John O’Keefe and Karen Read. (Images via BPD portrait and WBZ-TV screengrab, respectively.)
Prosecutors last week filed a trove of new documents detailing evidence in the case against Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused of running over her Boston police officer husband and leaving him for dead two years ago.
The evidence in the 300-page document from the Norfolk State Attorney’s Office includes the fact that DNA belonging to John O’Keefe was recovered from a broken taillight on Read’s SUV and his hair found stuck on the rear passenger side of the vehicle, according to media reports. Prosecutors also brought to light the friction between the two in their marriage.
Read is accused of dropping off her husband at a fellow cop’s home after a night of drinking in January 2022 before hitting him while backing up her SUV and fleeing the scene during a snowstorm.
In voicemails Read reportedly left on O’Keefe’s phone around the time of his death, she allegedly screamed: “John, I f—— hate you.” She also called him a pervert and accused him of cheating on her, the document said. O’Keefe’s niece and nephew, who lived with the couple after their parents died, allegedly described to prosecutors frequent arguments between the pair. During a trip to Aruba about a month before O’Keefe’s death, his niece told prosecutors Read accused him of kissing someone else which led to a 20-minute argument in their hotel room, the document stated.
A group of about 70 people had traveled to the island nation. A friend’s sister told prosecutors about an encounter she had with O’Keefe and Read after she gave him a hug after seeing him in a hotel lobby.
“She heard the defendant yell, ‘John, who the f— was that,’” the district attorney’s office wrote. After O’Keefe told her the woman was a friend’s sister, Read allegedly said: “‘I don’t give a f—!” She then yelled to the woman, “f— you.”
Prosecutors also reportedly recovered texts that were “romantic in nature” between Read and one of O’Keefe’s friends.
Read’s attorneys have long said that their client is the victim of a police cover-up. They claim O’Keefe made it into his buddy’s house and was injured during a fight inside after the argument. The homeowners then put O’Keefe outside to die in the blizzard. According to her attorneys, a key piece of evidence supporting this theory is the homeowner’s wife searching the internet for how “long to die in cold” before O’Keefe’s body was discovered. But that prosecutors wrote in the released documents that they have two experts confirmed to them that the search occurred after the discovery of O’Keefe’s body, not before. The documents also say that Read directed the witness to look it up.
A judge on Monday delayed the trial date scheduled for April after federal prosecutors released over 3,000 pages of their investigation into the case.
