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Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean Combs' Ex-Assistant Testifies on Drug Buys, ‘Wild King Nights'
Follow all of our Sean Combs trial coverage Sean Combs' former personal assistant, Brendan Paul, took the witness stand Friday as prosecutors' penultimate witness at the music mogul's sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial in New York. More from Rolling Stone Wife of Weezer Bassist Appears in Court, Wins Delay in LAPD Shooting Case Kneecap's Mo Chara Granted Unconditional Bail at First Hearing on Terror Charge Tyler Perry Sued for Alleged Sexual Assault, Battery by 'The Oval' Actor The ex-staffer, described in multiple civil lawsuits as Combs' drug 'mule,' worked for the Bad Boy Records founder from 2022 until he was separated from Combs on the tarmac of Miami-Opa Locka Airport and arrested on drug former Syracuse University basketball player, 26, had came to court Tuesday morning to invoke his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. U.S. District Judge Arun Subramanian said he would sign an immunity order, compelling Paul's testimony. Combs was not in the courtroom for the exchange. Upon taking the stand, Paul said was he tipped to the job by one of Combs' former assistant, Elie Maroun, who gave him a blunt assessment of the job. 'He told me to get in, to get out; if you have a girlfriend, break up with her; and you're never going to see your family.' Paul added, that he took this to mean that working for Combs would 'require all of my attention.' Some of Paul's key duties, he testified later, involved buying thousands of dollars worth of drugs for Combs, as well as setting up for 'Wild King Nights,' the highly choreographed sexual encounters also known as 'freak-offs.' When it came to buying drugs for Combs, Paul said he purchased marijuana, cocaine, Tusi, ecstasy, and ketamine from dealers named Guido, One Stop, Baby Girl, and Ovi. He said he bought marijuana for Combs every two months, paying $4,200 for 16 ounces. He added that he bought hard drugs for Combs less than 10 times. He said he would pay between $300 and $500 for one to two grams of substances, while other times he would pick up packages without having to pay himself. Occasionally, one dealer delivered the drugs to Combs' home. Paul said that after procuring the drugs, he would give them directly to Combs, or put them in a Gucci pouch where the drugs were stored. Once, Paul testified, Combs had had him try some of his tusi. Paul said he did it 'to prove my loyalty,' adding, 'I felt euphoric but did not feel the full effect. He asked if it was good … I said yes and then I kept working.' During his cross-examination, Combs' attorney Brian Steel asked Paul outright if he was some kind of drug mule, to which Paul replied, 'Absolutely not.' He acknowledged handling small amounts of drugs for Combs, but said he believed they were for the mogul's personal use. As for the 'wild king nights,' Paul said he helped with set up and clean up on a few occasions, though testified that Combs' former chief of staff Kristina Khorram 'didn't really want [him] involved.' He said he only knew of Combs' ex-girlfriend Jane (the pseudonym used by one accuser, identified as Victim-2 in the indictment) participating in the freak-offs. Paul said that he understood wild king nights involved 'partying, alcohol, sex, drugs.' While these encounters first took place at hotels, Paul testified, that Combs started doing them elsewhere after Casandra 'Cassie' Venture sued Combs in 2023. (That suit was quickly settled, though Ventura was one of the prosecution's key witnesses during the trial.) On the occasions he helped set up for these encounters, Paul said the necessary supplies were listed in a shared Notes app document. He said the items he packed for Combs included everything from candles and incense to condoms and soup, as well as Astroglide, liquor, and the Gucci pouch with drugs. He also testified to once packing $5,000 in cash for Combs. (The male escorts hired to participate in the freak-offs were often paid in cash.) After the freak-offs, Paul said the rooms were in 'disarray.' He said he would pile up towels and sheets, throw out empty bottles of liquor and baby oil, all while wearing rubber gloves 'for sanitary reasons.' The jury was also shown a photo Paul had taken of one of these rooms. It showed towels and sheets laid out over the furniture and the floor, with one towel sporting a clear brown-ish stain. Paul said he took the photo to give Combs' travel manager a heads up that there might be charges for damages. When asked about the wild king nights by Combs' attorneys, Paul said he considered them to be an 'like an escape' for Combs during his personal time. Paul said that he typically worked 80 to 100 hours a week for Combs on a starting salary of just $75,000 a year (which was later bumped up to $100,000). During one stretch, he recalled, he stayed up for the better part of three straight days while Combs worked on his 2023 album, The Love Album: Off the Grid. Paul said he took prescription Adderall, and sometimes cocaine, to stay up during the long days. 