Karen Read was found innocent of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in Death on Wednesday after three years of drama, intrigue, tribalism and fantasy surrounding the case that impacted the commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Wednesday was not all smiles for Read, who was also cleared of a charge of vehicular manslaughter of boyfriend John O’Keefe but found guilty of a sub-charge of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.
She was immediately sentenced for that count, receiving a year of probation “like anyone else charged with first time OUI” according to Judge Beverley Cannone before leaving the courtroom to be embraced by her adoring fans.
Read was originally charged after a messy investigation that saw the Canton police department recuse themselves from the investigation and the Boston State police take over due to ties between the Canton police force and Brian Albert, who owned the property where John O’Keefe’s body was found.
The investigation was also hampered by a blizzard that moved through the area, depositing nearly a large amount of snow in the crime scene, making a proper investigation nearly impossible.
Shards of plastic were found up to weeks after the death of O’Keefe and procedures and policies of the small-town police department were followed in the recovery of evidence.
The decision to prosecute Read based on the investigation was widely criticized at the time based on the troubled investigation.
Read presented an aggressive defense from the beginning, allegedly using her family’s influence to get Josh Levy, the now former United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts involved.
After an investigation on behalf of Read, no charges were made against anyone, and no findings were released. Before the start of Read’s first trial, all of those who Read considered suspects in a conspiracy against her were told by Levy’s office that no charges would be filed against them.
Read also aggressively used her fans to influence public opinion of the case. Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney rocketed to fame by being an unofficial spokesperson for Read before the first trial.
Kearney was later charged with multiple counts of witness intimidation after he brought large crowds of people to the homes of witnesses in the case and demanded that they recant their accusations against Read and admit that they actually played a part in O’Keefe’s murder.
Most recently, Kearney faced additional charges of witness intimidation after making threatening comments recorded by a security camera located at a pizza shop owned by one of the witnesses in the case.
The charges against Kearney are still pending.
Read’s first trial resulted in a hung jury. Prosecutors made the controversial decision to retry the case almost immediately after the first trial ended.
In the year that followed, Read continued her public campaign against the charges, literally embracing her status as a media darling of CourtTV and other outlets. Over 400 hours of Read interviews were turned over to the prosecution for the second trial.
The second trial itself was a streamlined version of the first. The defense of Read changed from O’Keefe being murdered by third parties who blamed it on Read, to their assertations that nothing happened to connect Read with O’Keefe’s death.
The prosecution apparently fixed key elements of the first case, streamlining their witness list and switching out experts who had proven problematic. Hank Brennon was brought in to be a special prosecutor in the case and received kudos for handling what he had to work with about as best as a person could do.
A key element was missing from the first trial, however, in the fact that State Trooper and lead investigator Michael Proctor was not scheduled to testify. Proctor had been fired from his job after the first trial as he inexplicably shared key elements of the case with a text chain of childhood friends, while joking he couldn’t find any nudes of Reed to his superiors in yet another text string.
It was another problem in a prosecution that was plagued by problems. It obviously impacted the case as it took the jury a little under three full days of deliberation to find Read guilty of a minor OUI charge and not guilty of everything else.
Read and fans celebrated on Wednesday. Her post-trial round of press interviews are currently in process.
