Karen Read is suing the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton over allegations of misconduct and negligence in the investigation of her boyfriend's death.
US woman Karen Read is suing the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton after being acquitted of charges relating to the death of her police officer boyfriend, John O'Keefe.
Karen Read is suing the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton over allegations of misconduct and negligence in the investigation her Boston police officer boyfriend's death. Ms Read was acquitted of allegations she hit John O'Keefe with her car and left him to die in the snow after a night of drinking with friends in January 2022. The lawsuit argues the acquittal revealed a culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures and institutional rot within the police department.
The lawsuit filed on Thursday in Bristol County Superior Court argued that Read's acquittal last June revealed an embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures, and institutional rot at the very core of both organisations. It alleged the town and the police department were negligent in the hiring, training and supervision of officers and sought damages for legal fees, lost income, emotional distress and reputational harm, among other claims.
The complaint reproduced dozens of text messages, recordings and other communications attributed to former state trooper Michael Proctor and former Canton police sergeant Sean Goode. Among them were messages in which Mr Proctor referred to Ms Read as a whack job and wrote that he hoped she would kill herself. The lawsuit also cited messages that it said included use of the n-word and, in one instance, a comment by Mr Proctor that Hitler was really on to something.
Ms Read's lawyers argue that those materials show both men were unfit to participate in the investigation and that their conduct reflected broader failures in oversight by state and local law enforcement. In a statement on Thursday, State Police Superintendent Colonel Geoffrey Noble called Mr Proctor's messages racist, sexist and abhorrent and said they supported his decision to fire the former trooper.
Colonel Noble said the comments did not reflect the values of the department and pointed to changes that have been made since he became superintendent. These disturbing messages are entirely inconsistent with any basic standard of decency and certainly with the expectations of a Massachusetts state trooper, he said. The town of Canton said it learned of the lawsuit through news reports and a press release from Ms Read's legal team and had not yet been served with the complaint.
The town said it had the utmost faith and confidence in Police Chief Michael Daniels and disputed what it described as broad stroke characterisations of Canton police officers contained in the lawsuit. Ms Read's lawyers successfully argued a pattern of police misconduct and theorised that Mr O'Keefe was killed by colleagues who covered it up. Officials said the department had implemented recommendations from an outside audit and were modernising the agency.
Mr Proctor's attorney, Matt Hamel, told NBC10 Boston that focusing on anything other than Ms Read's own conduct was telling and predictable and said anything Mr Proctor did or said in his personal life, years before Officer O'Keefe was killed, had no bearing whatsoever on the investigation of Karen Read. Ms Read walked out of court a free woman about a year ago, after more than three years and two trials over the death of her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, who was found on the suburban lawn of a fellow officer's home after a night of heavy drinking during a snowstorm.
Her lawyers successfully defended her, painting a sinister picture of police misconduct and theorising that O'Keefe was in fact killed by colleagues who then covered it up. The trial focused in part on the lead investigator, Mr Proctor, whom defence attorneys described as biased against Ms Read from the beginning. The Massachusetts State Police trial board found Mr Proctor guilty of sending crude and defamatory text messages about Ms Read while leading the investigation into her.
He was fired and became a central figure for supporters of Ms Read, who believe the investigation was tainted. Sergeant Goode was placed on leave in November 2025 when the town was notified about allegations of misconduct. He resigned earlier this week, according to news outlets
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