Protection Slams Prosecutors After Karen Learn Mistrial, State Says It Will Retry Case

Protection attorneys for Karen Learn vowed to battle for his or her consumer after the decide declared a mistrial within the high-profile homicide case.

“We’ve no give up,” protection legal professional Alan Jackson declared outdoors of courtroom after the surprising conclusion to a months-long trial that held the nation in thrall.

The trial got here to an finish on Monday, July 1, when Norfolk County Superior Courtroom Decide Beverly Cannone in Dedham, Mass., declared a mistrial after jurors had been unable to achieve a unanimous verdict.

Prosecutor Adam Lally advised the decide he needed the jury to proceed to deliberate after they advised the decide a second time they had been deadlocked.

In the long run, Cannone determined that jurors, as they’d mentioned in notes to the decide, had been unable to achieve any sort of unanimous conclusion.

The Norfolk County District Lawyer’s Workplace mentioned in a press launch it “intends to retry the case.”

“First, we thank the O’Keefe household for his or her dedication and dedication to this lengthy course of,” they mentioned within the assertion. “They maintained sight of the true core of this case – to seek out justice for John O’Keefe. The Commonwealth intends to re-try the case.”

Learn had been charged with second-degree homicide within the loss of life of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe within the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022.

Learn, 44, was additionally charged with manslaughter whereas working inebriated, and leaving the scene of private harm and loss of life.

Jurors deliberated for 25 hours, however couldn’t come to a unanimous resolution.

When the mistrial was declared, Learn hugged her household and supporters, Information Nation reported.

Outdoors of courtroom, Jackson stood in entrance of Learn supporters, who had been cheering and clapping, saying, “That is what it seems like while you carry false costs towards an individual,” NBC Boston studies.

“The Commonwealth did their worst.”

“They introduced the load of the state primarily based on spurious costs primarily based on (a) compromised investigation and investigators and compromised witnesses. That is what it seems like. And guess what? They failed. They failed miserably. They usually’ll proceed to fail regardless of how lengthy it takes. Regardless of how lengthy they preserve making an attempt, we is not going to cease combating.”

Jackson mentioned, “Primary, I’m in awe of the energy and braveness of this outstanding consumer that I’ve had the privilege of representing since day one. And quantity two, I need to ship a message to all of her supporters on the market. Your assist was invaluable. We’re touched and we ask to your continued assist.”

Prosecutors claimed that Learn drunkenly backed her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe, 46, and left him to die after dropping him off at a home celebration on the Canton, Mass., dwelling of retired Boston police officer Brian Albert.

Learn and her attorneys claimed that O’Keefe obtained right into a battle on the celebration, was severely overwhelmed, attacked by the proprietor’s canine, then dragged into the yard. 

O’Keefe was discovered unresponsive within the entrance yard of the house at 6 a.m. He was rushed to an area hospital the place he was pronounced lifeless simply earlier than 8 a.m. A health worker decided that O’Keefe died of blunt pressure trauma to the pinnacle and hypothermia.

Of their quest to show affordable doubt, Learn’s attorneys alleged that Albert and others know what occurred that night time and that Learn was the sufferer of an enormous coverup amongst native and state regulation enforcement officers and others who closed ranks to guard their very own.

They claimed the case’s lead investigator planted proof of a damaged taillight on the scene to guard folks on the home that night time, with whom he has longstanding private ties, and offered consultants who testified his accidents couldn’t have come from a car strike.

In his closing arguments, protection legal professional Alan Jackson confirmed jurors {a photograph} of the principally intact tail mild of Learn’s SUV when she went in search of O’Keefe after 5 a.m., when he failed to come back dwelling that night time.