The Massachusetts State Police will pay Karen Read a six-figure settlement to resolve her lawsuit against the agency, months after she was acquitted of murdering her police officer boyfriend in a closely watched trial.
Read will receive $100,000 under the agreement. She was found not guilty in June 2025 of second-degree murder in the death of John O’Keefe, a 46-year-old Boston police officer.
Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily on January 29, 2022, before she left him at a party at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert.
The prosecution argued that Read, 46, struck O’Keefe with her SUV before leaving him outside to die. Her defense countered that O’Keefe was killed inside the house and later dragged outdoors.
On June 4 of this year, Read filed a civil lawsuit in Bristol County Superior Court against the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton. The complaint accused authorities of misconduct and negligence during the investigation that led to her prosecution.
Read alleged that former state trooper Michael Proctor, who served as the lead investigator in her murder case, sent dozens of racist and bigoted text messages. Those messages, she claimed, exposed “an embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures, and institutional rot” within the police force.
The state police said the settlement would “avoid prolonged litigation and the significant costs to taxpayers of continuing the case,” according to the Washington Post.
Because Read brought her claims under Massachusetts’ Tort Claims Act, $100,000 was the maximum amount she could recover.
The Massachusetts State Police agreed to pay Karen Read $100,000 to settle a civil lawsuit in which she alleged the department had “an embedded culture of bigotry”
Prosecutors alleged that Read, 46, struck O’Keefe with her SUV before driving away on the night he died in January 2022
However, Read “did not agree or admit” in court filings that the alleged misconduct caused only $100,000 in damages, Boston.com reported.
According to the reported filings, Read is also “pursuing similar claims and related relief in other venues.”
The settlement awarding Read $100,000 still requires approval from a judge.
Her claims against the town of Canton remain active, according to the outlet.
Read’s lawsuit alleged that Proctor and former Canton police Sgt. Sean Goode, who responded to the scene, repeatedly exchanged vile and antisemitic messages.
The complaint said Proctor called Read a “whack job” and wrote that he hoped she would kill herself.
It also alleged that he once wrote that “Hitler was really on to something” and used the n-word.
The Massachusetts State Police fired Proctor in March 2025 after he had been suspended without pay.
Read alleged that former state trooper Michael Proctor, pictured in June 2024, repeatedly sent offensive messages about her, including racist and antisemitic remarks
Proctor’s termination order said he “sent derogatory, defamatory, disparaging, and/or otherwise inappropriate text messages” about Read, according to the Boston Globe.
The order also said he “created an image that he was biased in his dealings with a homicide suspect and/or brought otherwise himself and the Massachusetts State Police into disrepute” through his conduct.
In a November 2 filing, the Massachusetts State Police said it unequivocally condemned the “racist, sexist, and abhorrent messages quoted in the complaint,” adding that they did not reflect the department’s values and were not tolerated within its ranks, according to Boston25News.
Proctor has maintained that the “juvenile, unprofessional comments had zero impact on the facts, the evidence and the integrity of the investigation.”
Read was acquitted of murdering O’Keefe but was convicted last year of the lesser charge of drunken driving.
A second-degree murder conviction could have resulted in a life sentence.
She had also faced charges of manslaughter and leaving the scene.
Read was acquitted nearly a year after a separate jury deadlocked over O’Keefe’s death, leading to a mistrial in her first trial
Commonwealth of Massachusetts medical examiner Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello testified that O’Keefe died from blunt-impact injuries to the head and hypothermia
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The verdict came nearly a year after another jury deadlocked over O’Keefe’s death on July 1, 2024, prompting the judge to declare a mistrial.
Dr. Irini Scordi-Bello, a medical examiner for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, testified that O’Keefe’s cause of death was blunt-impact injuries to the head and hypothermia.
Scordi-Bello had previously testified that she did not have enough information to determine whether the injuries were accidental.
Although the settlement resolves one lawsuit, several civil cases connected to O’Keefe’s death remain pending.
O’Keefe’s family has sued Read for wrongful death, while Read has filed a federal lawsuit against civilian witnesses and investigators, accusing them of colluding to frame her.
Four witnesses also filed a defamation lawsuit against Read in April. That case remains unresolved.
The Daily Mail has contacted the Massachusetts State Police and Aaron Rosenberg, an attorney for Read, for further comment.