'I was young, so I was able to handle it,' he said. At one point during his testimony, the jury saw a screenshot of an iPhone note detailing Combs' schedule in February 2023. Paul said Khorram created the schedule, which largely revolved around the women in Combs' life — who was flying in, who was flying out, who had a hotel room, who was going on vacation with Combs — with other work sprinkled in between. Paul said that his primary job was to 'make sure' Combs was happy. He recalled Combs saying he did not 'take no for an answer,' and told his staff to 'move like Seal Team Six.' Combs once fired him, Paul said, after he forgot to bring his Lululemon fanny pack when they went on a walk. 'I don't want to see your face anymore,' Combs allegedly told him. (Paul said Khorram told him to lay low until the incident blew over.) Paul was traveling with Combs and the mogul's twin daughters when federal officials surrounded the group as they were about to jet off to the Caribbean for spring break on March 25, 2024. Unbeknownst to Combs, federal agents had swarmed his homes in Los Angeles and Miami to carry out search warrants in connection to the Southern District of New York's sex trafficking and racketeering investigation into Combs. While seizing Combs' electronics, investigators also searched Paul's baggage, finding cocaine and marijuana candy, according to an arrest report obtained by Rolling Stone. Led away in handcuffs, Paul was the only person arrested as part of the raids. While on the stand, Paul recalled his initial encounter with law enforcement about the drugs, saying he declined to say who the drugs belonged to out of 'loyalty.' Later, during his cross, Paul said that his 'heart dropped' when the agent pulled the drugs from his bag, because he hadn't meant to travel with it. 'I was sweeping [Combs'] room and put it in my bag and forgot it while I was packing,' Paul said confirming that it was a mistake to pack it. Last May, Paul struck a deal with Miami prosecutors that sent him to pre-trial drug diversion as an alternative to prosecution. His charges were dropped in December after he completed the program. 'Mr. Paul is pleased to close this chapter of his life,' his defense lawyer, Brian H. Bieber, told Rolling Stone at the time. (The deal was offered because the substance amount allegedly found was not of a 'trafficking' level, a spokesperson for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office told Rolling Stone at the time.) Bieber issued another statement to coincide with Paul's testimony today, saying, 'He was subpoenaed to come to court and tell the truth, which he did — word for word. Now that Brendan has finally had the opportunity to tell the full story about his employment, we are hopeful that the last 15 months of defamatory statements about him will cease.' After Paul's testimony ended, and before the next witness took the stand, the prosecution returned to Combs' relationship with Ventura. They entered several text message conversations into the record, which showed how Combs responded to Ventura when she pushed back against him, the freak-offs, and his alleged abuse. One exchange was from May 2, 2017 after Combs and Ventura allegedly got into a fight after appearing together at the Met Gala. Ventura texted Combs, 'You hurt me so bad. You took all your anger out on me per usual. You dragged me down the hallway by my hair.' She added, 'I felt like I was dead last night,' and, 'I was scared of your rage.' She then reminded Combs that one of his staff members 'had to tackle' during the altercation, before stating, 'That's not love that's possession… Your love me shouldn't equate to what you 'do for me.'' In response, Combs said, 'You were negative all night. You don't treat me like the king.' In another exchange a few months prior, in March, Combs texted Ventura about hiring someone for a freak-off. The next day, Ventura sent Combs several messages that appeared to allude to another altercation: 'WTF really?… You threw out all of my shit … You beat my head in. Combs responded, 'I need to figure out how to nut out this dick,' and alleged that Ventura had 'started all of this.' She replied, 'I guess I'm not down with abuse. You hit me in my head a good few times.' As Ventura described what allegedly happened to her during the freak-off, Combs accused her in turn of not giving him the chance to finish. 