Town tries to move on, heal after Karen Read acquitted of killing John O'Keefe

Lance Reynolds, Boston Herald on Jun 25, 2025

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BOSTON — The town of Canton is trying to move forward after the jury acquitted Karen Read of killing John O’Keefe, but division remains high as some say a new police chief won’t solve everything, and others pray for healing.

After the jury in the retrial convicted Read of only the least serious charge of drunken driving, residents in the Greater Boston town remain on edge, as justice has yet to be found for O’Keefe and his family.

“Not hit by a car means we have at least one killer running free in town, a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” resident Brenda Sweeney said at the town’s first post-verdict Select Board meeting. “As a matter of fact, I think we might have a whole pack. Moving forward means recognizing what happens in this town.”

Joseph Perkins, a 35-year law enforcement veteran who had served 14 years as the police chief in Middleboro, will be taking over the embattled Canton Police Department on an interim basis, with Helena Rafferty set to retire next week.

Perkins most recently served as the security head at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick before he “abruptly resigned” after just four months on the job, the Rhode Island Current reported in January.

The news outlet reported that self-described “leadership failures” and accusations of airport management wanting to disband its police department led to Perkins’ sudden resignation.

Canton Town Administrator Charles Doody has said that he anticipates the town finding a permanent chief within the next six months.

“We are very fortunate to find Chief Perkins,” Doody said Tuesday, “and have him become our interim chief to steady the ship and guide the department, manage the department.”

Perkins highlighted how he will continue building off findings from a months-long $198,000 audit that an independent firm conducted of the department. Sharp community backlash on the investigations into the deaths of John O’Keefe and fellow resident Sandra Birchmore prompted the analysis.

“I look at the interim position as a coaching position,” Perkins said. “I have a lot of experience in leadership, coaching and teaching. That’s what I will do for the police department every day.”

Turmoil mired Rafferty’s tenure as chief, with the department confronting sharp backlash for how it handled investigations into the deaths of O’Keefe and resident Sandra Birchmore.

Rafferty succeeded Kenneth Berkowitz, who was the chief at the time of O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022, and the subsequent investigation. Some in town had called for Rafferty to resign last year.

“If you think a new chief will fix everything, you’re wearing blinders,” Sweeney said during her public comment. “There’s no magic carpet right here. We can’t sweep everything else under the rug.”

Prosecutors accused Read of backing up into O’Keefe, her Boston Police officer boyfriend of two years, with her SUV, leaving him to freeze and die on the front yard of a Canton home then-owned by a Boston Police colleague, in the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022.

The jury didn’t buy the argument. Jurors who have spoken to the media after the verdict came out last week have highlighted that they assume O’Keefe went inside the home at 34 Fairview Road during a blizzard.

Last June, the Select Board approved a one-year contract, instead of three, for Rafferty, with members emphasizing that the dust needed to settle from the Read case.

Rafferty, who earned $212,524 in total pay in 2023, found herself in hot legal water after she crashed into and injured a Wrentham resident with her SUV in February 2024. In a letter to the community weeks later, she apologized and stated that her blood alcohol content “read 0.0%.”

“She was very helpful at a time when a member of my congregation felt very threatened in a certain situation, and she took action,” said Rev. Michelle Walsh, of the First Parish Unitarian Universalist church.

“We do sincerely hope for a fresh start and healing as Canton moves forward,” Walsh added, “including with a new person as … an interim police chief.”

Resident Carol Kelly, who has lived in town for decades, said she continues to be subjected to “retaliation” for standing up for Read and O’Keefe, experiencing “cyberbullying, harassing phone calls, (and) drones going by bedroom windows after midnight.”

“It is unfair that I have to leave town to … go to stores and libraries. I shouldn’t have to do that,” Kelly said. “I have cameras everywhere now, which shouldn’t be necessary. I live in constant fear. It’s not right. … This is Canton.”

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