The brother of a Boston police officer said in a new interview that his girlfriend, Karen Reed, who is accused of murder, was seen turning in her seat during her murder trial, grinning at the officers and their families in the gallery.
“During the trial, she liked to turn around and look at me and grin,” Paul O’Keefe said. He told WBZ-TV Boston The ruling came two days after Reed’s trial for the murder of her boyfriend ended in a mistrial on Wednesday.
“She had never made eye contact with my wife, Erin, so when the annulment was handed down, she turned, looked right at Erin and grinned,” her grieving brother said, adding that after the annulment was handed down, he walked straight up to Reed to congratulate him.
“I just said, ‘It’s not over yet.’
Reed is accused of running over O’Keefe’s brother, a Boston police officer, with his car on a cold night in January 2022 and leaving him in the snow to die.
But Reed’s defense argued that he had been framed by O’Keefe’s fellow officers, who had beaten him to death. The shocking story spawned a frenzy of fanatic support for Reed, which his brother dubbed “The Karen Reed Show.”
“She’s walking through cheering crowds. She’s out in public taking pictures and signing autographs. She’s living her life as if nothing happened. Meanwhile, my brother has been missing for two and a half years now,” he told WBZ.
“I just want people to remember who the victim is in this case. It’s not her, it’s my brother.”
O’Keefe believes Reed’s supporters are “misinformed”, which has helped fuel the furor surrounding the trial.
“They only heard one side of the story and we didn’t tell our side of the story and what really happened,” he told media.
He also said Reed’s supporters had been extremely mean to him, harassing him on social media, calling him a “moron” and a “stupid guy,” and yelling at his family throughout the trial.
“They yelled, they screamed, they yelled at us. To this day I don’t know what I did wrong,” he said.
“I don’t really care what people say to me because this isn’t about me, it’s about my brother.”
Despite the mistrial, O’Keefe remains convinced Reed is guilty.
“We know what happened. We know Johnny and Karen were arguing. Their relationship was coming to an end. Things weren’t good,” he said.
“They were drinking, arguing, fighting, and in a drunken state of anger and jealousy, she just decided to do something about it.”
Sarcastic voicemails Reed left for her boyfriend the night she died – including one in which she said she hated him – were played in court during the trial, while vulgar messages sent by police officers about Reed were used to convince some jurors that cops could not be trusted.
O’Keefe said she and her family are determined to keep fighting for her brother.
“The recent annulment trial was obviously not ideal, but if I had to do it over again, I would do it again,” he said.
“I’ll do it as many times as necessary.”
