Canton, Massachusetts · January 2022 – June 2025 (criminal case closed) Two trials, one verdict — acquitted of murder in the death of Boston police officer John O'Keefe — and a paper trail still growing in the civil courts.
SUBJECT: KAREN READ — NORFOLK SUPERIOR COURT, DEDHAM
Acquitted
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Two juries, one courthouse, and a verdict that closed the criminal case. Walk the full public record — the death, the hung jury, the fired investigator, the federal probe, the audit — and the June 18, 2025 acquittal, one page at a time.
12 pages · January 2022 → June 2025 · every page sourced
Plate 1 — The courthouse. Norfolk County Courthouse in Dedham, home of Norfolk Superior Court, where both of Karen Read's trials were held before Judge Beverly J. Cannone. Photo: Wikimedia Commons · Public domainPlate 2 — Canton. Canton Town Hall. John O'Keefe was found in the snow outside a home on Fairview Road in this town, about 20 miles south of Boston; the town later commissioned an independent audit of its police department's handling of the case. Photo: Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0
Document Plate
COMMONWEALTH v. KAREN READ — THE VERDICTS
Norfolk Superior Court, Dedham · June 18, 2025
Count 1, second-degree murder — NOT GUILTY. Count 3, leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death — NOT GUILTY. Count 2 — GUILTY of the lesser-included offense of operating under the influence. Sentence imposed the same day: one year of probation and the 24D alcohol-education program.
Photographs are used under the licenses credited on each plate, via Wikimedia Commons. No photograph of Karen Read or John O'Keefe is published here; news and family photographs are not reproduced.
At a glance
John O'Keefe Age 46 · Boston police officer · found January 29, 2022, in the snow outside 34 Fairview Road, Canton, during a blizzard. The medical examiner attributed his death to blunt-impact injuries of the head and hypothermia Karen Read Age 45 · of Mansfield · O'Keefe's girlfriend — the Commonwealth alleged she backed her Lexus SUV into him and left him in the snow; she pleaded not guilty and maintained she never hit him First trial Spring 2024, Norfolk Superior Court — ended July 1, 2024, in a mistrial, the jury hopelessly deadlocked Retrial Opened April 22, 2025, before Judge Beverly J. Cannone, with a special prosecutor Verdicts — June 18, 2025 NOT GUILTY of second-degree murder · NOT GUILTY of leaving the scene · GUILTY of operating under the influence (a lesser-included offense on the manslaughter count) Sentence One year of probation and the 24D program — the standard first-offender disposition Status The criminal case is CLOSED and cannot be appealed by the Commonwealth. Civil lawsuits arising from the case remain active (see The records)
The case in brief
In the early morning of January 29, 2022, in a blizzard, Boston police officer John O'Keefe was found in the snow outside a fellow officer's home in Canton, Massachusetts. Prosecutors charged his girlfriend, Karen Read, alleging that after a night of drinking she backed her SUV into him as she made a three-point turn, and drove away. Read's defense answered with a theory that would make the case a national spectacle: that O'Keefe was injured inside the house — in an altercation, possibly involving the household dog — that his body was placed outside, and that investigators framed her to protect their own. The first jury, in 2024, deadlocked. The retrial jury, on June 18, 2025, acquitted her of murder and of leaving the scene, convicting her only of drunk driving.
The record around the trials is as much a part of this file as the verdict: the lead investigator, Trooper Michael Proctor, was fired in March 2025 over derogatory text messages about Read and an on-duty drinking violation; a federal civil-rights investigation into the investigation closed with no charges; an independent audit of the Canton police found procedural failures but no evidence of a conspiracy to frame anyone; and the courts rejected the defense's double-jeopardy bid to stop the retrial. The acquittal is the outcome of record. What it resolved — and what it did not — is set out plainly in this file, with each side's theory attributed to the side that argued it.
Built from court outcomes and reporting by the Associated Press, the Boston Globe, MassLive, Boston 25 News, WBZ and the Canton Citizen. The defense's framing theory is presented as the defense presented it — an argument, attributed — never as a finding.
