Federal grand juror in Karen Read case to plead guilty to leaking information
A Dracut woman has agreed to plead guilty to leaking information about secretive federal grand jury proceedings, prosecutors said.
A Dracut woman charged with leaking information from a federal grand jury investigation was reportedly one of the jurors who probed the state’s handling of the Karen Read case.
Jessica M. Leslie, 34, was charged Friday with one count of criminal contempt after federal prosecutors accused her of leaking information about the secretive proceedings, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday. She has agreed to plead guilty, and a plea agreement filed in federal court proposes she be sentenced to “one day, deemed served,” meaning she will avoid prison time if a judge accepts the recommendation.
Federal prosecutors allege Leslie disclosed sealed information about the grand jury proceedings between Aug. 11, 2022, and March 4, 2024, “including the names of various witnesses appearing before a federal grand jury,” the substance of their testimony, and other evidence.
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While prosecutors have not publicly specified the grand jury proceedings in question, The Boston Globe reported that two people “familiar with the allegations” confirmed Leslie was accused of leaking information in connection with Read’s case. ABC News separately confirmed Leslie was a federal grand juror in the Read matter, also citing unnamed sources.
Neither Leslie’s defense attorney nor the U.S. Attorney’s Office responded to requests for comment Wednesday. Leslie is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Boston July 22, records show. A plea hearing has not yet been scheduled.
Per the federal court system, grand jurors consider multiple cases over the course of their service, which generally lasts up to 18 months. In Massachusetts, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, jurors typically meet in secrecy for a full day each week “to hear evidence concerning crimes against the laws of the United States.”
Read, 45, was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges last month in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Prosecutors accused Read of drunkenly backing her SUV into O’Keefe, but her lawyers maintained she was framed in a law enforcement conspiracy.
Following a 2024 mistrial and a retrial this spring, Read was convicted only of drunk driving — a misdemeanor for which she received a year of probation.
But in a bizarre twist, federal prosecutors began investigating the state’s handling of the murder case before Read’s criminal charges were even resolved. In 2023 letters between federal authorities and the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, DA Michael Morrissey called the probe a “highly unusual and possibly abusive exercise of power” and requested it be transferred out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Massachusetts. He noted multiple witnesses in Read’s case had been called before a federal grand jury that spring.
The U.S. Department of Justice denied Morrissey’s request for a transfer, and the federal investigation officially ended earlier this year with no charges or arrests announced.
Still, the probe left an indelible mark on Read’s case. Two ARCCA Inc. crash reconstruction experts hired by federal authorities to look into O’Keefe’s death later became key witnesses for Read’s defense, testifying that O’Keefe’s injuries were inconsistent with having been struck by Read’s SUV, while damage to the vehicle was inconsistent with striking an arm.