Karen Read reveals decision behind new lawsuit against city and police
Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman who was acquitted of killing her police officer boyfriend last year after two widely publicized murder trials, revealed Friday why she filed a lawsuit alleging misconduct and negligence in the investigation that led to her prosecution.
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“This was always our plan, that I had to save my own life first,” Read said on “TODAY” while flanked by her two attorneys. “I have to continue fighting for justice. The acquittal is deserved, but the wrongs have not been completely righted.”
“They’ve been happening along the way, but I always knew this was going to happen if I could get the help legally to do this,” she added.
Read sued the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton on Thursday, alleging that misconduct and negligence led to her prosecution in the death in 2022 of John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer.
Her attorneys argued in the lawsuit that “an embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures, and institutional rot” was at the heart of two agencies that investigated O’Keefe’s death, the State Police and the Canton Police Department.
The lawsuit comes after Read was acquitted last June of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. She was convicted of a single charge — operating under the influence of liquor.
She was acquitted less than a year after her first trial ended with a hung jury.
On Friday, Read’s lawyer Alan Jackson explained that the goal of the lawsuit is to “bring to the light the institutional biases, the institutional corruption that permeates the Massachusetts law enforcement system.”
“The law speaks in dollars, but that’s not what the ultimate goal is here,” Jackson told “TODAY” co-anchor Craig Melvin. “What Karen wants, you cannot write on a check, which is exposure. Exposure of the corruption that is the DNA of the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department, which is evidenced by these two individuals and their text messages.”
In a statement responding to the lawsuit, officials in Canton rejected “broad stroke characterizations” about its police officers and said the town had made significant strides toward implementing the findings of an audit that was critical of how its officers handled Read’s case.
The Massachusetts State Police superintendent, Col. Geoffrey Noble, described derogatory text messages cited in Read’s lawsuit as “entirely inconsistent with any basic standard of decency and certainly with the expectations of a Massachusetts State Trooper. These racist, sexist and abhorrent comments absolutely do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police and are not tolerated within our ranks.”
“They were in a position where they could, they felt comfortable within their own family, the family of law enforcement, to send these vile text messages,” Jackson said.
Read added that she believes O’Keefe was the “victim of this institutional corruption” among law enforcement.
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O’Keefe, 46, was found dead outside the suburban home of another Boston police officer on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. According to the medical examiner, the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, with hypothermia listed as a contributing factor.
Prosecutors alleged that Read was dropping O’Keefe off for a gathering at the other officer’s home when — fueled by intoxication and anger about the state of her deteriorating relationship — she reversed her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe and left him for dead. Read rejected the allegations.
There was no video of the alleged collision nor did any witnesses claim to have seen it. But prosecutors from the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office presented vehicle data and expert testimony that they said proved their case.
Her attorneys blamed others for O’Keefe’s death — including Brian Albert, the now-retired police sergeant who was helping host the gathering at his Canton home — and said she was the victim of a corrupt, biased law enforcement investigation.
During Read’s first trial, her attorneys argued that Albert and others most likely killed O’Keefe during a fight and framed Read for his death. The attorneys were barred from identifying the group as suspects in the second trial; after she was acquitted, Read filed a lawsuit accusing them of covering up O’Keefe’s death.
Attorneys for Albert and the others have called the allegations “false, defamatory, and without merit.” In April, they filed a defamation suit against Read.
The two lawsuits continue.
Read’s attorneys also accused the former state trooper who led the investigation into O’Keefe’s death of bias.
During both trials, the lawyers presented text messages that showed the former trooper, Michael Proctor, making derogatory comments about Read and sharing investigative details with non-law enforcement personnel, including a relative who was close to the Alberts.
Proctor, who testified at the first trial, acknowledged saying “unprofessional” things about Read but denied leading a biased investigation. He was dishonorably discharged after those proceedings and was not called to testify during the second trial.
Read on Friday said that since the trials, she has not returned to work and has focused her attention on her case. And while she “wants this to be over,” she continues to fight for O’Keefe, whom she described as “very easy going and kind of shy.”
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“He’s not lost; he’s the reason we are doing this,” she added.