The timeline — full text
January 28–29, 2022 — found in the snowAfter an evening at two Canton bars, Read drives O'Keefe to an after-party at 34 Fairview Road, the home of a retired Boston police officer. Prosecutors would allege she struck him with her SUV at about 12:31 a.m. and left. At about 6 a.m., in a blizzard, Read returns with two friends, Kerry Roberts and Jennifer McCabe, and O'Keefe is found in the snow; he is pronounced dead at a hospital. The medical examiner attributes the death to blunt-impact injuries of the head and hypothermia. Investigators report finding his shoe, a broken cocktail glass, and pieces of a broken taillight at the scene. — Associated Press READ ARTICLE
February 1–2, 2022 — Read is chargedRead is arrested February 1 and arraigned the next day in Stoughton District Court on charges of manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a collision causing death. She pleads not guilty. The State Police investigation is led by Trooper Michael Proctor. — Associated Press READ ARTICLE
June 2022 — indicted for murderA Norfolk County grand jury indicts Read on second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She is arraigned in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham and again pleads not guilty. — Associated Press READ ARTICLE
2022–2024 — two theories hardenThe Commonwealth builds its case on taillight fragments, DNA evidence, vehicle data, and witnesses who testified they heard Read say "I hit him" at the scene. The defense advances a third-party-culprit theory: that O'Keefe was injured inside the Fairview Road house — beaten in an altercation, with wounds it attributes in part to the household dog — that his body was moved outside, and that the investigation framed Read. Judge Cannone permits the defense to present a limited version of that theory at trial; prosecutors respond that no evidence supports it. No one else is charged. In discovery, the defense also obtains Proctor's private text messages about Read — vulgar and disparaging — which become central to its bias argument. — Associated Press READ ARTICLEREAD ARTICLE
Spring – July 1, 2024 — the first trial ends in a mistrialThe first trial runs nearly ten weeks before Judge Cannone. Proctor, on the witness stand, is made to read his text messages aloud. After closing arguments on June 25, the jury deliberates for five days and reports it is hopelessly deadlocked; on July 1, 2024, Cannone declares a mistrial.
Exhibit — The verdict that was never announcedAfter the mistrial, several jurors told reporters and defense counsel that inside the jury room the panel had unanimously agreed to acquit Read on the murder and leaving-the-scene counts, deadlocking only on the manslaughter count. No verdict was ever announced in open court — a distinction that decided the double-jeopardy fight on page 8 of this walk.
Summer – fall 2024 — a retrial, a civil suit, an investigator sidelinedThe Norfolk District Attorney announces the case will be retried. On August 23, 2024, Judge Cannone denies the defense motion to dismiss the murder and leaving-the-scene counts. In August 2024, O'Keefe's family files a civil wrongful-death lawsuit in Plymouth Superior Court against Read and the two bars the couple visited that night. Within weeks of the mistrial, Proctor is relieved of duty and then suspended without pay pending an internal process. — KPRC/AP READ OPINION; Associated Press READ ARTICLE
September 2024 — a special prosecutorDistrict Attorney Michael W. Morrissey appoints Hank Brennan — a former prosecutor who had famously served as defense counsel to James "Whitey" Bulger — as special assistant district attorney to lead the retrial. Billing records the DA's office later released show Brennan was paid $565,950, and that the retrial cost the state more than $1.4 million in total. — Associated Press READ ARTICLE
February – April 2025 — the courts clear the retrialOn February 11, 2025, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules in Read v. Commonwealth that because no acquittal was announced in open court, none legally occurred, and a retrial on all counts does not violate double jeopardy. A federal judge denies Read's habeas petition, the First Circuit addresses the dispute in March, and on April 28, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denies her emergency request to halt the retrial. — Associated Press READ OPINION
February 2025 — the federal investigation endsThe FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston had run a civil-rights investigation into the conduct of the O'Keefe investigation itself — a probe that included a federal grand jury sitting since 2022. As reported by Boston 25 News' 25 Investigates team and WBZ, citing sources briefed on the notifications, federal authorities informed state and local officials in February 2025 that the investigation was over and that no charges would be filed against members of either law-enforcement agency. (A federal grand juror was separately charged in July 2025 with leaking sealed grand-jury information — see The records.) — Boston 25 News / WBZ, Feb. 2025, as reported from sources
March 19, 2025 — Trooper Proctor is firedAfter trial-board hearings on January 15, February 10 and March 13, a State Police Trial Board finds Proctor guilty of unsatisfactory performance — the board's order cites the "derogatory, defamatory, disparaging and/or otherwise inappropriate text messages" he sent about Read — and of an alcoholic-beverages violation, for drinking on duty on July 19, 2022 and then driving his cruiser. Colonel Geoffrey Noble accepts the board's recommendation and terminates him; the dismissal is recorded as a dishonorable discharge. Proctor's family responds that he is "human — not corrupt"; the State Police union calls the process flawed. — Boston Globe READ ARTICLE; MassLive READ ARTICLE
April 1, 2025 — the Canton auditThe Town of Canton releases the 206-page independent audit of its police department by 5 Stones Intelligence — commissioned by residents after O'Keefe's death — on the day retrial jury selection begins. The auditors state they found no information indicating any Canton officer acted as part of a conspiracy to frame anyone for the murder. They also catalogue procedural failures in this case: the body was not photographed before it was moved, key witness interviews were not conducted at the station or recorded, and the scene was not held for State Police specialists. The town accepts the report's conclusions. — Boston 25 News READ RELEASE; Town of Canton READ RELEASE
April 22 – June 18, 2025 — the retrial and the verdictOpening statements come April 22, 2025. Brennan tells the jury the "facts, science and data" prove Read struck O'Keefe; Alan Jackson, for the defense, tells them she never hit him and was framed. The prosecution rests May 29; the defense case follows; deliberations begin June 13. On June 18, after roughly 21 hours over four days, the jury returns its verdicts: not guilty of second-degree murder, not guilty of leaving the scene, and — on the manslaughter count — guilty of the lesser-included offense of operating under the influence. Judge Cannone immediately sentences Read to one year of probation and the 24D program. Outside the courthouse, hundreds of supporters in pink cheer; O'Keefe's family and friends call the outcome, in a joint statement, a "devastating miscarriage of justice."
