‘Wow’: Karen Read adds juror from first trial to her legal team

An alternate juror from Karen Read’s first trial has joined her legal team.

A court source confirmed Victoria B. George, Esq. was added Wednesday to Read’s defense team ahead of next week’s retrial.

7NEWS legal analyst Tom Hoopes says this is a first for him.

“I have never heard of a juror being added to a legal team in a retrial,” said Hoopes. “It certainly is a ‘wow’ sort of moment.”

As an alternate juror, George did not participate in deliberations last summer. However, George went through the jury selection process herself and heard all of the testimony, so she could be instrumental in the upcoming jury selection process for Read’s retrial.

Hoopes says the move is somewhat of a risky one, but it may pay off.

“They don’t have an insight into deliberations because she wasn’t in the jury room,” said Hoopes. “But at the same time, she listened to all of the testimony and she can react to that. So she sort of got an inside pipeline there.”

Judge Beverly Cannone is finalizing the jury questionnaire, which includes inquiries about whether potential jurors generally trust police in their investigations, as well as whether there is anything about crash reconstruction testimony that would make it difficult to be fair and impartial.

Cannone shared a few questions in court Tuesday, one being, “do you think law enforcement officers are generally accurate in their investigations?”

Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in 2022. Prosecutors say she hit him with her SUV and left him to die in the snow outside a Canton home. Read’s lawyers say she is being framed.

Jury selection is set to begin on Tuesday, with hundreds of people in the jury pool.