3 years after John O'Keefe's death, Karen Read murder trial still center stage
CANTON - It's now been three years since Boston police officer John O'Keefe's body was found in a snowy front yard at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, Massachusetts. His girlfriend at the time, Karen Read, will face her second trial in the case later this year.
Read is accused of running over O'Keefe with her SUV on January 29, 2022.
O'Keefe, 46, is remembered as a generous man, loved by all, according to his family and friends.
"It has been 3 years since Johnny was senselessly taken from us," the O'Keefe family said in a statement to WBZ-TV. "The void in our lives grows with each passing day, week, month and year. His absence is profound and we will continue to seek justice for him. He is always in our hearts."
O'Keefe was the legal caretaker of his teenage niece and nephew, who lost both of their parents when O'Keefe's sister, Kristen, died in 2013 from brain cancer, and her husband died shortly after from a heart attack.
What happened the night John O'Keefe died?
It's uncontested that O'Keefe was out drinking with some friends at C.F. McCarthy's in Canton on the night of January 28, 2022. Read met up with him there.
The couple later joined other friends at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton. Shortly after midnight, the group left to attend an after party at 34 Fairview Road, the home of fellow Boston police officer Brian Albert. O'Keefe was in the passenger seat of Read's Lexus as she drove to the house.
What follows has been hotly debated among lawyers, police, and the community for three years.
According to prosecutors with the Norfolk County District Attorney's office, O'Keefe and Read fought. O'Keefe got out of the car, but never made it into the house, as they allege Read drunkenly and angrily put her car in reverse, drove backwards 62 feet at 24 miles per hour, and hit O'Keefe.
Read's legal team says O'Keefe went into the house, was attacked by a number of men at the after party, and his body was later dumped on the front lawn - the first step in an elaborate cover up to frame Read, they allege. Read's criminal trial exposed inappropriate text messages from a state trooper, as well as flaws in the investigation into O'Keefe's death.
Karen Read and two witnesses in the case discovered O'Keefe's body on the front lawn at Fairview Road shortly after 6 a.m. on January 29, 2022. The medical examiner testified that he died from a combination of blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.
What's the latest in the John O'Keefe case?
Karen Read's first trial - in which she was tried for murder, among other things - ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury on July 1. The trial lasted ten weeks, and had more than seventy witnesses.
Read is scheduled to be retried on April 1, 2025.
Read's team has moved to dismiss two of her charges, due to post-trial interviews with jurors who confirmed that the jury unanimously agreed to acquit Read on two charges, but never reported the vote to the judge. That issue is currently being decided by the highest court in Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court.
In addition, Read is facing a civil wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of John O'Keefe. Hearings on the suit have been delayed until after her criminal trial ends.
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USA Today
a day ago
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Boston Globe
a day ago
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