KAREN READ'S FIGHT

Prosecuted for her police officer boyfriend's mysterious death in a wild case that ended in a mistrial, the former equity analyst has maintained her innocence. Moreover, she claims that law enforcement has conspired to frame her. As her retrial looms-calling into question the concept of double jeopardy-Karen Read speaks out

- JULIE MILLER

Karen Read is wheeling my suitcase into her four-bedroom Mansfield home. Her minimalist Colonial is embedded with clues to her current existence. A Ziploc go bag, in case of sudden arrest, sits hidden in the buffet of her blue dining room. In it: Advil, melatonin, toothbrush, toothpaste, hairbrush, drugstore lipstick, strip of paper with her lawyer’s phone number on it, and a bottle of Laura Mercier foundation, left over from her previous life. A copy of David Rudolf ’s American Injustice, a 2021 account of horrifying prosecutorial misconduct, rests atop a stack of finance books. A burner phone and SIM cards—purchased after Read learned authorities were tracking her this year—is stashed inside a safe box beneath a scenic painting. In her closet, a framed Rebel Without a Cause poster stands behind the poster-board exhibits from her last trial.

She’s been staying with family and friends but wanted to conduct our interviews in the house. Read told me she’d have a security person stay overnight. Said security turns out to be a volunteer, a friend of sorts, who declined to be named for this story but who looks like John Cena and has a license to carry. As Read said, “Strangest sleepover ever.”

And it is strange for a journalist to stay at a subject’s home, but Read’s offer was audacious: three days during which she would discuss any and every aspect of her life and complicated legal saga with the commonwealth of Massachusetts. There will be no lawyer present or conversation parameters, even though anything she tells me on the record could be used against her in her forthcoming trial. “There’s nothing we’re afraid of,” she told me. “Any question you have, I have answers for.”