Charged in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, in Canton, Read was tried twice. In June 2025 a jury acquitted her of murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene and convicted her only of drunken driving. Civil suits over his death and its investigation are pending.
The Trials of Karen Read, a three-part Netflix documentary series directed by Danielle Johnson and Rob Miller, is scheduled to premiere on Nov. 23, 2026; What's on Netflix reports that it includes interviews with Read, her defense lawyers, O'Keefe's family and friends, and local journalists.56 On Oct. 8, 2026, Amazon's Prime Video ordered an untitled drama series about the case, starring and executive produced by Elizabeth Banks, with David E. Kelley Productions, based on the podcast Karen; no release date has been announced.7 On Sept. 18, 2026, a Plymouth County judge refused to pause a defamation suit that four trial witnesses brought against Read and a blogger while Read appeals an earlier ruling that let the suit go forward.8 The wrongful-death suit brought by O'Keefe's family, and Read's own suits against investigators, witnesses, the State Police and the town of Canton, remain pending.121011
John O’Keefe was born and raised in Braintree, Massachusetts, graduated from Northeastern University and earned a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts, according to the Associated Press.38 He was a Boston police officer for 16 years.20 After his sister and her husband died months apart, he became the guardian of their two children, then 6 and 3, and raised them in Canton; his sister-in-law testified that the family had expected she and her husband would take the children, but “Johnny said he was going to do it.”38 He was 46 when he died.20
Read and O’Keefe first met when she was 24 and he was 28, dated briefly, and reconnected during the pandemic, the Boston Globe reported.39 By the time of his death they had dated for about two years.20 Prosecutors described the relationship as “toxic” and “crumbling,” and a State Police digital-forensics trooper read the jury contentious texts the couple exchanged on Jan. 28, 2022.2128
On the night of Jan. 28, 2022, Read and O’Keefe went out drinking in Canton with friends.209 The family’s civil complaint names the two bars, C.F. McCarthy’s and the Waterfall Bar and Grille.36 A meteorologist testified at the retrial that the storm that night was “a classic nor’easter.”27 After midnight, Read drove O’Keefe to a gathering at a house in Canton owned by a Boston police officer; other local police and a federal agent were at the gathering.2021
Accident reconstructionist Judson Welcher, a prosecution witness, testified that data from Read’s Lexus showed it moving forward 34 feet and then reversing 53 feet, at nearly 24 mph, at about 12:32 a.m. outside the house; he said the data recorded no collision, which he attributed to the weight of the vehicle.2425 Prosecutors also relied on health data from O’Keefe’s phone, which they said showed he had just gotten out of the car.22 No cameras captured what happened outside the house, and no witness has said they saw it.24
Beginning at 12:33 a.m., Read called O’Keefe 53 times and left eight voicemails, none of which he answered, a State Police digital-forensics trooper testified.28 In the first, at 12:37 a.m., she says, “John! I (expletive) hate you!”; later messages accuse him of infidelity and say she is home with his niece and nephew.28
At about 5 a.m., Read called a friend of O’Keefe’s, screaming that he was dead, the friend testified; the two searched for him, and when they reached the house Read said “there he is” and ran to a mound of snow.31 Read and two others found O’Keefe unresponsive on the lawn around 6 a.m., and he was pronounced dead about two hours later.20 A voicemail recorded on his phone just after 6 a.m. captured windshield wipers, a 911 call and Read screaming, according to trial testimony.28
Two first responders testified at the retrial that Read said she had hit him. A Canton firefighter-paramedic testified that Read repeatedly said “I hit him, I hit him.”30 A paramedic testified that she said it three times; at the first trial he had said twice.31 The defense said she never made that statement as a confession, and Read has said she phrased it as a question.3120
Canton police searching the scene on the afternoon of Jan. 29 found a shoe along the curb, O’Keefe having been found missing one, and six or seven pieces of broken red and clear taillight, a Canton police lieutenant testified.27 A retired Canton lieutenant who was in charge at the scene testified that officers collected blood from the snow in plastic cups because of the conditions, and that they did not search inside the house because “nobody could put John O’Keefe in the house including Ms. Read.”27 State Police Trooper Michael Proctor led the investigation.2428
