O’Keefe’s family files wrongful death lawsuit

crime

The lawsuit also names the two bars in Canton where Karen Read and John O’Keefe drank the night before O’Keefe’s death.

The family of late Boston police officer John O’Keefe has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Karen Read, O’Keefe’s girlfriend and alleged murderer.

Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of hitting O’Keefe with her SUV in January 2022 after a night of drinking in Canton. The high-profile case ended in a mistrial on July 1 after the jury could not reach a consensus. Read’s second trial is scheduled to begin on Jan. 27.

Read has steadfastly maintained her innocence, claiming others were responsible for O’Keefe’s death and accusing law enforcement of engaging her in a cover-up. However, in a civil lawsuit filed Monday in Plymouth Superior Court, O’Keefe’s family claimed that Read “knowingly and intentionally changed her story and fabricated a conspiracy knowing it was false.”

The lawsuit also names CF McCarthy’s and the Waterfall Bar & Grille, the two Canton bars where the couple drank before O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022. The plaintiffs include O’Keefe’s brother Paul, his parents Peggy and John, and his niece, who was caring for O’Keefe when he died.

According to the lawsuit, Read “knew that her relationship with (O’Keefe) had ended on January 28, 2022.” The indictment reflects prosecutors’ allegations that Read consumed a total of nine drinks while she and O’Keefe socialized with friends and acquaintances at both CF McCarthy’s and Waterfall. Brian Albert, another bar patron and fellow Boston Police officer, invited the group from Waterfall to his home on Fairview Road for an after-party.

The lawsuit alleges that Read was “under the influence of alcohol and unable to safely operate a motor vehicle” when she drove O’Keefe to Fairview Road after midnight on January 29, 2022. A forensic scientist formerly with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Lab’s Toxicology Division testified during Read’s trial that her blood alcohol content was between 0.135% and 0.292% at 12:45 a.m. on the 29th, based on her blood work at Good Samaritan Medical Center later that morning.

The family’s lawsuit alleges that Read fled the scene of an accident after hitting O’Keefe with her car, and her boyfriend of two years died in a snowstorm. O’Keefe was pronounced dead hours later, and a medical examiner testified at Read’s trial that his official cause of death was “blunt impact injuries to the head and hypothermia.”

Later on the 29th, Read visited O’Keefe’s grieving family at his Canton home, “feigned comfort” and “took the opportunity to, among other things, take the murder weapon and their vehicle and/or destroy relevant evidence,” the indictment states.

O’Keefe’s family says they suffered “increased emotional distress” because Read made “false statements” about after-party guests and police officers who tried to pin O’Keefe’s death on her. The lawsuit accuses Read and the two bars of involuntary manslaughter. CF McCarthy’s and the Waterfall “negligently served alcohol to an intoxicated individual, namely the defendant Read.”

The lawsuit also alleges that Read negligently, recklessly or intentionally inflicted emotional distress on O’Keefe’s niece when she woke the teenager at about 4:30 a.m. on the 29th to tell her that O’Keefe had not come home. According to the lawsuit, the niece allegedly heard Read say, “Maybe I did something… Maybe he got hit by a snow plow… Maybe I hit him… Maybe I hit him… (we) had an argument… Maybe he got hit by a snow plow.”

Then, the complaint says, Read left the teen home alone while she went back to Fairview Road to look for O’Keefe.

“The emotional distress (O’Keefe’s niece) suffered was severe and of a nature that no reasonable person could endure,” the lawsuit states.

O’Keefe’s family is demanding at least $50,000 in damages. Boston.com has asked both bar associations and Read’s lawyers for comment.

Monday’s filing follows months of public furor and media scrutiny surrounding Read’s criminal case. Large crowds gathered outside Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham every day of Read’s trial, which spanned more than eight weeks. Scores of trial observers – some of them affiliated with the Free Karen Read movement, others supporting O’Keefe’s family – continue to crowd the courthouse at each retrial.

Last week, Judge Beverly Cannone denied a defense motion to dismiss two of the three charges against Read, including second-degree murder and hit-and-run. Citing information it received from several alleged jurors after the mistrial, the defense claimed the jury failed to reach a decision only on the charge of intoxication manslaughter. It claims the jury informally decided to acquit Read of the other two charges.

In response to Cannone’s decision, defense attorney Martin Weinberg, who took up the motion to dismiss, said Read’s team “fully intends to vigorously appeal to assert and uphold Ms. Read’s rights based on the Double Jeopardy Clause of the U.S. Constitution.”

Read the full complaint: