Karen Read will have to face O’Keefe family lawsuit on emotional distress, judge rules
A Plymouth Superior Court judge largely denied a motion brought by Karen Read to dismiss some of the claims against her in a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the family of her boyfriend, Boston Police officer John O'Keefe.
Read, and two Canton bars where she and O'Keefe drank on the night of his death, had sought to dismiss the parts of the lawsuit that claimed negligent infliction of emotional distress and reckless and/or intentional infliction of emotional distress. Judge Daniel O'Shea dismissed just one of the claims in the suit, finding the rest could move ahead.
The lawsuit echoes what Read was accused of by prosecutors: that she drunkenly rammed her car into O'Keefe and left him to die in the snow after a fight. But O'Keefe's family also brought several emotional distress claims against Read, which were the crux of the motion to dismiss.
In the suit, O'Keefe's mother, father and brother say they suffered "severe and profound emotional injuries manifesting in physical symptoms" after seeing him dead at a hospital.
O'Keefe's niece claims she suffered emotional distress when Read woke her up at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of O'Keefe's death and began making frantic phone calls, speculating that he might have been injured.
All four family members also claim to have suffered emotional distress as a result of the public campaign Read waged to tout her innocence, which included involving the blogger Aidan Kearney, who is known as " Turtleboy ." Kearney faces several pending witness intimidation cases in connection with his conduct.
In his decision, O'Shea let all but the first claim brought by O'Keefe's niece stand.
At this stage of the process, O'Shea noted he was required to accept all claims in the lawsuit as fact and to proceed in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs — O'Keefe's family.
He dismissed the claims brought by Read's lawyers as "inconsistent with established Massachusetts case law." Read's lawyers claimed that the state's wrongful death law included claims for emotional distress, and that O'Keefe's family couldn't bring claims for emotional distress because they were not at the scene when his death occurred.
"The plaintiffs' direct emotional distress claims go beyond the mere fact that JJ died," O'Shea wrote, referring to O'Keefe by the nickname his friends and family used for him. "These claims are separate from JJ's death and instead are specific to the distress the plaintiffs assert in their individual capacities, rather than their status as relatives of JJ pursuant to the wrongful death statute."
But the specific claim brought by O'Keefe's niece about Read's actions before O'Keefe was found in the snow concerned only her perception that he might be injured, not that he had died, O'Shea wrote.
O'Shea also found the "extensive media attention perpetuated after JJ's death" caused emotional distress for O'Keefe's family. He cited comments by Kearney, who received information from Read about her criminal case, that the family was "involved in a coverup regarding JJ's death."
Kearney was among the loudest champions of Read's innocence as her criminal case was pending, often reporting on the claims she and her lawyers made about a supposed conspiracy to frame her for O'Keefe's death.
O'Shea also let stand a claim that Read intentionally inflicted emotional distress on O'Keefe's niece, whom he was the guardian of at the time of his death. Given that she had already lost her parents, Read "at a minimum, knew or should have known that her conduct would cause" O'Keefe's niece to suffer emotional distress, the judge found.
A status conference on the lawsuit is set for Nov. 21 in Plymouth Superior Court. The future of the suit is complicated, as Read is seeking to bring several claims against the Massachusetts State Police and witnesses from her two criminal trials as part of the case.
Read's lawyers are expected to file a motion asking O'Shea to let them do so ahead of the Nov. 21 hearing.
Karen Read wrongful death lawsuit
Read the original article on MassLive . Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here .
