Karen Read, who was acquitted earlier this year of charges relating to the death of her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, has taken legal action against a group of current and former law enforcement officials and their families. She claims they conspired to frame her and shield the true culprit behind the crime.
Filed on Monday, the lawsuit accuses several individuals from the Massachusetts State Police, the Boston Police Department, and some private citizens of engaging in a cover-up following Officer John O’Keefe’s death. O’Keefe was found deceased outside a Canton residence in January 2022. According to Read, these defendants manipulated evidence and misled investigators to falsely implicate her in the officer’s tragic demise, leveraging their law enforcement ties.
The grim discovery of O’Keefe’s body was made at around 6 a.m. on January 29, 2022. He was found on the lawn of Brian and Nicole Albert’s home after a night out involving heavy drinking during a blizzard. Among those who found him were Read herself and two other women, one of whom, Jennifer McCabe, is accused in the lawsuit of orchestrating the alleged cover-up.
Notably, neither McCabe nor the other individuals named in the lawsuit have been formally identified as suspects in O’Keefe’s death by authorities.
Karen Read’s legal battle follows her previous court ordeal where she faced charges of second-degree murder. Although she was acquitted of all homicide charges in June 2024, she was convicted of a lesser charge of drunken driving. Throughout the legal proceedings, Read has consistently asserted her innocence, arguing that crucial evidence pointing to other possible suspects was either overlooked or deliberately concealed by investigators.
Read was later charged with second-degree murder and related offenses, but, in June 2024, a jury acquitted her of all homicide charges, convicting her only of drunken driving. She has consistently maintained her innocence, alleging that investigators ignored or concealed evidence pointing elsewhere.
According to the lawsuit, O’Keefe was killed inside the Alberts’ home during a late-night altercation after heavy drinking. The complaint refers to several defendants as the “House Defendants,” accusing them of using their law enforcement experience to “concoct a plan immediately after the altercation to avoid culpability and to frame Karen Read.”
“Karen Read did not kill her then-boyfriend, Mr. O’Keefe,” the lawsuit reads. “Rather, in the early morning hours of January 29th, Mr. O’Keefe was killed in Defendants Brian and Nicole Albert’s home … in an altercation during a late-night house party with other Defendants (collectively, the “House Defendants”) after a night of heavy drinking.”
Karen Read reacts during a prosecutor’s questions to accident reconstructionist Dr. Judson Welcher during her trial May 27, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Other defendants named in the lawsuit are Michael Proctor, a former Massachusetts State Police detective who was fired after discussing confidential aspects of the case with his friends in a lewd text chain; MSP Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik, another investigator on the case; Lt. Brian Tully, another MSP homicide investigator who faced disciplinary repercussions over the Read case; Brian Albert, a former Boston police officer who had a party at the address where O’Keefe was found dead; his wife Nicole; his sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe; her husband Matthew; and ATF Agent Brian Higgins, who was at the party.
The lawsuit alleges that the “House Defendants” used their law enforcement expertise and “concocted a plan immediately after the altercation to avoid culpability and to frame Karen Read.”
Citing expert testimony from her criminal trial, which prosecutors sought to discredit, the complaint claims that the “House Defendants” searched Google for the phrase “hos long to die in the cold” rather than call 911, conspiring to make it look as though O’Keefe had been killed by Read’s SUV, then dragged his body out of the home and left him in the snow overnight.
Karen Read talks with attorneys Robert Alessi and David Yannetti during her trial in Norfolk Superior Court May 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
The lawsuit also highlights investigative errors, including the use of red Solo cups to store evidence, mislabeled evidence bags and a failure to check nearby security cameras, missteps that the complaint argues undermined the case against Read.
It further accuses investigators of planting evidence, manipulating surveillance video and destroying cellphones to bolster the false narrative.
According to the complaint, Proctor, Bukhenik and Canton Police Chief Ken Berkowitz had access to Read’s vehicle after it was seized.
Massachusetts State Trooper Connor Keefe presents taillight fragments into evidence during Karen Read’s murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., May 7, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
“One or more of them destroyed the taillight, secretly took pieces of it into their possession, and then planted some of them in various places at 34 Fairview and on Mr. O’Keefe’s clothes,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit goes on to claim that Proctor and other members of the state police “intentionally disregarded the obvious and compelling evidence” that O’Keefe had been killed inside the home.
Read’s legal team says investigators failed to search the interior for blood, ignored signs of injury consistent with an assault and neglected to send a crime scene photographer or criminalist to examine the property.
No one other than Read has ever been charged in O’Keefe’s death. The FBI has interviewed several individuals linked to the case, but no new suspects have been named by law enforcement.
Attorneys representing the defendants have not yet filed responses to the lawsuit.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
