In Plymouth, Massachusetts, the family of Karen Read’s police officer boyfriend, who she allegedly hit with her vehicle and left to die in the snow, has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her and two bars where they had been drinking that fateful night.
The lawsuit attributes the death of John O’Keefe to Read, as well as to the bars’ negligence in serving her alcohol despite signs of intoxication. It states that the first bar served her seven alcoholic drinks in about 90 minutes on the night of January 28, 2022, and that Read brought the last drink to the second bar, where she consumed a shot and a mixed alcoholic beverage within an hour. The lawsuit does not specify the amount of alcohol O’Keefe consumed that night before entering Read’s SUV.
Filed in Plymouth Superior Court by Paul O’Keefe on behalf of his family and his brother’s estate, the lawsuit names Read, the Waterfall Bar & Grill, and C.F. McCarthy’s as defendants and seeks a jury trial.
Read, who has pleaded not guilty, is awaiting a retrial on January 27 on charges including second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. The retrial was scheduled after a mistrial in July when jurors were deadlocked. Despite jurors later agreeing unanimously that Read was not guilty of murder and leaving the scene, the judge declared a mistrial.
Following the night of bar-hopping, Read, a 44-year-old former adjunct professor at Bentley College, dropped off O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, outside another police officer’s Canton home, where his body was discovered in the front yard. An autopsy revealed O’Keefe’s cause of death as hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
Read’s legal team argued that O’Keefe was murdered inside the home and that she was falsely accused because she was an “outsider” to those involved.
According to the lawsuit, Read and O’Keefe were in an argument, and she was aware that she had hit him with her vehicle before returning to his residence. She allegedly woke up O’Keefe’s 14-year-old niece hours later, claiming something had happened to O’Keefe and that he may have been struck by her or a snowplow.
