Karen Read detailed on Friday, June 5, 2026, that her newly filed civil lawsuit against the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton aims to expose institutional corruption following her acquittal in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe.
The federal litigation comes after her June 2025 acquittal on second-degree murder and manslaughter charges, which followed two highly publicized trials, including one that ended with a hung jury.
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"This was always our plan, that I had to save my own life first," Read said on "TODAY."
Read added that the legal action represents a necessary continuation of her pursuit of accountability for the investigation into O'Keefe's 2022 death.
"I have to continue fighting for justice. The acquittal is deserved, but the wrongs have not been completely righted," she said.
The lawsuit alleges that an embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, and systemic failures influenced the investigation conducted by both state and local police departments.
"They've been happening along the way, but I always knew this was going to happen if I could get the help legally to do this," she added.
Defense attorneys Alan Jackson and David Yannetti argued that the primary motive behind the lawsuit is uncovering systemic problems rather than securing financial compensation.
"The law speaks in dollars, but that's not what the ultimate goal is here," Jackson told "TODAY" co-anchor Craig Melvin.
Jackson noted that Read seeks public disclosure of internal text messages exchanged between former State Police Trooper Michael Proctor and former Canton Police Sergeant Sean Goode.
"What Karen wants, you cannot write on a check, which is exposure.
Exposure of the corruption that is the DNA of the Massachusetts State Police and the Canton Police Department, which is evidenced by these two individuals and their text messages," Jackson told Melvin.
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The attorney criticized the atmosphere within law enforcement that allowed the officers to exchange messages containing derogatory language during the investigation.
"They were in a position where they could, they felt comfortable within their own family, the family of law enforcement, to send these vile text messages," Jackson said.
Read maintained that the systemic failures within the law enforcement agencies directly impacted the investigation into her late boyfriend's death.
Read described O'Keefe as "the victim of this institutional corruption" among law enforcement.
She noted that she has not returned to work since the trials began and remains focused on seeking answers regarding O'Keefe.
"He's not lost; he's the reason we are doing this," she added.
Canton municipal officials rejected the lawsuit's broad characterizations of their police force, stating that the town has implemented changes based on a previous independent audit.
Massachusetts State Police Superintendent Col. Geoffrey Noble also released a statement condemning the text messages exchanged by the investigating officers.
"These racist, sexist and abhorrent comments absolutely do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police and are not tolerated within our ranks," Noble said.
O'Keefe was discovered unresponsive outside the Canton home of another police officer on January 29, 2022, with a medical examiner determining the cause of death as blunt force trauma and hypothermia.
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Defense attorneys previously argued that O'Keefe died during a physical altercation inside the home and that investigators subsequently framed Read, a claim that the homeowners have denied in a separate defamation lawsuit.