State Medical Examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello testified that the cause of death was “impact injuries of head and hypothermia,” with a laceration and skull fractures at the back of the head, a cut above the right eye, two black eyes and abrasions to the nose and right arm; she said the head injury was consistent with a fall backward onto a hard surface and that she found no impact injuries on his legs.26 She testified that she could not determine the manner of death to a reasonable degree of medical certainty.26 His blood-alcohol level was between .21 and .28, she said.26
A blood sample taken from Read at a hospital just after 9 a.m. on Jan. 29 showed an estimated level of 0.078 to 0.092, and a State Police toxicologist testified that her estimated level at 12:45 a.m. was 0.14 to 0.28.29 The defense said the hospital sample came from a clinical laboratory, not a forensic one.29
Read was arraigned in Stoughton District Court on Feb. 2, 2022, and pleaded not guilty to manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene.9 In June 2022 a Norfolk County grand jury indicted her on three counts: second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death.91 She was released on bail.9
Prosecutors argued that Read struck O’Keefe while backing out of the driveway after the couple had argued, then left him in the storm.20 They did not argue that she intended to kill him; their theory was that she deliberately reversed despite the risk.20 Welcher testified that the lacerations on O’Keefe’s right arm were consistent with shards from her broken taillight.2524 He also testified that a separate backing incident on Jan. 29, captured on a home security camera, in which the SUV moved at under 1 mph, did not break the taillight.24 Prosecutors played clips of interviews Read had given; in one, NBC News reported, she said, “He’s roughly where I left him, so yeah, when I found him I was thinking, did I, like, clip him somehow?”2431
The defense argued that there was no collision.21 Its theory was that O’Keefe went into the house, was assaulted there, was bitten by the homeowner’s family dog and was later left on the lawn, and that investigators protected people at the house and framed Read.2422 Read’s lawyers pointed to people at the gathering, including the federal agent, who had exchanged flirtatious messages with Read; the homeowner and the federal agent have denied involvement through their lawyers, and no court has found that any of them harmed O’Keefe.2421 Before the retrial, Judge Cannone barred the defense from naming third-party culprits in its opening statement.31
The defense also argued that the taillight was damaged when Read backed into O’Keefe’s own car, not by striking him, and that Proctor planted taillight evidence.2122 It pointed to a phone search, “hos long to die in cold,” made by a friend of O’Keefe’s who had been at the house; the defense said it was time-stamped 2:27 a.m., before he was found, while prosecution experts testified that it was made around 6:24 a.m. in a browser first opened at 2:27 a.m.20
Dr. Daniel Wolfe, an accident reconstructionist with the firm ARCCA, testified for the defense that damage to the taillight and to O’Keefe’s clothing was inconsistent with a strike to his arm or body.23 Wolfe had first been hired by federal prosecutors for an investigation into how law enforcement handled the case, and he testified at the first trial before being paid by the defense.23 Under cross-examination he said he had not studied impacts on hard ground such as a frozen lawn.23 Other defense experts testified that O’Keefe’s arm injuries were consistent with dog bites; the judge ruled that one former chief medical examiner was not qualified to testify about dog bites.2023
At the first trial, Proctor admitted sending texts about Read that he called “unprofessional and regrettable.”32 The State Police relieved him of duty on July 1, 2024, and suspended him without pay a week later.9 On March 19, 2025, the department fired him after a trial board sustained three charges of unsatisfactory performance, based on “derogatory, defamatory, disparaging, and/or otherwise inappropriate text messages about a suspect,” on sharing confidential case information with people outside law enforcement and on appearing biased, and one alcohol charge, for drinking on duty on July 19, 2022, and then driving his cruiser.32 He did not testify at the second trial.20 He dropped his appeal of the firing in October 2025, and on Dec. 18, 2025, the state’s Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission suspended his certification, finding by a preponderance of the evidence that suspension was in the public’s interest.913
The prosecution acknowledged the texts but argued that they did not change the physical and scientific evidence.21 No court has found that Proctor or anyone else planted or altered evidence in the case.
