Read and her attorneys emerged from the Norfolk Superior Courthouse where they met by throngs of her cheering supporters. Read thanked the pink-clad crowd for backing her “for almost four years.”
“And the second thing I want to say, is no one has fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe than I have,” Read said. “Than I have and my team. Thank you.”
The Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey’s office said it had no comment on the Read verdict. O’Keefe’s family could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sean Coyle, a retired Boston firefighter and friend of O’Keefe, said he felt heartbroken for O’Keefe’s mother, Peggy, and “all she’s been through.”
“Three and a half years later and I just miss my friend,” Coyle said in a text message after the verdict came out. “He was the best guy I ever knew and this life just is not the same without him.”
Outside the courthouse after the verdict, Read attorney Alan Jackson told reporters that he felt “like a million dollars” and said Read’s acquittal marked “the greatest moment I’ve ever had as a professional.”
“I feel like an innocent woman was just exonerated and vindicated,” he said.
Read’s brother, Nathan Read, told reporters that his family is also thinking of the O’Keefe family and that they are “sorry for their loss.”
“We’ve always felt that way,” he said. “John was a good man. I knew John and we cared about him very much.”
A civil lawsuit brought by O’Keefe’s family against Read and the two Canton bars they visited in the hours before his death is pending in Plymouth County.
It was the second time Read, 45, faced trial on charges that she killed O’Keefe after dropping him off at the Fairview Road home of a fellow Boston police officer early on Jan. 29, 2022. Her first trial ended with a hung jury last year, and the district attorney’s office vowed to try her again.
While prosecutors alleged that Read backed her SUV into O’Keefe and left him to die in the snow, her defense attorney’s presented a different account.
They alleged that O’Keefe went into the home, owned at the time by Brian Albert, a now-retired Boston police officer, who was hosting an after-party following a night of drinking with friends at two local bars in Canton. Read’s defense argued that O’Keefe was fatally beaten inside the home and possibly mauled by the family’s German Shepherd before his body was placed on the front lawn.
Among those who were with Read, O’Keefe, and the others at the bar and was later at the Fairview Road after-party was ATF agent Brian Higgins, who the defense said had a romantic interest in Read and may have wanted to harm O’Keefe.
One piece of evidence that raised some suspicions about the law enforcement account of O’Keefe’s death came from a Google search by Jennifer McCabe, Albert’s sister-in-law who was at the after-party and later joined Read in her search for O’Keefe, who they eventually found outside the house.
Data on McCabe’s phone showed a search for “hos [sic] to die in cold” with a timestamp of 2:27 a.m., several hours before O’Keefe’s body was found. She testified that she did the search on an old tab at 6:20 a.m. at Read’s request.
After the verdict Wednesday, McCabe, Albert, and several other key witnesses who testified at one or both of Read’s trial said her acquittal was “a devastating miscarriage of justice.”
“Today, our hearts are with John and the entire O’Keefe family,” said the statement, attributed to Jennifer McCabe, Matt McCabe, Chris Albert, Julie Albert, Nicole Albert, Brian Albert, Kerry Roberts and Curt Roberts.
“They have suffered through so much and deserved better from our justice system,” the witnesses said. “While we may have more to say in the future, today we mourn with John’s family and lament the cruel reality that this prosecution was infected by lies and conspiracy theories spread by Karen Read, her defense team, and some in the media.”
A former financial analyst and adjunct professor, Read was charged with manslaughter and leaving the scene in early February 2022, just a few days after O’Keefe’s body was found on the front lawn of the Fairview Road home. Later that year in June, a Norfolk County grand jury indicted her on a charge of second-degree murder.
Read hired Massachusetts defense attorney David Yanetti to represent her, and later in September 2022 Alan Jackson, a high-profile attorney from California who had represented the actor Kevin Spacey, joined Read’s defense.
Meanwhile, Read also found support from a Massachusetts blogger, Aidan Kearney, known widely as Turtleboy, who gained wide notoriety for writing extensive coverage of her case on his website and social media, championing her innocence.
Kearney has since faced multiple criminal charges relating to his activity on the Read case, including accusations of intimidating witnesses. Some of those charges have been dismissed while others remain pending. He was recently found not guilty of violating a restraining order while attending a hearing in the Read case.
Read’s first trial ended with a deadlocked jury last summer. But in the weeks after Judge Beverly J. Cannone declared a mistrial, some jurors came forward to Read’s attorneys and the media to say they had agreed to acquit her on the murder and leaving the scene charges but were divided on the manslaughter charge.
In the months between the end of Read’s first trial and the beginning of her second, she participated in several media interviews, many of which were shown during the second trial.
Jurors in the second trial heard much of the same testimony that the jury in the first trial had, but they did not hear from the State Police investigator who led the initial probe into O’Keefe’s death.
That investigator, Trooper Michael Proctor, was forced during the first trial to read aloud a series of crude and misogynistic text messages he sent to friends and colleagues about Read, including some messages that Read’s defense argued were clear evidence that the investigation was biased against her. Proctor was later fired by the State Police and was not called to testify in the second trial.
As the case gained wider public attention, it also proved to be widely divisive, with many followers staking their side on whether they believed Read was guilty or innocent. The division was especially felt locally in the town of Canton, where Chris Albert formerly served on the select board and faced months of verbal attacks from Read supporters during public meetings.
In a statement after the verdict was announced Wednesday, Canton Select Board Chair John McCourt said the Canton community “has been deeply affected” by case that brought “intense public interest, scrutiny and speculation for three years.”
“Today’s outcome may bring a sense of relief to some and continue to raise questions for others,” McCourt said. “We encourage members of the community to move forward together, treating one another with respect through civil, constructive dialogue.”
Outside the courthouse, Read’s supporters cheered and blew air horns and shot confetti in the air as some cried and embraced each other.
Ron Cecchini, 57 of Milton, said he was driving with his son to the courthouse when he heard the crowds cheering from down the street.
“I was banging the steering wheel while driving,” he said.
Caitlin McReynolds 40, wore silver cowboy boots and spun a pink American flag on the steps of the Norfolk County Registry of Deeds, across the street from the courthouse.
“Freedom rang today,” she said. “A little bit too late, but it’s here.”
Travis Andersen can be reached at travis.andersen@globe.com. Nick Stoico can be reached at nick.stoico@globe.com. Ava Berger can be reached at ava.berger@globe.com. Follow her @Ava_Berger_.
