Posted at 4:30 PM, May 7, 2026
PLYMOUTH, Mass. (Court TV) — A routine status conference in a civil trial took a few unexpected turns on Thursday after attorneys began to accuse each other of inappropriate behavior.
Karen Read appears in court ahead of a hearing in her civil trial on March 6, 2026. (Court TV)
Karen Read, who was acquitted of charges that she murdered her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, is now the subject of several lawsuits in the wake of her two criminal trials. While the first jury deadlocked, forcing a mistrial, a second jury cleared Read of murder charges; she was convicted of driving under the influence.
The first lawsuit was filed against Read by O’Keefe’s family in 2025, accusing her of being liable for his death and for causing the family emotional distress. As the attorneys gathered for a status conference on Thursday, Judge Mark Gildea marveled at how long the case had languished on the docket: it had been pending for 619 days. “I tried to figure out how a case that’s been pending so long could have so few depositions conducted, and one possible answer came when I was looking at the docket,” Gildea said. “Did you know that the parties are represented by a total of 22 lawyers in this case? Ms. Read leads the pack with 10. The plaintiffs are a distant second with five. Waterfall has four and McCarthy’s has had to try and get by with only three.”
MORE | Karen Read’s attorneys reveal police sergeant sent ‘vile’ messages in demand for docs
The Waterfall and McCarthys are two establishments named in the lawsuit where Read and O’Keefe had been drinking before his death.
Gildea grew frustrated when the attorneys revealed that only one deposition had been taken in the case since April 9. Marc Dillard, representing the O’Keefe family, appeared to blame Read’s attorneys for the issues. Dillard reported that of the 19 depositions her team had scheduled, 17 were cancelled. “Many of those cancellations occurred on the eve of those [depositions], at least as far as we were notified, even though the Defendant Read had us block off all of these dates in February. I’ve learned since that defendant Read just sent off notices of deposition to the parties in this case, but did not bother to serve many of these deponents until the last minute,” Dillard said. “This clickbait lawyering is a tactic so she can create a false narrative that these deponents are the ones who are cancelling the depositions. But because of the late cancellations, defendant Read has now rebooked those 17 depositions and without regard to other dates that we have already served depo notices for between now and Aug. 1.”
Aaron Rosenberg, representing Read, immediately jumped in. “It’s unclear if we’re conducting a press conference here or a status conference in a civil proceeding. I don’t know what clickbait lawyering is, but what I can tell you, your honor, is that attorney Diller has never, never raised any concern about any date of our depositions with us,” Rosenberg said. “The accusation that the lawyering is being done for a particular way is completely out of bounds and inappropriate, and it’s designed simply to be conveyed to the public and not to your honor.”
MORE | O’Keefe attorney offers apology to Karen Read for misquoting her
Gildea then asked, “Attorney Dillard, did you call up any of Ms. Read’s 10 lawyers and say, hey, what’s going on here?” Dillard conceded that he had not.
A total of 35 depositions are now scheduled in the case; Dillard further accused Read of using the case “to conduct discovery for the other three cases that are currently pending with her involvement.” Read filed a lawsuit in federal court against the group she says conspired to frame her; she faces a third civil trial after being named in a defamation suit by key players in her criminal trials.
No trial date has been set for the civil actions.
