Karen Read claimed in court this week that lawyers representing her dead Boston cop boyfriend’s family lied when they accused her of saying “I’m f–king dead” upon learning her cell phone was seized by cops.
Read — who was famously acquitted of murdering her police officer beau John O’Keefe in 2022 — is now fighting a wrongful death suit by O’Keefe’s family and claims their lawyer, Marc Diller, fabricated her statement.
Diller in court papers last month claimed Read said in a leaked phone call with superfan blogger Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney: “I’m dead. I’m f–king dead. Do you have any clue what’s on the phone that they took?”
Read, 45, was reacting to hearing that her cell phone had been seized by investigators in Kearney’s case — which accuses the Massachusetts “Turtbleboy” blogger, and ardent advocate for Read’s innocence, of intimidating witnesses in the Read murder case.
Diller wants to block Read from getting her cellphone back to ensure she can’t wipe it and it can still be used as evidence in the lawsuit, after a judge last month ruled her phone can’t be used in Kearney’s case.
Diller included a link for the audio recording of the phone call Read had with Kearney, but the recording doesn’t include the first part of her statement, where she allegedly said, “I’m dead. I’m f–king dead.”
It only includes: “Do you have any clue what’s on that phone that they took?”
Read’s team argued Wednesday that Diller should be sanctioned for a “serious fabrication of evidence to the court.”
“That was a lie — Ms. Read never said that,” her lawyers argued, as they asked the judge to reject O’Keefe’s family’s bid to keep Read from getting the device back.
Read was merely expressing her frustration with Kearney getting her “entangled with certain members of the Massachusetts State Police” again, her lawyers wrote in Wednesday’s papers.
They also maintained if the phone was returned to her, Read wouldn’t violate an agreement with O’Keefe’s side by getting rid of evidence on it.
Read was acquitted in June in the case accusing her of mowing O’Keefe down with her SUV after a night of boozing and leaving him to die in a snow bank the night of a snow storm.
Read has maintained she was the patsy in an elaborate police cover-up.