Karen Read may have been acquitted in June, but her legal troubles are not yet over.
Read, 45, returns to court Monday for a hearing on the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. The hearing is a status conference and will address a motion filed by Read’s lawyers in August to dismiss parts of the case.“
Plymouth Superior Court Judge Daniel O’Shea, who was specially assigned to preside over the case, set the hearing for 2 p.m. in Plymouth Superior Court — more than 40 miles from the Dedham courthouse where Read was tried twice in two years.
Here’s everything we know about the lawsuit so far.
The O’Keefe family’s claims
The wrongful death lawsuit against Read, which lists O’Keefe’s parents, brother and niece as plaintiffs, repeats much of what prosecutors had accused Read of: that she backed her SUV into O’Keefe after a night of drinking and a fight as she dropped him off at the home of a fellow Boston Police officer in Canton. Along with Read, the two Canton bars where the couple had been drinking on Jan. 28 and Jan. 29, 2022, are listed as defendants.
The complaint goes beyond claiming that Read caused O’Keefe’s death. It also accuses her of negligent and/or reckless infliction of emotional distress. That claim is based on the “severe and profound emotional injuries manifesting in physical symptoms” O’Keefe’s mother, father and brother suffered after seeing him at the hospital.
The lawsuit also claims Read created a false narrative around O’Keefe’s death. Read and her lawyers claimed she was being framed for his killing and that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home, then placed outside on the front lawn.
The claims are different when it comes to O’Keefe’s niece, of whom he was the guardian at the time of his death.
On the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, when O’Keefe hadn’t returned home, Read woke her up around 4:30 a.m. and began calling various people. On the phone, O’Keefe’s niece heard Read say, “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,” according to the complaint.
“Read knew [she] was vulnerable, having already lost her parents at age six,” the filing reads. “The emotional distress suffered by [her] was severe and of a nature that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it.”
The suit seeks a jury trial on all 13 counts against Read. It does not specify a particular amount for the damages sought.
The motion to dismiss
Lawyers for Read are seeking to dismiss the four counts of the suit that claim she inflicted emotional distress on O’Keefe’s family. The two bars, C.F. McCarthy’s and the Waterfall Bar and Grille, are seeking to dismiss the wrongful death claims against them.
The bars essentially joined the request to dismiss the counts already filed by Read and did not file specific memorandums detailing why the claims against them should be dismissed.
For the purposes of the motions to dismiss, a judge must consider all the claims put forward in the complaint as true, whether they are true or not.
While Read’s lawyers deny that any collision ever took place, their motion claims that because O’Keefe’s family was not at the scene of the crash and didn’t witness the “immediate consequences,” they cannot claim emotional distress.
Read’s “purported statements and actions in the hours after the alleged accident cannot support a claim of intentional or reckless infliction of emotional distress,” the filing continues.
A lawyer for the O’Keefes claimed in a memo responding to the motion to dismiss that the 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.”
Burden of truth in a civil case
Read is represented by some familiar faces in the civil suit. Alan Jackson, who led her criminal defense, and a partner at his firm, Elizabeth Little, who was on the criminal team, have both joined Read’s defense in this case. A third lawyer from the firm, Caleb Mason, has also joined.
In addition to the three Los Angeles, California-based lawyers, Read has hired six Massachusetts lawyers to represent her.
The burden of proof in a civil case is lower than that in a criminal case. In civil law, a jury must only find something to be true based on a preponderance of the evidence — not beyond a reasonable doubt.
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, was paused while the criminal trial was ongoing.
No trial date has been set.
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