CANTON − Paul O'Keefe, brother of the late Braintree native John O'Keefe, is speaking out after the Karen Read murder trial ended last week with a hung jury.
Paul O'Keefe told WCVB that his family is no longer keeping silent about the case. He spoke one-on-one with NewsCenter 5's David Bienick.
O'Keefe said his family didn't speak publicly during the trial because they didn't want to interfere with the prosecution and they trusted that justice would lead to a guilty verdict for Read, who is accused of second-degree murder. Prosecutors say she will be retried.
In 2013, Paul and John O'Keefe lost their sister Kristen to a brain tumor and a few months later, Kristen's husband had a fatal heart attack.
When John moved into their home in Canton and became the guardian of his young niece and nephew, Paul O'Keefe wasn't surprised, he said.
"People say they would take their shirt off their back or do anything for anybody. But many people don't get a chance to prove that. ... He proved all of that," Paul O'Keefe said.
At the start of each of the 29 days of testimony, Paul O'Keefe led his family into the courtroom and took the same seat a few feet away from Karen Read and directly in front of the courtroom camera.
"Nobody really wanted that first seat. I'll take the camera on me," Paul O'Keefe said. "But also, I wanted Karen to know I'm here. And I'm not going anywhere. And I'm going to be here every day."
Paul O'Keefe had known Karen Read since 2020 when she rekindled an old relationship with his brother John, a Boston police officer.
In 2022, Read was charged with killing John O'Keefe by backing into him with her SUV.
Paul O'Keefe said he never believed Read's defense story, that someone else killed his brother and that police were framing her to cover it up.
He said he was disappointed to see crowds of Read supporters outside the courthouse each day.
"A group of people that are just, you know, they're just never going to be convinced," Paul O'Keefe said. "That's fine. And those are the people that are out there wearing their pink shirts and tailgating and, you know, having a good old time while there's a murder trial going on inside the courthouse."
During closing arguments, he invited some of the people the defense has tried to implicate in his brother's death to sit with his family.
"It was just our way of saying, you know, we don't believe any of this stuff," O'Keefe said.
After the mistrial was declared, O'Keefe passed by Read and said something.
"I just walked by her, and I said, 'You're not done yet.' That's all," O'Keefe said.
This article originally appeared on The Patriot Ledger: 'You're not done yet': John O'Keefe's brother speaks out after Karen Read mistrial
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