A federal grand jury heard from witnesses in the case in 2023, and experts hired by federal prosecutors testified at the first trial.3323 The U.S. Attorney’s Office never publicly confirmed the investigation; in February 2025 news outlets reported, citing unnamed sources, that it had ended without charges, and special prosecutor Hank Brennan confirmed in March 2025 that it was over.339
The first trial began April 16, 2024, in Norfolk Superior Court and lasted 37 days, with about 28 hours of deliberation.2 The jury sent three notes reporting that it could not reach a unanimous verdict, the second saying it was “deeply divided” and the third that further deliberation “would be futile”; Judge Cannone declared a mistrial on July 1, 2024.2 Afterward, people identifying themselves as jurors told both sides that the jury had agreed Read was not guilty of murder and of leaving the scene, and had deadlocked only on the lesser offenses within the manslaughter count.2
Read argued that retrying her on those two counts would violate the bar on double jeopardy. On Feb. 11, 2025, the Supreme Judicial Court disagreed, in an opinion by Justice Serge Georges Jr.: “The jury chose to report a deadlock, not a verdict,” he wrote, and posttrial disclosures could not “retroactively alter the trial’s outcome.”341 The First Circuit affirmed the denial of her federal habeas petition on March 27, 2025, quoting the state court’s holding that “a criminal verdict is effective only when affirmed by jurors in open court,” and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on April 28, 2025.23
The second trial began with jury selection on April 1, 2025, with Brennan as special prosecutor, and included 31 days of testimony from 49 witnesses.920 On June 18, 2025, after deliberations that began June 13, the jury found Read not guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene, and guilty of operating under the influence of liquor.211920 Judge Cannone sentenced her to one year of probation, the standard sentence for a first offense.20 Its terms included a 16-week impaired-driving program and the loss of her license for 45 to 90 days or until she finished the program, the Boston Globe reported.15
Outside the courthouse, Read said, “No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have, than me and my team.”19 Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey said only, “The jury has spoken.”18 Brennan said he was “disappointed in the verdict and the fact that we could not achieve justice for John O’Keefe and his family” and condemned what he called a “campaign of intimidation and abuse” against witnesses.17
In August 2024, O’Keefe’s estate, brother, parents and niece sued Read and the two bars in Plymouth County Superior Court for wrongful death and emotional distress, alleging that she struck him while intoxicated and left him in the snow, and that the bars served her while she was intoxicated.3736 In October 2025 a judge dismissed the niece’s claim of negligent infliction of emotional distress but let her intentional and reckless infliction claims, and the rest of the suit, proceed.14 Depositions were under way in 2026.12
In November 2025, Read sued Proctor, two other State Police investigators and several people who testified against her, alleging civil-rights violations and malicious prosecution; the case is now in federal court in Boston, where the witnesses have moved to dismiss it as retaliation for their statements to police.94 In June 2026 she sued the State Police and the town of Canton, alleging negligent hiring, training and supervision.11 That complaint cited messages attributed to Proctor and to a former Canton police sergeant; the State Police superintendent called Proctor’s messages “racist, sexist and abhorrent,” while Proctor’s lawyer said the focus on anything but Read’s own conduct was “telling and predictable.”11 Four witnesses have sued Read and a blogger for defamation in state court; the judge has let that case proceed.98 None of these civil claims has been decided at trial.
Read grew up in Blacksburg, Virginia, and in Taunton, Massachusetts, the Boston Globe reported.39 She is the eldest daughter of a former dean of business at Bentley University, who put up her bail and attended her hearings.39 She graduated in 1998 from Coyle & Cassidy, a Catholic high school in Taunton, where she took Advanced Placement classes and was in the National Honor Society.39 She finished a finance degree at Bentley in three years and earned a master’s in finance in 2004.39
Read worked for a time in Dublin, Ireland, and then at Fidelity Investments in Boston, according to the Globe.39 She worked as an equity analyst and taught finance as an adjunct professor at Bentley from the late 2000s until she was charged.2039 Her lawyers say she had no criminal record before O’Keefe’s death.39 Of O’Keefe’s decision to raise his niece and nephew, she told the Globe: “I admired that. I thought that was amazing.”39
No mental-health testimony or court findings about her appear in the sources reviewed.
