Family members of John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer killed in January 2022, have filed a lawsuit naming his girlfriend Karen Read and two Canton bars in a wrongful death suit filed Monday morning.
Paul O’Keefe, John O’Keefe’s brother, is listed in the lawsuit as the personal representative of his brother’s estate. John O’Keefe II and Margaret O’Keefe, John O’Keefe’s parents, are also listed as plaintiffs.
Read, 44, of Mansfield, was a defendant in a trial for the murder of John O’Keefe earlier this year. On July 1, a judge declared the trial void because the jury could not reach a consensus.
She will face a second trial in January. Prosecutors say she hit John O’Keefe while driving her SUV while drunk and dropped him off at a Canton home after drinking at two Canton bars. Prosecutors say she left him outside to die in the snow.
Her lawyers claim that the blame was placed on her.
CF McCarthy’s and Waterfall Bar & Grill of Read and Canton are the defendants in the 13-count lawsuit, which seeks a jury trial in Plymouth Superior Court.
The lawsuit alleges that Read spread a false narrative about John O’Keefe’s death, causing great emotional distress to his family.
“Despite her right to silence under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Defendant Read chose to speak publicly,” the lawsuit states. “She knowingly and intentionally changed her story and fabricated a conspiracy, knowing it to be false. She publicly disseminated this false narrative, thereby thwarting justice for JJ.”
John O’Keefe is referred to as “JJ” throughout the lawsuit, which says the relationship between the third-generation Boston police officer and Read deteriorated in the months before his death.
“During this time, defendant Read was quarrelsome, jealous, and suffered from delusions of infidelity,” the lawsuit states.
Read’s trial attracted large crowds and protests outside the courthouse between April and July, as many of her supporters echoed defense attorneys’ claims that other people were responsible for O’Keefe’s death.
Testimony during the trial revealed that lead state police investigator Trooper Michael Proctor made disparaging remarks about Read during the investigation, leading to questions about his bias against Read. Proctor is suspended without pay and the subject of an internal investigation.
O’Keefe’s family accuses the two bars of negligently serving alcohol to an intoxicated person, namely Read.
“The defendant knew or should have known that the defendant Read was intoxicated at the relevant times of duty on January 28, 2022.”
Read’s second murder trial is scheduled to begin on January 27, 2025. Last Friday, a judge rejected her lawyers’ attempts to drop two charges.
