A jury cleared Ms. Read of charges related to the 2022 death of John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, and convicted her only of drunken driving, in a trial that attracted wide attention.
A jury in Massachusetts acquitted Karen Read of murder and manslaughter charges on Wednesday, ending a legal saga that has gripped the Boston area since the death of Ms. Read’s boyfriend, John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, in January 2022.
Prosecutors had accused Ms. Read, 45, of intentionally hitting Officer O’Keefe with her S.U.V. after an argument, and then leaving him to die in a blizzard.
Ms. Read tearfully embraced her attorneys after the verdict was read in a courtroom in Dedham, Mass., as the cheers of hundreds of her supporters erupted outside the courthouse.
The jury of seven women and five men, who began deliberating last Friday, convicted Ms. Read on one relatively minor charge, operating a vehicle under the influence.
They delivered their verdict almost a year after an earlier trial in the case ended in a mistrial. That jury was unable to reach a consensus after five days of deliberation.
The case attracted a fervent following far beyond Boston, made up of true-crime fanatics and others who were fascinated by the elaborate theory advanced by Ms. Read’s lawyers. They argued that Officer O’Keefe, 46, had been killed at a late-night house party in Canton, Mass., that was hosted by another Boston police officer, and that corrupt investigators covered up the truth and framed Ms. Read for the murder.
