Karen Read Facing Wrongful Death Lawsuit Over Alleged Killing of Boyfriend John O’Keefe

Karen Read is facing a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the brother of her late husband, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.

Paul O’Keefe filed the suit on behalf of his family, accusing Read of drunkenly running over John with her SUV and leaving him to die outside during a snowstorm in Jan. 2022. The lawsuit also named as co-defendants the two bars in Canton, Massachusetts, where Read and John were drinking before John’s death, the Waterfall Bar & Grille and C.F. McCarthy’s; both establishments are accused of “negligently serv[ing] alcohol to an intoxicated person, namely [Read].”

The civil suit comes nearly two months after Read’s first criminal trial — a 10-week ordeal that went viral among true crime fanatics on TikTok — ended with a mistrial and a “deeply divided” hung jury.” Read was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death after John’s body was discovered. She pleaded not guilty and has repeatedly denied killing John. Her retrial is tentatively scheduled for early 2025. 

The new civil suit echoes a lot of the claims prosecutors leveled against Read in the criminal case. It notes that Read had nine drinks at the two bars over the course of the night of Jan. 28, 2022, and alleges that she was “under the influence of alcohol and unable to drive a motor vehicle safely” when she took O’Keefe to a friend’s house to an afterparty just after midnight on Jan. 29. 

Over the course of the night, the suit alleges, Read and O’Keefe “had been in an argument.” According to the suit, the couple’s “relationship was deteriorating” already, and Read allegedly “picked fights, experienced jealousy and had delusions of unfaithfulness.” By that night, the suit alleges, “Read knew that her relationship with [O’Keefe] had run its course.” 

After O’Keefe got out of Read’s car at the afterparty, the suit claims, “Read drove her SUV” and hit him. She then allegedly “fled the scene and returned to [O’Keefe’s] residence,” even though she “knew that it was snowing, knew there was an impending blizzard and knew or should have known that leaving [O’Keefe] outside in the blizzard would likely result in serious injury or death.”

The lawsuit also accuses Read of inflicting emotional distress on the family. They cite the allegedly “false narrative” Read and her defense team have pushed that O’Keefe was actually killed by guests at the afterparty — many of them his fellow police officers — and that law enforcement conspired to frame Read. The lawsuit also says Read inflicted serious emotional distress on O’Keefe’s 14-year-old niece, whom Read allegedly woke up at 4:30 in the morning to tell her that O’Keefe had not come home the night before. 

A lawyer for Read, as well as the two bars, did not immediately return Rolling Stone’s request for comment.