Karen Read judge rules in favor of Boston Magazine, the ‘free flow of information’

The Boston Magazine journalist who wrote a long-form piece on the Karen Read murder case will not be required to turn over her handwritten notes of an “off-the-record” interview conducted with the defendant.

Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone has backtracked an order she made in December for journalist Gretchen Voss to submit her confidential notes to the court, citing a danger to the public interest.

“Voss has articulated a compelling argument that requiring disclosure of the notes poses a greater risk to the free flow of information than the other materials produced,” Cannone wrote in a ruling she made on Friday.

“Conversely,” the judge added, “the Commonwealth has not demonstrated to the court that its need for the handwritten notes … outweighs the danger posed to the public interest in the free flow of information.”

Cannone had initially approved special prosecutor Hank Brennan’s request for access to all of Voss’ audio recordings, interview notes, emails, text messages and voicemails with Read – even including handwritten off-the-record notes.

But Voss subsequently filed a motion asking Cannone to reconsider part of the order requiring the off-the-record notes, highlighting how “courts have cautioned against efforts to make journalists the discovery agents for the government.”

In an affidavit supporting the motion, Voss warned Cannone that turning in the notes would erode her credibility as a journalist.

Robert Bertsche, an attorney for Voss and the Boston Globe-owned magazine, described in court on Friday how the “stakes … are considerable” for Voss.

“Her effectiveness as an investigative reporter,” he said, “depends upon her having the ability to use the tools to reliably assure her sources that certain information they provide to reporters will be off the record.”

Voss in September 2023 wrote a long read on the bombshell case south of Boston, with the headline, “The Karen Read Case in Canton: The Killing That Tore a Town Apart.”

The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office previously received the Voss/Read audio recordings with scores of redactions which Brennan said “occurred during discussions and admissions pertaining to critical issues in this case.”

The prosecutor cited a conversation about Read drinking alcohol on the night of the incident.

Read, 44, is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Her first trial ended with a hung jury last July and a second trial is set to begin April 1.

Prosecutors say Read struck John O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston Police officer, and her boyfriend of two years, with her SUV following a drunken argument and left him to die in a snowstorm in late January 2022, in Canton.

O’Keefe died at the age of 46.

Read’s defense team counters that outside actors killed O’Keefe and conspired with state and local police to frame Read for his murder.

There is “nothing confidential” about Read’s media interviews with Voss and other outlets, Brennan wrote.

“When a defendant, assisted by her attorneys, deliberately undertakes a public relations campaign saturating the public with statements likely to reach the potential juror pool they also run the risk that statements may not be beneficial and be incriminatory,” he added.

Cannone ruled that the “content of the ‘off the record’ notes at issue are of a different character than the unredacted recordings of the “on the record” interviews produced pursuant to the previous court order.”