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(NewsNation) — Opening statements kicked off Tuesday in the retrial of Karen Read, a Massachusetts woman accused of striking her police officer boyfriend with her car and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in 2022.
She has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
The road to Read’s retrial has been lengthy, with months of pretrial hearings and 10 days of jury selection paving the way for Tuesday’s court developments.
Much of the day’s activity centered around Read’s own words that she used after discovering her boyfriend. The paramedic who tended to John O’Keefe was the first to testify Tuesday. Read’s legal team took a tough approach to questioning the paramedic, specifically asking if he had heard Read say things about whether she could have struck her boyfriend with her vehicle.
After Tuesday’s opening statements, however, Read expressed confidence in her legal team moving forward.
“I feel great, today went well,” she told reporters. “We prepped hard, and I’m just proud of my team. I couldn’t be prouder, and I feel fortunate to have them. We’ve got the truth, so we just forge ahead.”
The retrial is expected to last six to eight weeks, according to Judge Beverly Cannone.
Karen Read case: What to know about John O’Keefe’s death
Prosecutors alleged Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer, on Jan. 29, 2022.
After letting him out of the car, they allege Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV before driving away.
O’Keefe was found unresponsive in a snowbank outside the home the next morning. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital after suffering from hypothermia and a head injury, officials said.
Prosecutors alleged Read intentionally struck O’Keefe because their relationship had soured in the month leading up to his death.
Read’s defense attorneys dismissed the narrative, saying instead that several other officers are behind O’Keefe’s death and have colluded with other cops to cover up his death by framing his girlfriend.
NewsNation’s Safia Samee Ali, Jeff Arnold and The Associated Press contributed to this report.