Karen Read Breaks Silence on Abolish Trial Acquittal
Two months after Karen Read turned into found no longer guilty of 2nd-stage abolish within the 2022 death of boyfriend John O’Keefe, the forty five-year-ragged opened up about life now and the upcoming Elizabeth Banks expose.
Karen Read is slowly readjusting to private life.
Factual over two months after the forty five-year-ragged turned into found no longer guilty of 2nd-stage abolish in connection to the 2022 death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe, Read is giving a glance into what her life is esteem now.
“It’s no longer moderately as I anticipated,” she shared on The Howie Carr Expose Aug. 28. “I turned into anticipating a switch to be flipped that turned into the opposite of the one which received flipped on me at 6 a.m. on January 29, 2022.”
But as the Massachusetts native explained, it’s been extra “esteem a dimmer that the lights are approaching, little brighter every week.”
“There’s moments I beget on daily foundation,” Read acknowledged, “that beget these little epiphanies of, ‘Wow, here is the foremost time I’ve carried out bear-in-the-blank within the closing four years that I wasn’t residing with this nightmare.”
She additionally discussed her life after her February 2022 arrest and subsequent true wrestle, explaining that she had to promote her home to her to wait on pay for the felony legit bills, especially as she headed into the 2nd trial earlier this year. And she turned into especially sad about losing her job at Constancy Investments.
“That job turned into no longer appropriate a job,” Read reflected. “That turned into my career, and I peaceable whisk over it.”
But thru all of it, Read turned into extremely grateful for all the improve she received all over her true ordeal, from her of us William Read and Janet Read—who she has been residing with since selling her home—to other folks that believed her aspect of the epic.
“What I acknowledged after I came out of the courthouse after the acquittal is appropriate thanks to so many contributors,” she acknowledged. “It feels esteem already a transient lifetime ago, nonetheless it absolutely's supreme been two months.”
She added, “These other folks—journalists and supporters, crew contributors—beget emotionally pulled me thru.”
Read additionally had a message for Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey and enlighten investigators, announcing, “You misplaced. You misplaced sizable time, and likewise you understand what you per chance did.”
And while she’s been specializing in life after the trial, Hollywood has been specializing within the technique to explain her epic to the miniature show camouflage, with Elizabeth Banks location to star as Read in an upcoming runt series for High Video, per Closing date. But in response to Read, she’s no longer fervent by the expose and didn’t obtain a heads up on casting.
“I per chance read that the the same time you per chance did give or elevate a couple minutes,” she explained. “I beget nothing to realize with that. It's no longer licensed by me in anyway.”
Read eminent that she “did no longer bless this,” especially as a result of there would possibly per chance be so mighty “extra to this epic.”
“There's mighty extra to it than what I deem Elizabeth Banks is conscious of at this point,” she added. “But I've by no design spoken to her.”
As for what all people does know? It’s that Read turned into accused of drunkenly hitting boyfriend O'Keefe, a 46-year-ragged Boston police officer, with her automobile on Jan. 29, 2022, earlier than leaving him to die commence air of a home party in blizzard prerequisites.
Read turned into first tried for abolish in 2024, nonetheless the complaints ended with a hung jury after 25 hours of deliberation.
Her 2nd trial started in April, where her true team alleged that she turned into being framed to veil up for a wrestle that took enlighten within the Canton, MA, home of Brian Albert, a worthy legislation enforcement officer and buddy of O’Keefe’s, earlier than he turned into allegedly dragged out into the garden.
Following the 2nd trial, Read turned into found no longer guilty of motor automobile manslaughter while driving below the affect and leaving the scene of a collision all around the June 18 verdict. She turned into, nonetheless, convicted of the lesser rate of running a motor automobile below the affect, to which she turned into sentenced to one year probation.
As for Morrissey, who has beforehand known as the protection's argument “a desperate are attempting and re-effect guilt,” following the June verdict, he simply suggested WBZ, “The Jury has spoken.”
For a deeper dive into every little thing we be taught about Read’s case, abet studying.
What Came about to John O'Keefe?
Karen Read suggested authorities that she and Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of almost two years, were out drinking with guests at C.F. McCarthy’s bar in Canton, Mass., on the evening of Jan. 28, 2022, after which they spent about an hour at Waterfall Bar & Grille across the avenue. Read acknowledged that she dropped O’Keefe off on the Canton home of Boston Police Det. Brian Albert quickly after center of the night and went wait on to O’Keefe’s home.
Prosecutors, nonetheless, alleged at Read’s Feb. 2, 2022, arraignment on manslaughter bills that there turned into evidence indicated she hit O’Keefe with her automobile earlier than driving off and left him mendacity there in frigid weather prerequisites.
Read, a monetary analyst residing in within attain Mansfield, maintained that she returned to Albert’s home the next morning after O’Keefe did no longer come wait on home and he or she couldn’t attain him on his phone. She known as a couple of contributors that were with her, Read acknowledged, after they found him mendacity within the snow commence air the Albert situation at 6 a.m.
The 46-year-ragged cop had bloody cuts on his impartial appropriate arm, his eyes were swollen shut and his clothes were covered with blood and vomit, in response to prosecutors. He turned into transported to Boston’s Factual Samaritan Hospital, where he turned into pronounced pointless later that morning.
A subsequent put up-mortem found that O’Keefe had suffered a couple of skull fractures, to boot as cuts to the wait on of his head and nose. The coroner eventually attributed his death to hypothermia and blunt pressure trauma.
Karen Read Arrested for Manslaughter in Loss of life of John O'Keefe
Read turned into arrested Feb. 1, 2022, and charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of a motor automobile inflicting death and motor automobile homicide.
Investigators located her 2021 dim Lexus SUV parked at her of us’ home, prosecutors acknowledged, and it had a shattered rear taillight and scratches on the rear bumper.
Read pleaded no longer guilty Feb. 2 and turned into released from custody after posting $50,000 bail.
Her felony legit David Yannetti acknowledged all over her arraignment that a manslaughter rate turned into “a expansive attain” and denied any criminal intent on his consumer’s section. “This turned into no longer some random stranger,” he acknowledged, per NBC Boston. “This turned into my consumer’s boyfriend, somebody whom she liked.”
In a press commence calling O’Keefe “a kind particular person” who turned into “dedicated to his family,” the Boston Police Department acknowledged that “the particular person to blame for John’s death” had been arrested.
What Did Karen Read Articulate After Discovering John O’Keefe Lifeless?
Prosecutors acknowledged at her arraignment that one of the guests who went shopping for O’Keefe with Read suggested police that her buddy had known as her at 5 a.m. and acknowledged, “John’s pointless. I ponder if he’s pointless. It’s snowing, he received hit by a plow.”
Canton firefighter Lt. Anthony Flematti later testified all over Read’s trial that she suggested 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 turned into “appropriate visibly distraught,” and that she additionally heard Read drawl, greater than as soon as, “I hit him.”
Read maintained at trial, nonetheless, that what she screamed at Flematti turned into, “Did I hit him? Might well per chance presumably additionally I beget hit him?”
One other firefighter, Matthew Kelly, testified that he supreme remembered Read announcing, “He’s pointless, he’s [expletive] pointless.”
Karen Read Is Charged With John O'Keefe's Abolish
A sizable jury indicted Read on a rate of 2nd-stage abolish on June 9, 2022.
Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally alleged all over Read’s June 10 arraignment that she and O’Keefe “had been arguing for moderately some time” earlier than he died and, weeks earlier than the evening in quiz, he had tried to interrupt up with the defendant, and he or she refused to whisk away his home when requested. Lally acknowledged Read drunkenly backed into O’Keefe with her Lexus and left him to die within the snow.
Read posted an additional $100,000 bail and later pleaded no longer guilty to abolish.
Yannetti protested all around the June 10 hearing that Read had performed CPR on O’Keefe in an are attempting and revive him. Furthermore, the felony legit alleged, the officer’s accidents were inconsistent with being hit by a automobile.
“He’s received scratch marks all up and down his arm that are fully unexplained,” Yannetti acknowledged in court. “He’s received two dim eyes, appears to beget a broken nose. There’s something else going on here.”
Protection Alleges That Karen Read Became Framed by Police in John O'Keefe Abolish
All the design thru a Sept. 22, 2022, court look, Yannetti alleged that O’Keefe had been severely crushed at Albert’s home and the detective frail his connections within the Canton Police Department and Massachusetts Inform Police to elevate a behold at to veil up the truth by framing his consumer.
Yannetti emphasised that Brian Albert’s brother Kevin Albert turned into additionally a detective with the Canton PD, and that Massachusetts Inform Trooper Michael Proctor, who headed up the Read investigation, turned into a discontinuance family buddy. (Brian, who retired from the pressure with an hurt in 2023, in response to a family spokesman, denied that there turned into any bodily altercation engaging O’Keefe at his home and his brother and Proctor beget denied any wrongdoing referring to the investigation.)
