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Karen Read Sues Cops Over Murder Investigation

Suit alleges bigotry, corruption, and misconduct after she was accused in boyfriend's death
Posted Jun 4, 2026 1:37 PM CDT
Karen Read Sues Cops Over Murder Investigation
Karen Read speaks after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder June 18, 2025, in Dedham, Mass.   (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds, File)

Karen Read is back in a courtroom fight—this time as the plaintiff. The Massachusetts woman, acquitted last year in the death of Boston police officer John O'Keefe, has filed an 87-page lawsuit accusing the town of Canton and the Massachusetts State Police of a "culture of bias and corruption" and a botched investigation into O'Keefe's 2022 death, reports Fox News. He and Read were in a relationship at the time. "The days of hiding behind badges and promotions while peddling vile bigotry are over," says Read's defense team in a statement, per WCVB. "The truth is coming."

The suit, filed in Bristol Superior Court, highlights crude, expletive-filled text exchanges between former state trooper Michael Proctor, the case's lead investigator, and then-Canton Sgt. Sean Goode. In those messages, the two allegedly used anti-Semitic and misogynistic slurs to describe Read. Proctor was fired in 2025 after his texts surfaced at trial, and Goode resigned from the Canton force last week following a misconduct probe. Read's lawyers argue the men were not outliers but products of "institutional rot" within both agencies.

Read, who still faces a wrongful death suit from O'Keefe's family, has separately filed a federal civil rights case against several witnesses who testified against her, while four witnesses argue in a suit of their own that Read defamed them by suggesting they were responsible for O'Keefe's death.

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