(BOSTON) — The family of a Boston police officer whose death is at the center of the Karen Read murder case has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her and two Massachusetts bars they went to before his death.
John O’Keefe III, 46, was found dead the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, outside a home in Canton, Massachusetts, police said. The civil lawsuit, filed Monday, alleged that his girlfriend, Read, struck him with her car while intoxicated and left him for dead.
The lawsuit, which includes O’Keefe’s brother, parents and niece as plaintiffs, is suing Read and two bars — C.F. McCarthy’s and Waterfall Bar and Grille — for unspecified damages, alleging wrongful death and negligent infliction of emotional distress.
Read’s attorney told ABC News her defense team is not commenting on the lawsuit at this time.
A representative for C.F. McCarthy’s had no comment when contacted by ABC News. ABC News was unable to reach the owner of Waterfall Bar and Grille.
The lawsuit comes after a judge declared a mistrial last month in the case against Read, who was charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. She had pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors alleged she hit O’Keefe with her car and left him to die in the middle of a snowstorm after the two got into an argument earlier in the day.
Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in the case on July 1 after the jury said it was unable to reach a unanimous consensus on the fifth day of deliberations. The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said they planned to retry the case, and the new trial has been scheduled to start on Jan. 27, 2025.
Cannone last week denied a request to dismiss two of Read’s charges — second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident — in the retrial. Read’s attorneys had argued in court filings that retrying her on the charges would violate double jeopardy protections because, based on subsequent statements from four jurors, the jury had reached a unanimous decision to acquit Read on the charges.
In her ruling released on Friday, Cannone concluded that double jeopardy was not at issue “because the defendant was not acquitted of any charges and defense counsel consented to the court’s declaration of a mistrial.”
Read has strenuously denied the allegations, and her lawyers alleged that a fellow police officer was involved in O’Keefe’s death and colluded with others in a cover-up.
The lawsuit alleges Read and O’Keefe’s relationship had been “deteriorating” in the months leading up to his death, during which time Read “picked fights, experienced jealousy and had delusions of unfaithfulness.”
Read was served seven alcoholic drinks over roughly an hour and a half while at C.F. McCarthy’s with O’Keefe on the night of Jan. 28, 2022, and “showed signs of intoxication,” the lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit then alleges she carried out her drink and went to Waterfall, where she was served one shot and one mixed alcoholic drink, before leaving with O’Keefe shortly after midnight and driving him to a residence in Canton.
The lawsuit alleges the two had an argument and she “drove her SUV and hit” O’Keefe, then fled the scene and went to O’Keefe’s home. The lawsuit claims Read returned to the residence later that morning and observed him “laying on the ground, buried in the snow, where she had earlier left him to die.” O’Keefe suffered trauma injuries before becoming hypothermic, the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges the two bars negligently service alcohol to an intoxicated person, and that Read “intended the reckless conduct that resulted in [O’Keefe’s] injuries/death.”
The lawsuit also alleges Read “intentionally and/or recklessly inflicted severe emotional distress” on O’Keefe’s then-14-year-old niece, who was under his care. Read allegedly returned to his home, woke the teen up and told her something had happened to her uncle, that “she hit her uncle or a snow plow hit her uncle,” according to the lawsuit.
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