It’s not often that defense attorneys are met with autograph requests, flashing cameras, and media frenzy when entering a courthouse. For David Yannetti ’89, however, this became his reality during the trial process of Karen Read, his client whose case took Massachusetts by storm last summer.
At a BC Law event sponsored by the Criminal Law Society on October 28, Yannetti spoke on his legal background, his journey from prosecutor to defense attorney, and the process of becoming one of three counsels for Read, who was charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision, causing death. When it came time to return a verdict, however, the jury was in a deadlock, resulting in a mistrial on July 1, 2024.
Yannetti began his legal career as a prosecutor, working for the Middlesex DA’s office for ten years. “I was very associated with law enforcement and Massachusetts police,” he said, citing an example: “You get called out at 3 a.m. on a cold winter’s night to see a body in the subway station and you can’t help but bond with your colleagues.” He saw state police as “terrific investigators and terrific people.”
That kinship didn’t always sit well with new colleagues when he transitioned into criminal defense. “I’m not the profile of a defense attorney who ordinarily would be taking shots at the state police,” he explained. Still, he believes his perspective of the prosecutorial side has served him well in defending Read.
In January 2022, during a Massachusetts blizzard, Yannetti received what he thought was just an ordinary client phone call. A woman was on the line, sounding confused. She told Yannetti she thought she was being investigated for hitting her boyfriend with her car.
Yannetti accepted her as his client and began his usual procedure. He sent a letter to the state police and DA’s office informing them that he would be representing Karen Read, and that there was no need to arrest her because he would surrender her.
With more than three decades of trial experience to draw upon, Yannetti said he’s eager to go the distance in the Read case.
Things didn’t go as Yannetti planned. “Nine out of ten times, because of my history as a former prosecutor, I have some credibility, or used to,” he said. “This was the first sign that I got that this case was going to be a little different. They ignored my promise of cooperation and arrested her two days later at her house.”
The next turning point for Yannetti was a phone call from an anonymous source (who first claimed to be Mike Lynch, a popular sportscaster). He told Yannetti that Read was innocent and that he should “look at the homeowner [of the property where the death occurred] and his nephew. They beat [the victim] up and left him outside,” the caller claimed.
It was then that Yannetti started to get the sense that there was more to the case than met the eye. He found himself fighting to keep bail charges at a reasonable amount and for discovery evidence to be turned over. “We were being stymied in our ability to get people to talk to us,” he said. “We knew people out there knew more than they were revealing. We believed that there were a lot of untapped sources.”
Read’s trial was not immediately publicized, but that all changed when a blogger named Turtleboy picked up the story.
In his talk at BC Law, Yannetti was quick to say that he had concerns about Turtleboy. He described him as someone who “had bashed the hell out of one of my clients six or seven years ago. He was somebody you want to keep at arm’s length. The tactics he uses are not the tactics of a refined defense attorney.”
Still, the blogger’s attention to the case jumpstarted the media swarm, and, as Yannetti put it, the “the tremendous free-Karen-Read movement.”
Read has also been active in the case. Yannetti said her participation has been both unusual and impressive. “Karen Read is a sophisticated, smart professional. There are currently three lawyers working full time, but she’s really the fourth lawyer on the case. She’s gotten a better education on what it’s like to be a lawyer than if she went to three years of the finest law school in the country,” he said with an amused nod to his alma mater, “which I think I’m standing in right now.”
Yannetti’s own law education was instrumental in discovering his passion for trial work, in part through BC Law’s moot court and mock trial programs. “It was an unbelievable experience. I never pictured myself as someone that would be able to speak in public, let alone be an actual trial lawyer.”
Now, with more than three decades of trial experience to draw upon, Yannetti said he’s eager to go the distance in the Read case. “We didn’t get the result we wanted. I think it’s clear there’ll be an alteration of the approach. Now we have transcripts, videotapes of testimonies, and we will be using all of that to help us decide how to approach the retrial,” he said.
The process will not be easy, but according to Yannetti, it’s worth fighting for. “As many friends that I have in law enforcement, there’s a segment of law enforcement that can’t stand me. If those are my enemies, then I’m probably doing something right.”
Photograph by Andres Leiva ’26