The protection within the second trial of Karen Learn rested its case on Wednesday and mentioned Learn was framed for the killing of her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Learn, 45, is accused of fatally hanging O’Keefe along with her SUV and leaving him to die within the snow exterior one other officer’s house when she dropped him off at a celebration in January 2022 after the 2 had been ingesting. She’s charged with second-degree homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene in Canton, exterior Boston.
Prosecutors have mentioned Learn deliberately struck O’Keefe along with her sport utility automobile and left him to die. Learn’s protection has advised she was the sufferer of a wide-ranging conspiracy that included planting proof and utilizing her as a handy scapegoat for her boyfriend’s demise.
Protection attorneys within the case have accused the prosecution of twisting Learn’s phrases right into a confession she by no means made. The state has pointed to a tv interview by which Learn mentioned, “I imply, I did not suppose I ‘hit him’ hit him, however I might I’ve clipped him?”
That is not a confession however an individual expressing real concern throughout a determined scenario, protection lawyer Alan Jackson has mentioned.
“That is an individual making an attempt to make sense of an unexplainable circumstance, a pure concern of a bereaved vital different,” he mentioned.
A crash skilled who testified for the protection mentioned, based mostly on exams he carried out, the injury to Learn’s taillight and O’Keefe’s clothes was inconsistent along with her SUV hanging an arm or physique on the velocity described by the prosecution.
Dr. Elizabeth Laposata, a former health worker known as by the protection, mentioned O’Keefe’s accidents have been certainly in keeping with blunt pressure trauma to the again of the pinnacle, however that his eye wounds weren’t in keeping with being hit by the rear of Learn’s SUV. She additionally testified she didn’t suppose O’Keefe was hit by the SUV in any respect.
The protection additionally unsuccessfully sought a mistrial earlier within the second trial. Learn’s first trial led to a mistrial on account of a hung jury. The try for a second mistrial hinged on a protection principle that O’Keefe was overwhelmed inside the house the place the occasion befell, and that he was bitten by a household canine after which left exterior as a part of a conspiracy by the police that included planting proof in opposition to Learn.
Karen Learn talks along with her protection crew earlier than the beginning of courtroom and the jury is seated throughout her retrial in Norfolk Superior Court docket, Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Dedham, Mass.
(Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger through AP, Pool)
The protection crew tried for a second mistrial after the prosecution identified that no canine DNA was discovered on O’Keefe. The protection mentioned there had been no point out within the trial about DNA and the canine chunk, and argued that elevating the topic whereas questioning Russell had prejudiced the jury.
Superior Court docket Decide Beverly Cannone mentioned the trial might proceed.
The protection has additionally tried to indicate that police have been biased in opposition to Learn from the beginning and wished to pin O’Keefe’s demise on her. Jonathan Diamandis, a buddy of Michael Proctor, the lead investigator of Learn’s case, was requested by the protection crew to learn textual content messages that Proctor despatched to associates concerning the investigation.
Proctor was fired in March after a disciplinary board discovered he despatched sexist and crude textual content messages about Learn to his household and colleagues. His testimony performed a key function within the first trial. Protection attorneys used his textual content messages to aim to indicate that Proctor was biased and ignored the potential for different suspects.
The subsequent huge step within the case is closing statements from either side. The case will then go to the jury.
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