‘No collision’: Karen Read seeks to dismiss parts of wrongful death lawsuit

Karen Read is seeking to dismiss portions of the wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer she dated and who died in January 2022, according to documents filed with Plymouth Superior Court on Tuesday.

Read, 45, was acquitted of all charges connected to the death of O’Keefe in June following a lengthy retrial. Prosecutors accused her of backing her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe after a night of drinking. She was found guilty of a lesser charge: operating under the influence.

In a motion filed on Tuesday, Read seeks to dismiss four counts of the civil lawsuit by O’Keefe’s family that claim emotional distress inflicted on O’Keefe’s parents, Margaret O’Keefe and John O’Keefe II, his brother, Paul O’Keefe, and O’Keefe’s niece, Kayley Furbush.

Read “vehemently denies that she is liable to the Plaintiffs, as there was no collision between the Defendant’s SUV and John J. O’Keefe III leading to his injury or death,” the motion reads.

After Read’s first trial concluded in a mistrial last year, O’Keefe’s family filed the lawsuit in Plymouth Superior Court, claiming Read was responsible for O’Keefe’s death. The family also named two Canton bars where the pair drank on the night of his death as defendants.

The two bars have joined in Read’s efforts to have the four counts dismissed, according to court filings, along with additional counts.

In a response to the motion to dismiss filed by Read’s attorneys, Marc Diller, the O’Keefe family’s attorney, answered with a sharply worded memorandum in opposition.

“Defendant Karen Read inaccurately styled her motion as a ‘motion to dismiss the plaintiffs’ complaint’ when in reality it only seeks to dismiss several counts sounding in emotional distress, knowing that the media would pick up on the … filing,” the memorandum states.

Diller described Read as exploiting O’Keefe’s niece as her “attempt to deflect and to frame a false narrative around JJ’s death.”

“The O’Keefe family has suffered and continues to suffer immense emotional trauma from this wrongful death, which has been further intensified by the unyielding barrage of harassment and ridicule by Read and her supporters targeting the grieving family,” Diller wrote. “Read’s campaign of disinformation designed to obfuscate the truth and to attack the O’Keefe family not only deprives them of justice but also amplifies their grief and the loss of their beloved family member,” Diller wrote.

The O’Keefe family’s lawyer argued that Read’s defense is attempting to prematurely dismiss claims made by the O’Keefes since the case has largely been on pause due to her trial, which lasted from April to June.

“Plaintiff’s infliction of emotional distress claims require a fact-intensive analysis, which is not ripe for deciding at this early stage of the lawsuit and without adequate discovery,” Diller wrote.

Last month, Read added three new lawyers to her defense team in the civil suit: Damon Seligson, Charles Waters and Aaron D. Rosenberg. They join three lawyers from the firm Melick & Porter, who already represented Read: Christopher George, William L. Keville Jr. and Marissa K. Palladini.

The civil case could mark the first time Read speaks under oath about the events of Jan. 29, 2022, when O’Keefe, 46, was found near death in the snow outside the home of a fellow Boston Police officer in Canton. Her deposition, along with those of her parents and sister-in-law, had been on pause while the criminal trial was ongoing.

The burden of proof in a civil case is much lower than in a criminal case, and jurors need only to find that a “preponderance of the evidence” shows something is true.

No trial date has been set for the case. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 22.