Karen Read case

Read faced charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal collision in the January 2022 death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. She had pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

The first trial resulted in a hung jury in July 2024. The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office retried the case in 2025. On June 18, 2025, a jury spared Read a possible life sentence and acquitted her of second-degree murder, only finding her guilty of operating under the influence of liquor.

Prosecutors alleged Read backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at an afterparty in Canton early on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of bar-hopping. They alleged Read was driving drunk and left O’Keefe to die in the snow outside a fellow Boston police officer’s home on Fairview Road.

Read’s lawyers argued that she was a “convenient outsider” framed in a vast conspiracy among the homeowners, law enforcement, and fellow afterparty guests. They floated an alternate theory that O’Keefe was actually beaten inside the home, attacked by the family’s dog, and dumped outside in the snow.

Read’s hyperlocal case became a national spectacle as advocates and internet sleuths proclaimed Read’s innocence and speculated about other possible culprits. Ethan Nelson, the head of Court TV, told Boston.com strong opinions on both sides of the aisle and “lots of twists and turns, and lots of question marks,” tend to fuel engagement among true crime fans, “and this one is ripe for that.”