The brother of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Karen Read and two bars in Canton, Massachusetts, that were among the last places O'Keefe was seen alive.
The civil suit was filed Friday in Plymouth Superior Court by Paul O'Keefe on behalf of his family and his brother's estate against Read, the Waterfall Bar & Grille and C.F. McCarthy's. In addition to wrongful death, it alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress.
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"It is not unexpected to me given the sort of the posture of the O'Keefe family," Katherine Loftus, of Note My Objection podcast, said of the 22-page lawsuit.
Legal experts tell us a civil case comes with different rules and a different burden of proof.
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"In a civil case it's what we call a preponderance of the evidence, so it's 49 to 51 percent more likely than not that someone is responsible for the death," Loftus said.
As an example, the civil suit alleges Read said this to O'Keefe's niece in the hours before O'Keefe's body was found: "[JJ] never came home...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."
NBC10 Boston legal analyst Michael Coyne says this also sets up a big choice for Read. If she testifies in the civil suit, it could be used against her in her criminal case. If she doesn't, it could play a big factor in her civil suit.
"It really creates a catch-22 for her," he said. "The exercise of that right raises the presumption that the answer would be harmful, and juries will take that in a civil suit legitimately."
These legal experts also say that criminal prosecutors will be watching this closely to see if anything new comes out ahead of Read's second criminal trial. Neither Read nor the two bars named in the suit could be reached for comment Monday.
You can read the full lawsuit below:
Read, 44, is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him for dead in a January 2022 snowstorm. Her two-month trial ended in July when jurors declared they were hopelessly deadlocked and a judge declared a mistrial on the fifth day of deliberations.
After the mistrial was declared, Read's defense team had sought to have the charges of murder and leaving the crime scene dismissed, saying several jurors told them they had unanimously agreed she wasn't guilty of the two charges. Judge Beverly Cannone denied that motion Friday, setting the stage for Read's new trial on Jan. 27, 2025.
Prosecutors said Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, had been drinking at C.F. McCarthy's and then the Waterfall before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away. An autopsy found O’Keefe died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
Paul O'Keefe was one of over 50 witnesses called by prosecutors over the course of the two-month trial. His wife Erin also testified.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
