DEDHAM, Mass. (AP) — The trial of a Massachusetts woman who allegedly killed her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him opened Monday with prosecutors saying a cracked taillight and her own words to firefighters that she „hit him“ will prove she is guilty.
The trial of a Massachusetts woman who allegedly killed her Boston police officer boyfriend by intentionally driving her SUV into him opened Monday with prosecutors saying a cracked taillight and her own words to firefighters that she „hit him“ will prove she is guilty.
Karen Read, 44, of Mansfield, faces several charges including second degree murder in the death of John O’Keefe, 46, in 2022. The 16-year police veteran was found unresponsive outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer and later was pronounced dead at a hospital. Read has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond.
“The defendant, Karen Read, is guilty of murder in the second degree, striking the victim, Mr. O’Keefe, with her car, knocking him back onto the ground, striking his head on the ground, causing the bleeding in his brain and swelling, and then leaving him there for several hours in a blizzard,“ Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally told the jury.
As the case unfolded, the defense’s strategy has been to portray a vast conspiracy involving a police coverup. It has earned Read a loyal band of supporters — who often can be found camped out at the courthouse — and has garnered the case national attention.
“Karen Read was framed,” Read’s defense attorney David Yannetti told the jury. “Her car never struck John O’Keefe. She did not cause his death and that means somebody else did.”
The couple had been to two bars on a night in January 2022, prosecutors alleged, and were then headed to a party in nearby Canton. Read said she did not feel well and decided not to attend. Once at the home, O’Keefe got out of Read’s vehicle, and while she made a three-point turn, she allegedly struck him and then drove away, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors haven’t said where they think she went after that.
