Karen Read’s lawyers are requesting email and phone records from the prosecutor. What are they looking for?

DEDHAM – Lawyers Karen Read, Mansfield woman accused of killing Boston police officer Her boyfriend, Braintree native John O’Keefe, requested that Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey be ordered to turn over his personal emails and cell phone data before his second trial.

The defense argues in its motion that Morrissey may have used his personal email and cell phone to contact Stoughton District Court staff and judges while Read’s case was previously pending in court.

Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in the case in July. The second trial is scheduled to begin on January 27, 2025. The court confirmed last month: Cannone will oversee Read’s second trial.

The prosecution and defense filed a joint motion in Norfolk Superior Court on Monday asking for the trial to be postponed until April.

In separate filings filed Friday, Read’s attorneys seek relief from an order seizing the sidebar transcript that occurred on April 14, 2024, and also object to the testimony of prosecution expert Shanon Burgess, who examined Read’s Lexus SUV.

Karen Read charged with second-degree murder

Read was charged with second-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter and personal injury and leaving the scene of death while operating while intoxicated after O’Keefe’s body was found outside the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer on Jan. 29, 2022. blizzard Prosecutors say Read was drunk and angry when he deliberately hit himself.

But Read’s defense attorneys say he was framed for O’Keefe’s death.

Read is also charged with involuntary manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene causing injury or death.

In the first hearing, which started on April 29, prosecutors called more than 65 witnesses to testify.

The defense’s witness list was much shorter and included a plow driver who said he saw nothing in the grass in Canton where O’Keefe’s body was found.

Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced last month that he had appointed Special Assistant District Attorney Hank Brennan to lead Read’s retrial.

This article was first published on The Patriot Ledger: Karen Read’s lawyers seek email and phone records from DA Morrissey