Karen Read: Massachusetts woman found not guilty of murder of Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe

A jury on Wednesday (June 18) acquitted the 45-year-old of the most serious charges against her, including second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death.

She was convicted only of a single misdemeanour count - Operating Under the Influence (OUI). For that offence, Read will serve one year of probation.

Prosecutors alleged that on a snowy January night in 2022, Read got into a drunken argument with O’Keefe before reversing her SUV and striking him, then leaving him to die in a fellow police officer’s front yard in Canton, Massachusetts.

However, Read has consistently denied the charges, claiming she was framed. Her defence team argued that O’Keefe was actually attacked by other police officers that night and that authorities pinned the crime on Read to cover it up.

Read said then: “I’m innocent,” maintaining throughout the case that she did not kill O’Keefe.

This week’s verdict comes after a retrial began in April and concluded with closing arguments on Friday. The jury, comprised of seven women and five men, deliberated from Friday afternoon until delivering the verdict Wednesday.

Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial in 2024 when jurors acquitted her on some charges but deadlocked 9-3 in favour of convicting her on vehicular manslaughter.

O’Keefe’s death in January 2022 triggered a high-profile legal saga. Medical experts determined he died of blunt head trauma and hypothermia, but Read has always denied the charges .