Karen Read's Vanity Fair interview. Here are 7 takeaways.
MANSFIELD - Vanity Fair, the magazine that is "the premier publication for Hollywood obsessives, the insider's source for arch political analysis, and a trusted home for incisive narrative journalism," per its own description, has released the first part of its highly anticipated Karen Read interview.
Who is Karen Read?
Read, 44, is charged with second-degree murder, leaving the scene and manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police officer John O'Keefe in January 2022. Prosecutors said she hit him with her SUV after a night of heavy drinking and left him to die in a snowstorm.
Read's attorneys said she was framed, and that O'Keefe was actually killed inside the Canton home of another Boston police officer and dragged outside.
Vanity Fair Interview
Since Read's first criminal trial ended in a mistrial on July 1, she has not sat down for any new interviews until now. According to the article, a Vanity Fair reporter was granted unlimited access to Read for three days inside her Mansfield home, including sleeping over each night, a practice the journalist recognizes as unusual.
The 2,500 square foot Mansfield home in which the interview took place now has a sale pending for $849,900 to help pay for the millions of dollars Read owes in legal fees from her first trial, according to the article. Read's second trial is currently scheduled for January 27, 2025.
WBZ is sharing its seven new takeaways from the interview. If you are new to this case, you can read the backstory here.
Karen Read interview takeaways
1. Only Karen Read and her attorneys spoke on the record with Vanity Fair.
With the exception of a brief statement from an attorney representing the Alberts, only Read and her attorney Elizabeth Little were quoted on the record in this article. Vanity Fair says requests for interviews or comment from the Norfolk County DA, prosecutor Adam Lally, Jen McCabe, Michael Proctor, and more went either unanswered or the parties chose not to comment.
2. The magazine spoke with two women, anonymously, who claim that the Alberts' German Shepherd, Chloe, attacked them or their animals on two separate occasions, and that on at least one occasion, the Alberts attempted to cover it up.
According to the article, a woman alleged that in 2018, Chloe attacked her goldendoodle while on a walk "so aggressively that she was not able to stop the German shepherd until someone emerged from the Albert home and called Chloe's name." When she attempted to report this to animal control in Canton, she said "Kevin Albert-Brian's brother and a Canton cop-contacted the woman's husband with a message from the then police chief: 'How can we make this thing...go away?'" Another woman says her dog was attacked about three months after O'Keefe's death (a fact already testified to at trial), leading to Chloe's rehoming.
3. Karen Read believes the pomp and circumstance, as well as some attendees of O'Keefe's funeral, were there as a "farce."
Read was not in attendance at O'Keefe's funeral due to a stay away order on her following her arrest. The Alberts were present at the funeral which included a standard ceremony for a fallen officer, including bagpipes and police from visiting towns. Read viewed the "pomp" as "performative," according to the article. "'This whole Irish cop Departed bagpipe thing," says Read, trailing off. "There's nothing holy about this," she says. "I think it is the biggest farce, maybe only second to my trial, that the people who were there in the cold outside the church were nowhere to be found in terms of actually delivering justice to John O'Keefe,'" the article said.
4. Karen believes John cheated on her in Aruba.
The couple's trip to Aruba with friends was a topic of a day of testimony during Read's first trial, when Marietta Sullivan claims she and John hugged in the hotel lobby before Karen screamed expletives and accused John of cheating. According to the VF article, Read still believes John kissed Ms. Sullivan. "Read says, O'Keefe and his friends cracked beers at 10 a.m. and drank till sundown or man down, whichever came first. She says she caught O'Keefe kissing another woman," the article reads.
5. Karen Read owes at least $5 million in legal fees.
To quell the narrative that Read has unlimited resources, it appears Read told the journalist that she is millions of dollars in debt and living off what remains in her 401k. "She still owes more than $5 million in deferred fees for the highly skilled defense team she's marshaled," the article reads.
6. Karen Read believes she has been framed and will never take a plea deal.
Read told the journalist that she believes her taillight was intentionally smashed by investigators when her car was in their possession, and planted at the scene of the crime as part of the frame job. "I'm not backing down now," Read told Vanity Fair. "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."
7. This Vanity Fair article would have played a major role in a civil, wrongful death hearing in Brockton Monday had it come out just 24 hours earlier.
On Monday, lawyers for the O'Keefe family fought a motion by Read's civil team (different lawyers than her criminal trial) to delay a wrongful death lawsuit against her, arguing that pursuing the suit would violate her fifth amendment right against self-incrimination (anything she says on the record could be used against her at her criminal trial).
In oral arguments, an attorney for the O'Keefe family argued that Read has no qualms about speaking publicly about her case in several media interviews, and is "weaponizing" the fifth amendment to her advantage.
The judge questioned Read's attorneys about the validity of these claims, asking what the difference is between Read's desire to be so vocal publicly while being silent in court (Read's lawyers said the distinction was that her statements are not under oath).
In the Vanity Fair article, Read said she has nothing to hide. "And it is strange for a journalist to stay at a subject's home, but Read's offer was audacious: three days during which she would discuss any and every aspect of her life and complicated legal saga with the commonwealth of Massachusetts," the article reads. "There will be no lawyer present or conversation parameters, even though anything she tells me on the record could be used against her in her forthcoming trial. 'There's nothing we're afraid of,' she told me. 'Any question you have, I have answers for.'"