Karen Read says she doesn’t ‘pay for meals’ as support continues after acquittal

Nearly a year after she was acquitted of murder charges in the death of her police officer boyfriend following two highly publicized trials, Karen Read said Friday that she still receives overwhelming support from legions of loyalists who believe she was framed.

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“No matter where I go — the grocery store, a restaurant, Newbury Street in Boston, any hotel or restaurant I eat at — I don’t pay for meals. I get discounts everywhere,” Read said Friday on “TODAY.” “My parents get help taking groceries in.”

Read said she is not currently working and is focusing her time on the “all hands on deck” case. On Thursday, she filed a lawsuit against Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton , alleging that misconduct and negligence led to her prosecution in the death of 46-year-old John O’Keefe, who was found dead outside the suburban home of another Boston police officer on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.

The lawsuit comes after she was acquitted last June of several charges, following her first trial that ended in a hung jury. She was convicted of a single charge of operating under the influence of liquor.

“I’m working on the case every day, and I don’t know that I really ever took time off, and I don’t know that I felt like I wanted to take time off,” Read told “TODAY” co-anchor Craig Melvin when asked about her life after two trials.

Melvin then asked Read how she copes with some people still believing she was responsible for O’Keefe’s death.

Read pushed back on that characterization, noting that while she has lived “more low key in the last year,” she has felt that overwhelming support from her community that has reached beyond the courtroom and Massachusetts. She did, however, acknowledge criticism online in her controversial case, but she has “not interacted with anyone.”

“There was maybe for every 50 pink shirts, there was someone in a blue shirt who had many of them ties to people on the other side of this case,” she added, referring to her color-coordinated supporters during her trials.

Prosecutors alleged that Read was dropping O’Keefe off for a gathering at the other officer’s home when — fueled by intoxication and anger about the state of her deteriorating relationship — she reversed her Lexus SUV into O’Keefe and left him for dead. Read rejected the allegations .

There was no video of the alleged collision, nor did any witnesses claim to have seen it. But prosecutors from the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office presented vehicle data and expert testimony that they said proved their case .

Her attorneys blamed others for O’Keefe’s death — including Brian Albert, the now-retired police sergeant who was helping host the gathering at his Canton home — and said she was the victim of a corrupt, biased law enforcement investigation.

During the first trial, Read’s attorneys argued that Albert and others most likely killed O’Keefe during a fight and framed Read for his death. The attorneys were barred from identifying the group as suspects in the second trial; after she was acquitted, Read filed a lawsuit accusing them of covering up O’Keefe’s death.

Attorneys for Albert and the others have called the allegations “false, defamatory, and without merit.” In April, they filed a defamation suit against Read. The two lawsuits are still ongoing.

In a statement responding to Read’s latest, sweeping civil lawsuit, officials in Canton rejected “broad stroke characterizations” about its police officers and said the town had made significant strides toward implementing the findings of an audit that was critical of how its officers handled Read’s case.

The Massachusetts State Police superintendent, Col. Geoffrey Noble, described derogatory text messages cited in Read’s lawsuit as “entirely inconsistent with any basic standard of decency and certainly with the expectations of a Massachusetts State Trooper. These racist, sexist and abhorrent comments absolutely do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police and are not tolerated within our ranks.”

Read on Friday noted that her latest lawsuit had always been the plan for her and her legal team after years of fighting for her freedom.

“The wrongs have not been completely righted,” she said. “But I always knew this was going to happen if I could get the help legally to do this.”

“I want this to be over, but it’s not done yet,” she later added.