Boston 'cop killer' poses for Vanity Fair shoot, claims she was framed

Following a hung jury verdict, Boston 'cop killer' Karen Read has explained in a boundary-less interview 'there's nothing I'm afraid of' as she awaits a new trial.

The 44-year-old from Boston made national headlines after she was accused of ramming into her boyfriend with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022.

Read's account, accompanied by glamorous photos and detailed in the popular entertainment magazine Vanity Fair, shares her perspective of what transpired and her belief of alleged corruption surrounding the case. 

'I’m not backing down now,' Read told the publication. 'As scary as a potential conviction is, I will go to jail for something I didn’t do before I plea out. 

'I will never give them that win.'

Her boyfriend, 46-year-old John O'Keefe, was a Boston police officer, who was dropped off on the night of his death at another police officer's home for a night of more drinking and partying. 

Worried after he failed to return home, Read said she drove back to officer Brian Albert's home to find her boyfriend bloodied and covered in snow on the front lawn. He was later pronounced dead due blunt force trauma to the head and hypothermia.

In the interview with Vanity Fair, Read shared her expensive legal team's belief that 'not only didn't kill O'Keefe, but that she is a victim too of a crooked district attorney, jury tampering and corrupt law enforcement.'

Four different law enforcement bureaus have been involved in Read's case, including the Massachusetts State Police, the Canton police, the Boston police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Read's legal team has claimed that police moved too quickly on proving Read's alleged guilt less than 12 hours after O'Keefe was declared dead when they seized Read's car and phone, she told VF.

Just three days later Read was taken into police custody. 

Read also commented on 'unprofessional and regrettable' texts exchanged between a Massachusetts State Police Trooper, Michael Proctor and his friends after her arrest. 

The texts read: 'There will be serious charges brought on the girl… She’s a whack job c***. Zero chance she skates. She’s f****d.'

Later in the chain, another texter asked if the homeowner would 'receive some s**t' as well, to which Proctor responded: 'Nope. Homeowner’s a Boston cop too.'

Then on February 2, Read's famed attorney, David Yannetti, received an incriminating call from a gravel-toned man claiming Albert and his nephew had beaten up O'Keefe on January 29.

The mysterious caller continued explaining to Yannetti that when O’Keefe didn’t wake up following the fight, Albert and an unnamed 'federal agent' put O’Keefe’s body on the front lawn.

However, when Yannetti called the mystery informer back for a more thorough interview, he backtracked, saying he was only speculating based on photos of O’Keefe in the news and ultimately recanted the tip altogether. 

Following the bombshell claim, Yannetti pointed out that photos of O’Keefe hadn’t been released at the time of the first call.

Yannetti also recounted how other details from the tip - including how the ATF agent had been drinking at the Albert home that morning, as had Albert’s nephew Colin - also lined up with information about the case.

Until the tipster’s call, Read and Yannetti hadn’t known that Colin was at the house, as he later testified he was, because his name was not in police reports, VF reported.

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The allegations of corruption only deepen as Read recalled feeling uneasy the night she dropped him off at Albert's home - someone whom O'Keefe looked up to but had never spent quality time with before receiving the 'secondhand invitation.'

Read's legal team also suggests evidence may have been tampered with; despite the fact that her car's right tail-light had been broken, no piece of Read’s car or tail-light was found during a daylight search on January 29 after snow had been cleared from the yard.

Read says the broken light happened when she backed out of O’Keefe’s garage to search for him and bumped into his SUV, which was caught on O’Keefe’s security camera. 

However, one week later, after multiple searches from law enforcement, a Canton police officer reported spotting more tail-light pieces in the yard from his moving vehicle during a seemingly random drive-by, VF reported.

'It’s the only concrete evidence that connects me to that crime scene,' Read said. 'No evidence was found until they had the evidence.'

Following her mistrial, due to a hung jury, Read will have a second trial set for January 27.   

In the time since the mistrial, Read, who has been heavily surveilled by the media, has been accused of trying to flee the state of Massachusetts by the family of her alleged victim.

The relatives of late police officer said in a court filing for the wrongful death lawsuit against Read that she has 'one foot out of Massachusetts,' as reported by the Boston Herald.

Read put her three-bedroom home in Mansfield up for sale for $849,900, just two weeks after her case was declared a mistrial. 

She has also lost her position as a financial analyst and adjunct professor at Bentley College.