Karen Read not guilty of murder at second trial, gets slap on the wrist for drunk driving after years-long legal battle

Karen Read was found not guilty of killing her Boston cop boyfriend — concluding a years-long legal drama that had court spectators flocking to the sensational case.

A jury on Wednesday acquitted Read, 45, on the most serious charges in her second trial of leaving John O’Keefe to die in a snowstorm after hitting him with her car outside a suburban Boston house party more than three years ago.

She was also acquitted of leaving the scene of an accident causing death.

The only charge Read was found guilty of is operating under the influence of liquor — or drunk driving, landing her with one year of probation.

Her defense team argued that O’Keefe, 46, was beaten, bitten by a dog and then left outside the Canton home in freezing temperatures. They claimed the authorities constructed a conspiracy to paint Read as the culprit behind O’Keefe’s death.

The stunning verdict comes as Read’s second trial had key differences than the first — which ended in a mistrial last year.

The now-fired lead investigator on the case, Michael Proctor, did not testify at the second trial after he was confronted with a series of lewd texts he sent about Read during the first trial.

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He said on the stand at the time he regretted sending the messages – including calling her “‘wack job c–t” — and he wasn’t proud of it. He lost his job between the trials, though his supporters have argued he led a thorough probe into Read.

While Read again didn’t testify during the second trial, jurors heard a series of news interviews she did between the two courtroom battles.

She’s spoken to Vanity Fair, a documentary and to other TV reporters outside the courthouse.

“I didn’t think I hit him, hit him, but could I have clipped him, could I have tagged him in the knee and incapacitated him?” Read said on an October 2024 “Dateline” episode that was played in court, according to CNN.

“He didn’t look mortally wounded, as far as I could see – but could I have done something that knocked him out and in drunkenness and in the cold, he didn’t come to again?”

The lawyers representing the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office were also different this time around with a special prosecutor, Hank Brennan, taking the lead instead of Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally.

Brennan focused more on O’Keefe outside of his job instead of his work as a Boston police officer, NBC 10 Boston reported at the time.

Meanwhile, Read added new lawyers to her team, including New York-based attorney Robert Alessi and Victoria George, who was an alternate juror during Read’s first trial, CNN reported.

The two joined attorney Alan Jackson, who represented Read at both her trials.

A gag order has also been placed on the second trial that stops Read’s defense team from commenting on the case outside the courtroom, though the defendant herself is still allowed to talk to media, which she’s done throughout the retrial.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.