Federal investigation of Karen Read case is officially over, special prosecutor confirms
Boston woman accused of killing her police officer boyfriend in 2022 and argued she was framed to protect other law enforcement officers
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A federal investigation into the death of John O'Keefe in the Karen Read case has officially been closed, and no charges will be filed against police, a special prosecutor confirmed in Norfolk Superior Court on Tuesday.
Read, 44, is accused of killing her Boston police officer boyfriend O'Keefe by hitting him with her SUV outside a Canton home on January 29, 2022, and leaving him to die in a snowstorm.
Her attorneys argued she was framed to protect other law enforcement officers they say were involved in O’Keefe’s death.
But on Tuesday, special prosecutor Hank Brennan told the court the federal probe has come to an end.
“There is no longer any federal investigation into the investigation of John O’Keefe’s death or any related matters,” he said, noting that he had permission from the US Attorney's office to reveal the news. “It is closed. It is over.”
Canton Police Chief Helena Rafferty then released its own statement about the probe.
“I recently spoke to and was informed by the U.S. Attorney's Office, that ALL ASPECTS of the federal investigation, initiated by her predecessor and related to the death of John O'Keefe, have been completed,” Rafferty said in a statement, according to CBS News.
“The investigation is no longer active and will be closed. Due to ethical limitations, I cannot comment further.”
Brennan had been arguing for a gag order for the defense on Tuesday when he announced that the federal probe into O'Keefe's death had ended.
The prosecutor asked Judge Beverly Cannone to impose sanctions on the defense and to put any future defense motions under seal until it is determined that there is no protected material, and to put an end to the defense’s media strategy of open interviews, CBS reported.
“There should be a gag order on all of these attorneys, every single one of them, and the commonwealth will not speak either,” Brennan said.
Read’s case returned to court this week for the first in a series of key hearings leading up to her second trial which is expected to begin on April 1.
A judge declared a mistrial in June after finding jurors couldn’t reach an agreement, without polling the jurors to confirm their conclusions.
Read’s attorney Martin Weinberg argued that five jurors later said they were deadlocked only on the manslaughter count, and had unanimously agreed in the jury room that she wasn’t guilty on the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene. But they hadn’t told the judge.
The ruling from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court then cleared the way for a new trial on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter and leaving the scene of a crime.