A woman accused of hitting a her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, with her car and leaving him to die in the snow in Canton, Massachusetts, this January appeared in court Thursday to present a new theory to clear her name.
Karen Read's attorneys argued there was a large-scale coverup between local and state police investigating the death of Officer John O'Keefe in January.
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They were drinking with friends the night O'Keefe died, and his body was found in front of the home of a fellow Boston police officer, where an afterparty was being held.
Read, a 42-year-old from Mansfield, faces second-degree murder and other charges for allegedly backing her SUV into O'Keefe as she dropped him off in late January. Prosecutors have previously said the couple had been arguing before O'Keefe's death.
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"On one occasion the victim had attempted to break up with the defendant, had asked her to leave his home, and she refused to do so," Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said in court in June.
But the defense presented new evidence Thursday in saying that O'Keefe's injuries indicate he was severely beaten. The paperwork says the homeowner had ties with Canton and state police, the agencies that conducted the death investigation, and alleged collusion between them.
Read's team has previously alleged that the state police officer who took over the case is close to the owners of the property, and that investigators doctored Read's black Lexus SUV.
One of Read's attorneys is Alan Jackson, a celebrity attorney out of Los Angeles, who represented actor Kevin Spacey in his legal troubles on Nantucket back in 2019.
O'Keefe was a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department. He was not on duty at the time of his death.
