Karen Read is a former financial analyst and college professor from Massachusetts who gained media attention in early 2022 when her boyfriend, Boston cop John O'Keefe, was killed in late January.

Read was indicted on murder charges in June 2022, to which she pleaded not guilty. She was accused of ramming into O'Keefe with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die in the snowstorm after a drunken argument.

Her defense team for the first trial, beginning in April 2024, included a high-powered defense team, including Alan Jackson, who helped Kevin Spacey get acquitted on sexual assault charges in 2019.

The first trial ended with a hung jury. Read faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a deadly accident in connection with O'Keefe's death.

She has maintained her innocence.