Defendant
Karen Read
Defendant, of Mansfield, MA
AppearedFirst Criminal Trial
MentionedRetrial
33 lines·111 proceedings·109 mentions·2 trials
About
Karen Read was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death after her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, was found on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton on January 29, 2022. She was tried twice before Judge Beverly J. Cannone.
Prosecutors argued that O’Keefe was clipped by Read’s car and fell backward, striking his head, and that she told first responders, “I hit him.” The defense told jurors that Read was framed and that her car never struck O’Keefe, and it called experts who testified that the wounds on his arm were consistent with a large dog attack and inconsistent with the collision the Commonwealth described.
Read did not testify in the first trial. In a sidebar colloquy on June 24, 2024, she told the court, “My decision is not to testify on my own behalf. That is my decision.” Earlier, sworn at sidebar on May 24, 2024, she confirmed that continuing Brian Higgins’s testimony without her lead counsel, Alan Jackson, was her own decision.
The first trial ended on July 1, 2024, when Judge Cannone discharged the jury after it reported that it was at an impasse. At the second trial, on June 18, 2025, the jury found Read not guilty of second-degree murder and of leaving the scene. On the manslaughter count, it found her guilty only of operating under the influence of liquor.
Trial Record (111)
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