DEDHAM, Mass. — Karen Read’s legal team is doubling down on the defense that led to her acquittal in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
In response to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by O’Keefe’s family, Read’s attorneys claim she was framed.
The defense alleges O’Keefe was beaten and possibly mauled by a dog before his body was discovered outside a Canton home in January 2022.
These claims mirror arguments made during Read’s second criminal trial, which ended in June with a jury finding her not guilty of murder and manslaughter in O’Keefe’s death.
“To the extent that the Plaintiffs have suffered damages, all such damages claimed were caused by the acts and omissions of third parties for whom Ms. Read is not responsible,” her civil attorneys wrote Tuesday in response to the lawsuit, according to The Boston Globe.
O’Keefe’s family filed the civil lawsuit against Read in Plymouth Superior Court last summer after her first trial ended with a hung jury and Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone declaring a mistrial.
The 22-page lawsuit was filed on behalf of O’Keefe’s brother Paul, his father, John O’Keefe II, his mother, Margaret O’Keefe, and his niece and nephew, whom he was raising at his Canton home after both of their parents died.
The lawsuit alleges that Read “outrageously created a false narrative” and the O’Keefe family has suffered “emotional injuries, severe physical pain, anguish, emotional distress and other harm… caused by defendant Read’s negligence.”
No date has been set for the civil trial.
In September, Read’s team announced plans to file her own lawsuit against state troopers assigned to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, the Canton Police Department, and witnesses, including Brian Albert, Nicole Albert, Brian Higgins, Jennifer McCabe, and Matthew McCabe.
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