by Last month, Karen Read left Norfolk Superior Court free, accompanied by the tenacious defense lawyers who had gotten her acquittal on charges of murder and manslaughter.
For Read, it was a moment that had been building for three years, two trials, and millions of dollars—after all, well-known legal teams are not inexpensive.
Read told Vanity Fair last October that she owes her lawyers over $5 million in deferred legal expenses, even before she was put on trial a second time for the death of her lover, Boston Police Officer John O. Keefe, in January 2022. After losing her employment as an equities analyst at Fidelity Investments and a professor of finance at Bentley University, she reportedly spent all of her life savings, sold her house in Mansfield for $810,000, and was surviving off the remaining balance in her 401(k).
However, Read stated to Vanity Fair at the time, “I think it would be invaluable if I could get the whole truth about this case out in the public arena.”
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Lead lawyer Alan Jackson provided some insight into the matter in a recent Vanity Fair interview that was released on Monday, even though Read and her attorneys are still negotiating the ultimate amount of her legal bills. Jackson told the magazine that his business alone would have charged $10 million for Read’s 2024 mistrial and subsequent retrial after considering the dramatic case.
Two members of Read’s defense, Jackson and Elizabeth Little, were provided by Werksman Jackson & Quinn, a California-based firm. Victoria Brophey George, an alternative juror from Read’s previous trial, Robert Alessi of New York, and lawyer David Yannetti of Boston completed the team.
Vanity Fair stated Prior to and during that initial trial, Read spent $1.2 million to pay bail, employ specialists and private investigators, and provide lodging, food, and transportation for three of her attorneys. The magazine claims that Read used her funds and $400,000 from donations from friends and relatives to cover those expenses. She reportedly took out roughly $500,000 from her legal defense fund.
I currently rely solely on the generosity of my supporters to cover all of my expenses. Months before her second trial started, in February, she informed Ted Daniel of Boston 25 News. My retirement has been liquidated. My house has been sold. Supporters are responsible for everything else.
According to The Patriot Ledger, as of mid-June, more than 13,000 people had contributed more than $1 million to Read’s since-deactivated defense fundraiser.In addition, Read’s fans planned giveaways and fundraising activities to assist cover the cost of her defense, including a memorable private dinner with Read and Jackson earlier this year. Vanity Fair claims that nine law clerks who supported the defense during the trials and some of Read’s attorneys worked pro gratis.
When Jackson told Boston 25 in February, he said, “It’s important to know that even though the attorney time involved is in the multi-million-dollar range, $5 [million], probably $6 million, most of us all are not getting paid that.” That money has not been stolen, and it will not be taken.
Because none of us are willing to watch her be railroaded or steamrolled by the government’s power when she didn’t do this, he said, the defense team, which included Martin G. Weinberg, who handled Read’s appeal after her mistrial, battled on her behalf.
Early on January 29, 2022, Read was accused by the prosecution of putting O Keefe off at an afterparty in Canton and then, in a drunken frenzy, backing her SUV into him. Her attorneys have long said that O Keefe was fatally injured after attending the party inside 34 Fairview Road and that she was falsely accused of murder as a result of a faulty and biased investigation.
Ultimately, jurors found Read guilty merely of operating while intoxicated, for which she was placed on probation for a year.
Although the financial terms of the agreement have not been disclosed, Read and Jackson have now partnered with LBI Productions to bring her story to the big screen in the form of an ascripted adaptation. Read and Jackson are involved in a book proposal where a literary agent is also shopping for publishing rights, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
O Keefe’s family is still suing Read for wrongful death, and he has hired six attorneys in total: Damon Seligson, Aaron D. Rosenberg, and Charles Waters from Sheehan Phinney; and William Keville, Christopher George, and Marissa Palladini from Melick & Porter.
A status meeting in the civil action is scheduled for September 22.
Abby Patkin covers a wide range of topics as a general assignment news reporter, including crime, public transportation, health, and everything in between. She has been reporting on the murder case of Karen Read.
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