Karen Read’s Defense Under Fire The $23,000 Invoice and a Judge’s “Grave Concern”

Judge Beverly Cannone’s abrupt decision to halt a motions hearing on February 18 wasn’t just a procedural hiccup—it was a red flag. Whatever information had landed on her desk that day was serious enough to stop the proceedings cold. By the time she returned to the bench on February 25, she wasted no time getting to the point: she had learned of a previously undisclosed relationship between Karen Read’s defense attorneys and expert witnesses from her first trial. And she was, in her words, “gravely concerned.”

Read, accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, by allegedly striking him with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow, was granted a mistrial when the jury couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. Her defense maintains that she is innocent, the target of a massive cover-up involving law enforcement, and now, they find themselves battling a new set of accusations—ones that have nothing to do with what happened on that winter night but everything to do with how they presented their case in court.

At the heart of the latest legal battle are two accident reconstruction experts, initially hired by federal investigators, who later testified for Read’s defense. Back during the trial, her attorneys, Alan Jackson and David Yanetti, assured Judge Cannone that they had no direct contact with these experts before their testimony. But on February 18, Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan called that claim into question, dropping documents that told a different story—emails, messages, and, perhaps most damning, a $23,000 invoice.

That invoice, dated July 12—one month after Read’s trial ended in a mistrial—billed Read’s team for services provided by the very experts they had allegedly never spoken with. Brennan framed this as a problem, not because the experts were paid, but because the communication surrounding them was, at best, incomplete and, at worst, misleading.

Robert Alessi, the latest addition to Read’s defense team, took the lead in addressing the court, explaining that all communication with the experts was handled through Jackson and was strictly about coordinating testimony. He insisted that the reports these experts provided were written long before the trial and remained unchanged—meaning their conclusions were not shaped by the defense.

Then came the explanation for the invoice. Alessi didn’t downplay the surprise factor. “It came out of the blue! It came out of the blue!” he exclaimed, describing how the bill landed in Jackson’s office post-mistrial, leaving everyone stunned. He maintained that before making the payment, Jackson checked with the U.S. Attorney’s Office to confirm everything was above board. That revelation was news to Brennan, who responded, “It wasn’t until your honor asked today that we even knew the defense paid this bill.”

After Alessi laid out the defense’s position, Judge Cannone turned to Jackson, Yanetti, and Read’s other attorney, Elizabeth Little, asking each of them directly whether they disputed his account. They didn’t.

But Brennan wasn’t satisfied. He accused Read’s defense team of routinely playing fast and loose with court rules. He dismissed the issues they were calling minor, likening them to “a raindrop in a hurricane” of procedural violations. He insisted that he wasn’t trying to block the expert witnesses from testifying in Read’s second trial—he just wanted access to the full discovery materials he was legally entitled to. He also took issue with what he called the “murky” nature of the defense’s interactions with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, arguing that the gaps in communication raised more questions than answers.

By the time Judge Cannone adjourned for the day, there was no resolution—just more uncertainty. The hearing is set to continue on March 4, with the possibility of stretching beyond that.

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