Kate Mangels recently spoke to USA Today as part of their ongoing coverage of Karen Read’s retrial for the 2022 murder of her then-boyfriend, John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer. In the article entitled, “Karen Read claims police bungled the investigation. What did they supposedly do wrong?” Kate discusses the potential bias at play in the investigation and its implications on the outcome of the retrial.
According to Read’s defense team, the police took as many as 581 days to write their reports on the case, indicating potential mishandling of the investigation. Kate tells USA Today “It’s hard to say these anomalies are instances of a police cover-up but I do think it’s enough to say there’s concerns here with the integrity of the evidence,” further noting that while this could have been dependent on the crime scene, it is not best practice.
As Karen Read seeks to overturn her guilty verdict, instances of faulty or manipulated evidence may sway the jury in retrial. “You can’t convict someone based on a sloppy investigation and this could be enough to create a reasonable doubt,” Kate says.
Read the full article on USA Today.
