Karen Read Breaks Silence After Now not Responsible Verdict
Karen Read shared her suggestions on her no longer responsible verdict after she was as soon as acquitted on abolish charges in connection to the 2022 loss of life of her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe.
Karen Read's lawful ordeal has come to an quit.
After the 45-year-primitive was as soon as chanced on no longer responsible of second-stage abolish in connection to the 2022 loss of life of her boyfriend John O’Keefe, she spoke out to thank those that supported her during the years.
“I lawful desire to remark two things,” she instructed the crowd gathered open air of a Massachusetts courthouse June 18, “I would possibly possibly possibly no longer be standing right here without these amazing supporters who personal supported me and my group.”
Read endured, “The second ingredient I desire to remark is that no person has fought more difficult for justice of John O'Keefe than I personal.”
Read was as soon as accused of drunkenly hitting O'Keefe, a 46-year-primitive Boston police officer, with her automobile on Jan. 29, 2022, earlier than leaving him to die open air of a dwelling birthday party in blizzard stipulations. Whereas she was as soon as also chanced on no longer responsible of motor automobile manslaughter whereas utilizing beneath the influence and leaving the scene of a collision during the June 18 verdict, she was as soon as convicted of the lesser fee of working a motor automobile beneath the influence, to which she was as soon as sentenced to 1 year probation.
Read was as soon as first tried for O’Keefe’s abolish in 2024, however the lawsuits ended with a hung jury after 25 hours of deliberation.
Her second trial began in April, during which Read's lawful group alleged that she was as soon as being framed to duvet up for a fight that took position within the dwelling of Brian Albert, a vital regulations enforcement officer and colleague of O’Keefe’s, earlier than he was as soon as allegedly dragged out into the backyard.
“There was as soon as no collision,” defense licensed skilled Alan Jackson repeated three cases in his closing argument June 13, per NBC Boston, noting that the case's lead investigator Michael Proctor never went into the dwelling upon arriving on the scene. “Their investigation was as soon as fallacious from the begin because their investigator was as soon as corrupted from the begin.”
He added of the prosecution, “They’ll no longer existing a collision. John O'Keefe was as soon as no longer hit by a automobile.”
For more concerning the investigation into O'Keefe's loss of life, be taught on.
What Came about to John O'Keefe?
Karen Read instructed authorities that she and Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of virtually two years, were out drinking with chums at C.F. McCarthy’s bar in Canton, Mass., on the night time of Jan. 28, 2022, after which they spent about an hour at Waterfall Bar & Grille across the road. Read said that she dropped O’Keefe off on the Canton dwelling of Boston Police Det. Brian Albert presently after midnight and went motivate to O’Keefe’s dwelling.
Prosecutors, alternatively, alleged at Read’s Feb. 2, 2022, arraignment on manslaughter charges that there was as soon as evidence indicated she hit O’Keefe with her automobile earlier than utilizing off and left him lying there in frigid climate stipulations.
Read, a financial analyst residing in nearby Mansfield, maintained that she returned to Albert’s dwelling the following morning after O’Keefe did not come motivate dwelling and she couldn’t attain him on his cellphone. She known as a few those that were with her, Read said, when they chanced on him lying within the snow open air the Albert position at 6 a.m.
The 46-year-primitive cop had bloody cuts on his staunch arm, his eyes were swollen shut and his dresses were coated with blood and vomit, basically based fully on prosecutors. He was as soon as transported to Boston’s Vivid Samaritan Scientific institution, where he was as soon as pronounced uninteresting later that morning.
A subsequent autopsy chanced on that O’Keefe had suffered multiple skull fractures, moreover to cuts to the motivate of his head and nose. The coroner indirectly attributed his loss of life to hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
Karen Read Arrested for Manslaughter in Dying of John O'Keefe
Read was as soon as arrested Feb. 1, 2022, and charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of a motor automobile inflicting loss of life and motor automobile abolish.
Investigators positioned her 2021 shaded Lexus SUV parked at her fogeys’ dwelling, prosecutors said, and it had a shattered rear taillight and scratches on the rear bumper.
Read pleaded no longer responsible Feb. 2 and was as soon as launched from custody after posting $50,000 bail.
Her licensed skilled David Yannetti said during her arraignment that a manslaughter fee was as soon as “a massive attain” and denied any criminal intent on his consumer’s section. “This was as soon as no longer some random stranger,” he said, per NBC Boston. “This was as soon as my consumer’s boyfriend, any individual whom she loved.”
In a assertion calling O’Keefe “a form person” who was as soon as “dedicated to his family,” the Boston Police Department said that “the person accountable for John’s loss of life” had been arrested.
What Did Karen Read Screech After Finding John O’Keefe Ineffective?
Prosecutors said at her arraignment that without a doubt one of many chums who went buying for O’Keefe with Read instructed police that her friend had known as her at 5 a.m. and said, “John’s uninteresting. I ponder if he’s uninteresting. It’s snowing, he obtained hit by a plow.”
Canton firefighter Lt. Anthony Flematti later testified during Read’s trial that she instructed him on the scene, “'I hit him, I hit him. Oh my God, I hit him.’”
Firefighter Katie McLaughlin testified that Read “seemed very upset” and was as soon as “lawful visibly distraught,” and that she also heard Read converse, more than as soon as, “I hit him.”
Read maintained at trial, alternatively, that what she screamed at Flematti was as soon as, “Did I hit him? May possibly I personal hit him?”
One other firefighter, Matthew Kelly, testified that he handiest remembered Read announcing, “He’s uninteresting, he’s [expletive] uninteresting.”
Karen Read Is Charged With John O'Keefe's Execute
A immense jury indicted Read on a fee of second-stage abolish on June 9, 2022.
Norfolk County Assistant District Lawyer Adam Lally alleged during Read’s June 10 arraignment that she and O’Keefe “had been arguing for quite a whereas” earlier than he died and, weeks earlier than the night time in question, he had tried to interrupt up with the defendant, and she refused to leave his dwelling when requested. Lally said Read drunkenly backed into O’Keefe with her Lexus and left him to die within the snow.
Read posted an further $100,000 bail and later pleaded no longer responsible to abolish.
Yannetti protested during the June 10 listening to that Read had performed CPR on O’Keefe in an are attempting to revive him. Moreover, the licensed skilled alleged, the officer’s injuries were inconsistent with being hit by a automobile.
“He’s obtained scratch marks all up and down his arm which can per chance well presumably be fully unexplained,” Yannetti said in court. “He’s obtained two shaded eyes, looks to personal a broken nose. There’s something else happening right here.”
Defense Alleges That Karen Read Became Framed by Police in John O'Keefe Execute
At some level of a Sept. 22, 2022, court appearance, Yannetti alleged that O’Keefe had been severely crushed at Albert’s dwelling and the detective primitive his connections during the Canton Police Department and Massachusetts Negate Police to personal a examine out to duvet up the reality by framing his consumer.
Yannetti emphasised that Brian Albert’s brother Kevin Albert was as soon as also a detective with the Canton PD, and that Massachusetts Negate Trooper Michael Proctor, who headed up the Read investigation, was as soon as a finish family friend. (Brian, who retired from the force with an injury in 2023, basically based fully on a family spokesman, denied that there was as soon as any physical altercation sharp O’Keefe at his dwelling and his brother and Proctor personal denied any wrongdoing relating to the investigation.)
Defense licensed skilled Alan Jackson said on NBC’s Dateline in July 2023 that he had “an innocent consumer, length.”
O’Keefe “walked into half of hostility in that dwelling,” Jackson said. “John O’Keefe obtained out of a automobile, walked into the dwelling, was as soon as sucker punched, fell, harm himself, and then indirectly his physique was as soon as moved.”
Jackson, a venerable L.A. prosecutor, and Read co-counsel Elizabeth Diminutive, both companions at Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP, beforehand represented Kevin Spacey in a 2016 sexual assault case on Nantucket. The charges in opposition to the actor were indirectly dropped.
District Lawyer Michael Morrissey Fires Abet Towards Karen Read Defense Allegations
In a prolonged Aug. 25, 2023, video assertion, Norfolk District Lawyer Michael Morrissey denied that any fight took place during the Albert dwelling on the night time O’Keefe died. Eleven participants had given statements announcing they did not peek the officer enter the dwelling, he said, and “zero participants” said they seen scamper interior. Info from O’Keefe’s cellphone that was as soon as chanced on beneath his physique, Morrissey said, “reveals that his cellphone did no longer enter that dwelling.”
Accusing any of the witnesses of abolish was as soon as “wicked,” the prosecutor added. Moreover, he said, Proctor had no opportunity to plant evidence nor motive to achieve so. (Read has said that she cracked her taillight pulling out of the garage to head search for for O’Keefe, but alleged it was as soon as smashed handiest after her automobile was as soon as in police custody.) Proctor didn’t personal a “finish deepest relationship” with any individual all in favour of the investigation, Morrissey said, and “every recommendation to the loads of is a lie.”
Prosecutor Lally argued in opposition to a defense dash to develop recordsdata of texts, calls and social media message between Proctor’s fundamental other and Brian Albert’s sister-in-regulations Jennifer McCabe, without a doubt one of many participants with Read when O’Keefe’s physique was as soon as chanced on. Lally said during a January 2024 court listening to, “As the Commonwealth understands it, Trooper Proctor has a sister, who has a friend, who has a sister, who has a husband, who has a brother, who has a fundamental other, who has a sister who’s Jennifer McCabe.”
Prosecutors, Defense Clash Over Google Search Timing in Karen Read Trial
On April 12, 2023, defense legal professionals Yannetti and Jackson acknowledged that newly recovered cell cellphone recordsdata from McCabe’s cellphone had supplied evidence that “unequivocally exonerates Karen” because it established that a quantity of participants “were conscious that John was as soon as loss of life within the snow earlier than Karen even knew he was as soon as lacking.”
McCabe Googled “Hos [sic] long to die in cool” at around 2:30 a.m., the defense alleged in an April 12 court dash, per NBC Boston.
Prosecutors said in a assertion on the time that it was as soon as yet to make certain whether the defense had “interpreted the raw recordsdata precisely,” noting that they had “persistently” requested the defense to present “any truly exculpatory evidence to support their claims.”
McCabe testified during Read’s abolish trial that the defendant requested her to Google how long it took to die within the cool after they chanced on O’Keefe. She said that she had researched something else at 2:27 a.m., then primitive the same open tab to punch within the a quantity of search, and she denied deleting any search history or numbers from her name log. “I never would personal left John O'Keefe out within the cool to die,” she said, “because he was as soon as my friend that I loved.”
The prosecution known as their possess digital forensics expert to the stand to motivate up their assertion that McCabe’s search was as soon as made at 6:23 a.m.
In a January 2025 court submitting, prosecutors seemed to personal the defense’s recordsdata expert barred from testifying all all over again on the retrial, writing that his “opinions” had been “debunked.” (The dash was as soon as denied, clearing the expert to testify.)
Prosecutors Portion DNA Evidence From Karen Read's Automobile
On Feb. 22, 2024, prosecutors filed a memorandum detailing crime scene investigation results, at the side of that O’Keefe’s DNA had been recovered from Read’s broken taillight and a little hair of his was as soon as stuck to the rear passenger aspect of her Lexus.
“Through tag diagnosis and forensic making an are attempting out, the Massachusetts Negate Police Crime Laboratory chanced on the victim's DNA present on the broken taillight and tiny objects of crimson and positive apparent plastic positioned within the victim's clothing,” prosecutors wrote within the submitting, per NBC Boston. “Comparability making an are attempting out was as soon as conducted, and the outcomes demonstrate that the tiny objects of crimson and positive plastic are according to the broken objects of plastic from the defendant's rear taillight.”
At trial, the defense contended that the DNA evidence was as soon as planted, per their overall argument that Read was as soon as framed, but that it also would possibly possibly possibly've gotten on the auto yet one more manner with the exception of it hitting O'Keefe.
“It was as soon as planted on the auto. I point out, it was as soon as,” Yannetti said open air court on June 14 after the prosecution's DNA consultants testified, per CBS Boston. “You recognize the question is how did that magic hair live to reveal the tale a 30-mile pressure through a blizzard?”
Prosecutors and regulations enforcement denied all accusations of planting or mishandling evidence.
Federal Prosecutors Overview the Investigators in Karen Read Execute Case
Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone postponed the begin of Read’s trial from March 12 to April 16, 2024, after federal prosecutors—who were investigating how the O’Keefe inquiry was as soon as conducted in gentle of the defense’s duvet-up accusation—launched 3,000 pages of documents pertaining to the case.
