The family of a Boston police officer filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman whose murder trial in the officer’s death ended in July without a jury agreement.
The civil suit filed by relatives of John O’Keefe in Plymouth County Superior Court also accuses two bars of involuntary manslaughter, alleging they served alcohol to Read when she was already intoxicated on the evening of January 28, 2022.
The lawsuit accuses Read, 44, of driving her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe, 46, after she had several drinks at CF McCarthy’s and Waterfall Bar & Grille.
Read maintained her innocence in her criminal trial. Her defense team claimed that police officers framed her. Read could not be reached for comment Monday. The attorney in her criminal case did not respond to a request for comment.
A person who answered the phone at CF McCarthy’s on Monday declined to comment on the lawsuit. No one at Waterfall Bar & Grille was available.
The lawsuit alleges that Read left her boyfriend dying outside the home of a former Boston police officer in Canton, south of Boston.
The lawsuit does not mention any specific damages, but Read and the two bars are also accused of negligently causing mental distress.
Prosecutors had alleged that Read mowed down O’Keefe while their relationship was deteriorating. She was charged with second-degree murder, intoxicated manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
On July 1, after five days of deliberations, a judge declared the trial invalid because the jury could not reach a unanimous verdict.
According to Read’s lawyers, four jurors came forward and said the entire panel had returned an acquittal on two counts: second-degree murder and hit-and-run.
According to the lawyers, the jury could not agree on the remaining manslaughter charge. Citing that evidence, the lawyers asked the judge to dismiss the charge, but she refused.
The public prosecutor’s office announced that it would retry the case. A new trial is scheduled for January 27.
The O’Keefe family’s lawsuit accuses one of the bars, CF McCarthy’s, of serving Read seven drinks over a period of about an hour and a half on the evening of Jan. 28. The second bar, Waterfall Bar & Grille, served Read a shot and a mixed drink shortly thereafter, the lawsuit says.
After leaving the second bar around midnight on Jan. 29, the indictment says, Read drove O’Keefe to the house in Canton where the other Boston police officer was holding an event.
O’Keefe and Read were arguing, the lawsuit says, when O’Keefe got out of the vehicle and Read fatally shot him.
At her criminal trial, Read’s attorneys said she watched O’Keefe enter the Canton home after she dropped him off. Hours later, she realized he never came home and ran back to the house, where she found his body on the morning of Jan. 29.
Lawyers claim O’Keefe was most likely beaten in the house and left outside in the snow.
