The prosecutor who tried Karen Read said Monday he was “disappointed” that she was acquitted and by the lack of justice for the man she was accused of killing.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan, whom the Norfolk County, Massachusetts, district attorney appointed after Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury, said he had been given “full discretion to independently assess the case and follow the evidence no matter where it led.”
“After an independent and thorough review of all the evidence I concluded that the evidence led to one person, and only one person,” Brennan said in a text message to NBC Boston.
Brennan also denounced a “campaign of intimidation and abuse” aimed at witnesses in the widely publicized case.
“If this type of conduct becomes commonplace, it will threaten the integrity of our judicial system affecting both victims and criminally accused,” he said. “We cannot condone witness abuse causing participants to worry for their own safety or that of their families.”
A jury acquitted Read, 45, of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision that caused the death of John O’Keefe on Jan. 29, 2022.
The panel convicted Read of a single charge — operating under the influence. She was sentenced to one year of probation.
Authorities had alleged Read was furious over the state of her crumbling relationship with O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, when she backed her SUV into him and left him for dead.
Read’s defense team said she was the victim of a biased and corrupt police investigation that failed to consider other suspects. The former Massachusetts State trooper who led the probe into O’Keefe’s death was fired over his conduct in the investigation but has denied allegations of corruption.
In his statement, Brennan offered his “heartfelt condolences” to the O’Keefe family and said he hopes they find peace and closure.
