Karen Read is seeking to add another out-of-state lawyer to bolster her defense team as both sides gear up for what’s assured to be a high-profile retrial on charges she killed her boyfriend.
Read’s lawyers on Friday filed a motion to add Robert Alessi, a New York City-based attorney. David Yannetti, one of Read’s attorneys, said in the motion to add Alessi that he has “specialized skill and knowledge in representing defendants in manners of this nature.’’
Exactly what that means here in the murder case against Read was not immediately clear. Alessi, according to his biography on the firm DLA Piper’s website, usually works with businesses on energy and financial matters. The biography does note that he has applied his “scientific and technical background’’ as a criminal defense lawyer in the past and that he’s argued before the US Supreme Court.
Yannetti declined to elaborate Saturday, and Alessi did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In Massachusetts, a judge must grant permission to allow an out-of-state lawyer to represent a client. Judge Beverly Cannone has yet to rule on the matter, though such requests are typically granted if there are no previous issues with the lawyer.
Alongside Yannetti, Read’s team is already led by a high-profile attorney from California: Alan Jackson, who previously represented actor Kevin Spacey on groping allegations out of Nantucket that were eventually dropped. Elizabeth Little, a partner at Jackson’s firm, is also on the Read team and represented Spacey.
Read, 44, is charged with drunkenly and intentionally killing her boyfriend, Boston Police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. Prosecutors allege she intentionally hit him with her Lexus SUV while drunk after dropping him off at an after-hours gathering at the home of a fellow Boston officer.
Read insists she’s being framed as part of a massive law-enforcement conspiracy and that O’Keefe was actually beaten by people at the home — and bitten by the family dog — before his body was dumped on the front lawn in the snow.
Fueled by the dueling narratives around the death of a police officer and allegations of government corruption, the case exploded into a phenomenon. People across the country — and even elsewhere — watched streams of Read’s months-long trial, sharing theories online and combing through hours upon hours of testimony as they sought to find new cracks in the case in real time.
Ultimately, a Norfolk County jury could not reach a verdict, and Cannone declared a mistrial. A new trial is scheduled for Jan. 27, though both sides are seeking to push it back to April.
The beleaguered Norfolk district attorney’s office brought well-known defense attorney Hank Brennan, who most famously represented the late mob boss James “Whitey’’ Bulger, to lead the prosecution. He’s signaled that the prosecution strategy will change, saying he is looking to pare down the witness list while also adding some of Read’s family members. He’s also filed a flurry of motions seeking more communications from Read after O’Keefe’s death.
Adding another layer to this multifaceted case, the highest appellate court in Massachusetts continues to weigh an appeal by Read’s team to look further into whether jurors had agreed to acquit Read on certain charges, including murder. Even though jurors wrote in a note to the judge that they were deadlocked, they approached the prosecution and defense after the fact to say they only remained split on the charge of manslaughter by operating under the influence.
Sean Cotter can be reached at sean.cotter@globe.com. Follow him @cotterreporter.
