VIDEO: Karen Read Found Not Guilty in Death of Policeman Boyfriend
David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend in 2022, was found not guilty on Wednesday.
A jury found Read not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter but she was found guilty on a charge of drunk driving and will face a year of probation, WQAD reported.
The outlet continued:
It was a huge victory for Read’s lawyers, who have long asserted that she was framed by police after dropping John O’Keefe off at a party at the home of a fellow officer. Prosecutors argued that the 45-year-old Read hit O’Keefe, 46, with her SUV before driving away, but the defense maintained that he was killed inside the home and later dragged outside.
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The verdict came nearly a year after a separate jury deadlocked over Read’s involvement in the January 2022 death of John O’Keefe and resulted in a mistrial.
A college friend of O’Keefe’s called the verdict “unfortunate,” per WCVB. He also said “if she had decided to make better decisions between 12:30 and 6:00 a.m. he’d still be here.”
The woman’s defense team claimed O’Keefe was beaten, bitten by a dog, and left outside a house in Canton as part of a police conspiracy. However, “Prosecutors have described Read as a scorned lover who chose to leave O’Keefe dying in the snow after striking him with her SUV,” the WQAD article said.
Court documents reportedly showed leading up to that night the pair had a strained relationship, according to a CBS News article that gave a timeline of events:
Around 6 a.m., Read sees O’Keefe lying in the snow outside Brian Albert’s home. An emergency responder said that while hysterical and inconsolable, Read repeatedly says “I hit him. I hit him.” The defense argues that one of the first responding officers from Canton police gave “false and deceptive testimony” to the grand jury that would later indict Read.
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January 31, 2022 – An autopsy is completed on O’Keefe. Prosecutors said the medical examiner ruled the cause of death was blunt impact injuries to the head and hypothermia. They say the medical examiner did not find “any obvious signs of an altercation or a fight.”
Video footage of the moment the verdict was read caught the sound of a crowd cheering outside the courtroom:
In a statement following the verdict, a group of people who knew O’Keefe called it “a devastating miscarriage of justice,” per NBC News.
The outlet also noted, “Read’s defense lawyers had identified some who signed the statement as possible suspects who were not properly investigated in O’Keefe’s death.”
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