Karen Read case: 69% of Massachusetts residents believe police concealed evidence, poll says

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Jul 2, 2026

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BOSTON — Karen Read, acquitted last summer of the murder of John O’Keefe, is not only winning in the courtroom but also in the court of public opinion, especially when compared to police.

A strong majority of Massachusetts residents polled by the University of New Hampshire said they believe that police concealed evidence in the case against Read, and that shows a wider problem with police in Massachusetts.

Of those Bay Staters polled, 75% said they had heard at least a little bit about the Karen Read criminal case — with more than a third of them saying they had heard a lot about it.

Overall, 69% of respondents said police “definitely or probably” concealed evidence in the case, compared to 6% who said otherwise. A quarter said they didn’t know or had no opinion.

The numbers are similar when respondents were asked if this issue was a wider problem in Massachusetts, with 63% reporting that it “definitely or probably is,” compared to 14% who said otherwise. Again, about a quarter of respondents responded that they aren’t sure.

The Herald has reached out to Massachusetts State Police, which had investigative jurisdiction over the O’Keefe death case, and a Read attorney for comment.

The case

Read, of Mansfield, was tried twice and ultimately acquitted last summer on charges of second-degree murder and manslaughter in connection with O’Keefe’s death.

O’Keefe was a Boston police officer and had been dating Read at the time his body was found on Jan. 29, 2022, on the lawn of the Canton home of another Boston cop in the midst of a snowstorm.

Prosecutors had said Read slammed into O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV following a booze-fueled night at two Canton bars and yet another argument in a troubled relationship.

The trials, which exploded from regional interest to national intrigue, revealed significant ethical and professionalism concerns over police conduct in her case.

Since Read’s acquittal, the lead Mass State Police investigator of her case, Michael Proctor, was fired and multiple other police officers connected to her case have resigned.

Read filed a lawsuit against the MSP and the Town of Canton earlier this month. The suit, chock full of vulgar text messages between Proctor and ex-Canton cop Sean Goode, claims that both organizations worked to conceal “an embedded culture of bigotry, misogyny, systemic failures, and institutional rot.”

Likewise, the O’Keefe family has its own wrongful death lawsuit lodged against Read and the two bars the couple drank at before O’Keefe’s death.

Deeper into numbers

The poll was conducted this month and had 709 total respondents. Respondents were diverse in sex, age, level of education and region of the state. Women were slightly more represented at 53% of respondents.

The polling data breaks responses down further by party identification, though the majority responses won out regardless of the party affiliation of the respondent.

More Republicans, at nearly three out of four, said they believe police concealed evidence in the Read case, compared to 68% of Democrats and 66% of independents.

Republicans were also the most likely to say the inverse, with nearly one in five, or 18%, saying “definitely not or probably not” to whether police had concealed evidence in the case, compared to 3% for Democrats and virtually zero independents.

Republicans were also the least likely to say that evidence concealment in the Read case was indicative of a wider problem with police, with less than half, or 49%, stating that it was. This compares to 69% of Democrats and 64% of independents.

But other questions in the poll were rosier for police.

“Generally speaking, pluralities of Massachusetts residents believe state and local police in the commonwealth do a good job protecting people from crime, treating racial and ethnic groups equally, and using the right amount of force,” according to an executive summary of the poll published on Wednesday. “But four in ten believe police do a poor job holding officers responsible when misconduct occurs.”

The poll reported highest marks for police when it came to trust in dialing 9-1-1. Overall, 93% of all respondents said they “definitely” or “probably” felt safe calling the emergency number. Independents matched the overall number, while Republicans and Democrats were a little further apart at 99% and 90%, respectively.

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