BOSTON (WHDH) – Karen Read recently opened up about the struggles she’s faced since being found not guilty of John O’Keefe’s murder – and why she no longer feels protected in the state of Massachusetts.
In a podcast interview, Read got emotional in her first extended public conversation wince she was found not guilty in the 2022 death of O’Keefe, her boyfriend and a Boston police officer.
“I wouldn’t say it was like the happiest day of my life,” Read said. “I felt sad, lie where am I gonna go? Back to the hotel, pack up , puck up my things, and then where do I go?”
Read said she has no job and is living with her parents; she and her team are working on a book.
Read was tried twice in the case, with her first trial ending in a hung jury.
In a new two-part podcast interview, Read opened up about how she felt following the acquittal in her second trial, saying her phone was blowing up but all she wanted to do was “decompress with [her] parents”.
She detailed what she called a “void” she’s lived in since the trial ended.
“It was very intense every waking hour,” she said. “Every hour, I thought about my freedom and if I could lose it and those feelings just don’t disappear when a jury foreman says not guilty.”
Read is still being sued by the O’Keefe family while separately pursuing her own case, claiming others caused O’Keefe’s death and covered it up.
In the nearly two-and-a-half hour interview she also expressed her desire to move out of Massachusetts, saying she doesn’t feel safe here.
“I am not anti-law-enforcement but I have had many, many members of law-enforcement abuse my rights and lie and that’s as far as I’ll go,” she said.
Read was found guilty of a lesser charge of drunk driving in her second trial.
She said she is currently in talks with a publisher, a producer, and an agent to continue sharing her story.
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