Protection felony legit Alan Jackson acknowledged on NBC’s Dateline in July 2023 that he had “an innocent consumer, period.”
O’Keefe “walked correct into a a part of hostility in that home,” Jackson acknowledged. “John O’Keefe received out of a automobile, walked into the home, turned into sucker punched, fell, trouble himself, and then eventually his physique turned into moved.”
Jackson, a former L.A. prosecutor, and Read co-counsel Elizabeth Microscopic, both companions at Werksman Jackson & Quinn LLP, beforehand represented Kevin Spacey in a 2016 sexual assault case on Nantucket. The bills in opposition to the actor were eventually dropped.
District Attorney Michael Morrissey Fires Assist Against Karen Read Protection Allegations
In a prolonged Aug. 25, 2023, video assertion, Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey denied that any wrestle took place within the Albert home on the evening O’Keefe died. Eleven other folks had given statements announcing they did no longer demand the officer enter the home, he acknowledged, and “zero other folks” acknowledged they saw whisk within. Files from O’Keefe’s phone that turned into found below his physique, Morrissey acknowledged, “reveals that his phone did no longer enter that home.”
Accusing any of the witnesses of abolish turned into “erroneous,” the prosecutor added. Furthermore, he acknowledged, Proctor had no substitute to plant evidence nor motive to realize so. (Read has acknowledged that she cracked her taillight pulling out of the garage to whisk search O’Keefe, nonetheless alleged it turned into smashed supreme after her automobile turned into in police custody.) Proctor didn’t beget a “discontinuance within most relationship” with any individual fervent by the investigation, Morrissey acknowledged, and “every advice to the opposite is a lie.”
Prosecutor Lally argued in opposition to a protection motion to originate files of texts, calls and social media message between Proctor’s spouse and Brian Albert’s sister-in-legislation Jennifer McCabe, one of the opposite folks with Read when O’Keefe’s physique turned into found. Lally acknowledged all over a January 2024 court hearing, “As the Commonwealth understands it, Trooper Proctor has a sister, who has a chum, who has a sister, who has a husband, who has a brother, who has a spouse, who has a sister who is Jennifer McCabe.”
Prosecutors, Protection Clash Over Google Search Timing in Karen Read Trial
On April 12, 2023, protection lawyers Yannetti and Jackson said that newly recovered mobile phone records from McCabe’s phone had offered evidence that “unequivocally exonerates Karen” as a result of it established that moderately quite a lot of contributors “were conscious that John turned into death within the snow earlier than Karen even knew he turned into missing.”
McCabe Googled “Hos [sic] long to die in cold” at around 2:30 a.m., the protection alleged in an April 12 court motion, per NBC Boston.
Prosecutors acknowledged in a press commence on the time that it turned into yet to make certain whether the protection had “interpreted the raw records correctly,” noting that that they had “most frequently” requested the protection to invent “any in fact exculpatory evidence to enhance their claims.”
McCabe testified all over Read’s abolish trial that the defendant requested her to Google how long it took to die within the cold after they found O’Keefe. She acknowledged that she had researched something else at 2:27 a.m., then frail the the same commence tab to punch within the moderately quite a lot of search, and he or she denied deleting any search historical previous or numbers from her call log. “I by no design would beget left John O'Keefe out within the cold to die,” she acknowledged, “as a result of he turned into my buddy that I liked.”
The prosecution known as their very have digital forensics educated to the stand to wait on up their assertion that McCabe’s search turned into made at 6:23 a.m.
In a January 2025 court submitting, prosecutors looked to beget the protection’s records educated barred from testifying over again on the retrial, writing that his “opinions” had been “debunked.” (The motion turned into denied, clearing the educated to testify.)
Prosecutors Share DNA Evidence From Karen Read's Automobile
On Feb. 22, 2024, prosecutors filed a memorandum detailing crime scene investigation results, including that O’Keefe’s DNA had been recovered from Read’s broken taillight and a miniature hair of his turned into stuck to the rear passenger aspect of her Lexus.
“Thru price diagnosis and forensic sorting out, the Massachusetts Inform Police Crime Laboratory found the victim's DNA blow their own horns on the broken taillight and minute objects of crimson and obvious apparent plastic located within the victim's clothes,” prosecutors wrote within the submitting, per NBC Boston. “Comparability sorting out turned into performed, and the results prove that the minute objects of crimson and obvious plastic are in accordance to the broken objects of plastic from the defendant's rear taillight.”
At trial, the protection contended that the DNA evidence turned into planted, in step with their overall argument that Read turned into framed, nonetheless that it additionally would possibly per chance presumably per chance've gotten on the auto another design except for it hitting O'Keefe.
