The family of the police officer whom Karen Read is accused of hitting with her vehicle and leaving to die in the snow has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her and two bars where they had been drinking that night.
The lawsuit attributes the death of John O’Keefe to Read and accuses the bars of negligence for continuing to serve her drinks despite signs of intoxication. According to the lawsuit, the first bar served Read seven alcoholic drinks within approximately 90 minutes on the night of January 28, 2022. It also states that Read carried her last drink into the second bar, where she was served a shot and a mixed drink within an hour.
The lawsuit does not specify the amount of alcohol O’Keefe consumed before riding in Read’s SUV.
Filed on Monday in Plymouth Superior Court, Massachusetts, by Paul O’Keefe on behalf of his family and his brother’s estate, the lawsuit names Read, the Waterfall Bar & Grill, and C.F. McCarthy’s as defendants. It demands a jury trial.
Calls to Read’s lawyers for comments on the civil suit were not returned on Tuesday. A person who answered the phone at the Waterfall Bar & Grill said the owners were unavailable, and a representative at C.F. McCarthy’s declined to comment.
Read has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled for a retrial on January 27 on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. A two-month criminal trial previously ended in a mistrial in July when the jury was deadlocked, despite claims from some jurors that they had unanimously agreed Read was not guilty of murder and leaving the scene charges.
After their night out, Read, 44, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, dropped off O’Keefe, a 16-year veteran of the Boston police, outside the Canton home of another police officer. His body was later discovered in the front yard. An autopsy revealed that O’Keefe died from hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
Read’s defense lawyers contend that O’Keefe was killed inside the house and that she was framed as a “convenient outsider.”
The lawsuit asserts that Read and O’Keefe had been arguing and that Read knew she had hit him with her SUV before returning to his home. It also alleges that she awakened his 14-year-old niece hours later, saying something had happened to O’Keefe and speculating that he might have been struck by her or a snowplow.
