Karen Read Claims She Was Framed in Police Officer Boyfriend’s Death in New Lawsuit

Karen Read filed a lawsuit claiming she was framed for the murder of her late boyfriend, John O’Keefe, in an attempt to keep authorities from learning how he really died.

Read, 45, was catapulted into the spotlight when she was accused of killing O’Keefe, who was a police officer in Boston, by allegedly hitting him with her car in January 2022.

She first went to trial in July 2024 that ended in mistrial. The case was tried again in 2025.

Read was found not guilty of most of her charges, including second-degree murder and manslaughter, in June. However, she was found guilty of operating a vehicle under the influence.

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Five months after the trial ended, Read filed a lawsuit on Monday, November 17 claiming that the investigators of the case conspired to frame her for O’Keefe’s murder, according to NBC News.

Read’s attorneys brought up the theory during the trial, though former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who was an investigator in the case, denied any wrongdoing.

During the trial, Read denied ever having O’Keefe with the car and insisted she never left him to die in the snow. She also claimed the last time she saw O’Keefe was as he walked into Nicole Albert and Brian Albert’s home.

Despite the claims made against Read, an autopsy of O’Keefe’s body showed “no signs of a vehicular strike.” In the new lawsuit, it was also noted that O’Keefe obtained “dog bite wounds and scratches on his right arm and forearm.”

The lawsuit claims that O’Keefe died following an altercation that took place during a night of heavy drinking with the Alberts, Jennifer McCabe and Matthew McCabe and Brian Higgins, who was an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Both the Alberts and the McCabes have denied being involved in O’Keefe’s death. They maintained their innocence during an interview with ABC News’ Nightline after Read was acquitted, in which they denied he ever entered the home on the night of his death.

However, Read’s lawsuit claimed that “the Alberts’ German Shepherd attacked him and Mr. O’Keefe sustained multiple dog bites and scratches on his right arm.” The lawsuit continued, “He also suffered an incapacitating … wound on the back of his head.”

The lawsuit also accused the group of using their ties to law enforcement to make sure they wouldn’t be investigated in O’Keefe’s death.

Another claim made in the lawsuit was that Proctor led the investigation despite his undisclosed ties to the Alberts. While Proctor admitted to sharing some details with his sister, who is close friends with Brian Albert’s sister-in-law, during Read’s first trial, he denied claims that he compromised the integrity of the investigation.

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Read’s lawsuit also accused Proctor of intentionally sidestepping investigatory protocol and saying they wouldn’t get “s**t for this” because Brian Albert was a police officer. Additionally, the lawsuit claimed Proctor said he would make the case clear cut by bringing charges against Read.

“True to his promise, Proctor and his colleagues did not search the House for blood evidence resulting from the gash to the back of Mr. O’Keefe’s head, or for fingerprints, or for DNA evidence,” the suit says.

Read is seeking a jury trial on counts of “malicious prosecution, supervisor liability, conspiracy to deprive Read of her constitutional rights, violations of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy,” per NBC News.