Karen Read’s legal team demands Boston Police Commissioner Cox be placed on ‘Brady List’

BOSTON — On Monday, Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox was the subject of a scathing letter sent to Mayor Michelle Wu from Karen Read’s defense attorney, Alan Jackson, who demanded that the BPD head be placed on Boston’s “Brady List” for officers with credibility issues.

The Brady List is a compilation used by prosecutors to track police officers who have engaged in misconduct or have credibility issues. It stems from the 1963 landmark case of Brady v. Maryland, where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the withholding of exculpatory evidence by the prosecution violates the Due Process Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Jackson’s letter centers around Commissioner Cox’s comments on July 10, when he denied knowledge that then-Boston police officer Kelly Dever was involved in the Karen Read case before she was called to testify in the first trial in 2024. Dever was working dispatch for the Canton Police Department when John O’Keefe was found dead.

“I have nothing to do with Karen Read. As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know this person was associated with the Karen Read case,” Cox said at the time.

Jackson says an email exchange Cox had with the FBI’s Boston Field Office on February 22, 2024, explicitly references Dever and her connection to the Read case.

In a copy of the email sent to Boston 25 News, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Stephen Kelleher wrote to Cox: “Just a reminder, the documents were released to the DA’s office late last night. The officer we spoke about is Kelly Dever.”

The next day, Cox’s official calendar allegedly listed a meeting with Kelly Dever.

“Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox has been caught in a lie — and not a small one,” Jackson writes.

Dever, who resigned from her position with Boston police in September, was called to the stand by Read’s defense team on June 2.

While Dever was on the stand, the defense implied that Cox influenced her testimony.

Dever confirmed she had a conversation with Cox about the murder case at some point before taking the stand in the retrial, but she denied getting any guidance.

“Cox’s televised claim that he ‘had nothing to do with Karen Read’ and didn’t even know this person [Kelly Dever] was associated with the Karen Read case’ was a bald-faced lie — one now disproven by documentary evidence originating from the Federal Bureau of Investigation itself," Jackson writes. “For the Commissioner to suggest that he had ‘nothing to do with that case’ defies both logic and leadership. Common sense tells us he had everything to do with it.”

Jackson also called on the POST commission to initiate a full disciplinary review for “dishonesty, lack of candor, and conduct unbecoming an officer.”

Boston 25 News has reached out to the Boston Police Department for comment.

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