Karen Read will face a new prosecutor when she is retried for murder in January.

Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey on Wednesday announced he had appointed Hank Brennan as a special prosecutor for the case.

Brennan served for years as a defense attorney for notorious Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger.

“Attorney Brennan is a highly respected and skilled former prosecutor and long-time defense attorney with over 25 years of experience in state and federal courts and has expertise handling complex law enforcement matters,” Morrissey said in a statement. “I look forward to Attorney Brennan working in concert with the trial team of Assistant District Attorneys Adam Lally, Laura McLaughlin, and Caleb Schillinger.”

Lally has been the primary prosecutor since Read’s lower court arraignment in early February 2022, just days after Lally would say that Read struck her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and left him to freeze and die on a Canton front yard amid a major snowstorm.

Lally was also the primary prosecutor in Read’s first trial over the summer, which Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly J. Cannone would ultimately declare a mistrial. McLaughlin assisted in the case and while she did not participate in questioning witnesses in the trial did regularly argue motions for the team.

Brennan in his own statement said that he assumes the “full responsibility and all obligations for prosecuting this case and will do so meticulously, ethically, and zealously, without compromise.”

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“I have two core obligations. The first is to make certain that Karen Read receives a fair trial. Ms. Read will receive the dignity and fairness that every defendant deserves in our criminal justice system,” Brennan continued. “The second is to ensure that the facts surrounding John O’Keefe’s death are fully and fairly aired in the courtroom without outside influence. I guarantee that I will work tirelessly with the trial team to prepare this case for trial in January of 2025.”

This is a developing story.

HANK BRENNAN

Prosecutor Adam Lally gives his closing arguments during the Karen Read murder trial at Norfolk Superior Court. (Nancy Lane/Boston Herald)