Karen Read is now a party to three active civil lawsuits arising from the January 2022 death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. The O’Keefe family sued her for wrongful death in August 2024. Read countered in November 2025 with her own suit against Massachusetts State Police officers and civilian witnesses she says framed her. A group of those witnesses then sued Read for defamation in April 2026. As of mid-2026, none of the Karen Read civil lawsuits has a trial date, and discovery disputes are the main action.
The O’Keefe Family Wrongful Death Suit
Paul O’Keefe, John O’Keefe’s brother, filed the wrongful death complaint in Plymouth Superior Court on August 26, 2024, while Read’s criminal case was still pending. The plaintiffs include O’Keefe’s parents and his niece. Two Canton bars, C.F. McCarthy’s and the Waterfall Bar and Grill, are named alongside Read. The plaintiffs seek at least $50,000 in damages for wrongful death, conscious pain and suffering, and severe emotional distress.
The complaint alleges Read struck O’Keefe with her SUV while intoxicated and then tried to destroy evidence. It claims Read “picked fights, experienced jealousy and had delusions of unfaithfulness” in the months before O’Keefe’s death, and that she later fabricated a conspiracy theory that “frustrated Justice for JJ.” The bars are named on a theory that they continued to serve Read while she was intoxicated. C.F. McCarthy’s has moved to dismiss, arguing it did not serve an intoxicated person and that third-party conduct caused any injury. The Waterfall Bar and Grill filed a denial in October 2024.
Read was acquitted of murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene on June 18, 2025, and convicted only of operating under the influence. A criminal acquittal does not end civil exposure — the wrongful death case uses a lower burden of proof and covers different claims — so the suit continues on its own track.
Where the Wrongful Death Case Stands
Progress has been slow. At a June 2026 status conference, the case had been pending 619 days without a trial date. Thirty-five depositions are scheduled, with the O’Keefe family’s notices running through August 2026. At a September 2025 hearing, Judge Daniel O’Shea called it a “long and sort of complex process” and estimated discovery would not close before December 2026, putting any trial in 2027 at the earliest.
Two disputes are shaping the record. Read’s attorneys sought to depose Michael Proctor, the former state trooper who led the O’Keefe homicide investigation. Proctor’s lawyers filed an emergency motion in early June 2026 asking to postpone the questioning. On June 8, 2026, Plymouth Superior Court Judge Mark Gildea denied the motion, ruling that Proctor had not provided “sufficient support to grant the extraordinary request.” The deposition was rescheduled for June 25 and July 14, 2026.
Separately, Read’s attorneys filed a motion on June 10, 2026, to compel production of 473 emails between the Massachusetts State Police and the Norfolk District Attorney’s office. State police lawyers argue the messages are protected by attorney-client privilege and the work-product doctrine. The state police have already produced hundreds of other emails and agreed to release four additional categories of previously withheld documents.
A third fight involves an email Read accidentally sent to opposing counsel in December 2025 after hitting “reply all” on a thread where her own attorney had blind-copied her. Her lawyers say the message is privileged and want it deleted. Marc Diller, attorney for the O’Keefe family, argues Read waived privilege by sending it directly and says the email “directly impeaches statements that Read has previously made under oath.” Judge Gildea took the dispute under advisement in February 2026. The contents remain sealed.
Read’s Lawsuit Against Police and Witnesses
On November 17, 2025, Read filed an 87-page civil complaint in Bristol Superior Court against state police officers and people who were at the Canton house where O’Keefe was found. The defendants moved the case to the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts within days, on the ground that Read’s federal civil rights claims belonged in federal court.
The suit names three law enforcement defendants in their personal capacities: former Trooper Michael Proctor, Sergeant Yuriy Bukhenik, and Lieutenant Brian Tully. It also names five “House Defendants”: Brian and Nicole Albert, Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, and federal agent Brian Higgins. Read’s team has said it plans to add the Town of Canton and the Massachusetts State Police once procedurally permitted.
The complaint alleges malicious prosecution under the Fourth Amendment and conspiracy to violate Read’s constitutional rights. It accuses investigators of “shoddy police work,” of manufacturing evidence, and of failing to search the Albert house for blood, DNA, or other evidence. It claims the House Defendants were involved in an altercation with O’Keefe and then “concocted a plan immediately after the altercation to avoid culpability and frame Ms. Read,” with state police facilitating the cover-up.
Attorneys for Higgins, the Alberts, and the McCabes called the allegations “entirely false, defamatory, and without merit” and described the suit as a “continuation of a baseless conspiracy narrative.” Their federal removal filing signaled they will argue the case is “a vengeful abuse of the judicial process.”
A significant portion of Read’s complaint quotes text messages exchanged over roughly a decade between Proctor and former Canton Police Sergeant Sean Goode, who responded to the scene and testified at Read’s first trial. Read alleges the messages show both officers were “completely and unquestionably unfit to hold positions of authority” and that their conduct “invariably and irredeemably contaminated” the investigation. Proctor was fired by the state police in March 2025; his law enforcement certification was suspended that December. Goode resigned from the Canton Police Department effective June 2, 2026, just before a scheduled termination hearing.
The Defamation Suit Against Read
On April 16, 2026, Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert, Colin Albert, and Brian Higgins filed a 14-count defamation lawsuit against Read and blogger Aidan Kearney in Barnstable County Superior Court. The complaint, filed by attorneys from Hinckley Allen and Koskoff, Koskoff and Bieder, alleges Read and Kearney ran a “coordinated scheme” to destroy the plaintiffs’ reputations by falsely accusing them of killing O’Keefe and framing Read.
The suit claims Read fed non-public information to Kearney, who published it through his media outlets, and that the two used encrypted messaging, intermediaries, and court filings to circulate personal identifying information about the plaintiffs. It also alleges Read hired a private investigator to harass witnesses. The plaintiffs seek damages for defamation, civil conspiracy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Kearney’s attorney, Timothy Bradl, said the defense is reviewing the claims and noted that “proving the truth of the allegedly defamatory statements is an absolute defense.” Read’s legal team called the suit “retaliation” and “desperation.”
What the Civil Cases Are Costing Read
By late 2024, Read reported owing her defense team more than $5 million in deferred legal fees. Her lead criminal attorney, Alan Jackson, said his firm alone would have billed $10 million for the mistrial and retrial, though the team does not intend to collect the full amount. Some lawyers and nine law clerks worked without pay.
Read lost her job as an equities analyst at Fidelity Investments and her position as a finance professor at Bentley University. She liquidated her savings and 401(k), sold her Mansfield home for $810,000 in November 2024, and relied on a grassroots defense fund that had raised more than $1 million from over 13,000 donors by mid-2025. She has retained six attorneys from two firms for the civil proceedings. Read has also signed a deal for a scripted screen adaptation of her case and is exploring book rights, though financial terms have not been disclosed.