'You had me rub my dick for 10 hours and not let me finish,' he 55, was arrested in September and has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges of sex trafficking, transportation to engage in prostitution, and racketeering conspiracy. Prosecutors alleged that under the racketeering count, Combs possessed and distributed narcotics, including ecstasy, cocaine, oxycodone, and ketamine. If convicted as charged, Combs could spend the rest of his life in arrest came just weeks after music producer Rodney 'Lil Rod' Jones, who worked closely with Combs on 2023's The Love Album: Off the Grid, sued Combs for sexual harassment and abuse in February 2024. In the lengthy filing, Jones accused Paul of being Combs' drug 'mule,' allegedly 'acquir[ing] and distribut[ing]' drugs to Combs and his associates. (Combs has denied the accusations in Jones' lawsuit, and the case is ongoing.) Paul's name has popped up a few times in the criminal trial. On Monday, a compilation of text messages between Paul and Combs' longtime chief of staff Kristina Khorram, as well as other personal assistants for Combs, showed how the lower-ranking employees were expected to set up 'King Nights' at a moment's notice and deliver drugs and cash to Combs whenever he beckoned. Another former assistant, Jonathan Perez, told jurors last Friday that his tenure with Combs overlapped with Paul. One of the assistants' main jobs, Perez said, was to make sure a black 'Gucci pouch' that was packed with 'cocaine, ketamine, molly, Adderall, [and] Xanax' traveled everywhere with Combs. One of the mogul's recent ex-girlfriends, a woman who testified under the pseudonym Jane, also mentioned Paul in her testimony. She told jurors that shortly before she endured her first so-called 'hotel night' without the aid of any drugs in mid-October 2023, Paul allegedly whispered words of comfort to her. Jane said Combs had been growing impatient while she and Perez were out picking up lingerie costumes for the looming freak-off. 'He said, 'I'm just here waiting for you. What the fuck is taking so long,'' Jane said. Combs barked at her over the phone. '[He] called me a bitch from there.' When Jane arrived at the L'Ermitage hotel suite, Paul 'looked really upset,' she said. 'I remember that assistant was shaking his head and just saying to me, 'You don't deserve to be called a bitch,'' she recalled. Earlier in the week, SDNY special agent DeLeassa Penland testified Tuesday about the accuracy of evidence compiled in a chart presented by prosecutors. The chart contained 71 alleged instances of Combs booking hotel rooms for freak-offs with Ventura between August 2009 and June 2017. The chart contained the names of the male escorts and corresponding travel information if they were flown in from out of state. Penland said the data was compiled through bank statements, hotel and flight records, text messages, and videotapes. During cross-examination, Combs' defense attorney Teny Geragos asked Penland why certain alleged freak-offs weren't included in the chart — like the December 2011 freak-off that Ventura said ended with Combs allegedly lunging at her with a wine bottle opener because he discovered her romance with musician Kid Cudi. Geragos also questioned why Combs' name wasn't always listed on certain dates when alleged freak-offs occurred. Although prosecutors showed a few brief clips of freak-off videos to jurors for the first time Monday, Geragos went more in depth, playing 10 different clips taken from multiple freak-offs between 2012 and 2014 for nearly 20 minutes straight Tuesday morning. Jurors awkwardly fiddled with their headphones, tapped their pens, and held their chins as they watched the videos. Combs largely seemed unfazed, taking glances at the jury. At one point, Combs seemed to bob his head as if he were listening to music. Paul is one of the government's last witnesses, and prosecutors are expected to rest after their last summary witness as soon as Monday. The jury has already heard from several former assistants, who, like Paul, testified that they were expected to act as drug and cash couriers for Combs. They detailed his jet-setting, 'can't stop, won't stop' work ethic, which they were also expected to adopt. Two former assistants, Capricorn Clark and a woman using the pseudonym 'Mia,' stated that they would often go days without sleeping and were on call nearly 24/7. George Kaplan, who also testified under immunity, seemed proud to have learned from Combs during his two years as Combs' assistant but admitted his breaking point came after seeing two alleged violent episodes involving Combs and two different women. 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Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sean 'Diddy' Combs trial recap: Ex-assistant Brendan Paul testifies he bought drugs for Combs — but he was no 'drug mule'
