Sue Simpson
speaker
370 appearances
24 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 11 Jun
Sue Simpson’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.
Appearances
Yeah. So I was up there for the start of jury selection and there are metal barricades around the courthouse. There are more Massachusetts State Police. It's a very different vibe. Karen Reed has a lot of supporters and many of them wear pink to show their support.
During the first trial, they had signs and they had bullhorns and even dressed up their dogs in pink to show that they were standing with her. But they were kept back from the actual courthouse. There was a buffer zone for the first trial. It's just grown bigger for the retrial.
Judge Canone ordered an expanded buffer zone, and four of Karen's supporters filed a lawsuit in federal court arguing that it limited their right to free speech. On Monday, a judge denied the suit and said that Canone's expanded buffer zone, his words, directly advanced the goal of ensuring a fair trial. An attorney for the protesters said they're going to appeal.
Yes. Karen was outspoken after her first trial, and she's been speaking out ahead of her second trial. She's done a lot of media interviews. She sat down with Dateline, of course, for a lengthy interview, but she also talked to documentary makers and to magazine writers. And now the prosecution wants to turn her statements against her.
Their strategy is basically to take her words to help make their case. Karen was asked about that strategy outside of court, and she answered with a bit of bravado. You know, come at me were her exact words. Come at me. But she also wanted to make it clear that she knew what she was saying in each interview. As she put it, I would not have said anything that I wouldn't say again.
Yeah, Michael Proctor was the lead investigator in the case, and he was fired by the Massachusetts State Police earlier this year due to misconduct, including, and this is very big, sending demeaning and derogatory text messages about Karen Reed during the investigation. His testimony was a really dramatic part of the first trial.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson forced Proctor to read some of those text messages he sent on the stand.
We expect Proctor to take the stand. It's a tough call for the prosecution, though, because if they don't call him, you can bet the defense will.
She's almost a fully fledged... She's almost a fully-fledged member of her own defense team. She knows the facts inside and out. But, you know, always the case, and you know this, Blaine, the defense is going to give the prosecution a real target if they put her on the stand.
You know, Blaine, it's almost a letdown. And I can tell you when I go up there this time, I am putting that soccer chair in my trunk. I'm going to have it with me as kind of a talisman for the retrial. But this time, let me tell you what the system is. You know, there's a lottery system. I mean, it's something called a randomizer.
Selects 10 reporters from about 30 who want to sit inside the court. There's only 10 seats in this tiny, tiny courtroom. But, you know, whether I'm in the court or streaming the trial online, I'm going to be watching it very closely and reporting back to tell you about it. And, you know, I might be sitting in my chair when I do it.
I am. I am. I'm here for the start of jury selection in Karen Reid's second trial. You'll remember she's charged with hitting and killing her police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe, with her SUV a little over three years ago now. She's pleaded not guilty. And the scene here in Dedham is still kind of wild.
You know, the judge, it's the same judge, Beverly Canone, has set an even bigger buffer zone around the courthouse to keep the crowds at bay.
This time there's something called a randomizer, actually, which is selecting all the reporters in the tiny courtroom.
When jury selection started on Tuesday, I was there very early in the morning and there are metal barricades up all around the court, more than in the past. I saw Dedham police going by on bicycles and, of course, their Massachusetts state troopers stationed in front of the court as they were last time. It feels like there's more security. I saw really small groups of protesters.
They were waving huge flags and they were wearing pink.
Oh boy, it is going to be a challenge. And people are saying, the judge is saying it could take two to three weeks. So on the first day, almost 100 prospective jurors were brought into the courtroom. And here's why it's going to be a problem. Three quarters of them said that they'd heard about the case with many of those people saying that they'd already formed an opinion about it.
And that's not, of course, what either side wants to hear. One more thing I want to say, having watched the proceedings on Tuesday when jury selection started, it's really interesting to see how deeply involved Karen is in working on the jury selection process. She is going through the questionnaires with the attorneys. She's sometimes at sidebar with them as they grill prospective jurors.
I'm not surprised at all. Is Alan Jackson there, her L.A. attorney? Yes. He is. And they've also added a New York attorney. And they actually added an alternate juror from the first trial, somebody who came forward who's an attorney. And she's working with the team. So she was going through questionnaires Tuesday as well with Karen. Fascinating.
Yeah, they have. They winnowed down about 100 prospective jurors to 13 men and three women. So that will be the 12 and four alternates. They filled out online questionnaires, you know, what have you heard about the case? She's rolling the dice here by representing herself.
Showing 281–300 of 370 · page 15 of 19
← Previous
Next →