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

Karen Read left Norfolk Superior Court with a split verdict that satisfied neither side of the country’s most watched Massachusetts murder case. A jury found her not guilty of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, but convicted her of operating under the influence of liquor, ending a trial that exposed deep mistrust of police, prosecutors and the original investigation.

The conflict began on January 29, 2022, when O'Keefe was found unconscious outside the Canton home of fellow Boston police officer Brian Albert. Prosecutors said Read, after a night of drinking, dropped O'Keefe there, backed her SUV into him and left him to die in a blizzard. The defense said she was being framed and that O'Keefe was attacked elsewhere, setting up a case that quickly became as much about institutional credibility as about physical evidence.

Read was charged in 2022, and the first trial opened with jury selection on April 16, 2024, in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham before Judge Beverly J. Cannone. That case ended in a mistrial in July 2024 when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. The deadlock fed months of pretrial litigation and public argument over whether investigators had focused too narrowly on Read while ignoring other possibilities.

The second trial began with jury selection on April 1, 2025, after additional hearings that kept the case in the spotlight. By then, special prosecutor Hank Brennan had already told the court in March 2025 that the federal investigation into the state’s handling of the case was over and that no charges would be filed. The case remained volatile because federal materials shared in the litigation included grand jury material, Michael Proctor’s text messages and ARCCA forensic work. ARCCA experts said the injuries and vehicle damage were inconsistent with a vehicle strike, while Proctor’s crude and sexist texts intensified accusations that bias had seeped into the investigation.

Jurors began deliberating on June 13, 2025, and on June 18 they cleared Read of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. They convicted her only on the OUI count, and the judge sentenced her immediately to one year of probation, the standard punishment for a first-time offense. Outside the courthouse, supporters cheered as Read embraced her lawyers and cried.

Brennan said he was disappointed and said neither the closed federal investigation nor his own review identified another suspect. He also denounced what he called intimidation and abuse aimed at witnesses. Alan Jackson responded that Read was factually innocent and accused Brennan of trying to publicly shame the jury. The fallout did not end with the verdict: in June 2026, Read sued the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department, alleging bigotry, misogyny and systemic failures, while John O'Keefe’s family continued its own civil litigation over his death.