Grand juror in Karen Read case charged with leaking information
Read was acquitted of murder last month in the 2022 death of her boyfriend.
BOSTON -- A woman who served on the grand jury as part of the high-profile investigation into Karen Read -- who was acquitted of murder charges last month in the death of her boyfriend -- agreed to plead guilty to a federal charge she leaked information from the secret proceeding, according to a court document filed Tuesday.
Jessica Leslie agreed to plead guilty to a charge of criminal contempt that accused her of willfully disobeying court rules against disclosure of grand jury information.
Leslie disclosed "the names of various witnesses appearing before the grand jury and the substance of their testimony and other evidence presented to the grand jury, all while said information was under seal and not subject to disclosure," federal prosecutors said.
While the charging document did not specify that Leslie was a grand juror in the Read case, sources confirmed the case to ABC News.
Read was originally indicted by a Boston grand jury in June 2022 in the death of her police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe. Prosecutors alleged Read hit O'Keefe with her car outside the home of a fellow police officer after a night of heavy drinking in January 2022 and then left him to die there during a major blizzard.
The first trial ended in a mistrial last year after the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.
In a second trial that ended last month, Read was found not guilty of the most serious charges against her -- murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene after an accident. She was convicted of operating under the influence of liquor and sentenced to one year of probation.
Leslie agreed to a sentence of incarceration for one day, deemed served, and 24 months of supervised release, court records said.
A plea hearing was not immediately scheduled.
Federal prosecutors did not say how they learned Leslie had disclosed secret grand jury information, but sources said authorities had been monitoring social media accounts and other communications during a case that received widespread attention.
