Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman who was acquitted in the case of her boyfriend’s death this year, filed a lawsuit alleging that she was framed for the murder in a cover-up plot to keep authorities from finding out how her boyfriend truly died.
Read’s case drew national attention after the first attempt to prosecute her in the murder of John O’Keefe failed to win a unanimous jury decision.
But the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office tried again in a trial that cleared Read of murder and manslaughter charges in her boyfriend's death.
Now, Read is suing the investigators in her case and a group of people who were at the house where she last saw O’Keefe.
Accusations of a cover-up
In a suit filed Monday in Massachusetts, Read alleges the group conspired to frame her for O’Keefe’s murder. That is a theory Read’s attorneys brought up in her defense at trial, but the investigator who led the case, former Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, denied any wrongdoing.
Read was accused of killing O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, by hitting him with her car and leaving the scene. She was cleared in June of charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision.
Read denied ever having hit her boyfriend with the car or that she left him to die in the snow. She said the last time she saw O’Keefe was as he walked into the home of Nicole and Brian Albert.
An autopsy by the state medical examiner found that O’Keefe’s body showed “no signs of a vehicular strike." The suit alleges he had “dog bite wounds and scratches on his right arm and forearm."
The lawsuit alleges that O’Keefe died after an altercation amid a night of heavy drinking with people in the home, including the Alberts, Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, and Brian Higgins, an agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“During that altercation, the Alberts’ German Shepherd attacked him and Mr. O’Keefe sustained multiple dog bites and scratches on his right arm,” the suit alleges. “He also suffered an incapacitating ... wound on the back of his head.”
An attorney representing the Alberts, the McCabes and Higgins described the allegations as "false, defamatory, and without merit." Jim Tuxbury called the suit a continuation of a baseless conspiracy narrative that has damaged his clients' reputations.
"Ms. Read’s claims distort the facts, misrepresent the evidence, and target private citizens in an attempt to deflect blame," Tuxbury said.
The Alberts and the McCabes vehemently denied being involved in O’Keefe’s death in an interview with ABC News’ “Nightline” after Read was acquitted. They all denied O’Keefe ever entered the home on the night of his death.
Brian Albert described the conspiracy theory that they killed O’Keefe as “preposterous.”
“I don’t understand how people bought this,” he said.
Read’s suit went on to accuse Jennifer McCabe of entering a search into Google for how long it would take for someone to die in the cold. They then moved O’Keefe’s body outside to make it seem as if he had been hit by a car and died without ever having gone inside the home that night, the suit alleges.
Allegedly botched investigation
It further accuses them of using their ties to law enforcement to ensure that they would not be investigated in O’Keefe’s death.
At trial, Read’s attorneys said that Proctor led the investigation despite undisclosed ties to the Alberts and that he shared investigative details with his sister, who was close friends with Brian Albert’s sister-in-law. Proctor admitted having shared some details with his sister during his testimony in Read’s first trial, but he denied ever compromising the integrity of the investigation.
Read’s suit accuses Proctor of intentionally sidestepping investigatory protocol and messaging those who were in the house within hours of his getting the case to assure they wouldn’t get “s--- for this” because Brian Albert was a police officer. Proctor’s messages also said he would make the case cut and dried by bringing charges against Read, the suit says.
“True to his promise, Proctor and his colleagues did not search the House for blood evidence resulting from the gash to the back of Mr. O’Keefe’s head, or for fingerprints, or for DNA evidence,” the suit says.
Proctor also sent derogatory messages about Read to his friends and told his colleagues that he was searching Read’s phones for naked pictures of her, the suit says.
The suit also names two of Proctor’s supervisors, Lt. Brian Tully and Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, and alleges that they were aware of Proctor’s misconduct but did not act. The lawsuit accuses all three men of failing to conduct a meaningful investigation into other suspects.
A state police investigation found Bukhenik had failed to perform his supervisory duties, and he was transferred to an administrative role. Tully was disciplined and reassigned, while Proctor was terminated from the department.
Proctor and Bukhenik did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was unclear whether they had attorneys.
Timothy Burke, the attorney representing Tully, told NBC News that they look forward to participating in a civil trial. He noted that Read, who did not testify in her own trial, will have to face questions in a deposition for the civil case.
“It’s important to reiterate that Lt. Tully remains a respected member of the state police and was never a part of any so-called conspiracy and cover-up with regards to this investigation,” Burke said.
Read’s suit seeks a jury trial on counts of malicious prosecution, supervisor liability, conspiracy to deprive Read of her constitutional rights, violations of the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, intentional infliction of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
The alleged conspiracy against Read left a “profound effect” on her life and caused her to incur millions of dollars in legal fees, her suit says. It does not ask for a specific amount, instead requesting that damages be calculated at trial.
“She lost her employment and income,” the suit says. “She lost her professorship. She lost her private health insurance. She lost her car and her driver’s license. She lost her house. Her reputation — both personally and professionally — was utterly destroyed.”
