Boston 25
A Massachusetts professor has been charged with murder for allegedly mowing down her Boston cop boyfriend and leaving him for dead during a nor’easter after a night of bar-hopping.
Karen Read, 42, was indicted by a Norfolk County grand jury Thursday on three charges, including motor vehicle manslaughter and leaving the scene of a collision causing death, news station WCVB reported.
Read was initially arrested in February on a manslaughter warrant stemming from the death of Boston police officer John O’Keefe. She was released from jail after pleading not guilty and posting $50,000 bail.
A police affidavit stated that on Jan. 29, Read, an adjunct professor at Bentley University, struck O’Keefe with her SUV outside a friend’s house in Canton, where she was dropping him off after a boozy outing.
Read headed home and did not remember what had happened. She became concerned for O’Keefe’s safety after learning the next morning that her boyfriend had not made it back from a party at his friend’s house, and noticing damage to her SUV.
The cop, a 16-year veteran of the Boston Police Department, was found unresponsive in a snowbank by his girlfriend, who tried to revive him.
“I hit him, I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,” Read reportedly told a paramedic at the scene, according to NBC 10.
O’Keefe was rushed to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries. Police said at the time that the 46-year-old had been acting as a guardian to his niece and nephew after both their parents died.
Read was re-arrested Thursday evening at her home in Mansfield after being indicted on the upgraded charges.
During her arraignment in Dedham Friday, Read pleaded not guilty to the new counts. Her defense attorney, who previously called O’Keefe’s death an accident, suggested that there are “grave reasons to be concerned about the ethics of the police investigation.”
A judge set Read’s new bail at $100,000, which she paid and was released from jail.