Prosecutors seek phone records from Karen Read's father

BOSTON - Prosecutors in the Karen Read case are now seeking records from her father's cellphone. When Read's second trial begins, prosecutors plan to call William Read as a witness.

Read is charged in the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe on January 29, 2022 , in Canton.

Prosecutors say William Read's phone records can help establish a timeline of his daughter's contact with him. They say Read made several phone calls to different people, giving conflicting accounts of what happened.

William Read's cellphone records

The Commonwealth has asked the court to order Verizon Wireless to produce call records, text messages, and data from William Read's account from January 29, 2022-January 30, 2022, the immediate aftermath of the alleged crime.

Prosecutors are also seeking call records from December 30, 2021-January 30, 2022. "The relevance of this request is to compare the timing and frequency of Karen Read's calls to her father on the night of the victim's death as compared to the frequency, or lack thereof, on dates not involving the alleged crime," Special Assistant District Attorney Hank Brennan wrote in the motion filed Friday.

Brennan said it is possible that William Read will be "an adverse witness to the Commonwealth" and the records must be made available for potential impeachment evidence.

"The records are reasonably likely to establish a lack of pattern or common occurrence between the defendant, a forty-four-year-old woman, regularly calling her parents in the middle of the night after consuming large quantities of alcohol and engaging in a domestic dispute with her boyfriend," Brennan wrote.

Who is Karen Read?

Karen Read is a Massachusetts woman who is accused of killing her boyfriend, John O'Keefe, on a snowy night in January 2022.

Prosecutors allege she hit O'Keefe with her SUV after a night of heavy drinking and an argument. She is charged with second-degree murder, leaving the scene, and manslaughter.

Read's attorneys said she was framed, and O'Keefe was killed inside the Canton home of another Boston police officer and dragged outside.

Read's first trial ended in a mistral due to a hung jury on July 1, 2024. Her second trial is scheduled to begin January 27, 2025.