Abigail Shimniok

The Karen Read murder trial got underway in Massachusetts on April 16. Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV in 2022.
Read, O’Keefe and a group of their friends went to a bar in Canton, MA where Read had consumed multiple alcoholic beverages and drove O’Keefe to his coworker Brian Albert’s home. O’Keefe was found later in the early morning of Jan. 29 in the snow outside Albert’s house by Read. An emergency responder stated that Read was inconsolable and kept on crying, “I hit him. I hit him.”
Police found pieces of a taillight on the scene that came from a broken taillight on Read’s car. Read’s attorneys claim that the broken taillight was from Read hitting another SUV parked in the driveway.
Following O’Keefe’s death, an autopsy ruled the cause of death was hypothermia and blunt impact injuries to the head. Prosecutors said that the medical examination showed there were no “obvious signs of an altercation or a fight.”
In June of 2022, a Norfolk County grand jury indicted Read on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. Read plead not guilty to the charges and was being held on a $100,000 bond.
In a pre-trial hearing, Read’s attorneys argued that police were trying to blame Read for killing O’Keefe as a part of a coverup for law enforcement.
Following the hearing, Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey released a video statement. “Conspiracy theories are not evidence,” Morrissey stated. “The idea that multiple police departments, EMTs, Fire personnel, the medical examiner and the prosecuting agency are joined in, or taken in by, a vast conspiracy should be seen for what it is—completely contrary to the evidence and a desperate attempt to re-assign guilt.”
Jury selection for Read’s second-degree murder trial began on April 16 and concluded on April 18. The trial is scheduled to last 6-8 weeks once a jury is seated.