Karen Read prosecutors are asking to seal files related to other unrelated criminal cases

In a brief filing Wednesday, prosecutors in the Karen Read case sought a court order to restrict public access to some documents provided to Read and her defense team last month, saying they could be pending an independent one criminal proceedings are related.

The motion, filed by specially appointed Assistant District Attorney Hank Brennan, does not detail the documents presented. All it says is that they were given to Read on November 26 and detailed in a disclosure notice.

“This order is necessary to protect the well-established privacy and security interests of witnesses and the victim’s family,” the filing states. “In addition, certain materials provided as evidence in this case may serve as evidence in an unrelated pending criminal proceeding.”

Brennan and David Yannetti, an attorney for Read, both signed the order.

Both prosecutors and defense attorneys requested that the start of the second trial be postponed from January 27 to April 1, 2025. Judge Beverly Cannone granted her request to postpone the trial and asked her to provide more information about the schedule.

Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in injury or death.

Read is accused of crashing her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, after she dropped him off outside a Canton home following a night of drinking, leaving him to die in the snow.

Read’s defense said she was the victim of a law enforcement conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten inside the house before his body was buried outside.

Separately, Read has appealed to the Supreme Court seeking dismissal of two of the three counts – second-degree murder and leaving the scene – on the grounds that the jury had agreed to acquit her before her trial ended in a mistrial ended.

The SJC has not ruled on Read’s appeal.