NEW BEDFORD, Mass. (Court TV) — Karen Read is fighting back against the key players in her criminal trial, filing a lawsuit against members of the state police and two families she said conspired to frame her.
Karen Read attends her murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (Libby O’Neill/The Boston Herald via AP, Pool)
Read faced two jury trials on charges she murdered her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, and was acquitted of the most serious charges. After the first trial ended with a mistrial, a second jury cleared her of the murder charge and found her guilty only of operating a vehicle under the influence.
A civil lawsuit filed by O’Keefe’s family against Read for wrongful death adopts the prosecution’s theory that Read, driving drunk, hit the victim with her Lexus SUV and then left him to die in the snow. Read had previously filed a response to that suit, denying any responsibility.
Now, Read is laying out her own theory of O’Keefe’s death in a lawsuit she filed naming most of the key witnesses in her trial. The lawsuit names the owners of the home where O’Keefe was found, Brian and Nicole Albert, as well as others who were inside the home that night and investigators tasked with unraveling what happened.
MORE | Dueling Karen Read lawsuits result in confusion, delays
Read says in her filing that O’Keefe was killed after a physical altercation inside the home in the early morning hours of January 29, 2022, and the people inside “concocted a plan immediately after the altercation to avoid culpability and to frame Karen Read.” The suit names others in the home, including Jennifer and Matthew McCabe and Brian Higgins, all of whom testified against Read.
Former trooper Michael Proctor, his supervisor, Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, and Detective Brian Tully, members of the Massachusetts State Police who investigated O’Keefe’s death, are all named in the suit and alleged to have worked with the “House Defendants” to direct the investigation away from the people inside the house and towards Read. The lawsuit notes that all three officers were disciplined for their behavior during the case, with Proctor being fired from his job.
“Adhering to the unwritten rule of ‘protecting their own,’ Proctor and his MSP colleagues intentionally disregarded the obvious and compelling evidence tying the House Defendants to Mr. O’Keefe’s murder.”
Read asserts in her lawsuit that she is not only seeking justice for herself, after she was “personally sexualized and dehumanized” during the investigation, but also for O’Keefe. “His killer, or killers, still walk free,” the lawsuit says. “By asserting her claims against MSP, Proctor, his supervisors, the Town of Canton and the House Defendants, Ms. Read seeks, at minimum, to confront and redress these wrongs and others.”
In a statement to Court TV, Read’s attorney Alan Jackson said, “Today’s filing speaks for itself. It is a meticulously documented civil action grounded in evidence, law and the Constitution. For more than three years, Karen Read was dragged through a baseless criminal prosecution engineered by individuals who abused their authority, manipulated the investigative process, and trampled her rights.”
Jim Tuxbury, an attorney for Brian Higgins, Nicole Albert, Brian Albert, Jennifer McCabe, and Matthew McCabe, told Court TV in a statement, “The allegations made by Karen Read are entirely false, defamatory, and without merit. Our clients categorically deny each and every claim. This lawsuit is nothing more than a continuation of a baseless conspiracy narrative that has caused significant harm to the reputations and lives of innocent people. Our clients acted responsibly, fulfilling their civic duty as witnesses, and have participated appropriately in the legal process from the outset. Ms. Read’s claims distort the facts, misrepresent the evidence, and target private citizens in an attempt to deflect blame. As reported yesterday, we will hold Ms. Read accountable for the harm she has inflicted and the conspiracy she and Aidan Kearney, also known as Turtleboy, have manufactured.”
The Massachusetts State Police and Town of Canton were not initially listed as defendants in the lawsuit; a footnote in the filing indicates they will be added as soon as is procedurally allowed.
