The high-profile trial of Massachusetts finance professor Karen Read ended without resolution last month. In the year’s most closely watched legal proceedings, the jury, composed of six men and six women, failed to agree on whether Read was guilty of murdering her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, or on the two other charges against her.

O’Keefe, 46, was found battered, freezing and unconscious outside a Canton, Massachusetts home on the morning of January 29th, 2022, and later pronounced dead at the hospital. At trial, the commonwealth argued Karen, drunk and upset, struck John with her SUV and abandoned him in a snowstorm. Karen’s defense maintained her innocence, alleging that John was killed by fellow law enforcement officers during a house party and that Karen Read was framed by those officers.

The live-streamed trial was a rollercoaster with all the drama of a Hollywood script: a police cover-up, misconduct, misogynistic and highly unprofessional text messages from the lead detective, a potential love triangle, lies, and betrayal. Millions were glued to the story, especially in New England, where papers referred to it as “Boston’s trial of the century.” What happens next is anyone’s guess as the story is far from over.

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Research and writing by: K. Brant

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