Four Massachusetts residents are suing Judge Beverly Cannone over her decision to reinstate a 200-foot buffer zone outside Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court for the retrial of Karen Read , arguing that their “constitutional guarantees” to protest have been violated.
The buffer zone was first put in place ahead of Read’s first trial in April 2024 due to the significant public attention the case had drawn and then extended last week by Cannone at the request of the prosecution to limit demonstrators from gathering in the neighborhood around the courthouse.
Plaintiffs Jason Grant, Allison Taggart, Lisa Peterson, and Samantha Lyons called Cannone’s buffer zone a “lawless act,” arguing in the federal lawsuit that Cannone’s order “violates the constitutional guarantees of free speech and due process.”
The plaintiffs state in the complaint that all of their previous protests of Cannone and Read’s murder case have been peaceful and not on the grounds of the courthouse…