MANSFIELD – Vanity Fair, the magazine that is “the premier publication for Hollywood obsessives, the inside source for political analysis and a trusted home for incisive narrative journalism,” according to it. own descriptionlaunched the first part highly anticipated Karen Read interview.

Who is Karen Read?

Read, 44, is charged with second-degree murder, leaving the scene and manslaughter in the death of her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe in January 2022. Prosecutors said she hit him with her SUV after a night of heavy drinking and left him to die in a snowstorm.

Read’s lawyers said it was staged and that O’Keefe was actually killed at another Boston police officer’s home in Canton and dragged outside.

Vanity Fair interview

Since Read’s first criminal trial ended in a cancellation of the process on July 1, she has not yet sat down for new interviews. According to the article, a Vanity Fair reporter was given unlimited access to Read for three days in her Mansfield home, including sleeping over each night, a practice the journalist acknowledges was unusual.

The 2,500-square-foot Mansfield home where the interview took place now has a pending sale for $849,900 to help pay the millions of dollars Read owes in legal fees from his first lawsuit, according to the article. Read’s second trial is currently scheduled for January 27, 2025.

WBZ shares seven new takeaways from the interview. If you are new to this, you can read the background story Here.

Karen Read the interview conclusions

1. Only Karen Read and her lawyers spoke to Vanity Fair.

Except for a brief statement from an attorney representing Albert, only Read and her attorney Elizabeth Little were quoted in the record for this article. Vanity Fair says requests for interviews or comment from Norfolk County Prosecutor Adam Lally, Jen McCabe, Michael Proctor and others either went unanswered or the parties chose not to comment.

2. The magazine spoke to two women, anonymously, who claim that Albert’s German shepherd, Chloe, attacked them or their pets on two separate occasions, and that on at least one occasion, the Alberts tried to cover it up.

According to the article, a woman claimed that in 2018, Chloe attacked her goldendoodle while out for a walk “so aggressively that she was unable to stop the German shepherd until someone came out of Albert’s house and called Albert’s name to Chloe”. When she tried to report it to Canton Animal Control, she said, “Kevin’s brother Albert-Brian and a Canton police officer contacted the woman’s husband with a message from the then police chief: ‘How can we this… to disappear. Another woman says her dog was attacked about three months after O’Keefe’s death (a fact she already testified at trial), which led to Chloe’s relocation.

3. Karen Read believes the pomp and circumstance, as well as some attendees at O’Keefe’s funeral, were there as a “hoax”.

Read did not attend O’Keefe’s funeral because of a restraining order following her arrest. The Alberts attended the funeral, which included a standard ceremony for a fallen officer, including bagpipers and policemen from visiting towns. Read saw the “pump” as “performative,” according to the article. “‘All this Irish policeman LEAVE bagpipe thing,” says Read, trailing off. “There’s nothing holy about that,” she says. “I think it’s the biggest farce, maybe only after my trial, that the people who were out there in the cold outside the church were not is nowhere to be found in terms of actually delivering justice to John O’Keefe,'” the article said.

4. Karen thinks John cheated on her in Aruba.

The couple’s trip to Aruba with friends was the subject of a day of testimony during Read’s first trial, with Marietta Sullivan claiming she and John hugged in the hotel lobby before Karen screamed abuse and accused John of deception. According to the VF article, Read still believes that John kissed Mrs. Sullivan. “Read says O’Keefe and his friends broke out beers at 10 a.m. and drank until sundown or sunset, whichever came first. She says she caught O’Keefe kissing another woman,” it reads in the article.

5. Karen Read owes at least $5 million in legal fees.

To quell the narrative that Read has unlimited resources, Read reportedly told the reporter that he’s millions of dollars in debt and living off what’s left in his 401k. “He still owes more than $5 million in deferred taxes on the highly skilled defense team he leads,” the article said.

6. Karen Read believes she’s been framed and will never take a plea deal.

Read told the reporter she believed the taillight was intentionally broken by investigators when her car was in their possession and planted at the crime scene as part of the frame work. “I’m not backing down now,” Read told Vanity Fair. “As scary as a potential conviction is, I’m going to prison for something I didn’t do before I pleaded. I’m never going to give them that win.”

7. This Vanity Fair the article would have played a major role in a wrongful-death civil hearing in Brockton on Monday if it had appeared just 24 hours earlier.

On Monday, attorneys for the O’Keefe family fought a motion by Read’s civil team (separate attorneys than her criminal trial) to delay a wrongful-death lawsuit against her, arguing that pursuing the trial would violated her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination (everything she says on the record could be used against her at her criminal trial).

In oral arguments, an attorney for the O’Keefe family argued that Read has no qualms about speaking publicly about her case in multiple media interviews and that it is “weaponizing” the Fifth Amendment to her advantage.

The judge questioned Read’s lawyers about the validity of those claims, asking what the difference was between Read’s willingness to be so vocal in public while remaining silent in court (Read’s lawyers said the distinction is that her statements are not under oath).

In the Vanity Fair article, Read said he had nothing to hide. “And it’s strange for a journalist to stay home from a subject, but Read’s offer was bold: three days in which she would discuss every aspect of her life and complicated legal saga with the Massachusetts community,” the article said. “There will be no attorney present or conversational parameters, even though anything she tells me on the record could be used against her in her future trial. “We are not afraid of anything,” she told me. “Whatever question you have, I have answers for.”

Christina Rex

Kristina Rex is a reporter for WBZ-TV News.