Woman Accused of Murdering Police Officer Boyfriend Hopes for New Investigation

A woman accused of murdering her police officer boyfriend wants a new investigation into his death, her attorney has told Newsweek.

Karen Read claims she rushed to help her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, whose body was found in the snow outside a Canton, Massachusetts, house on January 29, 2022.

Prosecutors claim the couple argued and that she ran him over with her SUV after they visited two bars. The case has sharply divided Canton, about 15 miles southwest of Boston, with campaigns for and against Read, who is due to go on trial next year.

Her supporters say O'Keefe got into a fight with another man and stumbled out of a house and onto the snow.

Read's attorney, David Yannetti, told Newsweek that Read is "feeling confident as we approach trial. She is innocent and knows that the evidence clearly demonstrates her innocence."

He said she is "looking forward to her acquittal so that she can finally move on with her life. She hopes that her acquittal will finally spur a proper investigation into the actual killer or killers of John O'Keefe," he said.

He added that he didn't want Read to answer questions Newsweek submitted for her as it was too close to the trial date.

Yannetti also complained about the lack of prosecutors' disclosure of documents, but said that is now improving.

"As you have probably surmised, it has been difficult to get discovery from this DA's Office. It certainly took too long—we waited nearly two years to be allowed to inspect and examine certain items," he said after the Massachusetts Supreme Court overruled a lower court on November 15 and agreed that Read's legal team should have access to witness phone records.

NBC Boston reported at the time that those records relate to an internet query allegedly made on the phone of Read's friend, Jennifer McCabe.

McCabe allegedly searched "Ho[w] long to die in cold" hours before O'Keefe's body was found in front of the home of Brian Albert — her brother-in-law, who is also a Boston police officer. According to the defense, McCabe then tried to delete that search.

Yannetti told Newsweek that after a struggle to get McCabe's internet search records, prosecutors' disclosure has improved.

"Recently we have been provided access to most of the remaining evidence in their possession. So we are now moving forward at a faster pace as we prepare for trial," Yannetti added.

Read has been charged with second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of a collision. She has pleaded not guilty, and her trial is set for March.

The assistant district attorney in Canton, Laura McLaughlin, filed a document in Norfolk Superior Court on September 13, 2023, opposing Yanetti's request for more phone record disclosure in the case.

Her submission included a "statement of fact" informing the court that on January 29, 2022, at about 6:04 a.m., the Canton Police Department received a 911 call from a woman reporting a man, subsequently identified as the victim, John O'Keefe, was found in the snow outside of the home of Nicole Albert and her husband, Brian, where a party had been taking place. Albert's sister, Jennifer McCabe, had been drinking with Read and O'Keefe that night and they agreed to go to the party at the Alberts' house.

"At the time of the 911 call, there was an active blizzard occurring with heavy snow and the temperature in the teens," McLaughlin's submission states. The first officer at the scene saw "three females waving at him from the front yard area of the residence."

"Officer Saraf observed the victim lying on the ground as two of the females were performing CPR on him. The three females on scene were identified as the defendant, Karen Read, Jennifer McCabe, and Kerry Roberts. Officer Saraf further observed the victim to be cold to the touch and not breathing."

Paramedics took O'Keefe to the Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, where he was pronounced dead.

When police searched the mounds of snow where his body was found, they "located pieces of a broken cocktail style glass and multiple patches of red that appeared to be blood in the vicinity of where the body had been located," McLaughlin's submission states.

Police later determined that, at approximately 4:53 a.m., McCabe received a phone call from O'Keefe's juvenile niece at Read's direction. The niece then handed the phone to Read, who "sounded distraught" and then drove over to McCabe's home.

At McCabe's house, Read told her she and O'Keefe had "gotten into an argument the last time that she had seen him."

"McCabe then drove Ms. Read's vehicle from her house back to Mr. O'Keefe's house as she was too hysterical," the submission states.

"While driving to Mr. O'Keefe's house, the defendant stated to Ms. McCabe: 'Could I have hit him?', 'Did I hit him?' Mrs McCabe stated that the defendant also told her about a cracked taillight on her vehicle."

"Once they arrived at the victim's home, the defendant had Ms. McCabe look at the cracked taillight, which Ms. McCabe described as the passenger side, right rear taillight as cracked and missing pieces," the submission adds.

They then drove to where O'Keefe was lying outside the house, near a cluster of trees. Read saw his body first. "McCabe stated that [Read] screamed to open the door and ran directly over to the body, near that cluster of trees, and laid on top of him for warmth and began CPR," the court submission states.