Karen Read reveals why she sued Canton police and Massachusetts State Police

Karen Read says her newly filed lawsuit against Massachusetts law enforcement is aimed at exposing what she describes as “institutional corruption” following her acquittal in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe.

Speaking on NBC’s TODAY on Friday, Read said: “This was always our plan, that I had to save my own life first.”

“I have to continue fighting for justice. The acquittal is deserved, but the wrongs have not been completely righted,” she added.

Read filed a lawsuit on Thursday against the Massachusetts State Police and the town of Canton, alleging misconduct and negligence during the investigation into O’Keefe’s death in 2022.

Her legal team argued the case reflected “an embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures, and institutional rot” within the agencies involved .

Read was acquitted last year of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal collision. She was convicted only of operating under the influence of liquor.

Her lawyer Alan Jackson told TODAY that the goal was not financial compensation.

“The law speaks in dollars, but that’s not what the ultimate goal is here,” Jackson said, adding: “What Karen wants, you cannot write on a check, which is exposure.”

Massachusetts State Police said derogatory text messages cited in the lawsuit were “entirely inconsistent with any basic standard of decency.”