Karen Read will be back in court this afternoon for her attorneys to argue that two of her three indicted charges — including murder — should be dismissed.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, is charged with three counts related to the Jan. 29, 2022, death of her boyfriend of roughly two years at the time, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. She is charged with second-degree murder (Count 1), manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence (Count 2) and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death (Count 3).

Prosecutors say that Read struck O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV after midnight and just ahead of a major snowstorm, leaving him to freeze on a Canton front yard.

She was tried on the charges over nine weeks but Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial on the fifth day of jury deliberations after jurors had repeatedly sent her notes indicating that they were deadlocked.

Today’s hearing in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham at 2 p.m. is scheduled for Read’s defense attorneys to argue that counts one and three — the murder charge and the leaving the scene of an accident charge, respectively — be dropped for Read’s new trial scheduled for January.

The defense submitted a motion for the dismissals a week after the mistrial. They said that three sitting jurors in the first trial reached out to say that they were unanimously in favor of not guilty findings for counts one and three and that they were only hung on count two, the manslaughter charge.

Two more jurors would come forward to say the same thing, subsequent defense filings supporting the motion indicate. The jurors, according to the filings, either did not know they could or did not know how to indicate they were only hung on one of the counts.

The jurors’ identities are not known. The juror list was first impounded temporarily following the motion and then impounded indefinitely after a juror filed an anonymous affidavit expressing fear of harm if the jurors’ identities are revealed.

Trial prosecutor Adam Lally said in his own response filing that the defense motion’s argument lacks “merit or legal foundation.” Lally also filed a “disclosure” stating that four jurors reached out to him as well and wanted to talk.

The defense was still pushing the motion with additional supportive filings as recently as Monday.

The spotlight

The case has amassed national attention and has a fervent following in the Greater Boston region.

Read supporters and detractors were out once again hours ahead of Friday’s hearing with signs and uniforms — pink for Read, a symbol that developed in reaction to the 200-foot “buffer zone” inhibiting case-related speech during the trial, and blue for the “Justice for JJ” crowd who are in support of the prosecution. The blue crowd, which was prevalent in early pretrial hearings, returned in force toward the end of the trial.

The pro-Read side’s de facto leader is Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney of Holden, who blogs extensively on the case on a variety of online formats under the moniker “Turtleboy Daily News.” He faces multiple counts of witness intimidation in the case and was alluded to in the anonymous juror affidavit that led to the indefinite impoundment of the juror list.

The fallout

The attention has had repercussions for police involved in the case, as well as elected officials in Canton — where even the local newspaper has had enough of the division and banned letters pertaining to the case.

Kevin Albert, a Canton Police officer and brother to Brian Albert, on whose lawn O’Keefe’s body was found, was placed on paid leave on June 13 — but it wasn’t announced until after the mistrial, three weeks later. Their brother Christopher Albert, a Canton Select Board member, apologized for verbal altercations with Read supporters.

Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator into O’Keefe’s death, was placed under internal review ahead of the trial and then his downfall came swiftly following the trial: first by being “relieved of duty” but still collecting a paycheck and then suspended without pay a week after the mistrial.

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Two other troopers in the investigative unit stationed at the Norfolk District Attorney’s office — and linked to the Read investigation — are also under internal review following the mistrial, the agency announced. Those are Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik and Det. Lt. Brian Tully.

But the MSP fallout is not just for these individual troopers. Acting Col. John Mawn said his agency will need to be “in a continuous cycle of earning, maintaining public trust and legitimacy” after gross misconduct, and an angry public response to it, was revealed in the case. Gov. Maura Healey has also expressed dissatisfaction.

This is a developing story.