night of drinking.

The defense has sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside the Albert family home and then dragged outside and left for dead.

The defense had argued that the original footage is required to verify its authenticity and that “the condition of the right rear taillight of [Read’s] Lexus SUV at the time it entered law enforcement custody is perhaps one of the most critical and highly contested issues in this case.”

A previous defense filing also mentions the “inverted video” shown at Read’s trial, and new surveillance video the prosecution provided after the trial in October, which shows prosecution witness Brian Higgins arriving at the Canton Police Department at 1:26 a.m. and minutes later speaking “on the phone” at 1:34 a.m. as he left the department.

Read’s lawyers have been fighting to dismiss her second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a deadly crash charge for double jeopardy reasons after multiple jurors told them that the jury agreed to acquit on those counts. Double jeopardy is a legal protection that prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for the same crime.

Her first trial ended with a hung jury this past summer.

The retrial of Read has been delayed until April 2025.

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