EXCLUSIVE: Karen Read on Her New Lawsuit Against Police: 'It's Not Done Yet'

[0:00] We are going to sit down with Karen Reed and her attorneys in just a moment, but first a closer look [0:04] at this new lawsuit and a warning. Some of the language you are about to hear is disturbing [0:09] and offensive. Nearly one year after Karen Reed walked out of court a free woman, [0:18] she's waging her own legal battle this morning against the police departments she says framed [0:23] her for the murder of her boyfriend, police officer John O'Keefe. You know what you did. [0:28] You know what you've done. The 46-year-old filing a scathing new civil suit against Massachusetts [0:34] State Police and the town of Canton, laying out a litany of racist messages. Her attorneys say [0:41] were exchanged between the lead investigator on Reed's case, Michael Proctor, and former Canton [0:47] Police Sergeant Sean Good. Take your time. I'm sorry I was involved, so I wouldn't rush if you're [0:53] working. Let them die. Most of the messages unrelated to Reed, but according to the [0:59] complaint, their crude nature expose a culture of bias and corruption. You want a filthy pig [1:06] that you just do dirty things to. Reed's history with Proctor and others in law enforcement [1:12] stretching back years. She's a whack job. Her attorneys have long maintained but have yet [1:19] to prove that O'Keefe was killed at a house party after a night of heavy drinking with fellow officers [1:25] back in 2022, who then tried to cover it up by falsely accusing Reed of hitting O'Keefe [1:31] with her SUV, leaving him to die in the snow. This case should be over right now, done, because [1:39] there was no collision. A jury ultimately acquitted Reed last summer of second-degree murder after [1:47] her first trial ended with a hung jury. Proctor, meanwhile, was fired for his misconduct. His lawyer [1:53] dismissing the newly revealed messages from his personal life as having no bearing whatsoever [1:59] on the investigation of Karen Reed. Sergeant Good, also off the force, resigning this week [2:06] after he was placed on leave for alleged misconduct. It's unclear if that leave was connected to Reed. [2:12] But Massachusetts State Police call their messages, quote, abhorrent, adding in a statement they do not [2:17] reflect the agency's values. Yet the allegations of police corruption at the heart of Reed's defense [2:23] struck a chord for many of her supporters who often gathered outside the courthouse, with many more [2:32] following online. Never in my entire life have I been more invested in a court case. Even an auction of [2:38] her SUV attracting intense interest until it was sold. It all comes as the former financial analyst [2:46] fends off other legal woes, including a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the O'Keefe family. [2:51] But Karen Reed has vowed to keep fighting to vindicate her innocence. There's more evidence [2:57] and there's more of a story to tell. Now, NBC News has reached out to Sean Good, but has not yet heard [3:04] back. The town of Canton, meantime, says it refutes any broad stroke characterizations about the people [3:09] who serve in that department. And joining us now is Karen Reed, along with her two attorneys, [3:15] Alan Jackson and Charles Waters. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Karen, let's start with [3:20] you, because we really haven't heard from you much and seen you really at all since the jury's not [3:26] guilty verdict. First, just why file this lawsuit now? You already have one lawsuit in the queue. Why [3:33] do this now? This was always our plan that I had to save my own life first. I can't do anything [3:42] if I'm not free. And I had to fight for my freedom for years. And I knew as it unfolded, [3:51] I was never going to be able to just forget that this happened to me, that I was wronged in this way. [3:57] I couldn't just go back to life as it was. I have to continue fighting for justice. [4:05] The acquittal is deserved. But the wrongs have not been completely righted. They've been happening [4:14] along the way. But I always knew this was going to happen if I could get the help legally to do [4:20] this. Let's talk about that for a moment, Alan, because, again, as we just saw in the large story [4:26] there, Sergeant Good's been fired. Lieutenant Proctor fired. They're both gone. The departments [4:33] have said that there was wrongdoing. They've admitted that. From a legal standpoint, what do [4:38] you precisely want to see happen here that has not already happened? Well, it's a civil case. So [4:44] the remedy is the law speaks in dollars. But that's not what the ultimate goal is here. The ultimate [4:52] goal is to ensure that we bring to the light the institutional biases, the institutional corruption [4:59] that permeates the Massachusetts law enforcement system. That's what this lawsuit is going to do. [5:06] Ultimately, there's not you can't what what Karen wants. You cannot write on a check, which is [5:11] exposure, exposure of the corruption. That is that is the the DNA of the Massachusetts State Police of [5:20] the Canton Police Department, which is evidenced by these two individuals in their their text messages. [5:26] They were in a position where they could they felt comfortable within their own family, the family [5:31] of law enforcement to send these vile text messages, to send these vile voicemails that are reflective of [5:40] a deeper problem in the culture. That's what we want to expose. But to be clear, we're seeking money [5:47] at the end of the day. That's that's that's what the civil law requires. Yeah. Charles, I'm going to bring [5:52] you in here because you guys have always maintained she was framed. Right. That's been your entire [5:56] theory from the beginning here. But what evidence have you actually amassed over the past four years [6:04] now? What evidence do you have to support that that claim? Well, I mean, I think that Alan during [6:10] the criminal cases let the whole world see the evidence that that she had. But I think first and [6:16] foremost, you look at the injuries that John O'Keefe suffered. And that to me is the key. Those were [6:22] injuries from the back of his head. He died from injuries to the back of his head. Some ridged lead [6:27] surface. But