Today, in one of the most high-profile cases to excite and exasperate the public imagination, a jury reached a verdict. They acquitted 45-year-old Karen Read of second-degree murder for the death of her boyfriend, 46-year-old Boston police officer John O’Keefe. The decision followed a two month trial and jury deliberation, rendered on June 13, 2024. Though the jury acquitted Read of all murder charges, they instead found her guilty of drunk driving.
The egregious incident occurred in early 2022. It occurred near the door of a homecoming house party where off-duty local cops and a federal agent were on the scene. Prosecutors alleged that Read intentionally hit O’Keefe with her SUV, killing her. They accused her of abandoning him to die in the snow, which she robustly contested as false from the outset of the trial. Initially, Read was charged with a minimum of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene of an accident.
This trial was the state’s second attempt to convict Read. The retrial disposed of a staggering financial period. The first trial ultimately resulted in a mistrial on July 1, 2024 due to a hung jury. Prosecutors claimed throughout the hearings that Read had punched O’Keefe and subsequently left the scene. They argued this conduct constituted a gross deviation from the standard of care for life.
The defense attorney Alan Jackson offered a vigorous, imaginative counter-narrative. He maintained that O’Keefe died in the house and was later dragged out, allegedly as part of a cover-up carried out by cops as part of a conspiracy. Jackson stated emphatically, “There is no evidence that John was hit by a car. None. This case should be over right now, done, because there was no collision.”
Rather, the closing arguments redoubled, as special prosecutor Hank Brennan finally had his chance to speak. He ultimately depicted O’Keefe as a “good man” who “helped people. He underscored the pivotal moment during that fatal night on which O’Keefe would be killed. Only Read, he said, had the juice to get him the help he sought.
“She was drunk. She hit him and she left him to die.” – Hank Brennan
We huddled outside the courthouse after the verdict was given, and Bill Read, Karen’s father, said he felt relief that justice had been done. He expressed feeling “great gratitude” to God and underscored the importance of his family being able to look ahead. “We need to get our life back together, and we will,” he stated.
“Read reiterated her desire to see justice for O’Keefe served despite the split verdict. “No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have,” she declared.
The jury’s decision has served some closure, at least to the legal proceedings. It does nothing to address the continuing questions of accountability and justice in this all-too-rare case of success. The jury’s conviction for vehicular manslaughter indicates that they found Read culpable for his choices that evening. This decision underscores the egregiousness of his conduct and the resulting harm.