Jury has Reached Verdict In Karen Read’s Retrial: Guilty of Operating Vehicle Under Influence of Alcohol

Update: Jury verdict –  NOT Guilty of Second Degree Murder, Not Guilty of Manslaughter, Not Guilty of leaving scene of accident resulting in death, and Guilty of Operating Vehicle Under Influence of Alcohol. She will get one year of probation.

The jury of the Karen Read retrial had been deliberating for about 20+ hours. Jury knock on the door saying they had a verdict then a minute later they knock again saying “they didn’t have a verdict”.

Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV in 2022. Her defense argues she is the victim of an elaborate coverup and is being framed by a group of people that includes law enforcement.

Karen Read and John O’Keefe with a group of friends went to the Waterfall Bar and Grill in Canton on the night of January 28, 2022. According to prosecutors, Read consumed several alcoholic beverages and then drove O’Keefe to the home of Boston police officer Brian Albert. That is where police said people from the bar were meeting back up.

On February 2, 2022, Read appears in Stoughton District Court for the first time, pleading not guilty to manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death.

The high-profile Karen Read murder trial that took place at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts ended months later in a mistrial due to a hung jury.

Read’s second trial began with jury selection on April 1, 2025 after months of additional pretrial hearings following the mistrial. The jury got the case in the retrial and began deliberations on June 13, 2025.

Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal collision. There are also three lesser included offenses under the OUI manslaughter charge: involuntary manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide, and OUI.