A year has passed since Karen Read was cleared of murder charges concerning the death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe. Now, she has initiated a new legal action, accusing Massachusetts authorities of unlawful behavior and negligence.
“John fell victim to this widespread institutional corruption,” Read, 46, expressed in an interview with TODAY on June 5. “We are speaking up for John.”
On June 4, she filed a civil lawsuit targeting the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton. The suit alleges that these bodies attempted to hide “an ingrained culture of prejudice, misogyny, systemic shortcomings, and institutional decay at their very core,” as detailed in documents reviewed by Oxygen.
The lawsuit accuses these institutions of “negligent hiring, training, and supervision of biased and corrupt officers,” whose conduct allegedly infringed on her constitutional rights, resulting in substantial harm.
Evidence cited in the lawsuit includes text messages exchanged between lead investigator Michael Proctor and former Canton police Sgt. Michael Goode. These messages reportedly reveal “unrepentant animosity” toward women and other groups. Although not directly related to Read, the lawsuit argues they demonstrate the officers’ unsuitability for public service roles.
Read mentioned that pursuing this lawsuit was always part of her plan.
“This was always our plan, that I had to save my own life first,” she told TODAY. “I can’t do anything if I’m not free. I had to fight for my freedom for years, and I knew as it unfolded I was never going to be able to just forget that this happened to me, that I was wronged in this way.”
She added, “I couldn’t just go back to life as it was. I have to continue fighting for justice. The acquittal is deserved but the wrongs have not been completely righted.”
The lawsuit seeks more than money.
“What Karen wants, you cannot write on a check, which is exposure,” attorney Alan Jackson told TODAY. “Exposure of the corruption that is the DNA of the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department.”
The town of Canton, the Massachusetts State Police and an attorney for Proctor issued statements on the lawsuit, according to TODAY.
“The Town of Canton has the utmost faith and confidence in the new leadership of Canton Police Department under Chief Michael Daniels,” according to a statement quoted by TODAY. “And we would refute any broad stroke characterizations about the brave and dedicated men and women who serve in the Department.”
Massachusetts State Police Superintendent Col. Geoffrey D. Noble said in a statement, per TODAY:
“These disturbing messages are entirely inconsistent with any basic standard of decency and certainly with the expectations of a Massachusetts State Trooper. These racist, sexist and abhorrent comments absolutely do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police and are not tolerated within our ranks. They underscore and fully support my decision to terminate Michael Proctor.”
Proctor was fired in 2025. Matt Hamel, an attorney for Proctor, directed Oxygen to his response to the lawsuit, published by NBC Boston:
“It is a matter of undisputed fact that anything Mr. Proctor did or said in his personal life, years before Officer O’Keefe was killed, had no bearing whatsoever on the investigation of Karen Read.”
Goode resigned this week after he was placed on leave for alleged misconduct in 2025, Canton officials told Boston.com. TODAY noted that it’s unclear whether his leave was related to Read’s case.
Oxygen could not locate contact information for Goode.
Since her acquittal, Read has lived a low-key life and said she has yet to encounter a single person who believes she is guilty of O’Keefe’s death.
“Not a single one,” Read told TODAY. If anything, she added, she has even more support.
“No matter where I go,” she said, “I don’t pay for meals, I get discounts everywhere…the support isn’t relegated to what you saw at the courthouse.”
And while Read is also the subject of a wrongful death civil lawsuit from O’Keefe’s family, she told TODAY she has nothing to say to them.
“I interacted with them for several years,” she said. “They experienced who I am and they know who I am.”
Read said she will continue fighting for justice.
“Personally, I’d like to keep talking about what I’ve experienced,” Read told TODAY. “I’ve never really been free enough, especially with all these lawsuits, to say all that I’ve experienced. And I think it would be a waste for me to just disappear and go live on an island, although I would like to do that.”
What Happened to John O’Keefe?
After dating in college, Read and O’Keefe reconnected on Facebook in 2020, but their relationship became increasingly tense in the months leading up to O’Keefe’s death, according to text messages revealed in court.
Prosecutors said that on the night O’Keefe died, the couple spent hours drinking with friends, including with his fellow police officers, at a bar before Read dropped O’Keefe off at retired officer Brian Albert’s house.
When O’Keefe never came home, Read and her friends went searching for him, eventually finding him lying face-up and unresponsive in a snowbank outside Albert’s home.
“I hit him, I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” Read allegedly told emergency responders. Prosecutors later referenced those statements as alleged proof of her guilt, though the defense attributed them to shock and confusion.
Read was arrested and charged with negligent motor vehicle homicide, manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident. She pleaded not guilty.
Karen Read’s First Trial Ends in a Hung Jury
Jurors were presented with wildly different versions of events at the April 2024 trial.
To argue that Read struck O’Keefe with her car, the prosecution pointed to the “I hit him” statements, along with alleged remarks from Read that she was too intoxicated that night to recall what happened, according to CBS News.
Read’s car was also a focal point with police noting that her Lexus SUV had a broken taillight, allegedly caused by striking O’Keefe. They also said O’Keefe’s DNA was found on Read’s car.
However, Read’s defense team claimed that O’Keefe died during an altercation at Albert’s home—and said his body was moved outside.
They also suggested an alleged cover-up by law enforcement.
“Certainly, the Massachusetts State Police is involved,” Jackson said, according to CBS News. “There are people that were in that house that are involved.”
In July 2024, a judge declared a mistrial and Read prepared to undergo a second trial.
Karen Read Acquitted of Murder in Her Second Trial
Read’s second trial began in April 2025.
By that point, Read had appealed her case to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking it to drop the charges but the court declined to hear the case.
Meanwhile, members of the “Free Karen” movement gathered outside the courthouse wearing pink—Read’s favorite color—and packed the courtroom to support Read.
On June 18, 2025, Read was acquitted of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident. She was found guilty of only one charge: operating under the influence of liquor (OUI).
“You lost. You lost big time,” Read said in remarks addressed to the prosecution, according to People. “And you know what you did.”
