Karen Read acquitted of murder in Massachusetts retrial, convicted of DUI

Karen Read’s acquittal on murder charges ended a case that had grown far beyond one night in Canton. What began as the death of a Boston police officer became a test of law enforcement credibility, prosecutorial judgment and how intensely a murder trial can be shaped by public scrutiny.

Jurors in Norfolk Superior Court found Read not guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter, but convicted her of operating under the influence. She received one year of probation. Outside the courthouse, supporters cheered the verdict while members of John O’Keefe’s family left with bowed heads, a split reaction that mirrored the split the case had already created across Massachusetts.

The case turned on what happened after Read and O’Keefe spent the night drinking with other law enforcement officers in Canton, just south of Boston, and then went to an afterparty at the home of retired Boston police sergeant Brian Albert. O’Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, was found unresponsive in Albert’s yard on Jan. 29, 2022. A medical examiner later said he died of hypothermia and blunt-force trauma to the head. No witness has said they saw what led to his death, leaving the central question to be answered from fragments of digital evidence, witness accounts and competing theories.

Prosecutors said Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV and left him to die in the snow after a night of heavy drinking. The defense said she was framed in an elaborate cover-up involving law enforcement. Court records and trial testimony also pointed to a strained relationship, including alleged voicemails from Read hours before O’Keefe’s death in which she called him a “f loser” and said, “John, I f hate you.” When O’Keefe did not come home, Read, Jennifer McCabe and another woman searched for him in heavy snow. Prosecutors said Read later remarked that she had cracked her tail light and wondered whether she could have hit him.

The first trial began in April 2024 and collapsed in July after five days of deliberations, when the jury declared itself deadlocked and “starkly divided.” The judge used Tuey-Rodriguez instructions before declaring a mistrial, and the jury list was sealed after jurors raised safety concerns. Read later asked the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court to throw out two charges before retrial, but lost that bid in February 2025.

The retrial brought fresh scrutiny to the investigation. Massachusetts State Police fired lead investigator Michael Proctor on March 19, 2025, after a trial board found him guilty of unsatisfactory performance and violating policy on alcoholic beverages. The board also found that he sent derogatory text messages about Read and shared sensitive information with people outside law enforcement. Federal investigators reviewed the case, but the Justice Department ultimately brought no charges.

Jury selection in the retrial began on April 1, 2025. Opening statements followed on April 22 before a panel of nine men and nine women. After 37 days of testimony and about 28 hours of deliberations, jurors returned their verdict on June 18, 2025, after sending three notes saying they were deadlocked. More than a year later, Read filed a new lawsuit against the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department, keeping the fight over the investigation alive even after the criminal case ended.