Karen Read sobbed in court as she was acquitted of murder over the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend in a retrial that captivated the nation.
Read, 45, was accused of drunkenly ramming her SUV into her boyfriend, former Boston police officer John O’Keefe, and leaving him to die in blizzard conditions on January 29, 2022.
A jury returned a not guilty verdict on the charges of murder and leaving the scene resulting in death on Wednesday. She was found guilty of Operating Under the Influence and sentenced to probation.
The former adjunct college professor, who wore a light blue suit, cried and hugged her lawyer Alan Jackson after the judge delivered the news.
She has long maintained her innocence and insisted that she was framed by his police officer friends who were inside the house where he was found dead.
Read previously faced the charges at a trial last year. But after five days of deliberations, Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial as the jurors remained split on whether she intentionally killed her boyfriend.
She has garnered a cult following of supporters from the widespread social media coverage and hit HBO documentary of the case.
Read was greeted by a massive crowd of pink-clad fans shouting ‘Free Karen Read’ after she left the court an innocent woman.
Karen Read sobbed as she learned her fate in the murder trial of her boyfriend, former Boston police officer John O’Keefe
Read previously faced the charges for O’Keefe’s (pictured) death at a trial last year. But after five days of deliberations, Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial
Karen Read (pictured) was acquitted of murder, but she was found guilty of Operating Under the Influence and sentenced to probation
Read thanked her lawyers and supporters in a brief press conference outside of the courthouse.
‘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,’ she said.
‘No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have. Than I have, and my team.’
Several witnesses in the case, including those who were in the house that fateful night, released a statement calling the verdict a ‘miscarriage of justice.’
The witnesses who signed the statement included Jennifer McCabe, who was with Read and O’Keefe the night of his death, and Brian Albert, who owned the home where the party took place.
‘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 result is a devastating miscarriage of justice,’ the statement said.
The jury handed down its decision after deliberating for at least 22 hours since June 13.
Prosecutors described Read as a scorned lover who chose to leave O’Keefe dying in the snow after striking him with her SUV outside the house party.
Read thanked her lawyers and supporters in a brief press conference outside of the courthouse
Read was greeted by a massive crowd of pink-clad fans after she left the court an innocent woman
Her defense said O’Keefe was beaten, bitten by a dog, then left outside a home in the Boston suburb of Canton in a conspiracy orchestrated by the police that included planting evidence.
They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a ‘convenient outsider’ who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
But prosecutors noted that O’Keefe and Read had been drinking with a group of friends at the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton – about 14 miles south of Boston, when they were invited to an afterparty.
Read has even admitted to having several alcoholic drinks beforehand, but said she decided to drop her boyfriend at the afterparty before she returned to his house.
The couple had been dating for two years at the time of O’Keefe’s death. He had been serving on the Boston Police Department for 16 years.
According to Read’s version of events, she woke up at 4am to find that O’Keefe never returned home, leading her to frantically drive out to try and find him.
The couple had been dating for two years at the time of O’Keefe’s death. He had been serving on the Boston Police Department for 16 years
After finding O’Keefe’s body outside the home, which party attendees claimed he never entered, first responders on the scene alleged that Read repeatedly told them she hit him while in a panicked state.
O’Keefe’s cause of death was ultimately listed as blunt force trauma and hypothermia after police say he was left outside in a blizzard.
At the center of Read’s defense has been claims that the investigation was inappropriately handled by dishonorably discharged State Trooper Michael Proctor, who sent vulgar text messages about Read.
He was fired over texts that included calling Read a ‘whack job’ and a ‘c***.’
In other messages, he joked about rummaging through her phone for nude photos during the investigation, and remarked that she had ‘no a**.’
This is a developing story…
