Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey announced on Wednesday that Hank Brennan has been appointed as a special assistant district attorney who has been assigned to take over the Karen Read murder case.
Brennan released a statement that he is assuming all responsibility for the prosecution of the case and “will do so meticulously, ethically, and zealously, without compromise.” The attorney also said that he would ensure that Read receives a fair trial and that the facts surrounding O’Keefe’s death are fully and fairly aired in the courtroom without outside influence.
Karen Read is accused of murdering her then boyfriend John O’Keefe in January of 2022 by allegedly ramming her car into him and leaving him for dead after dropping him off at a friend’s house for an afterparty after a night of drinking.
Read’s defense team says that Read is innocent of all charges and that a huge conspiracy is responsible for the charges against Read, as others murdered O’Keefe and left him for dead in order to frame Read for the murder.
The first attempt to try Read for the charges ended in a hung jury in July of this year.
Brennan’s statement that he would be fighting outside influence would be key to the prosecution. In the first trial, Read’s defense strategy was to mobilize supporters, including Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney to prosecute the prosecution’s case in public, promoting wild conspiracies theories and even resorting to verbally attacking O’Keefe’s family in his efforts to defend Read.
Kearney himself, who is charged with multiple felony counts of witness intimidation related to the case, secured press credentials and is alleged to have embarked on a campaign to intimidate witnesses with his presence in the courtroom; having to be removed from the courtroom when those he had been accused of intimidating were testifying.
As special prosecutor, Brennan will be working with Norfolk County Assistant District Attorneys Adam Lally, Laura McLaughlin, and Caleb Schillinger. Lally was the primary prosecutor for the first trial, offering a workman like approach to his prosecution while receiving criticism of being “boring” and for putting on dubiously qualified expert witness to testify.
Karen Read’s retrial is expected to begin in January of 2025.
