A relative of the Boston police officer who died after Karen Read allegedly ran him down in her SUV said her family fully supports retrying Read after her widely publicized murder trial ended with a hung jury earlier this year.
Beth, who is in John O’Keefe’s extended family and asked to be identified by only her first name because she fears harassment, told “Dateline” that even though Read put her family “through hell,” they were prepared for a second trial. Those proceedings are scheduled to begin early next year.
“No matter what we have to deal with, justice for Johnny,” Beth said.
The twisty legal saga surrounding the case — which involves allegations of a far-reaching law enforcement cover-up — began after O’Keefe’s body was found outside the suburban home of a now-retired Boston police sergeant on a snowy morning in Janu 2022.
The medical examiner attributed O’Keefe’s cause of death to blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.
Read, an equity analyst who’d been dating O’Keefe for two years at the time of his death, was charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision causing death. She has maintained her innocence.
The case will appear before the Massachusetts Supreme Court next month, when Read’s defense team will argue that some of the charges against her — including murder — should be thrown out. Prosecutors have said there is no basis for the claim.
What prosecutors say happened
Prosecutors have said the couple’s troubled relationship ended with an intoxicated Read backing into O’Keefe in her Lexus and leaving him for dead outside the home of the former sergeant, Brian Albert.
There were no known witnesses to O’Keefe’s death, but Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said vehicle data from the Lexus showed Read reversing at 24 mph for 60 feet near Albert’s home, where Read said she was dropping O’Keefe off for an after-party.
O’Keefe never made it inside, Lally said, and no one who was at the event recalled seeing him there. The rear taillight on Read’s Lexus was broken, and O’Keefe’s hair and DNA were found on the vehicle’s bumper and taillight, the prosecutor said.
Lally also cited Read’s own alleged words in the immediate aftermath of O’Keefe’s death: A friend who was with Read when O’Keefe’s body was discovered recalled her saying “I hit him” three times.
Casting the blame on other officers
Read has repeatedly said she is innocent in O’Keefe’s death, and her lawyers have alleged law enforcement officers sought to frame her in the killing.
According to the defense, Read dropped off O’Keefe and saw him enter Albert’s home, where an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives whom she had recently flirted with — then ghosted — was also at the after-party.
That tension likely prompted a fight that caused O’Keefe’s injuries, Read’s lawyers said at trial. Afterward, the defense said, O’Keefe was left for dead outside.
Through their attorneys, Albert and the agent, Brian Higgins, denied involvement in O’Keefe’s death. The Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office also released a statement saying they had nothing to do with his death.
The defense has also accused Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor of leading a biased and improper investigation into O’Keefe’s death. During the trial, Proctor admitted using derogatory language about Read in texts to friends, relatives and supervisors. He testified that although his language was “unprofessional,” it did not affect the integrity of his investigation.
Proctor was suspended without pay days after a mistrial was declared on July 1 and his conduct is the subject of an ongoing state police investigation. He has not responded to multiple requests for comment from NBC News.
Not buying cover-up claims
To Beth, Proctor’s texts — which included him saying he hoped Read would take her own life and describing her with an offensive term for developmentally disabled people — were “completely inappropriate.” But that didn’t mean Read was framed, Beth said.
“I never believed that there was this massive cover-up that goes up to the state police,” she said, noting how everyone inside the home that night would have to be “complete sociopaths” to be able to move on from — and remain quiet about — the events described by the defense.
“We shouldn’t have to justify why we don’t believe this crazy story,” she said. “I think others should have to justify why they believe it.”
The defense theory of the killing was amplified by a local blogger — Aiden Kearney, known as “Turtleboy” — who described Read as a victim and derided O’Keefe’s family for believing in her guilt. His outspokenness on the matter attracted large crowds at the Norfolk County courthouse during the trial.
Outside the court, cameras showed crowds booing the family as they walked inside. In a separate clip, Kearney was seen calling O’Keefe’s brother a “disgrace.”
“For the things that he has said and continued to say and got his mob to say with this mob mentality, it’s vile,” Beth said. She continued: “Johnny is where the focus should be and not on the blogger and not on the defendant. It should be about the fact that Johnny died. Johnny died because of somebody else, and these two people have made it all about them.”
“This was a murder trial, and that was lost almost every single day,” she added.
Last year, Kearney was charged with witness intimidation and conspiracy in connection with his online media coverage of the case. He pleaded not guilty and the case is ongoing.
After his arraignment, Kearney said he would not be intimidated or silenced, NBC Boston reported.
More than 60 people who supported O’Keefe’s family or witnesses attended throughout the trial, Beth said, but her family maintained a public silence because they felt the courtroom was the most appropriate venue for the case to play out. She said they felt deflated when, after a nine-week trial and five days of deliberations, the jurors remained deadlocked and the judge declared a mistrial.
The family had been hoping to move on, Beth said, but instead she was faced with another thought: “Oh, God, we have to do this again.”
Read’s retrial is scheduled to begin Jan. 27.
