The Massachusetts State Police has agreed to pay Karen Read a six-figure settlement to resolve her lawsuit against the agency, months after she was acquitted of murdering her police officer boyfriend in a closely watched trial.
Read will receive $100,000 under the proposed agreement. She was found not guilty in June 2025 of second-degree murder in the death of John O’Keefe, a 46-year-old Boston police officer.
Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily on January 29, 2022, before she dropped him off at a gathering at the Canton home of fellow officer Brian Albert.
The prosecution alleged that Read, now 46, struck O’Keefe with her SUV before leaving him outside. Her defense, however, argued that O’Keefe was killed inside Albert’s home and later dragged outdoors.
On June 4, Read filed a civil lawsuit in Bristol County Superior Court against the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton. The suit accused officials of misconduct and negligence during the investigation that led to her prosecution in O’Keefe’s death.
Read alleged that former state trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in her criminal case, exchanged dozens of racist and bigoted text messages. She said the messages exposed what she described as an “embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures, and institutional rot” within law enforcement.
The state police said the settlement would “avoid prolonged litigation and the significant costs to taxpayers of continuing the case,” according to the Washington Post.
Because Read brought her claims under Massachusetts’ Tort Claims Act, $100,000 was the maximum amount she could recover.
The Massachusetts State Police agreed to pay Karen Read $100,000 under a settlement resolving part of a civil lawsuit in which she alleged an “embedded culture of bigotry” within the agency
Prosecutors alleged that Read, 46, struck O’Keefe with her SUV before leaving the scene on the night he died in January 2022
Read did not “agree or admit” in court filings that her damages from the alleged misconduct were limited to $100,000, Boston.com reported.
According to the reported filings, she is also “pursuing similar claims and related relief in other venues.”
The agreement providing for the $100,000 payment still needs approval from a judge.
Read’s claims against the town of Canton remain active, the outlet reported.
Her lawsuit alleged that Proctor and former Canton police Sgt Sean Goode, who responded to the scene, repeatedly exchanged vile and antisemitic messages.
The suit said Proctor referred to Read as a “whack job” and wrote that he hoped she would kill herself.
It also alleged that he once wrote that “Hitler was really on to something” and used the n-word.
The Massachusetts State Police fired Proctor in March 2025 after he had been suspended without pay.
Read alleged that former state trooper Michael Proctor, pictured in June 2024, repeatedly sent offensive messages about her, including racist and antisemitic remarks
Proctor’s termination order said he had “sent derogatory, defamatory, disparaging, and/or otherwise inappropriate text messages” about Read, according to the Boston Globe.
The order said he had also “created an image that he was biased in his dealings with a homicide suspect and/or brought otherwise himself and the Massachusetts State Police into disrepute” through those messages.
In a filing dated November 2, the Massachusetts State Police unequivocally condemned the “racist, sexist, and abhorrent messages quoted in the complaint,” saying they did not represent the agency’s values and were not tolerated within its ranks, according to Boston25News.
Proctor has maintained that the “juvenile, unprofessional comments had zero impact on the facts, the evidence and the integrity of the investigation.”
Read was acquitted of murdering O’Keefe but was convicted of the lesser charge of drunken driving in 2025.
A conviction for second-degree murder could have resulted in a life sentence.
She had also faced charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene.
Read was acquitted nearly a year after a separate jury deadlocked over O’Keefe’s death, prompting a mistrial in her first trial
Commonwealth of Massachusetts medical examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello testified that O’Keefe died from blunt impact injuries to the head and hypothermia
Join the discussion
What do you think this case reveals about accountability and trust in law enforcement investigations?
That verdict came nearly one year after another jury deadlocked on July 1, 2024, over O’Keefe’s death, leading to a mistrial.
Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a medical examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, testified that O’Keefe’s cause of death was blunt impact injuries to the head and hypothermia.
Scordi-Bello previously told the court that she did not have enough information to determine whether those injuries were accidental.
Although the settlement resolves part of Read’s legal battle with the state police, several civil cases connected to O’Keefe’s death remain pending.
O’Keefe’s family has sued Read for wrongful death, while Read has filed a federal lawsuit against civilian witnesses and investigators, accusing them of conspiring to frame her.
Four witnesses also filed a defamation lawsuit against Read in April. That case remains unresolved.
Our News Outlet has contacted the Massachusetts State Police and Aaron Rosenberg, an attorney for Read, for additional comment.
