Crime
“There’s just a lot more to tell — a lot of what it took to fight this that was behind closed doors. I think people would be very interested in that.”
Karen Read had sharp words for Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey in her first interview following her June acquittal on murder and manslaughter charges: “You lost.”
“You lost big time, and you know what you did,” Read said during an appearance on Howie Carr’s radio show Thursday, her voice wavering slightly with emotion. “You know what you’ve done.”
Read, 45, has kept a relatively low profile since a Norfolk County jury found her not guilty in the January 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Convicted only of a drunk driving misdemeanor, Read was sentenced to a year of probation.
“It’s not quite as I expected,” Read said of her life post-trial. “I was expecting a switch to be flipped … but it’s been more like a dimmer — that the lights are coming on a little brighter each week.”
Morrissey’s office tried Read twice for O’Keefe’s death, with prosecutors alleging she drunkenly and intentionally backed her SUV into her boyfriend of two years while dropping him off at a house party in Canton. Read’s lawyers had a different theory: that O’Keefe was beaten inside the home, and Read was framed in a law enforcement conspiracy.
Read told Carr she was “scraping” to pay for her high-powered attorneys during her first trial, which ended in a mistrial in July 2024. She sold her house in Mansfield and moved in with her parents between trials to help cover the costs.
“You realize when you have to sacrifice to make something happen, to fight for your life, you pull every lever you can,” Read explained. “Like, ‘I’m gonna take to couch surfing; I can’t sit on this asset anymore.’”
Read also lost her jobs as a Fidelity Investments equities analyst and Bentley University finance professor in the wake of her 2022 arrest.
“That job was not just a job — that was my career, and I still miss it,” she said of her work with Fidelity.
However, Read also said she’s not sure she could ever go back.
“I don’t know if I can hop back on the commuter rail and walk through South Station every day,” she admitted. “I have other things I need to do in terms of illuminating what I’ve seen the last four years.”
To that end, Read and defense attorney Alan Jackson have signed a deal for a scripted screen adaptation of the high-profile case. Deadline also broke the news Wednesday that Elizabeth Banks will play Read in a separate upcoming limited series from Prime Video and Warner Bros. Television.
“I have nothing to do with that; it’s not authorized by me in any way,” Read said of the Banks project. “There’s a lot more to it than what I think Elizabeth Banks knows at this point, but I’ve never spoken to her.”
Jackson chimed in: “I mean, at the end of the day, this is Karen Read’s story to tell. It’s not Hollywood’s story to make up and to fill in the blanks that they want to fill in.”
Read has also toyed with the idea of sharing her story through other platforms.
“I don’t know from day to day what my next move is. I’d like a book out there,” she told Carr. “There’s just a lot more to tell — a lot of what it took to fight this that was behind closed doors. I think people would be very interested in that.”
Jackson, who recently joined Read’s legal defense for the O’Keefe family’s wrongful death lawsuit, addressed speculation that Read might file a civil complaint against the authorities who prosecuted her.
“I can say this: I’m back for a reason. It’s not just a pleasure tour,” Jackson teased, adding that Read’s civil attorneys are still exploring their options at both the state and federal level.
“Certainly nothing is off the table, I can put it that way,” he said. Jackson also indicated he’ll join Read for a Sept. 22 court date in the wrongful death suit.
Carr asked Jackson how much money he thought Read could win if she filed a civil complaint of her own.
“The question is, how much is a life worth? How much is her reputation worth? How much is her professional reputation worth?” Jackson asked. “Her reputation has been dragged through the mud because of these allegations, and these are things that no citizen righteously should ever have to suffer. So how much is that worth?”
He said he couldn’t imagine any amount of money that would reasonably compensate Read.
“She was in a prison of the making of the Massachusetts State Police, the Norfolk DA’s office, Michael Morrissey and his henchmen,” Jackson said. “That was a prison in and of itself.”
He also told Carr he hopes Morrissey doesn’t run for reelection next year.
“I cannot imagine a circumstance in which he thinks, number one. that he could win, and number two, that he would actually be an effective leader for the community,” Jackson said. “The community members don’t want you.”
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