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Karen Read, who was acquitted earlier this year of the murder of her Boston police officer boyfriend, has taken legal action with a new lawsuit. She claims that a collective of current and former law enforcement officials, along with their relatives, collaborated in a scheme to falsely accuse her while safeguarding those truly responsible for the crime.
The lawsuit, submitted on Monday, targets several individuals from the Massachusetts State Police, the Boston Police Department, and private citizens. Read alleges that these individuals orchestrated a cover-up in the aftermath of the death of Officer John O’Keefe. She contends that they leveraged their law enforcement connections to manipulate evidence, mislead the investigation, and wrongfully point the finger at her for O’Keefe’s untimely demise.
Officer O’Keefe’s body was discovered in the early hours of January 29, 2022, on the lawn of Brian and Nicole Albert’s residence after a night of socializing amidst a blizzard. Karen Read, along with two other women, including Jennifer McCabe—a suburban soccer mom accused of orchestrating the alleged cover-up—found him there.
It is important to note that neither McCabe nor any other individuals named in Read’s lawsuit have been officially identified as suspects in the investigation into O’Keefe’s death by law enforcement authorities.
Karen Read was seen leaving Norfolk County Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, on June 13, 2025. (Photo courtesy of Richard Beetham for Fox News Digital)
Read was later charged with second-degree murder and related offenses, but, in June 2024, a jury acquitted her of all homicide charges, convicting her only of drunken driving. She has consistently maintained her innocence, alleging that investigators ignored or concealed evidence pointing elsewhere.
According to the lawsuit, O’Keefe was killed inside the Alberts’ home during a late-night altercation after heavy drinking. The complaint refers to several defendants as the “House Defendants,” accusing them of using their law enforcement experience to “concoct a plan immediately after the altercation to avoid culpability and to frame Karen Read.”
“Karen Read did not kill her then-boyfriend, Mr. O’Keefe,” the lawsuit reads. “Rather, in the early morning hours of January 29th, Mr. O’Keefe was killed in Defendants Brian and Nicole Albert’s home … in an altercation during a late-night house party with other Defendants (collectively, the “House Defendants”) after a night of heavy drinking.”
Karen Read reacts during a prosecutor’s questions to accident reconstructionist Dr. Judson Welcher during her trial May 27, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Other defendants named in the lawsuit are Michael Proctor, a former Massachusetts State Police detective who was fired after discussing confidential aspects of the case with his friends in a lewd text chain; MSP Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik, another investigator on the case; Lt. Brian Tully, another MSP homicide investigator who faced disciplinary repercussions over the Read case; Brian Albert, a former Boston police officer who had a party at the address where O’Keefe was found dead; his wife Nicole; his sister-in-law Jennifer McCabe; her husband Matthew; and ATF Agent Brian Higgins, who was at the party.
The lawsuit alleges that the “House Defendants” used their law enforcement expertise and “concocted a plan immediately after the altercation to avoid culpability and to frame Karen Read.”
Citing expert testimony from her criminal trial, which prosecutors sought to discredit, the complaint claims that the “House Defendants” searched Google for the phrase “hos long to die in the cold” rather than call 911, conspiring to make it look as though O’Keefe had been killed by Read’s SUV, then dragged his body out of the home and left him in the snow overnight.
Karen Read talks with attorneys Robert Alessi and David Yannetti during her trial in Norfolk Superior Court May 6, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (Matt Stone/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
The lawsuit also highlights investigative errors, including the use of red Solo cups to store evidence, mislabeled evidence bags and a failure to check nearby security cameras, missteps that the complaint argues undermined the case against Read.
It further accuses investigators of planting evidence, manipulating surveillance video and destroying cellphones to bolster the false narrative.
According to the complaint, Proctor, Bukhenik and Canton Police Chief Ken Berkowitz had access to Read’s vehicle after it was seized.
Massachusetts State Trooper Connor Keefe presents taillight fragments into evidence during Karen Read’s murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., May 7, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
“One or more of them destroyed the taillight, secretly took pieces of it into their possession, and then planted some of them in various places at 34 Fairview and on Mr. O’Keefe’s clothes,” the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit goes on to claim that Proctor and other members of the state police “intentionally disregarded the obvious and compelling evidence” that O’Keefe had been killed inside the home.
Read’s legal team says investigators failed to search the interior for blood, ignored signs of injury consistent with an assault and neglected to send a crime scene photographer or criminalist to examine the property.
No one other than Read has ever been charged in O’Keefe’s death. The FBI has interviewed several individuals linked to the case, but no new suspects have been named by law enforcement.
Attorneys representing the defendants have not yet filed responses to the lawsuit.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.