Karen Read sues witnesses she argues framed her for John O'Keefe's murder

Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald on Nov 18, 2025

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BOSTON — Karen Read has sued witnesses from her murder case who she argues framed her for the killing of John O’Keefe and are “actually involved” in her Boston police officer boyfriend’s death.

Read and her defense team have filed a civil complaint in Bristol Superior Court against witnesses they point to as “third parties” for O’Keefe’s death and members of the Massachusetts State Police involved in the murder investigation.

The complaint comes months after a jury in Norfolk County acquitted Read of the Boston cop’s murder.

“For three and a half years,” the complaint states, “Plaintiff Karen Read was wrongly accused of homicide and subjected to suspicion, arrest, two prosecutions, and public condemnation, all resulting from the gross misconduct of the Massachusetts State Police – and those working in tandem with the MSP – to shield from liability the party or parties responsible for the death of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe III.”

“Now, after being acquitted of all charges relating to Mr. O’Keefe’s death,” the complaint continues, “Ms. Read brings this action to recover for and address the actions of those actually involved in Mr. O’Keefe’s death and the law enforcement officers who abjectly failed to ensure that justice was sought and served in the aftermath of January 29, 2022.”

Read’s attorneys, Damon Seligson and Alan Jackson, reiterate an argument presented in Read’s two criminal trials: That other parties inside Brian and Nicole Albert’s home, at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, killed O’Keefe.

The complaint targets Brian and Nicole Albert, Matthew and Jennifer McCabe and Brian Higgins as being involved in killing O’Keefe.

Read, 45, was indicted in June 2022 on charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing O’Keefe’s death.

She was tried twice, first in 2024, which ended in a mistrial, and then in a second trial, which ended this past June when a jury acquitted her on all the indicted charges. She was convicted of drunk driving.

“Karen Read did not kill her then-boyfriend, Mr. O’Keefe,” the freshly filed civil complaint states. “Rather, in the early morning hours of January 29th, Mr. O’Keefe was killed in Defendants Brian and Nicole Albert’s home … in an altercation during a late-night house party with other Defendants … after a night of heavy drinking.

“The House Defendants responsible for Mr. O’Keefe’s death – some of whom had professional experience with police investigations – concocted a plan immediately after the altercation to avoid culpability and to frame Karen Read,” the complaint continues.

The argument is also the same as the one covered in the wrongful death civil suit that the O’Keefe family has filed in Plymouth Superior Court against Read. Her defense attorneys pointed to the “third parties” in September.

Michael Proctor, the lead MSP investigator in O’Keefe’s murder, who has since been fired and lost an appeal to regain his job, MSP Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik and MSP Lt. Brian Tully are also being sued in the new civil complaint.

“From the beginning,” the complaint states, “investigators from the MSP allowed the House Defendants to direct the investigation away from themselves, and towards Ms. Read.”

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