The defense argued in court Feb. 26 that the doc dump contained exculpatory evidence, whereas the prosecution countered that most of the findings were according to prior testimony. (The federal probe concluded with none charges being filed in opposition to regulations enforcement, special prosecutor Hank Brennan said during a March 4, 2025, motions listening to.)
In a separate dash to personal the case pushed aside, the defense argued at a March 13, 2024, listening to that the prosecution deceived the immense jury that indicted Read for the rationale that panel had no recordsdata of the deepest ties among the many investigators and witnesses.
“A majority of the witnesses who testified earlier than the immense jury” were known as because they allegedly seen what took position to O’Keefe, the defense acknowledged in court documents unsealed weeks later, per NBC Boston. Moderately, the submitting endured, they were known as to testify to “distant and inappropriate ‘inferior character’” to prejudice the panel in opposition to Read, “misleading the immense jury, complex the disorders and wasting time.”
Assistant District Lawyer Lally fired motivate during the listening to that the defense was as soon as making an are attempting to play “three-card monte,” as in, “’Search for at this relationship, search for at that relationship.’ The defense is obfuscating from the extensive evidence. They don’t desire you to head seeking at that. They need you to head seeking at who texted who when.”
Cannone denied the defense’s dash March 26, paving the fashion for the trial to begin up as scheduled.
Karen Read Goes on Trial for Execute of John O'Keefe
In his April 29, 2024, opening assertion, Yannetti maintained that O’Keefe suffered fatal injuries from a beating and his consumer had been framed.
“You will be taught that at that handle, lived a correctly-known and properly-connected regulations enforcement family in Canton—the Alberts,” Yannetti said. “Which capacity of the Alberts were enthusiastic, and since they had finish connections to the investigators on this case, Karen Read was as soon as framed for a abolish she did no longer commit.”
The prosecution countered that Read was as soon as a lady scorned and, after drinking too powerful, she backed her automobile into O’Keefe and drove off, leaving him to die.
The case ended with a hung jury and Cannone declared a mistrial on July 1.
Karen Read’s Defense Argues She Became Acquitted of John O'Keefe's Execute in Talk in self assurance to Push aside Cost
In a July 2024 dash to personal the abolish case in opposition to Read pushed aside, reviewed by E! News, the defense argued that double jeopardy utilized because three jurors from the principle trial had indicated to them “in no unsure terms”—through “unsolicited communications”—that they unanimously agreed she was as soon as no longer responsible of abolish and leaving the scene or a deepest injury or loss of life, and therefore the settle would possibly possibly per chance well personal requested for a partial verdict within the case.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court dominated in February 2025, alternatively, that “posttrial accounts of jurors’ deepest deliberations” that were “inconsistent with their public communications in court” would possibly possibly possibly no longer suppose the mistrial ruling or constitute an acquittal.
Karen Read Speaks Out About Her Execute Case
Though she felt “incredibly violated,” she was as soon as “no longer backing down now,” Read, who did no longer rob the stand during her trial, instructed Conceitedness Vivid final August.
“As provoking as a capability conviction is,” she said, “I will scamper to prison for something I didn’t attain earlier than I plea out. I will never give them that accumulate.”
Whereas she fell for O’Keefe rapid after he reached out to her on Facebook within the pandemic-plagued spring of 2020—16 years after they first met and dated for a few months—issues began to gash up, Read said. At some level of a Unique twelve months’s scamper back and forth to Aruba with a quantity of couples, she said she seen caught him kissing yet one more lady. (The girl in question denied this on the stand during Read’s trial.) And Read said she had exchanged flirty texts with a federal agent O’Keefe knew, to wait on “emotionally validate” her on the time.
But, Read said, as of January 2022 they were committed to caring for his orphaned niece and nephew collectively (O’Keefe was as soon as the principle guardian of his gradual sister’s children, basically based fully on his family) and didn’t desire to interrupt up their dynamic.