The trial of Sean 'Diddy' Combs resumed Friday in Manhattan federal court, with Brendan Paul, a former assistant described in multiple civil lawsuits as Combs's 'drug mule,' testifying against him in the high-profile sex trafficking case. Federal prosecutors say that for decades, Combs abused, threatened and coerced women to participate in drug-fueled marathon sexual encounters called "freak offs" and used his business empire, along with guns, kidnapping and arson, to conceal his crimes. The defense has argued that the encounters were consensual, and Combs has denied any wrongdoing. The 55-year-old hip-hop mogul is facing five criminal counts: one count of racketeering conspiracy, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, and two counts of transportation to engage in prostitution. If convicted, he could face life in prison. Here are some key takeaways from Friday's testimony culled from various reporters and news organizations in the courtroom, including CNN, NBC News, and the Washington Post. Paul testified after invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Judge Arun Subramanian signed an immunity order compelling Paul's testimony. He told the court that he worked for Combs from 2022 until 2024, describing the grueling 80-to-100-hour weeks he spent helping coordinate the mogul's travel, fitness workouts, meal plans and assorted other needs, including setting up hotel rooms for "freak offs" — or what he knew as "wild king nights" — ahead of Combs's arrival. Like other former assistants, Paul said he would stock the rooms with supplies, including candles, condoms, Astroglide and a Gucci pouch that contained drugs. He also sometimes cleaned the rooms after the sex parties, he said. Paul testified that he would sometimes go days without sleep working for Combs, taking prescription Adderall and occasionally cocaine to stay awake. According to Paul, Combs likened his staff of assistants to SEAL Team 6, demanding they operate with no failures. Paul said that Combs 'fired' him numerous times, including once for forgetting to bring his boss's Lululemon fanny pack. The firings would always blow over within a day or two and he would continue working, he said. Paul testified that he was also tasked with buying drugs — including marijuana, cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy — for Combs. Combs or one of his other assistants would instruct him to obtain the drugs, which involved meeting with drug dealers with such nicknames as Guido, Baby Girl and One Stop, Paul said. Paul told the court that he would also pick up prescription drugs for Combs at pharmacies under Combs's real name or the alias "Frank Black." Once he procured the drugs, Paul said he would give them directly to Combs or put them in Combs's Gucci bag, where they were often stored. But under cross-examination by the defense, Paul testified that handling drugs was only a minor part of his work for Combs, and that it was his understanding that the drugs were for the mogul's personal use. 'You were not some drug mule, right?' defense attorney Brian Steel asked. 'Absolutely not,' Paul replied. Paul was arrested for possession of cocaine at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport in March 2024, around the same time federal agents raided Combs's homes. The charges were later dropped. He told the court that he got the cocaine while he was "sweeping" Combs's room and put it in his own bag, but then forgot to remove it before leaving for a family trip. 'I was sweeping his room and put it in my bag and forgot it while I was packing,' he explained. Paul said he told law enforcement that everything in the bag, including the cocaine, was his, and did not say where he got it out of "loyalty" to Combs. Big picture: Prosecutors hope to convince jurors that Combs used his business empire, including assistants like Paul, to procure drugs and help him set up "freak offs" as part of their racketeering conspiracy charge. But under cross-examination, Paul acknowledged that Combs did not ask him to travel with the cocaine, and that he had left it in his bag by mistake. While Joseph Cerciello, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, was on the stand, prosecutors entered into evidence text messages between Combs and Cassie Ventura, his former girlfriend and a star witness for the government's case. The messages were from March 2017, a year after Combs was captured on surveillance video assaulting Ventura in a Los Angeles hotel. "That's not love, that's