The Norfolk County judge returning for Karen Read’s upcoming retrial has been taken off another high-level murder case.

Norfolk Superior Court Judge Diane Freniere will preside over the Brian Walshe case going forward, replacing Judge Beverly Cannone, according to court documents and news reports.

Cannone, who declared a mistrial in the first Read trial, had been previously assigned to oversee the Read and Walshe cases, but she received a “special assignment” with Read’s highly-anticipated second trial, scheduled for late January.

Walshe, 49, of Cohasset, is charged with murdering his wife Ana Walshe, who the prosecutors say he slayed and then cut up on the first day of 2023 and then hid her body parts in dumpsters around Greater Boston.

Indicted for her murder, Brian Walshe was sentenced in federal court to an unrelated international art fraud case, which he has appealed. He has been detained at the Norfolk House of Correction since his initial arrest.

A hearing is scheduled for Dec. 2 to argue the defense’s motion seeking the cell phone records of the case’s lead investigator, suspended Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, whose vile texts were revealed in Read’s first trial.

In a court filing, Walshe’s attorney, Larry Tipton, requested “a complete copy of all data referred to in the Commonwealth’s notice dated September 6, 2024, described as an ‘extraction of Trooper (Michael) Proctor’s work cell phone’ and ‘Trooper Proctor’s work cloud account.’”

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Tipton also requested more than 3,000 pages of U.S. Department of Justice materials looking into the Read case investigation, for which Proctor also served as the case officer.

Read’s lawyers and the Norfolk DA’s Office are jointly pushing for a delay to her high-profile murder trial next year, from Jan. 27 to April 1. They say the extra time will allow for adequate preparation.