Judge Cannone will continue to oversee Karen Reads retrial

Acquired Through MGN Online on 07/01/2024

By Vivienne Felber

A court representative said Monday that Judge Beverly Cannone continues to oversee proceedings for the Commonwealth v. Karen Read case, which is scheduled for January in Norfolk Superior Court. 

Commonwealth v. Karen Read accuses Read of killing her boyfriend, John O’Keefe former Boston Police Officer, with her SUV outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts in January 2022. Read has pleaded not guilty and claims she is the victim of a much larger cover-up to protect his real killer(s). 

After talk on social media, including talk radio host Howie Carr suggesting Cannone would take on a new court assignment, which could mean a new judge would preside over the case’s retrial, Cannone’s leaving her role of regional administrative justice would affect her ability to participate and closely watch Reads’s case, which Carr acknowledged on Monday. 

The Supreme Judicial Court will hear Read’s arguments next month in her ask to have two of her three charges against her dropped over allegations on the jury’s deliberations have emerged. However, Judge Cannone continues to deny the allegations.