WATCH: Karen Read addresses sea of ecstatic supporters after being acquitted of murder
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By Frank O'Laughlin
DEDHAM, Mass. — Karen Read thanked hundreds of her supporters for standing behind her throughout her legal battle after jurors in her retrial acquitted her of murder in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend on Wednesday afternoon.
Read stopped at the bottom of the stairs on her way out of Dedham’s Norfolk Superior Court to address hundreds of her screaming supporters who were all dressed in pink.
“I could not be standing here without these amazing supporters who have supported me and my team financially and more importantly, emotionally for almost four years,” Read said as a massive crowd yelled back at her, “We love you.”
Karen Read Trial Karen Read suppporters react after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
Karen Read Trial Supporters of Karen Read react after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
Karen Read Trial Supporters of Karen Read react after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
APTOPIX Karen Read Trial Supporters of Karen Read react after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
Karen Read Trial Karen Read supporter Bonnie Fitzgibbon of Chelmsford, MA, wears earrings mocking the investigation into the death of John O'Keefe outside the courthouse on the third day of jury deliberations in Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
Karen Read Trial Nichole Tellier, a resident of Cape Cod, Mass., center, and fellow supporters of Karen Read, react as she leaves the courthouse at the start of the third day of jury deliberations in Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
Karen Read Trial Supporters of Karen Read, react as she leaves the courthouse at the start of the third day of jury deliberations in Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
Karen Read Trial Blogger Aidan Kearney, center, meets with fans and Karen Read supporters, from left, Linda Allen of Rockland, MA, and Shannon LoPorto of Weymouth, MA, outside the Dedham, Mass. courthouse on the third day of jury deliberations in Read's trial at Norfolk Superior Court, Wednesday, June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds) (Josh Reynolds/AP)
Read added, “No one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have and my team.”
Jurors returned a verdict in Read’s high-profile murder case shortly before 3 p.m., finding her not guilty of second-degree murder in the death of O’Keefe, but guilty of a lesser charge of drunken driving.
The jury handed down its decision after deliberating for at least 22 hours since June 13.
Read, 45, was accused of striking O’Keefe with her car outside a house party in Canton and leaving him to die in the snow in January 2022. She had been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene.
Read’s lawyers argued that O’Keefe, 46, was beaten, bitten by a dog, then left outside a home in Canton in a conspiracy orchestrated by the police that included planting evidence against Read.
The verdict comes nearly a year after a separate jury deadlocked over whether Read killed John O’Keefe in 2022.