DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - New documents released by the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office show the Commonwealth spent more than $1.4 million in taxpayer money to prosecute Karen Read a second time.
Invoices show special prosecutor Hank Brennan was paid $556,000 from September, 2024 through June, 2025, when Read was acquitted of the most serious charges in the case against her.
Prosecutors tried to prove that Read hit her then-boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV then left him to die in a snowstorm outside of a Canton home in 2022.
Read’s first trial ended in a mistrial because of a hung jury.
According to the newly obtained documents, the District Attorney paid $10,000 to a law firm to help with the jury selection process in the second trial.
Other expenses included nearly $600,000 to a company that analyzed Read’s SUV and O’Keefe’s injuries.
More than $3,600 was spent by the Massachusetts State Police for travel expenses to New York, Texas, and Vermont to conduct interviews and transport evidence.
Also, more than $2,900 was spent on weather analysis from the night of the blizzard.
The District Attorney’s Office spent more than $30,000 on a brain surgeon and nearly $11,000 on a dog bite expert.
The total was significantly higher than the cost of Read’s first trial. Based on records, that trial cost closer to $50,000.
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