Read posted bail after her indictment and has never been jailed in the case, according to the Associated Press.922 She spoke often with reporters and took part in documentaries, including A Body in the Snow: The Trial of Karen Read, which aired on Investigation Discovery in March 2025.2435 In one documentary interview she said, “I didn’t think I hit him,” while acknowledging that she could have “clipped him,” the Associated Press reported.21 Her probation ended June 18, 2026.9 She is now the plaintiff in two lawsuits over the investigation and a defendant in two civil suits, and in October 2026 Prime Video ordered a drama series about her case.9117
No statement from O’Keefe’s niece or nephew appears in the sources reviewed.
Prosecutors argued that Read, drunk and angry after an argument, reversed her SUV into O'Keefe after dropping him off at a gathering and left him in the snow; they did not argue that she meant to kill him.2022 They relied on data from her Lexus, his phone's health data, taillight pieces found at the scene, her voicemails and first responders' testimony that she said "I hit him."2221 "She was drunk, she hit him, and she left him to die," special prosecutor Hank Brennan told the jury.22 After the verdict he said, "I concluded that the evidence led to one person, and only one person."17
Read did not testify at either trial.20 Her lawyers argued that "there was no collision": that O'Keefe's injuries came from an assault and a fall, not a car, that his arm wounds were dog bites, and that a biased investigation led by Proctor framed her, including by planting taillight evidence.2122 They said her words at the scene were "confusion," not a confession.21 After the acquittal, defense lawyer Alan Jackson said the case "was corrupted from the start."20
O'Keefe's estate, brother, parents and niece are suing Read and two bars, alleging that she struck him with her SUV while intoxicated and left him in the snow.3637 Before the first trial his brother said, "No one planted anything in our heads."39 After the acquittal a cousin said the family could have found peace only in "a guilty verdict."16
O'Keefe is found unresponsive in the snow outside a house in Canton, where Read had dropped him off after midnight, and is pronounced dead.209
Read is arraigned in Stoughton District Court and pleads not guilty to manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene.9
A Norfolk County grand jury indicts her on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene; she is released on bail.91
Jury selection begins in her first trial, in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham.29
Judge Beverly Cannone declares a mistrial after the jury reports it is at an impasse; Proctor is relieved of duty the same day.29
O'Keefe's family files a wrongful-death suit against Read and two bars in Plymouth County Superior Court.3736
The Supreme Judicial Court rejects her claim that a retrial on two charges would be double jeopardy.341
The State Police fire Proctor after a trial board sustains misconduct charges.32
The U.S. Supreme Court declines to hear her double-jeopardy appeal.3
After a second trial, the jury acquits her of murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene and convicts her of drunken driving; she is sentenced to a year of probation.1920
Read sues Proctor, two other State Police investigators and several trial witnesses; the case is later moved to federal court.94
The POST Commission suspends Proctor's law-enforcement certification.13
Read sues the State Police and the town of Canton in Bristol County Superior Court.11
A judge refuses to pause the witnesses' defamation suit against Read while she appeals.8
Prime Video orders a drama series about the case.7
Netflix's three-part series The Trials of Karen Read is scheduled to premiere.5
The criminal case has ended: she was acquitted of the homicide charges, and her probation for the drunken-driving conviction ended June 18, 2026.209 The family's wrongful-death suit is in pretrial discovery in Plymouth Superior Court; the sources reviewed report no trial date.12 In Read's federal suit against investigators and witnesses, the judge heard motions to dismiss on July 14, 2026, and no ruling was reported in the sources reviewed.10 The witnesses' defamation suit against her is proceeding while she appeals the denial of her motion to dismiss it.8 Proctor may challenge his POST suspension at a hearing, and the commission will decide whether to revoke his certification permanently.13 No later development in the POST proceeding appears in the sources reviewed.