Kelly Dever, the Boston police officer who was the subject of tense questioning during Karen Read’s second trial, has resigned. Dever had previously been on family medical leave.
Boston police said Dever’s resignation was effective on September 1. It is unclear why she resigned.
In June, Read was acquitted of all charges in connection with the death of her boyfriend John O’Keefe. O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, died after he was found in the snow outside a Canton home in January 2022.
Called as defense witness
Dever was a Canton police officer at the time of O’Keefe’s death and was called as a defense witness.
Dever was interviewed as part of the federal investigation into the handling of Read’s case and initially told investigators she saw ATF agent Brian Higgins and former Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz with Read’s SUV in the police department garage. When she was questioned by Read’s attorney Alan Jackson during the trial, Dever called it “a distorted memory.”
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via AP, Pool 
Read told reporters after Dever’s testimony, “we just wanted her to repeat what she told other law enforcement agencies under penalty of perjury.”
Dever said she recanted the statement because she learned the SUV had not yet been towed to the garage at the time she thought she had witnessed it.
In June, after four days of deliberations, jurors acquitted Read of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. She was convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol.
After the trial, Jackson wrote a letter to BPD Commissioner Michael Cox saying Dever should be included in the Brady database, because her “credibility and reliability as a law enforcement officer are irreparably compromised.”
About the Author
