Prosecutors Seek Unredacted Media Interviews in Karen Read Murder Case

Prosecutors in the second-degree murder case against Karen Read filed a motion in November 2024 seeking a court order compelling Boston Magazine to produce unredacted audio recordings, off-the-record notes, and electronic messages that reporter Gretchen Voss exchanged with Read during a series of 2023 interviews, according to Axios Boston ^[1]. The motion asked Judge Beverly J. Cannone of Norfolk Superior Court to require the magazine to turn over unredacted recordings, off-the-record notes, and correspondence between Voss and Read. The filing marked a direct challenge to the confidentiality expectations Read and her legal team had placed on portions of those conversations.

Reporter Voss held three interviews with Read in the summer of 2023, including a July 7 session at Read's home in Mansfield that was conducted off the record, with Voss taking handwritten notes and promising Read she would not use statements from that meeting in her article. Prosecutors said they possessed two recordings of conversations among Read, her lawyers, and Voss from June and July of that year, but the recordings contained approximately 150 redactions. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan, appointed by Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey in September 2024 to lead the Commonwealth's retrial, argued that the redacted materials prevented the government from presenting the full context of Read's statements to a jury ^[1].

Prosecutors also noted that Massachusetts has no reporter's shield law, and argued they were not seeking to compel Voss to divulge confidential sources, because Read's media interviews were not confidential in the legal sense. Prosecutors contended that Read could not selectively control which of her statements became public, and that any off-the-record agreement between Read and the publication carried no legal weight. The Boston Globe separately reported that Brennan alleged the materials would show Read's account of the night of John O'Keefe's death had shifted across multiple interviews ^[2].

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of personal injury resulting in death. Prosecutors allege she struck O'Keefe with her Lexus SUV in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night out. Her lawyers contend she was framed and that O'Keefe entered the residence, owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer, where he was fatally beaten before his body was moved outside. Dog bite evidence has been central to that defense theory: during Read's first trial, defense expert Dr. Marie Russell opined that scratches and cuts on O'Keefe's arm were the result of a dog attack.

Read's first trial ended with a hung jury in July 2024, and a retrial was scheduled for 2025. Judge Cannone ultimately determined that prosecutors had shown a "strong interest" in obtaining the unredacted interview records ahead of the second proceeding. The litigation over the Boston Magazine materials illustrated a broader tension in the case between Read's extensive public media presence and the evidentiary rights of the prosecution, a conflict the Boston Globe noted was compounded by Massachusetts' lack of a statutory press shield ^[2][3].

References

[1] Axios Boston. (2024, November 7). Karen Read interviews with Boston Magazine under scrutiny. https://www.axios.com/local/boston/2024/11/07/karen-read-boston-magazine-interview-court

[2] The Boston Globe. (2024, November 7). Karen Read case: prosecutors seeking off the record Boston Magazine interview materials. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/11/07/metro/karen-read-prosecutors-boston-magazine-off-record-recordings/

[3] The Boston Globe. (2024, December 5). Notes, recordings from Karen Read Boston Magazine interview sought by prosecutors. https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/12/05/metro/karen-read-interviews-boston-magazine/