“It turned into planted on the auto. I indicate, it turned into,” Yannetti acknowledged commence air court on June 14 after the prosecution's DNA consultants testified, per CBS Boston. “You know the quiz is how did that magic hair dwell to mutter the story a 30-mile power thru a blizzard?”
Prosecutors and legislation enforcement denied all accusations of planting or mishandling evidence.
Federal Prosecutors Compare the Investigators in Karen Read Abolish Case
Norfolk Superior Court docket Resolve Beverly Cannone postponed the commence of Read’s trial from March 12 to April 16, 2024, after federal prosecutors—who were investigating how the O’Keefe inquiry turned into performed in light of the protection’s veil-up accusation—released 3,000 pages of paperwork referring to the case.
The protection argued in court Feb. 26 that the file dump contained exculpatory evidence, while the prosecution countered that the bulk of the findings were in accordance to prior testimony. (The federal probe concluded with none bills being filed in opposition to legislation enforcement, particular prosecutor Hank Brennan acknowledged all over a March 4, 2025, motions hearing.)
In a separate motion to beget the case disregarded, the protection argued at a March 13, 2024, hearing that the prosecution deceived the sizable jury that indicted Read for the rationale that panel had no records of the within most ties amongst the investigators and witnesses.
“A majority of the witnesses who testified earlier than the sizable jury” were known as as a result of they allegedly saw what came about to O’Keefe, the protection said in court paperwork unsealed weeks later, per NBC Boston. Rather, the submitting continued, they were known as to testify to “far-off and beside the purpose ‘unsuitable personality’” to prejudice the panel in opposition to Read, “misleading the sizable jury, complicated the points and losing time.”
Assistant District Attorney Lally fired wait on all around the hearing that the protection turned into searching to play “three-card monte,” as in, “’Observe at this relationship, behold at that relationship.’ The protection is obfuscating from the intensive evidence. They don’t want you to behold at that. They need you to behold at who texted who when.”
Cannone denied the protection’s motion March 26, paving the design for the trial to commence as scheduled.
Karen Read Goes on Trial for Abolish of John O'Keefe
In his April 29, 2024, opening assertion, Yannetti maintained that O’Keefe suffered fatal accidents from a beating and his consumer had been framed.
“You’re going to be taught that at that address, lived a well-identified and well-connected legislation enforcement family in Canton—the Alberts,” Yannetti acknowledged. “Because the Alberts were alive to, and as a result of that they had discontinuance connections to the investigators in this case, Karen Read turned into framed for a abolish she did no longer commit.”
The prosecution countered that Read turned into a girl scorned and, after drinking too mighty, 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 Protection Argues She Became Acquitted of John O'Keefe's Abolish in Suppose to Push apart Payment
In a July 2024 motion to beget the abolish case in opposition to Read disregarded, reviewed by E! News, the protection argued that double jeopardy utilized as a result of three jurors from the foremost trial had indicated to them “in no unsure terms”—thru “unsolicited communications”—that they unanimously agreed she turned into no longer guilty of abolish and leaving the scene or a non-public hurt or death, and therefore the deem can beget requested for a partial verdict within the case.
The Massachusetts Supreme Court docket dominated in February 2025, nonetheless, that “posttrial accounts of jurors’ non-public deliberations” that were “inconsistent with their public communications in court” would possibly per chance presumably per chance no longer reveal the mistrial ruling or constitute an acquittal.
Karen Read Speaks Out About Her Abolish Case
Though she felt “extremely violated,” she turned into “no longer backing down now,” Read, who did no longer elevate the stand all over her trial, suggested Arrogance Magnificent closing August.
“As provoking as a doubtless conviction is,” she acknowledged, “I could whisk to jail for something I didn’t attain earlier than I plea out. I would possibly per chance presumably per chance no longer ever give them that uncover.”
While she fell for O’Keefe speedy after he reached out to her on Fb within the pandemic-plagued spring of 2020—16 years after they first met and dated for a couple of months—issues started to carve up, Read acknowledged. All the design thru a Recent Year’s day dash to Aruba with moderately quite a lot of couples, she acknowledged she saw caught him kissing another lady. (The girl in quiz denied this on the stand all over Read’s trial.) And Read acknowledged she had exchanged flirty texts with a federal agent O’Keefe knew, to wait on “emotionally validate” her on the time.
