Karen Read: Killer or Framed?

Karen Read stands accused of second degree murder in the death of boyfriend John O’Keefe, a 16-year Boston police officer, after the two had been out drinking much of the night. The District Attorney charges her with backing her Lexus into the cop boyfriend, leaving him to die in a raging January 2022 blizzard.

Follow us as we dig into the facts starting with a night of drinking in two bars in Canton, Massachusetts, to the discovery of the body the next morning and charges of a conspiracy. Attorney Myers, licensed to practice in the Massachusetts courts, explores the evidence and the arguments.

Long time Boston radio newsman and journalism professor Doug Cope questions the conspiracy theories pointing the finger at a group of cops some say murdered John O’Keefe and banded together in a cover-up.

Attorney Myers pulls facts from the case file, placing them on a pro and con list for guilt or conspiracy. How do the facts stack up?

Who is the podcaster calling himself “Turtle Boy” and why is he so centered on the case? He was arrested and charged with intimidating witnesses and conspiracy. How did the Free Karen Read movement start and why do they demonstrate on the steps of the Norfolk County, Massachusetts Superior Court?

Within days after the January 2022 death of the 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department detectives investigating the scene found enough to charge Karen Read with manslaughter.  She backed into O’Keefe with her Lexus. But that was only the beginning of the long saga that would challenge the system and divide the town of Canton, Massachusetts, some 20 minutes south of Boston.

Investigators dredged up cell phone data, witness statements and security camera footage.  The information cooked Karen Read.  But did it?  One witness claimed Read made a statement she had last seen O’Keefe at the Waterfall bar, that she and O’Keefe fought, and that she didn’t remember dropping him off at a friend’s house, the location where his body was found freezing and near death the next morning.

One witness said Read didn’t remember anything from the night before.  One observed Read still seemed intoxicated in the morning the body was found.  Read’s Lexus had a cracked right taillight but Read had no idea how it broke.

Read blurted out “I hit him. I hit him, I hit him, I hit him” when an emergency responder asked how O’Keefe’s facial injuries took place.

Evidence discovered by Canton police included a broken cocktail glass and multiple patches of blood in the snow near where O’Keefe’s body lay in the snow the morning after the drinking.  Later, after the snow melted a Massachusetts “Special Emergency Response Team” or ‘SERT’ unearthed pieces of plastic—two red and one clear—in the same area as the body.  The plastic fragments measured up with the broken taillight on Read’s Lexus.

After law enforcement seized the car, they found broken glass embedded in the rear bumper.  A deep scratch and a dent marred the right side of the rear tailgate.  The rear bumper sported two scratches plus some chipped paint.  The broken glass impressed investigators as consistent with the cocktail glass John O’Keefe had cavalierly walked out of the Waterfall bar with the last night of his life.

Pouring over all of the evidence, investigators concluded that Read was impaired when she backed up, slammed into O’Keefe with enough force to fracture his skull, then drove off into a raging New England blizzard.

At the same time does all of the evidence stack up?  What about injuries on O’Keefe’s arm resembling claw marks of a dog?  What about electronic health data O’Keefe took multiple steps that night and climbed up and down stairs?  What about a middle-of-the-night Google search buy one of the partiers inside the house “Ho[w] long to die in the snow”?

Here’s an electronic index to time markers to help you find major points:

0:55 Basic facts of Karen Read Case

1:55 How much Karen Read and boyfriend John O’Keefe drank

9:01 The conspiracy starts

11:40 Longtime Boston Newsman Doug Cope never seeing anything like this in Massachusetts courts

12:40 Turtleboy: Who is he?

18:38 Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey reacts

21:25 Defense Attorney David Yannetti on prosecution stonewalling

22:42 Scorecard: Guilty or Conspiracy points for each

24:38 Dog bite injuries when hit by a car?

25:12 Search: “Ho[w] long for a body to die in the cold?” Subscribe for more law content

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