Karen Read speaks out after mistrial in death of police officer’s boyfriend

The Massachusetts woman accused of fatally running over her police officer boyfriend in January 2022 claims she was framed.

Karen Read, 44, gave her first media interview this week to ABC’s “20/20” about what she described as a police plot to blame her for the mysterious death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe.

Read is accused of running over the 46-year-old officer with her SUV and leaving him in the cold outside a friend’s house after a night of heavy drinking. O’Keefe was dropped off to attend a party at the home of retired officer Brian Albert.

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Karen Read listens as Judge Beverly J. Cannone greets the jury at the start of the third day of deliberations in her murder trial at the Norfolk District Court in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP)

Read and two friends reportedly drove to Albert’s house to look for O’Keefe and found his body early the next morning.

“I jumped out of the passenger seat and fell into the street. His eyes were closed and he had blood stains in different places on his face and he was still — not stiff, but still,” Read told “20/20” about finding her boyfriend’s body the next day. “It was cold. I felt cold, but I didn’t feel dangerously cold and it was just a strange feeling to know that ‘I’m OK. I’m not dying, but he’s here with me, and he’s dying, and I can’t warm him up.'”

The defense has made the remarkable claim that O’Keefe was fatally injured during an altercation at the party and left outside, only to be accused of committing a crime in a large-scale conspiracy within the department.

Attorneys point to the placement of injuries on the victim’s body — trauma to the head and hands — as evidence that he was attacked and not hit by a large vehicle.

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This undated photo released by the Boston Police Department features Officer John O’Keefe. (Boston Police via AP)

One piece of evidence central to Read’s case is a broken taillight on the back of her Lexus SUV. At the crime scene, shards of red plastic were found on O’Keefe’s body, consistent with such a light.

Other considerations include that her blood alcohol level was well above the legal limit and that Read left angry voicemail messages on the victim’s phone, accusing him of infidelity and expressing his “hatred” for him.

Read described to “20/20” the moment she met O’Keefe’s parents and realized they suspected her of the murder.

“They pulled into the driveway ahead of me. I assumed they saw my cracked taillight and thought, ‘Did you hit my son?'” Read said. “As we were driving home, I told my dad, ‘I need to get a lawyer.'”

“Is it possible that you hit him unknowingly, in your (admittedly) large SUV?” asked interviewer Matt Guttman.

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Supporters of Karen Read gather on the steps of the Land Registry building. ((Photo by John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images))

“No,” Read replied. “That’s not possible.”

Read is charged with second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter. She went to court in July, which ended in a mistrialThe Public Prosecution Service plans to retry her in January.

The bizarre and confusing trial has been made all the more notable by the public response it has provoked, with the case drawing large crowds of protesters on both sides.

“You are brave,” Read told a group of supporters after the trial, according to footage obtained by WCVB. “You would have protested the Vietnam War and ended it. And this is the modern equivalent of that, so thank you all.”

Mollie Markowitz of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.