Exhibit — What the verdict does, and does not, sayAn acquittal means the Commonwealth did not prove those charges beyond a reasonable doubt; the verdicts are final and cannot be appealed by the prosecution. The verdicts are not a finding that any other person harmed O'Keefe, and no court has made such a finding. The retrial's jury foreman later told the Boston Herald the panel concluded Read "didn't do this crime," and called on the FBI to investigate the death itself.
Public statements — who has said what, on the record
The Commonwealth · at trial, 2024 & 2025Prosecutors argued that an intoxicated Read, after an argument, deliberately or recklessly backed her SUV into O'Keefe and left him to die in the snow, pointing to taillight fragments, DNA, vehicle data, and her own statements at the scene. — Associated Press READ ARTICLEREAD ARTICLE
The defense · at trial, 2024 & 2025Read's attorneys argued she never struck O'Keefe; that he was injured inside the Fairview Road house and his body placed outside; and that investigators — above all Proctor — fixed on her and framed her. The theory was argued to both juries; neither the audit nor the federal investigation adopted it. — Associated Press READ ARTICLE
Karen Read · courthouse steps, June 18, 2025Thanking the supporters who had funded and sustained her defense, Read said no one had fought harder for justice for John O'Keefe than she and her team had. — Associated Press READ ARTICLE
O'Keefe's family & friends · joint statement, June 18, 2025Friends of O'Keefe, joined by family, called the verdicts "a devastating miscarriage of justice" and said the family "deserved better from our justice system." — via USA Today / Associated Press READ ARTICLE
Col. Geoffrey Noble, Massachusetts State Police · Mar. 19, 2025Announcing Proctor's termination, Noble said the decision reflected the department's commitment to accountability and public trust. In June 2026, responding to further texts disclosed in Read's civil litigation, he said such messages do not reflect the values of the State Police and underscored his decision to terminate Proctor. — Boston Globe READ ARTICLE
The retrial jury foreman · June 2025The foreman, identified as Juror No. 1, told the Boston Herald the jury concluded Read did not commit the crime, criticized the police work as "lazy," and urged the FBI to open its own investigation into O'Keefe's death. — Boston Herald, via Fox News READ ARTICLE
Town of Canton · April 2025The town accepted the 5 Stones audit's conclusions — no evidence of corruption or evidence tampering — while acknowledging the procedural deficiencies it documented. — Town of Canton READ RELEASE
The parties to Read's civil suit · 2025–2026Read's attorneys say the agencies that employed the investigators should answer for the prosecution she endured. Attorneys for the individual defendants in her suit have called her allegations entirely false and without merit and have moved to dismiss. — Court filings, as reported OPEN RECORD
The unverified record — what supporters & community are saying
The claims below circulate publicly — in the "Free Karen Read" movement's posts, livestreams and commentary. They are part of this case's public life, so they are recorded here. None of them is a finding, and each is marked accordingly. Consistent with this file's rule, no living private person is named here as an alternative suspect.
"She was framed by the people in that house." The movement's central claim: that others present at the Fairview Road after-party were responsible for O'Keefe's death and that officials covered it up. A version of this theory was argued by the defense in court. It has not been adopted by any court, by the Canton audit (which found no evidence of a conspiracy to frame anyone), or by the federal investigation (which closed with no charges). The 2025 acquittal is a ruling about the Commonwealth's proof against Read — not a finding about any other person. UNVERIFIED— Supporter community claims
"The taillight evidence was planted." Online claims hold that fragments of Read's taillight were planted at the scene after the fact. The timing and recovery of the fragments were litigated at both trials as argument and expert dispute; no court or agency has found that evidence was planted. UNVERIFIED— Supporter community claims
"The acquittal proves a cover-up." Since the verdict, some commentary has treated the acquittal itself as proof of an official cover-up. An acquittal establishes only that the charges were not proved beyond a reasonable doubt — the standard Judge Cannone instructed both juries to apply. UNVERIFIED— Post-verdict commentary
What is documented about the movement itself: supporters — most wearing pink — gathered at the Dedham courthouse through both trials, funded the defense through public fundraisers, adopted the ASL "I love you" sign as a silent signal of support, and challenged the courthouse buffer zone in federal court. Their presence is a matter of record; their claims are recorded above as claims.
