The long, bizarre saga of Karen Read is finally over. After years of court drama, viral conspiracy theories, and accusations of a police coverup, 45-year-old Karen Read was acquitted of the most serious charges in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe.
Read was found not guilty of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter – but the jury didn’t let her walk completely. Read was convicted of the lesser charge of operating under the influence of liquor, having a blood alcohol level above the legal limit of .08%. In sentencing, which happened almost immediately after the verdicts were read, she was treated no differently than any other first- time offender with a DUI. She’ll serve a year of probation and will be in a court-ordered substance abuse treatment program – avoiding prison time entirely
So how drunk was she? A hospital test showed her BAC around .093% at 9 a.m. – hours after the alleged incident. A prosecution expert claimed it may have peaked at .29% the night before. The defense pushed back, citing calculation errors and suggesting she drank later.
The retrial skipped many of the theatrics of the first round with no explosive police confrontations in appearances by the many people who drank with O’Keefe and Read at the bar and those who were at the house where O’Keefe was found dead. This time, both sides focused heavily on scientific evidence.
Though the prosecution alleged Read drunkenly rammed O’Keefe with her SUV and left him to die in the snow, the defense raised enough doubt – blaming police misconduct, flawed forensic science, and even a potential dog bite. And because the investigation was so shoddily done, there was reasonable doubt all over the place for the jury to grasp onto. And grasp onto it they did.
Jurors were clearly unconvinced by the murder theory – or even the fact that Read had hit O’Keefe at all, even unintentionally. After puzzling through some confusing jury forms, the jurors delivered a verdict today after deliberating for about 20 hours – which ended in Read hugging her defense team and the pro-Read crowd outside of the courthouse erupting in loud cheers.
In the end, Karen Read didn’t leave court in shackles – just with a DUI conviction. No second-degree murder. No manslaughter. Just a headline-grabbing case of drunk driving. Ironically, according to video and witness testimony, she wasn’t the only one drinking that night – several police officers and others at the same gathering were (allegedly) indulging right alongside her and John. But will they get charged with a DUI?
Nope.
Why? Because many of them are police officers. When the lead investigator, Trooper Michael Proctor, was asked by a friend in a text message about O’Keefe’s body being found in the lawn of a cop’s house. Proctor’s friend asked, “So the homeowner is gonna get some shit from this?”
Proctor replied bluntly: “No… because he’s a Boston cop.”
Proctor was one of many problems in the trial which led to all of the reasonable doubt.
And for those of you who have followed the case since the incident on January 29, 2022 and through both trials, it’s been a full-blown “Truman Show” experience. Your lives became immersed in every twist and turn. Now that it’s over (except for any civil trials), just like in the movie, you are probably asking: What next? In answer to that, the Brian Kohberger case is scheduled to start in August.
The post Karen Read Verdict: Not Guilty of Murder, but Guilty of Getting Drunk appeared first on Steve Gruber.
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Author: Liberty Paige
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