Karen Read lawsuit: Massachusetts State Police agrees to pay her $100,000

Rick Sobey, Boston Herald on Nov 9, 2026

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BOSTON — Mass State Police has agreed to pay Karen Read $100,000 to settle her lawsuit against the state’s embattled agency.

Read — who was acquitted of killing her Boston cop boyfriend John O’Keefe — had sued Massachusetts State Police for negligent hiring, training and supervision of “biased and corrupt” police officers.

She was suing MSP and Canton Police for negligence and civil conspiracy under the Massachusetts Tort Claims Act (MTCA), which has a $100,000 cap on damages.

“Read’s claims for declaratory relief are barred. Only her tort claims remain,” a lawyer for Mass State Police wrote in a court filing last week. “This Court is authorized by Mass. R. Civ. P. 58 and required by the MTCA … to issue a decision that Read shall recover only the sum certain of $100,000 and order the entry of judgment forthwith against MSP.”

Read’s lawyers responded to the $100,000 settlement bid, agreeing to the amount.

Her attorneys noted that she’s pursuing similar claims and related relief in other court venues.

“To be clear, Read does not understand MSP to suggest or argue in its Motion – and does not agree or admit – that she only suffered $100,000 of damages or harm as a result of the acts of the various individuals and entities she has filed claims against in this case and others,” Read’s lawyers wrote.

“Instead, in providing this response, she understands MSP’s argument to relate solely to the language and content of M.G.L. c. 258’s limitation on damages awards without regard to the actual harm inflicted on her,” her attorneys added.

Read was charged with the murder of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend at the time, whose body was found frozen in the snow outside a Canton home in the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022.

Over two trials, which ultimately concluded last summer with her acquittal on all charges except for drunken driving, her attorneys alleged a law enforcement conspiracy to frame her for O’Keefe’s death and to protect third-party conspirators who they say were actually to blame.

In Read’s lawsuit against Mass State Police and Canton Police, she focused on former MSP Det. Michael Proctor and ex-CPD Sgt. Sean Goode — calling them “virulent bigots.”

“Proctor’s and Goode’s involvement at the outset of the investigation into the death of John J. O’Keefe III invariably and irredeemably contaminated it in every respect,” Read’s lawsuit reads.

Mass State Police fired Michael Proctor last year.

“It unequivocally condemns the racist, sexist, and abhorrent messages quoted in the complaint, which do not reflect the values of the Massachusetts State Police and are not tolerated within its ranks,” Mass State Police wrote in the settlement filing last week. “MSP is committed to moving forward with a focus on upholding its standards, strengthening accountability, and supporting the honorable women and men of the State Police who serve our communities with professionalism and integrity.”

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