Karen Read gestures to supporters after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)

A jury found Karen Read not guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, but guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving.

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Read’s supporters gesture ‘I love you’ in sign language

During the trial when Read entered and exited the courthouse, supporters dressed in pink silently, raising their hands with pinky, pointer finger and thumb extended. Read would return the silent gesture, and her attorney even shushed the crowd after the trial’s closing arguments.

That silence was, of course, broken, following news of the not-guilty verdict

A compromise verdict

Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University, said this was a mercy or compromise verdict. That’s when jurors acquit the defendant of the most serious charges but convict on lesser offense when they have doubts about the case but want to hold the person accountable.

“Here, the evidence — including the defendant’s own admissions — made it clear that she drove while intoxicated and therefore OUI was a natural place for the jury to land,” Medwed said.

“We may never know, as a factual matter, whether Karen Read struck John O’Keefe with her vehicle that night. But, as a legal matter, the prosecution seemingly failed to put forth sufficient evidence to prove that she did by a reasonable doubt.”

‘Justice in all the sense’

Chris Reagan from Pembroke, Massachusetts. was jumping and cheering with friends he made from South Carolina and other states while being at the courthouse to support Read over the last few days.

He wore a judge’s robe and held a cardboard cutout of Read’s face.

“This is justice in all the sense. But we can’t take away from the O’Keefe family as well because they lost a son and a brother.”

He said people connected to Read’s story because they saw themselves in her.

“Karen Read, I believe, is just a normal person and it can just happen to anybody — anyone who I guess really doesn’t have a position of power. We see a lot of people in positions of power getting away with stuff, who think they are above the law.”

Being out on bond allowed Read to ‘work directly with her lawyers’

Shira Diner, a lecturer at the Boston University Law School, said the verdict “gives us an opportunity to reflect how this case would have been different if Karen Read was not a white woman of privilege and means.”

“The criminal legal system is full of inequities and the fact the defendant in this case was able to post bail and wasn’t held in custody while the case was pending made a huge difference,” Diner said. “She was able to work directly with her lawyers in a way that people can’t from behind bars. She was able to give interviews and craft a public narrative that a person without means would be unable to do. All of that work helped contribute to the verdict and that is a privilege that most people charged with second-degree murder do not have.”

O’Keefe’s family had no visible reaction to the verdict

His family members left the courthouse and didn’t speak to reporters.

Blogger known as ‘Turtleboy’ reacts to the verdict

Aidan Kearney has championed Read’s innocence and has been charged with witness intimidation in connection with her case. He told the AP he was “overcome with emotion” after hearing the verdict.

“Two and a half years of this. It’s finally over. Karen Read’s free,” Kearney said. “Everything I did was worth it, and we finally have justice. We finally put this nightmare behind us.

Karen Read supporters blare ‘We Are the Champions’

The music poured out of a car stopped at a light outside the courthouse.

Read’s father says he’s relieved

Bill Read told reporters outside the courthouse he felt relief and “tremendous thanks” to God when the verdict was read.

“We need to get our life back together, and we will.”

Asked why he thought the second trial’s outcome was different, he said, “another year of information circulating in the public, and people are aware of what’s happened.”

Read left in a black SUV with her family and attorneys

Surrounded by police, Read walked down the courthouse steps and got into a black SUV, where she rolled down the passenger seat window and thanked her supporters again.

“They pulled us through on their backs,” she said, before leaving.

Karen Read speaks to supporters outside the courthouse

“Number one, I could not be standing here without these amazing supporters,” Read said.

“No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have,” she added.

Some witnesses say it’s ‘a devastating miscarriage of justice’

Several witnesses in the case said in a statement Wednesday that their “hearts are with John and the entire O’Keefe family.”

The witnesses who signed the statement included Jennifer McCabe, who was with Read and O’Keefe the night of his death, and Brian Albert, who owned the home where the party took place.

“While we may have more to say in the future, today we mourn with John’s family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media. The result is a devastating miscarriage of justice,” the statement said.

Shouts of ‘Karen Read is free!’

Outside the courthouse, a sea of pink-shirted Read supporters started cheering as soon as the verdict was announced and continued for several minutes afterward.

After years of chanting “Free Karen Read,” they switched to shouting “Karen Read is free!”

The noise was loud enough to be heard inside the courtroom.

How long did the jury deliberate?

The jury handed down its decision after deliberating for at least 22 hours since June 13.

Read’s pink-clad supporters

Dozens of Read supporters, dressed mostly in pink, were camped out waiting for the verdict. They gathered behind barricades and across the courthouse each morning to catch a glimpse of Read. Once she would pass, the crowd would retire to beach chairs where they would swap stories and details about the case.

The crowd, some of whom come waving American flags or posters supporting Read or denigrating the prosecution, said they are there because Read could have been one of them. The tight-knit group of mostly women argues the Read case woke them up to a corrupt justice system, and they hope their movement can reform it. Some of them have been out here long before the first trial started.

Jury finds Karen Read not guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of drunken driving in boyfriend death

A jury found Karen Read not guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend but guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving.

The jury handed down its decision after deliberating for at least 22 hours since June 13.

Prosecutors argue Read chose to leave O’Keefe to die

Prosecutor Hank Brennan opened his closing argument Friday by saying Read callously decided to leave O’Keefe dying in the snow, fully aware that he was gravely injured. He argued that she made the “choice to let” O’Keefe die, going further than prosecutors in the first trial in spelling out a motive.

Brennan said Read’s blood-alcohol level was two to three times the legal limit, after the couple downed multiple drinks at two Canton bars. The couple, whose “toxic” relationship was “crumbling,” had an argument on the way to the house party that increased tensions and ultimately led to O’Keefe’s death, the prosecutor said.

“She was drunk, she hit him, and she left him to die,” Brennan said.

The defense argues Read was framed

Defense attorney Alan Jackson began his closing argument Friday by repeating three times: “There was no collision.” He told the jury that Read is an innocent woman victimized by a police cover-up in which law enforcement officers sought to protect their own and obscure the real killer.

He repeatedly attacked the lead investigator in the case, former Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor, who was fired after sharing offensive and sexist texts about Read with friends, family and co-workers. He said Proctor’s “blatant bias” tainted every aspect of the corrupt and flawed investigation and noted how prosecutors refused to put him on the stand, as they did during the first trial.

News from © The Associated Press, 2025