possession," Ventura wrote to Combs in one of the messages, which was shown in court. At one point, Combs asked Ventura if she was "flipping" on him. She said she 'aint flipping' but that she also did not want to subject herself to another 'beat down.' Later in the exchange, Ventura told Combs, 'You treat me like a hooker to be honest. You always want to call one and you have one. This hooker has been here for 10 years.' Prosecutors had hoped to rest their case this week, but the court was adjourned without testimony Wednesday because a juror was sick with vertigo, delaying the proceedings. Court was not in session Thursday for the Juneteenth holiday. The government said it now expects to wrap up its case Monday. Combs's lead attorney, Marc Agnifilo, estimated it would take less than two days to present his defense, and likely rest on Tuesday or Wednesday. (The defense had already hinted that Combs probably won't testify.) Under that timeline, Subramanian said jury deliberations could begin Thursday after closing arguments, and asked both sides to prepare modifications to the proposed instructions that will be given to the jury when it gets the case.
Politico
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Politico
Supreme Court revives lawsuits seeking to hold Palestine Liberation Organization liable for terrorist attacks
The Supreme Court has revived lawsuits against the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority over terrorist attacks that killed and injured Americans. The justices on Friday unanimously overturned a ruling from a federal appeals court that Congress violated the Fifth Amendment's guarantee of due process by enacting a 2019 law that expanded the jurisdiction of U.S. courts to hear terrorism-related suits against the PLO and PA. In an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts , the high court cited the history of U.S. interaction with the Palestinian entities and the 'sensitive foreign policy concerns' behind Congress' choice to authorize federal courts to hear the terrorism-related cases. Congress' decision to expand the courts' jurisdiction in these circumstances does not violate due process-based limits on the reach of U.S. courts, Roberts said. 'It is permissible for the Federal Government to craft a narrow jurisdictional provision that ensures, as part of a broader foreign policy agenda, that Americans injured or killed by acts of terror have an adequate forum in which to vindicate their right to … compensation' under U.S. law, Roberts wrote. Roberts insisted the ruling was not a sweeping one signaling that Congress could subject any foreign entity to litigation in the U.S. over any conduct at any time. The 2019 law, known as the Promoting Security and Justice for Victims of Terrorism Act, does not put the Palestinian entities 'at broad risk of being haled into U.S. courts for myriad civil liability actions,' Roberts emphasized. 'Rather, the statute applies only to … a narrow category of claims that provide civil remedies only for Americans injured by acts of international terrorism.' The high court's decision reinstates lawsuits that were brought on behalf of Americans killed or injured in a 2001 shooting attack in Jerusalem, the bombing of a Hebrew University cafeteria in that city in 2002, a bus bombing there in 2004 and a stabbing attack outside a shopping center in Gush Etzion , Israel, in 2018. The suits contend that the PLO and PA's practice of making payments to the families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned in connection with acts of terrorism encouraged such acts and rendered the PLO and PA financially liable for damages sought by victims and their families. A PA spokesperson did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment on the ruling. The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2023 that Congress' tweak to the law four years earlier, attempting to give the courts 'personal jurisdiction' over the PLO and PA, was unconstitutional. Roberts' opinion was fully joined by six other justices — all three of the court's liberals and three of the conservatives. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch joined their colleagues in overturning the 2nd Circuit ruling, but adopted different rationales for doing so. 'The Federal Government has always possessed the power to extend its jurisdiction beyond the Nation's borders,' Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion. Gorsuch joined that portion of Thomas' concurrence. In another passage Gorsuch did not join, Thomas went further. 'I am skeptical that entities such as the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the Palestinian Authority (PA) enjoy any constitutional rights at all,' Thomas wrote.