When she and O’Keefe went to the Alberts’ dwelling early on Jan. 29, 2022, after being invited there for more drinks, O’Keefe said he’d evaluate out the ambiance interior earlier than they determined to quit or no longer, Read instructed Conceitedness Vivid. When he stopped responding to her texts, Read said, she “obtained pissed” and assumed he was as soon as “screwing around” with an primitive paramour who lived nearby. “I didn’t center of attention on he was as soon as bodily incapacitated,” she said. Read said she waited about 10 minutes earlier than utilizing off, after which she despatched him more texts and left infected voicemails.
Mute, Read puzzled if she did hit O’Keefe with her automobile, she instructed VF, and recalled telling her fogeys she would “pay [her] dues” if she had done “the relaxation in any manner.”
O’Keefe’s family instructed the journal on the time that they serene believed she was as soon as accountable for his loss of life.
“In difference to most participants accused of abolish and sued for wrongful loss of life, Karen Read has embraced her superstar in outsized ways,” said the family, whose civil suit in opposition to Read has been stayed till her criminal case is resolved. “This intensive media campaign to persuade capability jurors compounds the O’Keefe family’s unpleasant loss whereas delaying and denying her accountability.”
Lead Investigator in Karen Read’s Case Is Fired
Massachusetts Negate Police Trooper Proctor admitted on the idea stand during Read’s first trial to the usage of misogynistic language and making a quantity of disparaging remarks about Read in text messages to chums, family and fellow law enforcement officers, a few of which the settle had him be taught aloud in court. And according to a text asking whether the owner of the dwelling O’Keefe was as soon as chanced on would also “receive some s–t,” he responded, “Nope. Homeowner’s a Boston cop too.”
Proctor apologized on the stand, announcing “emotions obtained the excellent of me.” But, he said, even supposing his words were “unprofessional and regrettable,” they did not have an effect on how he conducted the investigation.
He was as soon as fired no longer up to 2 weeks earlier than Read’s retrial was as soon as position to begin up, basically based fully on a March 19, 2025, insist police personnel disclose reviewed by E! News.
He had been suspended final July, with the Negate Police Affiliation President clarifying that Proctor was as soon as being disciplined for the language in his deepest texts, and no longer in reference to “salacious allegations of duvet-ups, collusion or conspiracies supplied by the defense.”
In accordance alongside with his termination, Proctor’s family instructed NBC News in a assertion that the trial board’s resolution “lacks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats without a doubt one of their possess, a trooper with a 12-year unblemished document.” Proctor’s text messages proved he was as soon as “human—no longer execrable, no longer incompetent in his feature as a abolish detective and positively no longer unfit to continue to be a Massachusetts Negate Trooper.
Karen Read’s Unfinished Fable Is Told in Physique within the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read
The five-section ID docuseries Physique within the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read premiered March 17 ended with Read serene in limbo after the mistrial.
“We wished to manufacture positive that we were one hundred laptop as balanced as we would be, because we knew there was as soon as going to be yet one more trial,” director Terry Dunn Meurer instructed Conceitedness Vivid of putting the finished product collectively.
“It’s a extraordinarily divisive case and we personal to respect every person’s conception,” Meurer said. “Once you happen to’re ‘Free Karen Read,’ gigantic. Once you happen to’re more on the prosecution aspect, just staunch-making an are attempting. Alternatively it’s been upsetting to behold how vile this has been—the name-calling and the vitriol, the deepest attacks. The case has been tried on social media, and I center of attention on that’s a shame. It’s a disservice to the justice system and to Karen.”
Read pushed motivate in opposition to any conception that she was as soon as making the most of her newfound superstar situation.
“Anyone in my position who’s being falsely accused would be shouting from the rooftops,” Read instructed Conceitedness Vivid final summer season. “But within the occasion you center of attention on for a second that any individual has fought more difficult to search out the reality about what took position to John and to notify every person about what took position to John more difficult than me, you’re fallacious.”
Karen Read Came across Now not Responsible of Execute in 2025 Retrial
Read's retrial obtained underway on April 1, 2025.
And this time, the dramatic lawsuits concluded with the desired consequence: On June 18, Read was as soon as chanced on no longer responsible of second-stage abolish and motor automobile manslaughter whereas utilizing beneath the influence and leaving the scene of a collision.
She was as soon as chanced on responsible of working a motor automobile beneath the influence of liquor and therefore sentenced to 1 year's probation.
Source credit : eonline.com
