Karen Read files explosive new lawsuit against Mass. State Police, Canton Police Department

TAUNTON, Mass. — Karen Read, the Mansfield woman acquitted of murder last year in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, has filed a new lawsuit against the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department, alleging a system-wide failure of law enforcement led to her wrongful prosecution over three years.

Attorneys Alan Jackson, Damon Seligson, and Aaron Rosenberg said in a joint news release that the 87-page lawsuit was filed Thursday morning in Bristol County Superior Court.

The lawsuit alleges negligence, civil conspiracy, and misconduct tied to the investigation into John O’Keefe’s death, claiming investigators deliberately focused on Read from the start while ignoring other possible suspects due to “biased and predetermined” case against her.

“This case is about two institutions — the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department — and a culture of bias and corruption that they built, tolerated, and hid from the public for years," Read’s attorneys said in a statement.

Read, 46, was previously charged with second-degree murder after prosecutors alleged she backed over O’Keefe, with her SUV and left him for dead during a snowstorm in Canton in January 2022. She was ultimately acquitted in June 2025 after a mistrial was declared in her first trial the year prior.

Other major allegations outlined in the filing include:

• Accusations that investigators planted or manipulated evidence, including taillight fragments and glass.
• Claims key evidence was mishandled or not properly secured.
• Police allegedly did not properly search the home where O’Keefe was last seen.
• Claims investigators ignored physical evidence inconsistent with their theory.
• Lawsuit says surveillance video was deleted or not preserved.
• Claims key witnesses’ phones were not seized and later destroyed.
• Claims investigators were influenced by personal relationships and conflicts of interest.

Jackson, Seligson, and Rosenberg also claim former Massachusetts Trooper Michael Proctor and ex-Canton Police Sgt. Sean Goode were both “unfit for positions of public trust” and that their conduct compromised the integrity of the case.

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“Michael Proctor and Sean Goode did not slip through the cracks; they are emblematic of the failure to responsibly exercise the trust and faith the public puts in these institutions,” their statement read. “Proctor and Goode were unfit for positions of public trust, and yet they were handed badges, promotions, and ultimately control of homicide investigations despite harboring deep-seated and abhorrent anti-woman, racist, antisemitic, and homophobic ideologies for more than a decade.”

Proctor, who served as the lead investigator in the Read murder case, was fired from his role within the state police in March 2025. He was relieved of his duty without pay after a mistrial was declared in Read’s first trial, and his last day with the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office followed soon thereafter.

Proctor came under fire for a series of disparaging texts he sent about Read, which he read aloud in court during witness testimony at her first trial. Proctor admitted on the stand that the texts were “unprofessional.” He called Read things like a “whack job” and other derogatory words. He also talked about her medical issues and wrote, “No nudes so far,” while going through her phone.

Goode, who responded to the scene of O’Keefe’s death, submitted his resignation from the Canton Police Department this week. He also testified during Read’s first trial. He was suspended from the department in October 2025 and placed on leave shortly after investigators uncovered additional “troubling” text messages on the phone of fired Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor.

In the 87-page filing, a slew of vulgar, profanity-laced text messages between Proctor and Goode highlight the rampant use of dergoatory racial remarks aimed at African Americans and Asians, as well as offensively explicit references to women.

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“Michael Proctor and Sean Goode are not the exception. They are the evidence. The State Police knew about Proctor’s prejudices and biases in February 2024 and did nothing. Canton reviewed Goode’s vile messages last year and never terminated him. Rather, Canton allowed Goode to keep his rank until he chose to resign two days ago, on the eve of this lawsuit. That is the culture of these two institutions,” Read’s attorneys added in their statement.

Read’s attorneys also vowed that the “truth is coming.”

“As Karen Read saw firsthand, when agencies fail to ensure that those entrusted with authority are fit to exercise it, the consequences can be devastating. Karen Read was acquitted of every charge related to John O’Keefe’s death — and now the agencies that negligently permitted virulent misogynists and bigots to target her will answer for what they built, what they concealed, and what they did to her. The days of hiding behind badges and promotions while peddling vile bigotry are over. The truth is coming, and with it an unflinching reckoning," Read’s attorneys stated.

Read’s attorneys say the “culture of bias, corruption, and misconduct” within MSP and CPD lead to a wrongful prosecution over three years, resulting in Read losing her career, income, home, and financial stability. The say Read also suffered damage to her reputation, as well as severe emotional and physical distress.

Read currently faces a wrongful death civil lawsuit filed by John O’Keefe’s family.

In court documents obtained by Boston 25 News on Wednesday, Read laid out a series of explosive allegations in her federal civil rights lawsuit against multiple people who testified against her in her two murder trials.

The accusations are contained in a 34-page filing in which Read pushes back against a motion to have her lawsuit tossed out of court.

Read’s filing provides specific details of what she claims occurred at 34 Fairview Road in Canton on January 29, 2022, the night of O’Keefe’s death.

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