you've had that for a while now, right? That's what that's. But the question was [6:32] what evidence is. And you start there. And when you start there and you realize that the medical [6:37] examiner, for example, testified at the criminal trial that these injuries that he had were [6:42] inconsistent with a car strike. So you start there and then you say, what else could have happened? [6:47] And then you look at the house and then you look at the people that were in the house [6:51] and there are redged, ledged, ridged surfaces in the house. There are relationships that John [6:57] O'Keefe had with people in that house that were difficult relationships. And there's a lot of [7:02] evidence that we've uncovered and that we're going to still uncover in this civil case. [7:05] Karen, let me come back to you for a moment here because since the two trials, like what, [7:10] what has life been like for you? I know you lost your house. You lost your car. Are you, [7:15] are you working right now? No, I'm not working. I still don't have my license. And I'm back working [7:25] on the case. And, you know, we've brought in civil lawyers, but this case is so comprehensive [7:31] that we need all hands on deck. I mean, I'm working on the case every day. And I don't know [7:39] that I really ever took time off. And I don't know that I felt like I wanted to take time off. [7:43] I, I want this to be over, but it's not done yet. I, I just, I wanted, because we saw the, [7:49] the throngs of supporters who would show up at that courthouse who clearly, uh, believed just [7:54] as the jurors did. But you, you have to know that when you walk down the street, there are [7:59] lots of people who look at Karen Reed and who think, oh, there's that woman that got away with [8:05] killing her ex-boyfriend who was a cop. How do you go through life knowing that there are lots of [8:10] people who, despite what the jury said, still think you did it and you got away with it? [8:15] I've not had any evidence that there's lots of people who feel that way. I mean, I have lived, [8:21] um, more low key in the last year. I've just struggled to not have the adrenaline that I had [8:28] during trial, but I have no interactions, no matter where I go, the grocery store, a restaurant, [8:34] Newberry street in Boston, at any hotel or restaurant I eat at. Um, I, I don't pay for [8:41] meals. I get discounts everywhere. My, my parents get help taking groceries. I don't have interactions. [8:47] I have not seen lots of people. I haven't seen one. The support isn't relegated to what you saw at [8:54] the courthouse. It's throughout Massachusetts and it happens. So you've never heard from one person [9:00] not one, not one. Well, there, there were, have you been on the internet? I mean, have you looked [9:07] at any? Oh yes. Yeah. I've seen, I've seen tweets. I have not interacted with anyone. And yes, there [9:11] were people, there were pink shirts and there was maybe a, for every 50 pink shirts, there was someone [9:18] in a blue shirt who, who had many of them ties to people on the other side of this case. John, [9:23] let's talk about John for a second, Karen, because you dated for two years. You got so close with his [9:29] family, his nieces, his nephews. You went on vacation together, right? This is somebody that [9:34] you loved. And yet I think for a lot of people, somehow he gets lost sometimes in, in this [9:40] conversation. Well, he's not lost. He's the reason we're doing this. I think that, yeah, I think people [9:47] sometimes wonder, are you doing this for John or are we trying to go after institutional corruption? [9:52] Are we trying to get you money damages? What is, what is the goal? John was the victim of this [9:58] institutional corruption and where the voice for John. And I have lived nearly daily John's final [10:09] moments. And what, what happened to him? What was on his phone? What was the temperature of his phone? [10:18] What was his interactions that I had experienced prior to his death with members of the family that [10:24] lived in that house? And this all revolves around John. Uh, I can speak about my personal memories [10:32] with John and his family can, can speak to them as well. Uh, but I implore any one of John's family [10:41] or friends to point to any moment that I wasn't loving or caring with John and his, his adopted niece [10:48] and nephew. And what was he like? John was very easy, easygoing and kind of shy, quiet. Um, and he [10:58] just liked to watch Boston sports and drink a few beers. And, um, he was funny. He had a really good [11:07] sense of humor. Um, and he was very dutiful to his niece and nephew. I mean, he did, he did everything. [11:13] They were involved in anything they wanted to be involved in. And he, he tried incredibly hard with [11:18] them and gave up his bachelor hood, changed his, his trajectory on the Boston police department to [11:24] care for them. So he was incredibly sacrificial. We, we know you're fighting the civil suit that's [11:30] been filed by his family. But if you could talk to his family today, what would you say to him? [11:34] I don't have anything to say to his family. I interacted with them for several years. John [11:39] and I had actually dated a long time ago and we were in our early twenties and I was caring [11:45] and I believe generous with them, with my time. And we, we did spend a lot of time together and, [11:52] um, they, they experienced who I am and they know who I am. [11:58] Beyond the civil suit, what, what comes next for, for Karen Reed? What are you going to do [12:03] for the rest of your life? [12:05] I don't think we're done discussing law enforcement, corruption. What's wrong with Massachusetts? [12:12] Where else is it? [12:14] So let's say you win the civil suit. Then what comes next for you personally? [12:17] Personally, I'd like to keep talking about what I've experienced. I haven't really been [12:21] free enough, especially with all these lawsuits to say all that I've experienced. And I think it [12:28] would, would be a waste for me to just disappear and go live on an Island. Although I would like [12:34] to do that. [12:35] Well, we hope that you will come back. We have a lot more that we want to discuss with [12:38] you as this case continues. Karen, Alan, Charles, thank you.