It’s almost halftime in the second Karen Read murder trial, and right now I’d have to say Meatball Morrissey and the Norfolk County hackerama are behind on points. That’s not to say that the despicable Quincy crew won’t eventually be able to lynch Read, or at least cheat their way to another “mistrial.” Maybe, as in the first trial, Judge Bev Cannone will give the jurors voting slips without the option to vote “not guilty.” When she was called on her kangaroo-court forms last year, she shrugged and said, “That’s the way we’ve always done it here.” Just ask Sacco and Vanzetti. They were framed in the same courthouse in Dedham, in 1921, at least in part on the false testimony of a corrupt state trooper named Proctor. History does indeed repeat itself, or tries to anyway. If she can’t pass out the fake jury slips this time, perhaps the judge will again try to ignore any unanimous not-guilty verdicts, the way she did with two of the three counts the first jury returned against Karen last summer. In school, children are taught that double jeopardy is unconstitutional in America. But remember, kids, we’re not in America. We’re in Norfolk County. In Norfolk County, in the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls. Still, the hacks’ grip on this rotten borough appears more tenuous than ever. They’ve lost control of the board of selectmen in Canton, the belly of the beast. Last year the Morrissey stooge lost by 200 votes, this year their 30-year incumbent was crushed by a 2-1 margin. The Meatball Mob couldn’t oust a dissident county politician last year, even with a well-financed Quincy hack who’s thisclose to Meatball Morrissey. In fact, that’s probably why the hack (a landscaper by trade) lost 72-28, after his connections to the odious Quincy mob were exposed. As you know, in the hackerama, Memorial Day is Memorial Week. Which is why the Read trial recessed at mid-afternoon Wednesday, until next Tuesday. But there was another reason why the pot-bellied courthouse stooges took an early slide Wednesday. Over in Norwood, the Norfolk County Bar Association was holding its annual bender, er, dinner. And the Person of the Year was Judge Beverly Cannone. Of course she was! But wait, it gets better. Every phony-baloney banquet needs a Keynote Speaker. For their annual toot, the Bar Association selected the new $174,532-a-year county clerk of courts, Walter F. Timilty, who has succeeded his father, Walter F. Timilty. Would you care to guess how many times the Keynote Speaker failed the bar exam? The over-under is five, and if you took the under, you lose. The Keynote Speaker for the Norfolk County Bar Association dinner, who is also the county’s clerk of courts, has failed the bar exam six times — once each in 1995, 1997, 2000 and 2001, and twice in 1996. By the way, on his birth certificate his name was listed as Walter F. Timilty III. His father was Walter Timilty Jr., until Walter III needed his own hack job, in the legislature. So on the ballot, Jr. became Sr., and III became Jr. Shouldn’t running for office under false names be against the law? Oh, I forgot, it’s Norfolk County. (By the way, now that he’s retired, Daddy Timilty’s pension is $106,146 a year, not to mention the $16,664.97 he pocketed as “leave buy back” when he handed the hack job to his dim-bulb son.) It’s a very prestigious body, the Norfolk County Bar Association. The secretary is one Michael Barbadoro. Would you care to guess if Barbadoro works in the Dreaded Private Sector, or in the Norfolk County hackerama? You are correct. He’s “first assistant register” of probate in Norfolk County. Two diminutives in his job title — he’s a hack for sure. Perhaps this political incestuousness is why the hackerama is struggling so to frame Karen Read. It’s one thing to be stupid, which they all are, but they’re also inbred. I mean, why would anyone capable of earning an honest living want to associate with the dismal low-IQ likes of Meatball, Auntie Bev, Walter Timilty or the first assistant? Those who can, do. Those who can’t, get hack jobs with Norfolk County. Some become judges, others cut grass at Presidents Golf Course. The pay varies, but every last one of them is a hack job, and there’s only one qualification. You must know somebody, preferably somebody named Meatball. The talent pool in Norfolk County has gotten so shallow that Morrissey has had to hire three “special prosecutors” to try to railroad Karen Read and her supporter Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney. One of Turtleboy’s persecutors is Robert “Triple Dip” Cosgrove, who is 73 years old and has never once raised his snout from the public trough. Currently he’s pocketing a $64,264-a-year pension from Meatball’s DA office, as well as a $139,301-a-year pension as a retired judge, and we all know what an ethical bunch Massachusetts judges are. Just ask Bev Cannone. And now on top of his $204,000 in state pensions, Triple Dip Cosgrove collects a third check for trying to throw Turtleboy in prison. His crime? He exercised his First Amendment rights to make a face in the window of a business owned by an ex-con selectman in Canton who was represented in his hit-and-run manslaughter case by Judge Bev’s brother. You see what I mean about the political inbreeding in Norfolk County? And I haven’t even mentioned Hank Brennan, another of Meatball Morrissey’s special prosecutors, currently handling the Karen Read frame up. He was the lawyer for Whitey Bulger, Norfolk County’s preeminent gangster and serial killer for many years (after moving from Southie to Quincy). In those days, Meatball was a state senator and Whitey’s brother Billy was the president of the Senate, known as “the Corrupt Midget.” The Corrupt Midget would tell Morrissey, “Jump!” and Meatball would answer, “How high?” (Bulger’s pension, for the record, is now $274,149 a year. He’s been collecting since 2003.) Nothing ever really changes in Norfolk County, except the COLA increases in all their hack pensions. But if Karen Read is found not guilty, it will be the end of an era, or should I say error? It’s the hackerama. Follow the Karen Read trial on Howie’s radio show, 2-6 on WRKO AM 680.