Judge sides with Karen Read to delay civil court proceedings

BROCKTON – A judge has sided with Karen Read as she seeks to delay proceedings in a civil wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of late Boston police officer John O’Keefe.
Judge William White Jr. ruled that Read will not have to be deposed in the civil case before her second criminal trial ends. 
That trial is scheduled to begin January 27, 2025 after a mistrial was declared in her first trial. The attorney representing the O’Keefe family wanted her to sit for a deposition on Dec. 4, 2024.
Read faces prison time if convicted in the criminal case. In a civil trial, she would only be liable for monetary damages if found to be responsible for O’Keefe’s death.
Read’s attorneys said proceeding with the wrongful death lawsuit now and forcing her to answer questions under oath could jeopardize her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination in the ongoing criminal case. O’Keefe family lawyer Marc Diller has accused Read of “weaponizing” the Fifth Amendment, citing her recent Vanity Fair interview and a Netflix documentary that’s in the works. 
Judge White Jr. saying waiting about six months for the criminal case to end would not be unfair to the O’Keefe family. He also did not agree with the plaintiff’s arguments about Read speaking out in the press.
“As distasteful as Read’s media campaign may be to the plaintiffs, her statements to the media about the criminal case do not constitute a waiver of her right against self-incrimination,” the judge wrote.
Read’s family is also suing two Canton bars, CF McCarthy’s and the Waterfall Bar & Grille, accusing them of overserving Read on the night of O’Keefe’s death.
Read, 44, is accused of hitting her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV outside a Canton home and leaving him to die in a snowstorm after a night of heavy drinking in January 2022. Read says she is the victim of a cover-up by law enforcement and several others and has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.
After the mistrial declaration, Read appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, arguing that the charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of personal injury and death should be dismissed. Her legal team says jurors on the case have reached out to say they unanimously agreed to acquit her on the two charges, but didn’t know how to communicate their decision to the court. 
A single justice agreed to pass the appeal on to the full panel of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. That hearing is scheduled for Nov. 6.