The acquittal of Karen Read is a “black eye for the government,” a criminal defense attorney tells Newsweek. Other attorneys said that the investigation was “sloppy” and left “many questions about the integrity of evidence.”
Read was given a not-guilty verdict of second-degree murder on Wednesday in her second trial regarding the death of her police officer boyfriend, whose body was found outside a friend’s house in January 2022.
Criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis said in a statement sent to Newsweek: “The trial has taken place on such a public stage and the prosecution was very gung ho from the outset that it could prove Read was solely responsible for O’Keefe’s death, so to have this outcome is really a black eye for the government.”
Newsweek reached out to an attorney for Read via his website for comment.
Why It Matters
Read’s case captured mass media attention due to its involving several members of law enforcement who were close to the scene of the crime.
The prosecution in this case was the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and losing this case, according to attorneys, is an embarrassment for their prosecutorial team, especially given its widespread notoriety.
Josh Reynolds/AP Photo
What To Know
Read was accused of murder following her boyfriend’s death in 2022. John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, was found dead outside the house of Brian Albert, another police officer, who was hosting a party that night for several friends, many of whom were also connected to the police department.
Read discovered O’Keefe’s body at 6 a.m. the next day when she drove back to Albert’s house.
The prosecution alleged that Read had driven drunk from a bar with O’Keefe to Albert’s house, hit O’Keefe with her car because they were having relationship issues, and left him to die in the snow.
Read’s defense team argued that she had driven O’Keefe to the house but then left to go home. Her team said she was framed by the people at the party, whom the defense says killed O’Keefe and placed the blame on Read. Given that they were law enforcement officers, they held considerable power in cases involving murder.
An autopsy found that O’Keefe had died from head injuries and hypothermia, but said there were no “any obvious signs of an altercation or a fight.”
There were several issues with the case when it first went to court in 2024, including conflicting evidence and evidence that involved “butt-dials.”
This 2024 case ended in a mistrial, and Read went to a second trial, which just ended after four days of deliberation.
Faddis told Newsweek: “When the government failed to prove its case the first time and received a mistrial, that should have been a signal that the case had significant weaknesses.
“Instead of barreling ahead towards another failure in Trial 2, the government could have sought a compromise with defense on this shaky case, resolved the matter with a plea, and avoided this second embarrassment.”
Criminal defense attorney Sam Bassett sent a statement to Newsweek about the evidence in the case, saying: “It was a hard case to prove…There has been evidence that the crime scene was not preserved immediately upon the discovery of O’Keefe’s body, which leads to many questions about the integrity of evidence later discovered at the scene.
“If you add in the fact that the incident occurred in the midst of a snow storm, it made the evaluation of the crime scene even more questionable as to whether or not the case was proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Trial attorney Tre Lovell said: “This trial was plagued with a sloppy criminal investigation that became a recurring theme throughout. It took a long time for investigators to interview certain witnesses and log in certain evidence; they never looked inside the house because a cop lived there; and the text messages from the lead investigator show evidence of bias to the point that he never even considered anyone else as a potential suspect.”
Although Read was acquitted of second-degree murder, the court found her guilty of drunk driving. They also have not determined who or what may have caused O’Keefe’s death.
The trial led to public outcry both for and against Read. Speaking to the public nature of the trial, Faddis told Newsweek: “The media put the trial under a microscope and may have magnified some of the problems with the prosecution’s case. But trials are public for a reason and that increased scrutiny should help improve the legal system in the long run.”
Josh Reynold/AP Photo
What People Are Saying
Criminal defense attorney Eric Faddis told Newsweek: “It is woefully unlikely that anyone will be held responsible for John O’Keefe’s death. That’s due to the unsuccessful prosecution of Karen Read and to the investigative oversights at the beginning of the case that failed to explore other possible culprits.”
Criminal defense attorney Sam Bassett told Newsweek: “I don’t believe there’s enough credible evidence to charge anyone else. This may very well be the final chapter in the case. And that’s a hard outcome to accept, because with the way the crime scene was mishandled from the start, we may never really know what happened that night.”
What Happens Next
Read will serve one year of probation due to her drunk driving charge. It is unclear at this time whether another investigation will be held to determine how O’Keefe died.