MANSFIELD – Karen Read and two Canton bars are being sued by the family of her late friend John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer.
The wrongful death civil suit filed Monday in Plymouth Superior Court names Read, 44, a Mansfield resident, as well as Waterfall Bar & Grill and CF McCarthy’s, the bars she and O’Keefe visited the night before he was found dying in a front yard in Canton.
The lawsuit alleges that the bars negligently served alcohol to an intoxicated individual named Read, who is accused of driving while intoxicated and hitting her boyfriend of two years with her SUV.
The lawsuit also alleges that the person negligently inflicted emotional distress.
Paul O’Keefe of West Bridgewater, the victim’s brother, filed the lawsuit on behalf of his family and his brother’s estate.
The plaintiffs include O’Keefe’s parents, Peggy and John, and his niece, who was caring for O’Keefe when he died.
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages.
John O’Keefe, a Canton resident, was found dying in the snow outside the home of a fellow Boston police officer in Canton in January 2022.
Read was charged with second-degree murder and two other felonies in connection with O’Keefe’s death, but the case ended in a mistrial on July 1 after weeks of testimony. Norfolk County prosecutors have retried Read on those charges, and the trial is scheduled to begin in January.
Defense attorneys sought to have the second-degree murder charge and another charge against Read dismissed on the grounds that the jury in that case had stated that they had acquitted her of those charges.
But on Friday, the judge in charge rejected their argument on the grounds that the jury had reported a stalemate in court.
Prosecutors allege that after a night of drinking, Read intentionally drove her SUV into O’Keefe and left him to die in the snow.
However, Read and her lawyers claim that O’Keefe was beaten inside the house and then taken outside to the yard. They insist there was a cover-up by police and others – something her supporters have repeatedly claimed.
The indictment states: “She knowingly and intentionally changed her story and fabricated a conspiracy, knowing it to be false.”
Read visited O’Keefe’s family at his home in Canton and “took the opportunity to, among other things, take the murder weapon and their vehicle and/or destroy relevant evidence,” the lawsuit states.
Paul O’Keefe criticized the nationally watched trials, calling them the “Karen Read Show.” He says his brother’s death has been completely forgotten.
