Karen Read heads to trial for the second time for allegedly murdering Boston cop boyfriend

Karen Read — the accused Boston cop murderer who gained a massive cult following through her sensational case — will stand trial for the second time Tuesday after a jury hopelessly deadlocked over the summer.Opening statements are expected Tuesday from both sides before a jury of 18 — nine men and nine women — in the Jan.29, 2022 death of Read’s boyfriend, John O’Keefe.Read’s first trial — which saw 74 witnesses take the stand and throngs of Read fanatics outside the courthouse over two months — ended in a hung jury in July.Read, of Mansfield, Mass., has maintained her innocence in the case charging her with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.She will face the same charges during her re-trial despite her lawyers failed plea to the top court in Massachusetts to drop the murder and hit-and-run charges on the grounds that jurors were allegedly confused and actually meant to acquit her on those two counts while they were only deadlocked on the manslaughter countRead’s team also lost an emergency bid with the US Supreme Court to postpone her trial claiming that trying her again on the two counts the jury allegedly intended to acquit her on amounted to double jeopardy.

The high court is scheduled to hear her appeal on April 25.The re-trial will be headed by a new prosecutor Hank Brennan — who notably defended notorious Boston mob leader James “Whitey” Bulger.Brennan has previously said he plans to try to streamline the new trial, in part by reducing the amount of witnesses the prosecution will call on the second go-around.Read has also added new lawyers to her defense team, including Victoria George, an alternate juror who didn’t end up deliberating at her first trial.Prosecutors claim that Read mowed down O’Keefe, 46, the 16-year veteran Boston police officer, with her Lexus SUV when she dropped him off at his cop buddy’s house for...