O’Keefe’s family files wrongful death lawsuit 

The family of the late Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Karen Read, O’Keefe’s girlfriend and alleged killer. 

Read, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of drunkenly and intentionally striking O’Keefe with her SUV following a night of bar-hopping in Canton in January 2022. The high-profile case resulted in a mistrial July 1 following a deadlocked jury, and Read’s second trial is slated to begin Jan. 27. 

Read has steadfastly maintained her innocence, alleging others were to blame for O’Keefe’s death and accusing law enforcement of framing her in a coverup. Yet in a civil lawsuit filed Monday in Plymouth Superior Court, O’Keefe’s family alleged that Read “knowingly and deliberately changed her story and fabricated a conspiracy knowing the same to be false.” 

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

According to the lawsuit, Read “knew that her relationship with [O’Keefe] had run its course,” by Jan. 28, 2022. The complaint mirrors prosecutors’ allegations that Read consumed a total of nine drinks as she and O’Keefe chatted with friends and acquaintances at both C.F. McCarthy’s and the Waterfall. Brian Albert, another bar patron and fellow Boston police officer, invited the group from the Waterfall back to his home on Fairview Road for an afterparty. 

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

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

Later on the 29th, Read visited O’Keefe’s grieving family at his home in Canton, “feigned comfort,” and “used the opportunity to, amongst other things, remove the offending weapon, her vehicle, and/or destroy relevant evidence,” the lawsuit alleges. 

O’Keefe’s family says they faced “aggravated emotional distress” as a result of Read’s “false narrative” about afterparty guests and law enforcement conspiring to frame her for O’Keefe’s death. The lawsuit accuses Read and the two bars of wrongful death, alleging that C.F. McCarthy’s and the Waterfall “negligently served alcohol to an intoxicated person, namely defendant Read.”

The complaint also alleges that Read inflicted negligent, reckless, or intentional emotional distress on O’Keefe’s niece when she woke the teen up around 4:30 a.m. on the 29th to inform her O’Keefe hadn’t come home. According to the lawsuit, the niece allegedly heard Read say, “Maybe I did something… Maybe a snow plow hit him… Maybe I had hit him… Maybe I hit him… (we) were in an argument… Maybe he got hit by a snow plow.”

Then, the complaint states, Read left the teen home alone while she headed back to Fairview Road to search for O’Keefe. 

“The emotional distress suffered by [O’Keefe’s niece] was severe and of a nature that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it,” the lawsuit states. 

O’Keefe’s family is seeking at least $50,000 in damages. Boston.com has reached out to the two bars and Read’s lawyers for comment.

Monday’s lawsuit follows months of public uproar 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 of testimony. Dueling crowds of trial watchers — some part of the “Free Karen Read” movement, others standing with O’Keefe’s family — continue to hover around the courthouse for each post-trial hearing.

Last week, Judge Beverly Cannone denied a defense motion to dismiss two of the three criminal charges Read is facing, including second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. Citing information they heard from several purported jurors following the mistrial, the defense asserted that the jury was only deadlocked on the charge of manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence. They allege jurors had informally decided to acquit Read of the other two charges.

In response to Cannone’s decision, defense attorney Martin Weinberg — who took point on the motion to dismiss — said Read’s team “fully intend[s] a vigorous appeal to assert and uphold Ms. Read’s rights founded on the foundation of the federal constitution’s Double Jeopardy Clause.”

Read the full complaint: