Crime
Responding to reports of a federal inquiry into the John O’Keefe murder investigation, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey called the probe an “extraordinary step.”
Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said he has confidence in the Karen Read murder prosecution amid reports that federal authorities are probing the state’s investigation.
Boston 25 News reported earlier this week that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts is conducting an inquiry into Read’s arrest and prosecution. The report cited a letter Morrissey allegedly sent to the Department of Justice, requesting that the federal probe be shifted out of state due to conflicts of interest.
“The US Attorney’s Office does not have jurisdiction over a state murder case, so this is an extraordinary step on their part,” Morrissey said of the inquiry in a statement provided to Boston.com. “I am unconcerned because I have confidence in what we’ve done and what people have told us.”
The FBI’s Boston office declined to comment on the existence of a federal probe. The U.S. Attorney’s Office told Boston.com in an email, “We don’t confirm or deny investigations.”
Background on Karen Read’s case
Read’s controversial case has drawn national attention and stoked fervent debate at home in Massachusetts.
The 43-year-old Mansfield woman is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. Authorities allege that Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV while dropping him off at another Boston police officer’s home in Canton after a night of drinking.
Her lawyers argue that she’s being framed, alleging a police cover-up and putting forth an alternate theory that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home and attacked by the homeowner’s dog. Prosecutors have dismissed this theory as unfounded.
Morrissey previously issued a rare video statement pushing back on the conspiracy theory and condemning the harassment of several witnesses in Read’s case. He later appointed a special prosecutor, who in turn brought witness intimidation charges against Aidan Kearney, the controversial “Turtleboy” blogger who has adopted Read’s cover-up claims.
Read’s case is scheduled to go to trial in March.
When did federal officials start looking into the Read case?
According to Morrissey, there are “indications” that the federal interest in Read’s case began under Rachael Rollins’s tenure as U.S. attorney for Massachusetts.
Boston 25 reported that in asking for the federal probe to be transferred to another jurisdiction, Morrissey alleged that Rollins held a personal grudge against him and that a high-level federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney’s public corruption unit is married to a former assistant district attorney from his office.
Morrissey and Rollins — who served as district attorney in Suffolk County before taking federal office in 2022 — have clashed over criminal justice issues several times in the past.
In 2019, Rollins expressed frustration with the lack of public outrage toward Morrissey after his office downgraded criminal charges against a former Red Sox player and the player’s wife. The following year, Rollins accused Morrissey and three other Massachusetts district attorneys of misogyny for intervening in a Suffolk County criminal case — a case that the other DAs claimed could have impacted sentencing practices statewide.
Rollins resigned as U.S. attorney in May after a pair of federal watchdog reports found that she abused the power of her office.
According to Boston 25, the federal inquiry into Read’s case began before her lawyers went public with their cover-up claims. The news station reported that witnesses in the state’s prosecution received subpoenas on April 10 to appear before a federal grand jury.
Morrissey said his office “has not seen and is not aware of any target letter in the matter.”
The district attorney said he and “a variety of people” have reached out to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney’s Office “to encourage them to come and speak about what Norfolk DA’s Office murder investigation has revealed.”
He said federal authorities have yet to take the DA’s office up on its offer.
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