Aug. 5 (UPI) — A woman charged with leaking grand jury information in the Karen Read murder case pleaded guilty, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.
Jessica Leslie, 34, pleaded guilty in Boston federal court Monday to a charge of criminal contempt. The charge accused her of willfully disobeying court rules against disclosure of grand jury information, the DOJ said. Her plea agreement said she would serve one night in jail, which she already has served, and have two years of post-release monitoring. She is scheduled for sentencing Sept. 26.
Leslie served on the grand jury as part of the investigation into Read, who was acquitted of murder in the 2022 death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe.
Federal prosecutors said that between Aug. 11, 2022, and March 4, 2024, Leslie gave “sealed information to unauthorized individuals, including the names of various witnesses appearing before a federal grand jury, the substance of witness testimony and other evidence presented to the grand jury.”
Federal prosecutors did not say how they learned Leslie had leaked secret grand jury information, but sources told ABC news that authorities had been monitoring social media accounts and other communications during the case.
Read was originally indicted by a Boston grand jury in June 2022 in the death of her police officer boyfriend 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 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 in June, 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.