Chicago Tribune
a day ago
- Chicago Tribune
Vintage Chicago Tribune: Inside the final months of Sam Giancana, former Chicago Outfit head
Salvatore (Sam) Giancana headed the Chicago Outfit during the late 1950s and 1960s. Nicknamed 'Mooney' or 'Momo' for his temper, the Chicago native rose from a juvenile delinquent to the crime syndicate's upper echelon. As an adolescent, Giancana belonged to a Taylor Street gang that took its name from the story 'Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves.' Thinking themselves even better, they dubbed their gang 'The 42.' The Tribune reported Giancana was questioned by police in three slayings while he was in his teens. He also drove the getaway car for Tony Accardo — who he eventually succeeded as Outfit head — and served time for 'burglary and moonshining.' In 1939, he pleaded guilty to violating Internal Revenue Service laws. Flashback: An ex-G-man's tales from a real-life mobbed-up tailor shopGiancana traveled extensively and spent lavishly on friends and family, including his three daughters with wife Angeline. He once poured upward of $250,000 into the restoration of the gaudy, but financially ailing, Villa Venice nightclub in Northbrook — with its canals plied by gondolas — to host performances by Frank Sinatra and pals Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. in 1962. Federal officials, however, kept a close watch on Giancana. In the final months of the Oak Park-based hoodlum's life, it seemed he fell out of favor with his underworld associates. Giancana returned to Chicago just as suddenly as he had departed for Mexico eight years earlier. (Giancana was jailed June 1, 1965, for contempt of court when he refused to testify about his crime syndicate ties before a federal grand jury despite being granted immunity from prosecution. He was discharged from Cook County Jail one year later, after charges against him were dropped. That's when Giancana fled to Mexico.) He was rousted out of bed in his Mexico City apartment by immigration officials and put on a flight to San Antonio, where he was handed a subpoena to appear before a federal grand jury to discuss organized crime in his return to Illinois. 'The $500 silk suits he customarily wears, the raky beret he sported while in self-enforced exile, the hairpiece he affected to conceal his balding head — all these were missing,' the Tribune reported. 'When he stepped off an American Airlines jet at O'Hare International Airport at 2:20 p.m., he wore wash pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and bedroom slippers. His only luggage was a shopping bag containing only his bathrobe. He had no wallet, no identification and — far worse, as far as he is concerned — no passport.' As he entered the Federal Building, reporters asked the dapper Giancana what he would tell the grand jury. 'Only my name and address,' he said. Dressed in an expensive double-knit gray suit, a light blue shirt and gray silk tie, Giancana appeared for half an hour before the grand jury. No details were released about what was said. After he invoked the Fifth Amendment, Giancana was granted immunity from prosecution and assured by a judge he wouldn't be asked any questions about matters prior to January 1972. The questions and answers of the session were not disclosed. Giancana testified again in early 1975 and was scheduled to appear again once more. Two former aides to Robert F. Kennedy said agents of the Central Intelligence Agency had contracted with the Mafia with business interests in Cuba — including Giancana — in an aborted plot to assassinate leader Fidel Castro before the Bay of Pigs invasion of 1961. Just hours after he returned from Houston, where he had undergone gallbladder surgery, Giancana entertained friends and family at his Oak Park home at 1147 Wenonah Ave. Police conducted surveillance as revelers entered and exited the home. Someone shot Giancana five times as he prepared a meal in his basement kitchen. His body was discovered by his live-in caretaker and the caretaker's wife. The assassination of a Chicago mob kingpin 50 years ago remains unsolved'A frying pan containing sausage and spinach was on the stove,' Tribune reporter Weldon Whisler wrote. 