Karen Read Murder Trial: Why Boston Woman Says She Was Framed for Hitting Boyfriend With Car

A Massachusetts woman is maintaining her innocence as she stands accused in the death of her police officer boyfriend.

Karen Read, whose trial for the 2022 murder of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe has captivated the nation, has alleged local and state law enforcement officials have framed her and let the real killer go. 

Early in the morning of January 29, 2022, O'Keefe's body was found in a snowbank outside the Canton, Mass., home of Boston Police detective Brian Albert, where he, Read and others had been at a gathering. At the time, Read told authorities, per May 2023 court filings obtained by E! News, that she dropped off O'Keefe at the party before leaving. 

She also said that when he still hadn't returned at 5 a.m. the following morning and she couldn't reach him, she said she and friends Jennifer McCabe, Albert's sister-in-law, and Kerry Roberts went looking for him and found him in the snow outside Albert's home. O'Keefe was pronounced dead later that morning at Good Samaritan Hospital in Boston.

However, just days later, on Feb. 1, prosecutors arrested Read on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, motor vehicle homicide and leaving the scene of a deadly crash, NBC Boston reported from the courthouse. Citing results from the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory stating Read's BAC was between .13 percent and .29 percent, they alleged that an intoxicated Read struck O'Keefe after having an argument before driving away, leaving him for dead.

Read pleaded not guilty to the charges. Her defense has instead alleged that Read is being framed to cover up for an incident that took place at the home of a prominent law enforcement officer.

"Karen Read was framed," her defense attorney David Yannetti told the jury during opening statements April 29. "Her car never struck John O'Keefe. She did not cause his death and that means somebody else did. You will learn that it was no accident that John O'Keefe was found dead on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road on Jan. 29."

"You will learn that at that address, lived a well-known and well-connected law enforcement family in Canton—the Alberts," Yannetti, who argued that O'Keefe's injuries were not consistent with a vehicle collision but rather a beating, continued. "Because the Alberts were involved, and because they had close connections to the investigators in this case, Karen Read was framed for a murder she did not commit."

For proof of the Albert family's influence in the local area, Yannetti pointed to Brian Alberts' brother Kevin, a detective in the Canton Police Department. Due to his position in the police department, the case was handed to the Massachusetts State Police. But Yannetti claims the O'Keefe's murder case was purposely mishandled as the lead state trooper Michael Proctor in the investigation is a close family-friend to the Alberts, whose home O'Keefe was found outside of.

Meanwhile, Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally steered the focus on Read, telling the jury they would be hearing what she had told first responders who arrived on the scene following the 911 calls. 

"The defendant, Karen Read, is guilty of murder in the second degree," Lally said in his opening remarks, "striking the victim, Mr. O'Keefe, with her car, knocking him back onto the ground, striking his head on the ground, causing the bleeding in his brain and swelling, and then leaving him there for several hours in a blizzard."

E! News has reached out to the Canton Police Department, Massachusetts State Police, the family of Brian and Kevin Albert, as well as Michael Proctor but has not heard back. 

(NBC Boston and E! are part of the NBCUniversal family.)