Karen Read acquitted of murder charge in death of police officer boyfriend: Live updates
Read smile as the verdict is read. The verdict is not guilty for Karen Read on most he charges. The Karen Read jury continues to deliberate in Norfolk Superior Court, Dedham for a fourth day as hundreds of supporters wait outside for any news on Wednesday June 18, 2025. Pool Photo Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger
The jury convicted Read of operating a vehicle under of the influence but not on charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Read was sentenced to one year probation.
Prosecutors accused Read of backing into O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV in a drunken rage and leaving him to die in the snow after a night out drinking with friends in January 2022.
Her defense team claimed she was framed for O’Keefe’s death by cops who beat O’Keefe, let a dog attack him, threw him in the snow and then purposefully botched the investigation.
As the verdict was announced, Read smiled and embraced her defense team. Outside, supporters could be heard cheering and chanting "Karen is free."
“I could not be standing here without these amazing supporters who have supported me and my team financially and more importantly emotionally for almost four years,” Read told the crowd.
“No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have, than I have and my team," she added.
Friends of O'Keefe called the jury's decision "a devastating miscarriage of justice," in a statement released to USA TODAY.
"Today, our hearts are with John and the entire O’Keefe family. They have suffered through so much and deserved better from our justice system," Jennifer McCabe, Matthew McCabe, Chris Albert, Julie Albert, Colin Albert, Nicole Albert, Brian Albert, Kerry Roberts, and Curt Roberts said in a statement. "While we may have more to say in the future, today we mourn with John’s family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media."
The verdict comes nearly a year after Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury.
Interest in the case has swept the country since then, spurring an array of true crime podcasts, movies and television shows.
What was Karen Read accused of?
Read was charged with second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in a death.
The second-degree murder charge carried the longest possible prison sentence: life in prison with the possibility of parole after a minimum of 15 years.
When is Karen Read's sentencing? Will she go to prison?
Moments after the jury acquitted Read of murder, she was sentenced to one year of probation for operating a vehicle under the influence. This is the standard sentence for that charge as a first-time offender.
Town at center of Read’s trial reacts to verdict
Canton Select Board Chair John McCourt thanked the jury and said the town “respects the legal process” in a statement posted to the town website.
“Today's outcome may bring a sense of relief to some and continue to raise questions for others,” he wrote. “We encourage members of the community to move forward together, treating one another with respect through civil, constructive dialogue.”
O’Keefe’s body was found lying outside a home on Fairview Road in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.
Karen Read's legal issues are not over
In August 2024, O'Keefe's estate filed a civil wrongful death lawsuit against Read and two Canton, Massachusetts, bars — C.F. McCarthy's and the Waterfall — that the couple visited the night of O'Keefe's death, according to The Patriot Ledger, part of the USA TODAY Network.
The suit is seeking at least $50,000 in damages. It alleges Read's conduct was "extreme and outrageous, beyond the bounds of decency and was utterly intolerable" and that she "outrageously created a false narrative" in O'Keefe's death.
The case has not yet gone to trial — a judge in November 2024 ordered the halt of Read's scheduled deposition in the case as the criminal case remained underway.
Both Jeffrey Abramson, a professor of government and law emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin, and Rither Alabre, a former New York City prosecutor and current partner in the Blank Rome law firm, told USA TODAY it's not guaranteed that the verdict in the criminal case will play a role in the civil case.
That's because the civil suit must meet a lower burden of proof to fall against Read.
"What I would say is if Karen had been found guilty of the homicide-related charges, it would make the civil case a lot easier," Alabre said.
- Melina Khan
What made the Karen Read trial such a big case?
The case out of suburban Boston became a trial that people around the nation followed with rapt attention. Why? It's likely due to the skilled tactics of Read’s defense, according to Jeffrey Abramson, a professor emeritus at the University of Texas at Austin.
“The genius of the defense was to take a case that started out as a small case about a tragic occurrence after a night of drinking and turn it into a referendum on police misconduct,” said Abramson, a former assistant district attorney out of Massachusetts. “That maneuver caught fire with a social movement and a movement on social media, and I have to think it worked.”
Abramson noted that Read’s attorneys played on heightened scrutiny of law enforcement in the wake of the 2020 police killing of George Floyd.
“After everything the country has been through about allegations of police misconduct,” he said, “they took something that maybe it’s homebase was ‘Black Lives Matter’ but it migrated into a totally different milieu and clientele of suburban Boston.”
The author noted how scrutiny of police was among the last thing jurors heard from Read’s lawyers in closing arguments.
“I think they took to heart defense attorney Alan Jackson’s closing argument, which is that they hit hard on the fact that the prosecutor was scared to call on the lead investigator Michael Proctor to testify because he had been fired for being so openly vulgar about Read,” said Abramson. “Jackson just kept saying how can you convict when they won’t let you hear from the disgraced police investigator… I thought that was a moment where he could at least solidify the reasonable doubt part.”
- Michael Loria
What does the Karen Read verdict mean?
By not convicting Read of second-degree murder, the jury appeared to find that Read did not intentionally kill O’Keefe out of anger, as prosecutors suggested.
Because she was convicted on the lesser charge of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, Read will serve one year probation.
How did Karen Read's case unfold?
Through more than seven weeks of testimony, jurors heard from a myriad of witnesses and experts who testified about the events leading up to O’Keefe death, evidence found at the crime scene and irregularities in the investigation.
One of the biggest bombshells came near the beginning of the trial, when a friend of O’Keefe’s alleged that Read said, “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” shortly after finding his body beneath a pile of snow. Prosecutors paired the testimony with video clips of Read where she talked about being inebriated behind the wheel and questioned whether she could have “clipped” O’Keefe.
Forensic scientists presented jurors with analysis of phone and vehicle data showing Read’s SUV moving 87 feet in reverse at about the same time O’Keefe’s phone locked for the last time. They showed pictures of tiny red bits of plastic stuck in the fabric of O’Keefe’s sweatshirt, and pieces of Read’s taillight near where his body was found.
Text messages between Read and O’Keefe in the days and hours before his death revealed their privately fraying relationship, despite public shows of affection.
“Tell me if you're interested in someone else, can’t think of any other reason you are like this,” Read wrote at one point. O’Keefe replied: “Things haven't been great between us for a while. Ever consider that?”
Read’s defense team at every turn sought to sow doubt in the credibility of the prosecution’s witnesses and the integrity of the investigation into O’Keefe’s death. They alleged that the lead detective in O’Keefe’s case, former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, was biased against Read, citing crude text messages he sent to friends, and questioned whether he planted the pieces of taillight at the crime scene.
One defense expert suggested that O’Keefe’s injuries were caused by a dog, backing up the defense’s theory that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home of a fellow cop, attacked by his dog and discarded outside during a blizzard.
(This story has been updated to add new information.)
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Karen Read acquitted of murder charge in death of police officer boyfriend: Live updates
