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The family of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, killed on Jan. 29, 2022 during a blizzard, is still searching for justice this week, days after jurors cleared his ex-girlfriend Karen Read of homicide charges.
Read, 45, will serve a year of probation for drunken driving but was not guilty of second-degree murder, manslaughter and fleeing the scene of a deadly accident.
“The only way that we would have found some kind of peace in this would’ve been a guilty verdict,” Vanessa Rizzitano, O’Keefe’s cousin and a former Boston 25 journalist, told the outlet.
SPECIAL PROSECUTOR WARNS KAREN READ SUPPORTERS’ BEHAVIOR IS ‘ANTITHESIS OF JUSTICE’
Karen Read waves to supporters as she speaks after she was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Wednesday, June 18, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
She said that an eruption of cheers from Read’s supporters outside the courthouse made her “sick to [her] stomach” and Read’s claim, moments later, that “no one had fought harder for justice for John O’Keefe” enraged the family.
“Hearing those words come out of her mouth, literally, was sickening,” Rizzitano told the station.
The prosecution, his family, his loved ones, including myself, were the ones that fought the hardest for Johnny.
Read repeated the claim at a celebratory dinner with her family and legal team hours later.
KAREN READ’S LAWYERS IDENTIFY EXACT MOMENT PROSECUTION ‘LOST THE CASE’ IN MURDER TRIAL
“No. The prosecution, his family, his loved ones, including myself, were the ones that fought the hardest for Johnny,” Rizzitano said. “Not you.”
Police Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official portrait. (Boston Police Department)
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Jurors spent four days deliberating after hearing more than 30 days of testimony in her retrial on the charges. Last year, a deadlocked jury resulted in a mistrial at the end of her first proceeding.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan, a high-profile defense attorney asked to lead the case after last year’s hung jury, told Fox News Digital Monday that he was disappointed with the verdict, “and the fact that we could not achieve justice for John O’Keefe.”
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John O’Keefe’s mother, Peggy, recounts hearing about her son’s death during the Karen Read trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, April 23, 2025. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool)
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“After an independent and thorough review of all the evidence, I concluded that the evidence led to one person, and only one person,” he said. “Neither the closed federal investigation nor my independent review led me to identify any other possible suspect or person responsible for the death of John O’Keefe.”
Prosecutors alleged that Read backed her 2021 Lexus LX 570 SUV into O’Keefe outside a house party and fled the scene after a night of drinking. She came back with two other women nearly six hours later and found him unresponsive on the ground.
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Police missteps, including the firing of a lead investigator, sloppy work at the scene and a disputed chain of custody for key evidence, left plenty of reasonable doubt for jurors.
The defense argued that something else caused O’Keefe’s injuries and denied a collision ever happened.