“The values ​​at stake are too important,” says Lawyer

Karen Reed is asking Massachusetts’ highest court to dismiss two criminal charges against her in connection with the 2022 death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her lawyers arguing that retrying her would amount to double jeopardy.

Reed and her lawyers appeared in the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in Boston on Wednesday, November 6, to appeal Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannon’s decision to deny Reed’s request to have two of the three charges against her dropped. Associated Press reports.

The appeal comes just months before Reed’s retrial is scheduled to begin Jan. 27 after her previous trial ended in July with a deadlocked jury.

A full bench of Supreme Judicial Court judges heard arguments from her lawyers and government prosecutors. CBS News reports.

Speaking about double jeopardy, Martin G. Weinberg, Reed’s appellate lawyer, said their appeal is a fight for “a defense that protects defendants, in this case Ms. Reed, from being prosecuted again for the same crimes, for who had previously dismissed jurors unnecessarily (for a mistrial), without her consent,” Boston Globe reports.

“The values ​​at stake are too important,” he said.

Reed, 44, a successful equity analyst and former Bentley University adjunct professor, is accused by prosecutors of propping up John O’Keefe in her SUV and leaving him for dead after a night of drinking on the night of Jan. 29, 2022.

Hours after Reed dropped O’Keefe, 46, off at a late-night party at the home of retired Boston police officer Brian Albert, O’Keefe was found critically injured, clinging to life and covered in snow in the Alberts’ front yard.

The medical examiner determined the cause of death to be “blunt head trauma and hypothermia,” but could not determine whether the death was a homicide or an accident.

Reed was charged with second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter after driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She pleaded not guilty.

During the nearly three-month trial, her lawyers argued that O’Keefe was attacked by people at the Alberts’ home who were having problems with him. They claim that they dragged him out of the house, left him in the yard, and set her up under a powerful cover.

After five days of deliberation, the jury was unable to reach a consensus. On July 1, Cannon declared a mistrial.

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After the trial, some of the jurors told Reed’s lawyers that the jury, behind closed doors, voted unanimously to acquit Reed on two of the three charges – second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident, CBS News reported.

One juror told the CBS affiliate VBZ-TV that the jury did not know how to tell Judge Cannone that they had decided to acquit Reed on two counts but not on the manslaughter charge.

Her lawyers argued that the two charges should be dropped to avoid double jeopardy.

In August, Cannone wrote that she denied the motion “because the defendant was not acquitted of any charges and counsel agreed with the court’s contention of a mistrial, there is no implication of double jeopardy.” CBS News reports.