A Massachusetts jury has found Karen Read not guilty in the high-profile retrial over the 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe.
The verdict, delivered Wednesday at Norfolk Superior Court, ends a years-long legal battle that gripped the region and drew national attention. Read, 44, was accused of drunkenly backing her SUV into O’Keefe and leaving him to die in a snowbank outside a Canton home during a January blizzard.
Prosecutors painted Read as a jealous girlfriend who lashed out violently after a night of drinking. But her defense team argued she was the target of a sweeping cover-up involving members of law enforcement and others with ties to the victim.
“This was never a fair investigation,” Read’s lawyers said throughout the trial, maintaining that O’Keefe was fatally injured inside the home and that Read was framed.
The retrial followed a mistrial in July 2024, when a hung jury failed to reach a unanimous decision after weeks of emotional testimony. The jury in this retrial deliberated for several days before clearing Read of all charges.
The case sparked fierce public debate, with supporters and critics clashing over whether Read was a murderer or a scapegoat in a case clouded by conflicts of interest and investigative missteps.
O’Keefe, 46, a veteran officer with the Boston Police Department, was found unresponsive with head injuries and signs of hypothermia. Read was arrested soon after and charged with second-degree murder and other offenses.
With the not guilty verdict, Read is now fully acquitted of the charges that once threatened to send her to prison for life.
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