Karen Read Retrial Recap: The Losing Side Speaks Out and Only Make Things Worse for Themselves

6/19/2025 2:00 PM

This was the jury delivering their verdicts of Not Guilty on the two counts of Karen Read murdering her boyfriend Boston Police officer John O'Keefe on January 29th, 2022. It gets a little convoluted with the lesser includeds and a Guilt on the charge of Operating Under the Influence. But seeing as she's had her Massachusetts Driver's License suspended for the better part of three years now, that's just a matter of filing paperwork with the Registry of Motor Vehicles to get it reinstated. And the fact she seemed to be just one of the people at the bar on the night in question who was knee-walking drunk, it's a lot for the Commonwealth to expect Massholes to moralize too hard on that one. After all, it turns out to be the most expensive OUI conviction in the history of the MA Trial Court.

All that said, don't drink and drive. Safety on the roads is every driver's primary responsibility:

What matters most it Karen Read's acquittals on the homicide charges. Personally, I was never a fan of people holding protest signs on overpasses and highway exits. Like I've said, once you get at criminal trial into court, the thing to do is stand down, let the system play out, and the jurors to do what they were involuntarily dragged away from their homes, families and jobs to do. Once the trial begins, everything else is Theater Kid stuff. Performance art. So back off.

And while I'll always believe that, there's not denying the genuine, honest reaction of the crowd outside the building. Skip to just before the 1:00 mark of that X video and you can hear how excited they were for Read's Not Guilty verdicts on the big charges. Now, a lesser man might brag if he expected a verdict on Wednesday at the earliest:

…to a vote. (Except for the OJ jury.) They sat through 8 weeks of evidence. So I’ll wager it’ll be more than just two days. But it’s the most impossible thing in the world to predict.

But the discerning gentleman doesn't act like that. Even if he's been totally in the right as he's acted as Judge, Jerry and Executioner throughout the proceedings. It would be untoward. And I choose to be toward.

There will be a lot of post-trial analysis. Where the prosecution failed. How the defense's strategy worked. How the jury may have looked at both. Where the standard of reasonable doubt to convict was met. Which witnesses' testimony had the most impact. Some of it by me. Almost all the rest of it by better legal minds, more qualified to offer their opinions than a former MA Trial Court Officer who spent most of his career creating Barstool content so he could eventually stop being a MA Trial Court Officer. Before we get to that though, we first have to focus on the reactions of the people most invested in convicting Karen Read of a murder the jury did not believe she committed. And it should be pointed they're the second jury to reach that conclusion; the first has said they were unanimous to acquit her on the major charges, but hung on the third, lesser charge, and therefore the judge declared a mistrial.

So what of the people who were in the house at 34 Fairview? The property where John O'Keefe's near-lifeless body was found? Who were throwing the party Read was dropping O'Keefe off at, but none of the investigators ever bothered to speak to? In fact, displayed an aggressive incuriosity toward?

Well for starters, Jen McCabe still has her supporters:

In fact, she lied to the Federal Bureau of fecking Investigation. When the Feds were looking into possible corruption in the investigation into O'Keefe's death, she opened the conversation by giving them a false name. As the discussion unfolded, she excused herself, left the room, and made five phone calls. Then came back in and told them she'd made two. None of this is speculation; she said it on the stand, under oath.

Worse still - much, much worse - after she and Read found O'Keefe the next morning, she called 911 as Read attempted CPR on him. As opposed to, I don't know, running to get her good friend Brian Albert, the highly experienced, expertly trained first responder who was in the house right in front of her. But sure, tell us more about "honesty, courage and class" and how "the system let her down."

With the verdict in, the Alberts, McCabes and their circle of what the Free Karen Read crowd outside the courthouse consider to be unindicted co-conspirators, released a statement:

You had me at "our hearts are with John and the entire O'Keefe family." That sentiment is eternal. Someone took his life. Two juries now believe it was not Karen Read. At least not to the legal standard of proof. Much of the public thinks it involved some of the names who signed off on this statement. Plus others. Plus a German Shepherd who mysteriously vanished immediately after the murder, and hasn't been seen or heard from since.

But where the statement loses me is when it gets to "this prosecution was infected by lies." Which is rich, given that as we've discusses, McCabe lied to the FBI. And Kerry Roberts admitted she lied to the Grand Jury. Again, on the stand, under oath:

So spare us the sanctimony. There's been "a miscarriage of justice" alright. It began when the lead investigator of the case decided that he had one suspect and one suspect only. Texting to his friends and coworkers, “Zero chance she skates. She’s fucked." And “Homeowner is a Boston cop, too,” implying that Albert will therefore never be under suspicion. You can argue that's just some people's opinion. But 24 out of 24 deliberating jurors would seem to agree.

And that investigator is the one person we wanted to hear from most in the retrial. But he was kept in the shadows. An unseen menace. A presence felt throughout, but never revealed. The Sauron of the MA State Police. That is, until after the verdict. That's when disgraced, fired, ex-Trooper made his first public appearance since his trainwreck trip to the witness stand during last year's trial. Only this time, it was on network television:

And there you have it. The perfect punctuation mark at the end of this multi-volume epic saga. The one person who's paid an actual price in all this. With the preposterously over the top Masshole accent. The hat tan line. Insincere tears. Claiming to have regrets for texting his group that his only suspect is a "cunt" with "no ass" and "a leaky balloon knot" that "leaks poo" and saying everyone would be better off if she'd just do the right thing and kill herself. But showing no remorse for making Read be his only possible suspect. For towing her car to the Canton PD 16 hours after O'Keefe's last breath. For not securing the crime scene. Or even treating it like a crime scene. Instead popping by every now and again to find another piece of taillight days and even weeks after he had complete control over the Lexus he decided was the murder weapon.

Proctor can protest his innocence all he wants. Though I think everyone would be better off if he'd just do the right thing and stay out of the public eye. Like Donkey from Shrek, he has the right to remain silent; what he lacks is the capacity. He does no one any favors with this stuff about "loud minorities" accusing him and a "silent majority" supporting him. What I can't abide is Proctor comparing himself in any way to John O'Keefe, a member of Boston's Finest who by all accounts served with distinction and didn't lose his job in disgrace.