The first installment in Vanity Fair's long-awaited profile of Karen Read dropped on Tuesday morning. Part 2 is scheduled to be released on Wednesday.
Karen Read is ready to speak. This summer, after her first murder trial ended with a hung jury, Read spoke to VF about her late boyfriend John O’Keefe, and what she and her legal team allege is a cover-up.
— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) October 29, 2024
Read part one:https://t.co/aJOzohlm42
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Read, of course, is accused of ramming into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. Her attorneys argue she is being framed and that other law enforcement officers are responsible for O’Keefe’s death. A judge declared a mistrial in June after finding that jurors couldn’t reach an agreement and her retrial on the same charges is set to begin in January.
Here are some initial takeaways from Part 1 of the Vanity Fair story:
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- Read keeps a Ziploc go bag in her dining room "in case of sudden arrest." Its contents: Advil, melatonin, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a hairbrush, lipstick, a piece of paper with her lawyer's phone number on it and a bottle of Laura Mercier foundation.
- The Vanity Fair interview was conducted at Read's home in Mansfield, Massachusetts, even though Read hasn't been staying there, and Julie Miller, the author, stayed overnight with Read at the house for three nights. "Strangest sleepover ever," is how Read described it. Miller brought her own groceries.
- In the wake of her first trial, Read says she's living off what remains of her 401(k), having sold her home to help subsidize her legal expenses. She told Vanity Fair she still owes her legal team over $5 million.
- Read says in the interview that she would rather go to jail than agree to a plea deal. "As scary as a potential conviction is, I will go to jail for something I didn't do before I plea out. I will never give them that win."
- Read says O'Keefe resented that she got to experience the fun parts of parenting his niece and nephew -- including spoiling them with go-carts, fancy haircuts and shopping trips -- while he had to serve as the disciplinarian. She said O'Keefe felt that the kids preferred her over him.
- Heavy drinking was a regular thing for Read and O'Keefe, especially on weekends. She said while on vacation in Aruba, O'Keefe and his friends started drinking beers at 10 a.m. and drank until "sundown or man down, whichever came first."
- Read said after dropping O'Keefe off at the Albert home at 34 Fairview Road on the night of his death, she was "pissed" when he didn't call or text her back because she knew that a woman O'Keefe "used to hook up with" lived a few houses down the street. "He's got to be screwing around," she said she thought, before driving back to his house.
- In the wake of O'Keefe's death and her arrest, Read read "The Count of Monte Cristo," by Alexandre Dumas, about a man who is framed and arrested before eventually escaping and avenging himself. She told Miller the book had been an "inspiration" to her.
Read's legal civil team was just in court Monday defending her against a wrongful death lawsuit filed by O'Keefe's family. Her lawyers want the civil case put on hold until after her second criminal trial.
The case was also featured on a recent edition of the NBC's "Dateline."
