If your day-to-day media diet includes anything related to true crime, you’ve probably heard of the Karen Read trial.
Read was charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, who died in 2022, but she has maintained her innocence. The prosecution argued that Read intentionally hit O’Keefe with her car and killed him after a night of drinking. The defense argued that Read was being set up by the police, potentially in order to cover up their own misdeeds. Meanwhile, the case attracted massive amounts of attention on social media, particularly on TikTok, and eventually got its own docuseries on Max, which followed Read’s trial in real time.
The first trial ended in a mistrial, and now, a year later, Read is being retried.
It’s a long, confusing story that tends to generate strong emotions and opinions from both those directly connected to the case and those just watching from afar.
To make things a little bit easier to understand, here is a timeline of everything we know about the Karen Read trial, starting with most recent events.
April 21, 2025: A jury is selected for Read’s retrial, per NBC News.
March 19, 2025: Lead investigator Michael Proctor is dishonorably discharged. Per NBC, the State Police Trial Board found Proctor guilty on three counts of unsatisfactory performance and one count of drinking alcohol while on duty. The internal investigation into Proctor began after it was revealed that he’d sent inappropriate and derogatory text messages about Read while investigating O’Keefe’s death.
July 1, 2024: A mistrial is declared, per People, after a jury failed to come to a verdict. Per NBC News, the Norfolk County district attorney appointed Hank Brennan to lead the prosecution for the retrial. Meanwhile, Read’s attorneys argued to have the case dismissed but were denied.
April 2024: Read’s trial goes viral on social media, especially on TikTok. True crime obsessives watched the proceedings in real time, providing synopses and commentary to their followers.
April 16, 2024: Read’s first trial begins. During the trial, prosecutors alleged that Read intentionally hit O’Keefe with her car and killed him. Their evidence included pieces of broken taillight found at the scene, as well as O’Keefe’s DNA on the taillight. They also presented evidence that Read and O’Keefe had been going through a difficult period in their relationship, including several angry texts and voicemails, per Boston 25 News.
The defense argued that O’Keefe had gone into Brian Albert’s home and could have been killed there. The Alberts had a German shepherd, and Read’s attorneys suggested that some of O’Keefe’s wounds could have been caused by dog bites, especially since the Alberts rehomed their dog shortly after O’Keefe’s death.
Another point raised by the defense was that the Alberts had a close relationship with Trooper Michael Proctor, who was the lead investigator on the case. The defense alleged that this created an improper conflict of interest, suggesting that the investigators could have planted evidence, some of which had been collected in red Solo cups and Stop & Shop grocery bags. The defense also referred to text messages Proctor sent to colleagues, in which he described Read as “a real whack job” and a “c-nt” and discussed looking for nude photos of her while going through her phone as part of the investigation.
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