'The gas was turned off by police when they arrived shortly after midnight, but the food had not burned, indicating that Giancana was shot not long before.' No shots were heard. When the police asked if the basement door was locked, the caretaker replied that it was never locked. Nothing was missing from Giancana's elegantly furnished home. His wallet was found near his body, and a money clip holding more than $1,458 was in his pocket, the Tribune reported. Giancana was interred in the family's mausoleum at Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery in Hillside. The gun used to shoot him — a .22 caliber automatic pistol with a silencer — was recovered at a River Forest park in August 1975. An inquest into Giancana's murder was conducted, but none of the gangland chieftain's friends or family showed up for it. A jury of six elderly men gave the verdict of murder. Items from Giancana's home — including personal papers and photos of him with celebrities and even Pope Pius XII, were taken as evidence. Investigators had hoped these items, as well as a safe, would give him clues to the identity of his killer. Instead, they revealed Giancana loved the Telly Savalas-character, 'Kojak.' Giancana's death remains unsolved. Giancana's former home on Wenonah Avenue in Oak Park was sold for $900,000. The house had five bathrooms, hardwood floors, Pella windows, designer light fixtures, a first-floor primary bedroom suite and a living room with rounded windows, a wood-burning fireplace and a marble mantel. Other features included newly installed hardwood floors upstairs and a lower level with 8-foot ceilings, maple hardwood floors and a workout studio that doubled as a second bedroom. The home had a rebuilt rear porch and stairs, a tear-off tile roof, new copper gutters and downspouts and a Kichler outdoor lighting system. Thanks for reading! Subscribe to the free Vintage Chicago Tribune newsletter, join our Chicagoland history Facebook group, stay current with Today in Chicago History and follow us on Instagram for more from Chicago's past.
USA Today
2 days ago
- USA Today
Karen Read's second murder trial is not the end of her legal troubles. Here's why.
Karen Read's second murder trial is not the end of her legal troubles. Here's why. On June 13, the jury began deliberating in Karen Read's second murder trial, but this trial is not it for Read's legal troubles. Read, 45, is accused of killing her boyfriend, Braintree native and Boston police officer John O'Keefe outside a Canton home in January 2022. Read's first trial in O'Keefe's death ended in a mistrial in July. O'Keefe's family in August filed a civil lawsuit in Plymouth Superior Court against Read and two bars in Canton that she and O'Keefe visited before his death. O'Keefe family is suing Karen Read, C.F. McCarthy's and the Waterfall John O'Keefe's brother, Paul O'Keefe, and his estate filed a civil lawsuit in Plymouth Superior Court in August against John O'Keefe's girlfriend, Karen Read, and Canton bars C.F. McCarthy's and the Waterfall. The suit is seeking at least $50,000 in damages including "reasonably expected society, companionship, comfort, guidance, counsel, net income, services, assistance, protection, care, and advice to next of kin." The lawsuit states Read's conduct was "extreme and outrageous, beyond the bounds of decency and was utterly intolerable" and that she "outrageously created a false narrative." Read's counsel filed motioned to stay the civil case until the criminal case is resolved, arguing that parallel civil and criminal proceedings could undermine Read's Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination. Judge William White Jr. in November ordered the halt of Read's scheduled deposition in the civil case and any other discovery directly related to her. Other discovery proceedings were allowed to continue without pause, according to the ruling. Karen Read charged with second-degree murder Read was charged with second-degree murder after O'Keefe's body was found in the front lawn outside the Canton home of a fellow Boston police officer Jan. 29, 2022, during a snowstorm. Prosecutors say Read was drunk and angry when she purposely hit him after a night of drinking at C.F. McCarthy's and the Waterfall. But defense attorneys for Read say she was framed for O'Keefe's death. Read is also charged with manslaughter while driving drunk and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.