But, Read acknowledged, as of January 2022 they were committed to caring for his orphaned niece and nephew together (O’Keefe turned into the foremost guardian of his leisurely sister’s younger other folks, in response to his family) and didn’t are searching to interrupt up their dynamic.
When she and O’Keefe went to the Alberts’ home early on Jan. 29, 2022, after being invited there for additional drinks, O’Keefe acknowledged he’d look on the atmosphere within earlier than they made up our minds to keep or no longer, Read suggested Arrogance Magnificent. When he stopped responding to her texts, Read acknowledged, she “received pissed” and assumed he turned into “screwing around” with an ragged paramour who lived within attain. “I didn’t deem he turned into bodily incapacitated,” she acknowledged. Read acknowledged she waited about 10 minutes earlier than driving off, after which she sent him extra texts and left livid voicemails.
Unexcited, Read puzzled if she did hit O’Keefe with her automobile, she suggested VF, and recalled telling her of us she would “pay [her] dues” if she had carried out “something in anyway.”
O’Keefe’s family suggested the journal on the time that they peaceable believed she turned into in price of his death.
“Unlike most other folks accused of abolish and sued for wrongful death, Karen Read has embraced her star in outsized programs,” acknowledged the family, whose civil suit in opposition to Read has been stayed unless her criminal case is resolved. “This intensive media marketing campaign to influence doubtless jurors compounds the O’Keefe family’s horrid loss while delaying and denying her accountability.”
Lead Investigator in Karen Read’s Case Is Fired
Massachusetts Inform Police Trooper Proctor admitted on the behold stand all over Read’s first trial to the usage of misogynistic language and making moderately quite a lot of disparaging remarks about Read in textual utter material messages to guests, relatives and fellow law enforcement officers, some of which the deem had him read aloud in court. And in response to a textual utter material asking whether the owner of the home O’Keefe turned into found would additionally “receive some s–t,” he replied, “Nope. Condominium owner’s a Boston cop too.”
Proctor apologized on the stand, announcing “feelings received the supreme of me.” But, he acknowledged, though his phrases were “unprofessional and regrettable,” they did no longer beget an influence on how he performed the investigation.
He turned into fired less than two weeks earlier than Read’s retrial turned into location to commence, in response to a March 19, 2025, enlighten police personnel sing reviewed by E! News.
He had been suspended closing July, with the Inform Police Association President clarifying that Proctor turned into being disciplined for the language in his within most texts, and no longer in connection with “salacious allegations of veil-ups, collusion or conspiracies offered by the protection.”
In response to his termination, Proctor’s family suggested NBC News in a press commence that the trial board’s decision “lacks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats one of their very have, a trooper with a 12-year unblemished file.” Proctor’s textual utter material messages proved he turned into “human—no longer unhealthy, no longer incompetent in his role as a homicide detective and undoubtedly no longer unfit to proceed to be a Massachusetts Inform Trooper.
Karen Read’s Unfinished Story Is Suggested in Body within the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read
The 5-section ID docuseries Body within the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read premiered March 17 ended with Read peaceable in limbo after the mistrial.
“We desired to make certain that that we were 100 percent as balanced as we would possibly per chance presumably per chance be, as a result of we knew there turned into going to be another trial,” director Terry Dunn Meurer suggested Arrogance Magnificent of inserting the completed product together.
“It’s an awfully divisive case and we want to respect all people’s belief,” Meurer acknowledged. “While you happen to’re ‘Free Karen Read,’ gargantuan. While you happen to’re extra on the prosecution aspect, ravishing. On the opposite hand it’s been upsetting to behold how vile this has been—the title-calling and the vitriol, the within most attacks. The case has been tried on social media, and I deem that’s a disgrace. It’s a disservice to the justice design and to Karen.”
Read pushed wait on in opposition to any thought that she turned into profiting from her newfound star situation.
“Anybody in my enlighten who’s being falsely accused would possibly per chance presumably per chance be shouting from the rooftops,” Read suggested Arrogance Magnificent closing summer season. “But within the occasion you deem for a 2nd that any individual has fought more difficult to construct up the truth about what came about to John and to enlighten all people about what came about to John more difficult than me, you’re sad.”
Karen Read Came across Now not Guilty of Abolish in 2025 Retrial
Read's retrial received underway on April 1, 2025.
And this time, the dramatic complaints concluded with the desired extinguish result: On June 18, Read turned into found no longer guilty of 2nd-stage abolish and motor automobile manslaughter while driving below the affect and leaving the scene of a collision.
She turned into found guilty of running a motor automobile below the affect of liquor and therefore sentenced to one year's probation.
Source credit : eonline.com
