“The days of Karen Read being on the defense are over. That’s what started today,” Read attorney Alan Jackson told reporters as he left the courthouse , according to MassLive. “We’re going to try and get the truth out there.”
In court, Seligson said Read plans to pursue civil claims against the State Police and three State Police investigators: Detective Lieutenant Brian Tully, Sergeant Yuriy Bukhenik, and former Trooper Michael Proctor, according to video of the hearing by NBC10 Boston.
He said Read also intends to bring legal action against Brian and Nicole Albert, Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, and Brian Higgins, who went out drinking with Read and O’Keefe in the hours before his body was found in the snow outside the Alberts’ home in Canton more than three years ago.
Read, 45, was accused of backing her SUV in a drunken rage into O’Keefe early on Jan. 29, 2022, after dropping him off outside a Canton home following a night of bar-hopping.
Her lawyers said she was framed and that O’Keefe entered the property, owned at the time by Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer, where he was fatally beaten and possibly mauled by a German shepherd before his body was planted on the front lawn.
A jury acquitted Read in June of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death, finding her guilty only of misdemeanor OUI. She received a year’s probation. Her first criminal trial had ended last year in a hung jury.
On Monday, Seligson said Read’s team intends to bring claims alleging negligent training and supervision against the State Police and the three investigators.
He said the claims against the McCabes, Alberts, and Brian Higgins — an ATF agent who exchanged flirtatious texts with Read in the weeks leading up to O’Keefe’s death — would be “in the nature of civil conspiracy, violation of Karen Read’s civil rights.”
Seligson said Read also intends to sue the Canton Police Department “for negligent failure to secure the garage and sally port” where Read’s SUV was taken in the hours after O’Keefe’s body was found.
He asked the court to join the 10 parties Read plans to sue to the existing lawsuit.
“We would be alleging that the individuals in the house diverted attention away from themselves, towards Ms. Reed, that law enforcement, then acting on that diverted attention away from her … they collectively conspired to ensure that what happened in the house was not explored and investigated,” he said.
“Instead, Ms. Reed was wrongfully targeted, maliciously prosecuted, made to face two criminal trials for the death of John O’Keefe, and is today facing allegations of wrongful death, all stemming from the same claims.”
In August 2024, after Read’s first trial, O’Keefe’s brother, parents, and niece filed a wrongful death civil suit against her. The suit largely reflects prosecutors’ argument: that Read drunkenly anthem O’Keefe with her car outside a Canton home and left him to die.
The plaintiffs are seeking at least $50,000 for pain and suffering, emotional distress, and more. The O’Keefes also sued the two Canton bars that Read and O’Keefe visited before his death, accusing them of over-serving Read. Both bars have denied over-serving her.
Marc Diller, a lawyer representing O’Keefe’s family, told MassLive that the plaintiffs were “not in agreement” with joining the 10 parties to the lawsuit. He said Read’s team “sprung that on us like they do everything else.”
Plymouth Superior Court Judge Daniel O’Shea said the case could go to trial next spring, but he indicated a 2027 trial date is more likely.
“My sense is that there’s nobody that’s going to be ready to go to trial by the springtime,” he said.
Material from previous Globe coverage was used in this report.
Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com.
About the Author
