Both sides agreed that the investigation into the death of Ms. Read’s boyfriend, a Boston police officer, was flawed and plagued by unethical and unprofessional conduct.
Pink-clad supporters of Karen Read who spent years protesting her prosecution on highway overpasses and in traffic rotaries reacted with jubilation on Wednesday when a Massachusetts jury acquitted her of murder and manslaughter charges.
Others who believed that Ms. Read was guilty of killing her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, in 2022, and scoffed at defense claims of a police cover-up, came away disheartened and frustrated.
But people on each side of the hotly debated, long-running legal drama could, in the end, agree on one thing: The police investigation into the death of the officer, John O’Keefe, was deeply flawed, plagued by unethical and unprofessional conduct, and was a likely factor in the jury’s rejection of the prosecution’s case.
“People have an expectation that investigations will be fair and diligent, that public servants will do right by us, procedurally, and respect our rights,” said Eric Faddis, a former prosecutor in Denver who followed the trial. “The evidence showed that Karen Read didn’t receive a fair shake from police, and I think the jury saw that as polluting the whole case.”
Ms. Read’s lawyers, in arguing that the investigation was unfair, had accused police officers who handled the case of planting evidence and protecting witnesses with ties to law enforcement.
In an interview with ABC’s “20/20” that was released after the verdict, the case’s lead investigator, Michael Proctor, denied that he had planted evidence to frame Ms. Read.
