CNN
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A wrongful death civil lawsuit filed this month in a Massachusetts court by the estate and relatives of the late Boston police officer John O'Keefe accuses his then-girlfriend Karen Read of causing his death more than two years ago by “driving while intoxicated … in an unsafe manner.”
The lawsuit alleges that Read was grossly negligent, which resulted in O'Keefe suffering “serious physical and mental injuries,” pain and suffering, “fear of impending death, loss of earnings, and medical, funeral and burial expenses,” and death.
The lawsuit was filed in Plymouth County Superior Court after Read's criminal trial ended in July without a jury reaching a unanimous verdict on murder and other charges. A Norfolk County Superior Court judge declared the trial null and void, and a second trial is scheduled to begin in January.
The wrongful death lawsuit also names two Canton, Massachusetts bars – CF McCarthy's and Waterfall Bar and Grille – as defendants, accusing them of negligently selling alcohol to Read in the hours or minutes before the injuries that led to O'Keefe's death.
Read was accused of driving into O'Keefe while drunk on a snowy night in January 2022 and leaving him dying outside a Canton home where a party was taking place with other off-duty officers. She had pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, intoxicated manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident.
CNN is trying to find out the names of the lawyers who will handle her civil case and ask them for comment. CNN has also asked both bars for comment.
The criminal case against Read had divided a Massachusetts community, accusing police of a comprehensive cover-up and investigative misconduct. Read's lawyers claimed that Read was framed and that O'Keefe was beaten by people in the house and taken outside, where he died.
Family claims Read started arguments and was jealous
O'Keefe's family claims in their filing that the relationship between him and Read deteriorated in the weeks and days leading up to his death on January 29, 2022.
“Read was a quarrelsome individual, jealous, and suffered from feelings of infidelity,” the lawsuit states. “On or about January 28, 2022, defendant Read knew that her relationship with (O'Keefe) was over.”
According to the lawsuit, Read and O'Keefe were at CF McCarthy's and Waterfall Bar and Grille in Canton on the evening of January 28, 2022. The lawsuit alleges that McCarthy's served Read seven alcoholic beverages between 8:58 p.m. and 10:29 p.m. and that Read showed signs of intoxication. According to the court document, Read left the establishment with a drink from McCarthy's.
The lawsuit states that when Read went to the second bar, she brought the drink from McCarthy's and also showed signs of intoxication. Read drank an alcoholic shot and a mixed drink at Waterfall, the lawsuit states.
Read and O'Keefe left Waterfall just after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022, one minute apart, and Read drove O'Keefe to the Canton home where the party was taking place, the lawsuit says. “Defendant Read was under the influence of alcohol and was unable to safely operate a motor vehicle,” the court document states.
It is also alleged that Read and O'Keefe argued that night and that after they arrived at the party's house and O'Keefe got out of Read's vehicle, Read drove her SUV and struck her boyfriend, knocking him to the ground in front of the house, then fled the scene.
She did so despite knowing that it was snowing and “a blizzard was imminent” and should have known that leaving O'Keefe “outside in the blizzard” would likely result in serious injury or death, the lawsuit says.
Around 4:30 a.m. that morning, Read knew she had hit her boyfriend with her SUV and woke O'Keefe's 14-year-old niece, who was talking about the death, the lawsuit says.
Read then returned to the house where the party was taking place, even though he already knew that O'Keefe was “seriously injured, buried in the snow, and lying on the ground” where Read had “left O'Keefe to die hours earlier.”
The estate and O'Keefe's family are seeking compensatory and punitive damages.
The complaint also accuses the patient of negligently causing emotional distress.
Paul O'Keefe, John O'Keefe's brother, is suing as representative of the estate and in his own capacity. John's father and mother are supporting him in the suit.
The lawsuit alleges that the bars were negligent in serving alcohol to Read because they “knew or should have known that … Read was intoxicated” when the alcohol was served to her.
The prosecution had stated that the couple had argued and she had run over him
In the lead-up to the criminal trial several months ago, court documents filed described the events leading to O'Keefe's death as follows: “On the night of January 28, 2022, Read and O'Keefe went out for drinks with friends at two bars, and shortly after midnight, the couple got into Read's SUV and drove to the home of one of O'Keefe's colleagues who worked on the Boston police force for an after-party.”
In the morning, O'Keefe's body was found bruised and battered in the snow outside the house, authorities said. Prosecutors allege that evening that Read and O'Keefe had argued and she, while drunk, drove into him and fled the scene, leaving him to die in the cold.
“What the constellation of facts and evidence here inevitably shows is that the defendant backed her vehicle 65 feet at 24 miles per hour, struck Mr. O'Keefe, and inflicted these catastrophic head injuries, incapacitated him and froze him to death,” Norfolk County Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said in his closing argument in the criminal trial in late June.
In contrast, Read's defense accused during the trial that off-duty police officers at the home of defendant O'Keefe, who dumped his body on the lawn and then used fabricated evidence and false testimony to plot to incriminate Read.
“Ladies and gentlemen, this case was a cover-up, plain and simple,” said Alan Jackson, who represented Read during her criminal trial. “I'm sure you're saying to yourself, 'I don't want to believe it, I don't want to believe that something like this can happen in our community,' but unfortunately you've seen it right before your eyes over the last eight weeks.”
CNN's Dakin Andone and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.
