Who Is Karen Read and Why Is Everyone Talking About Her? Here's What We Know
A crowd outside of a Massachusetts courthouse believes Karen Read is being framed.
Published April 1 2025, 2:43 p.m. ET
In April 2024, a crowd gathered outside of Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass. Many of the people standing by the courthouse were holding signs that said some variation of "Free Karen Read." When the woman in question arrived for her first day in court, the onlookers erupted in cheers. Read is not a lawyer, and she certainly wasn't the defendant. The small woman with the tailored suit was accused of murder.
The 44-year-old pleaded not guilty and was armed with a team of attorneys, two of which previously defended actor Kevin Spacey. Like the strangers who waited to get a glimpse of her, Read's family is also in her corner. "She will fight this injustice as long as it takes, and our family and friends will be there every step of the way," said her father in an email to the Boston Globe. So, who is Karen Read, and what does the state of Massachusetts think she's done? Read on for details.
Who is Karen Read and what did she do? That remains to be seen.
Read's first trial ended in a hung jury, and her second was scheduled for April 1, 2025. She has been accused of second-degree murder, along with a handful of lesser charges. According to The Guardian, several jurors came forward after her mistrial to say they unanimously voted to acquit her of the harsher charge as well as one lesser. It was the remaining charges that they had difficulty deciding on.
This all started in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022, after a night of drinking. Read was with her boyfriend John O'Keefe, a 16-year veteran with the Boston Police Department. The couple was bar hopping with some friends ahead of a wicked nor'easter that was going to drop roughly two feet of snow on the Boston suburb of Canton. At one point, it was suggested that they all head to the home of one of the crew.
This is where the events of the night get fuzzy. Everyone involved had allegedly been drinking heavily and probably shouldn't have driven, but that didn't stop Read from heading to the home of fellow Boston police officer Brian Albert. She says that upon arrival, O'Keefe went inside first because the house looked dark. She waited in the car but repeatedly called O'Keefe to ask what was happening. He didn't respond, so she went back to his house but left several angry voicemails.
When Read woke up a few hours later and didn't see O'Keefe, she called around looking for him. Eventually, she returned to Albert's house with two other women. They found O'Keefe's body lying in the snow and called for an ambulance, but he was already dead. Police would soon look to Read, who looked right back.
Read was arrested and charged with second-degree murder, but she says she's being framed.
The medical examiner ruled O'Keefe's cause of death was "blunt impact injuries to the head and hypothermia," per CBS News. They also found pieces of a broken taillight at the scene, which matched a taillight on Reed's SUV. Her attorneys believe their client is being framed by the Massachusetts State Police, Boston Police, and the individuals at Albert's house the night O'Keefe died.
Read's legal team thinks the broken taillight pieces were planted. They also did forensic cell phone analysis on the phone of one of the bar hoppers who was at Albert's house that night. At around 2:27 a.m., she searched "hos [sic] long to die in cold." The defense is also questioning how O'Keefe's injuries were sustained, claiming it looks like he got into a fight. This and more ended with a mistrial. Read's second trial could be even more dramatic than the first.