People & offices in the record
John O'Keefe· 46 · Boston police officer · raising his orphaned niece and nephew
Karen Read· 45 · of Mansfield · O'Keefe's girlfriend · acquitted of all charges arising from his death; convicted of OUI
The court Beverly J. Cannone · Norfolk Superior Court judge, both trials · Daniel O'Shea · Plymouth Superior Court judge, the family's civil case
The prosecution Michael W. Morrissey · Norfolk District Attorney · Adam Lally · lead prosecutor, first trial · Hank Brennan · special prosecutor, retrial
The defense David Yannetti · Alan Jackson · Elizabeth Little · Robert Alessi
Michael Proctor· State Police trooper and lead investigator · fired March 19, 2025
The O'Keefe family Margaret & John O'Keefe · his parents · Paul O'Keefe · his brother · Kayley Furbush · his niece
The records — what exists, and what has not been released
The verdicts & sentence — returned in open court June 18, 2025: acquittals on murder and leaving the scene; OUI conviction; one year of probation and the 24D program. The criminal case is closed; the Commonwealth cannot appeal an acquittal. Status: CLOSED · OF RECORD
The double-jeopardy rulings — Judge Cannone's August 2024 denial of dismissal; the Supreme Judicial Court's February 11, 2025 decision in Read v. Commonwealth; the federal habeas denial; the U.S. Supreme Court's April 28, 2025 denial of a stay. Status: PUBLIC
Proctor's personnel record — the Trial Board's findings (unsatisfactory performance; alcoholic beverages) and Colonel Noble's termination order were released publicly with the March 19, 2025 announcement. Status: PUBLIC
The federal grand jury — federal grand-jury proceedings are secret by law. The investigation they served closed in February 2025 with no charges. In July 2025 a federal grand juror, Jessica Leslie, was charged with leaking sealed information from a May 2022 proceeding; court filings say she agreed to plead guilty. Status: PROCEEDINGS SEALED · LEAK PROSECUTION PUBLIC
The Canton police audit — 5 Stones Intelligence, 206 pages, released April 1, 2025: no evidence of a conspiracy to frame anyone; documented procedural failures and recommendations. Status: PUBLIC
The family's civil case — Estate of John O'Keefe et al. v. Read et al., Plymouth Superior Court, filed August 2024 against Read and two Canton bars. In October 2025 Judge O'Shea denied nearly all of Read's motions to dismiss. As of a June 2026 status conference there was no trial date; discovery was expected to run into late 2026, with trial in 2027 at the earliest. No settlement has been reported. Status: ACTIVE
Read's civil case against investigators & witnesses — filed November 17, 2025 in Bristol Superior Court against three State Police defendants (including Proctor) and five civilian witnesses, alleging malicious prosecution and conspiracy; the defendants removed it to the U.S. District Court in Boston and moved to dismiss, calling the allegations baseless. Status: ACTIVE
Read's civil case against the agencies — in June 2026 Read sued the Massachusetts State Police and the Town of Canton in Bristol Superior Court over biased text messages among investigators, per the Boston Globe. Status: ACTIVE
The retrial's cost — invoices released by the Norfolk DA's office in September 2025 put the second prosecution's cost above $1.4 million, including $565,950 to the special prosecutor. Status: PUBLIC
Civil litigation tracker Both civil cases — filings, hearings, and discovery disputes, updated through 2026. READ
Watch & listen
🎥 The audit, presented in public. 5 Stones Intelligence presented its Canton police audit findings at a public forum at Canton High School on April 5, 2025; the town published the presentation. View the town's materials →
📰 The hometown paper. The Canton Citizen's account of the retrial's opening day — the two theories, stated side by side. Read the report →
Both trials were also broadcast gavel-to-gavel by Court TV and Massachusetts outlets. CrowdSleuth links to records and reporting; it does not copy or re-host them.
How to read this file: This criminal case is closed, and its outcome is the spine of the file: on June 18, 2025, a jury acquitted Karen Read of killing John O'Keefe. The prosecution's theory and the defense's framing theory are both recorded — attributed to the sides that argued them. An acquittal is not a finding against any other person, and nothing in this file accuses anyone else of O'Keefe's death. The civil cases summarized here contain allegations that remain unproven and contested. CrowdSleuth draws no conclusion of its own.
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