Karen Read to Turn Trial Tribulations Into Film Adaptation

Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what's in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience.Generate Key TakeawaysKaren Read greets her supporters after she is acquitted on many of the charges against her on June 18. - Credit: Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald via Getty Images

Fresh off her acquittal, Karen Read is turning her two-trial ordeal over the 2022 death of her then-boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, into a feature film.

Just last week, Read was acquitted of charges of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter under the influence, and leaving the scene of the crime in relation to O’Keefe’s death; jurors did find her guilty of operating a car under the influence of alcohol.

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Police believed that Read drunkenly backed into her then-boyfriend the night of Feb. 2, 2022, with her SUV, and fled the scene. She previously pleaded not guilty at the first trial, which ended in a mistrial after a hung jury.

With her tribulations behind her, Read will now focus on telling her story in her own words, re-enlisting her lead trial attorney Alan Jackson to “develop a scripted project chronicling the story behind the case that sparked a national firestorm and ignited conversations about justice, power, and truth in America.”

“I’ve lived in this town with John. I saw what it takes for a small group of powerful people to be ‘above the law,’” Read said in a statement.“I struggled for over three years to overcome this power and corruption, eliciting help from tens of private investigators, multiple attorneys, and eventually – the federal government. It was ultimately a groundswell of local residents and a grassroots campaign that afforded me the resources I needed to fight back.”

LBI Entertainment, which partnered with Read and Jackson on the project, added, The story of Karen Read — recently found not guilty after a sensational trial that drew wall-to-wall media coverage and inspired a fierce public reckoning — is more than a courtroom drama. It is a story about a woman targeted, a defense mounted against overwhelming odds, and a system under scrutiny. With exclusive access to both Read and Jackson, the upcoming project will reveal the story behind the prosecution, the defense’s counter-investigation, and the cultural explosion that surrounded the case. Drawing on their first-hand experience, the project will reflect Read’s insight into the investigators’ conduct and showcase Jackson’s architecture of a murder defense built from the ground up in the war room.”

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In addition to the screen adaptation, Read and Jackson are also simultaneously shopping a book project based on the trials.

Jackson added, “This case revealed how fragile the pursuit of justice can be. Our hope is that telling this story, in all its complexity, will do what the courtroom couldn’t — show the public what it really takes to confront corruption.”

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