Bentley Fires Adjunct Professor Charged In Death Of BPD Officer

WALTHAM — Bentley University in Waltham has fired an adjunct professor after she was charged in the death of a Boston Police officer during the weekend blizzard.

The school said Wednesday that Karen A. Read, 41, will not teach this semester and her Financial Markets and Investment course will instead be taught by Professor Kartik Raman, chair of the Finance Department.

"By now you may have seen or heard the news involving a member of our community and the death of a Boston police officer,” said Donna Maria Blancero, Provost & Vice President for Academic Affairs, in a statement. "Karen Read is an adjunct lecturer at Bentley. The university cannot comment on an active investigation, but we are aware of the evolving situation and following it closely.”

"Our thoughts go out to Officer O’Keefe’s family and loved ones,” she continued.

Prosecutors say Read and her boyfriend, Officer John O'Keefe, who was off-duty at the time, were at a bar early Saturday morning and left to go to a home on Fairview Road home in Canton. Read told investigators she dropped O'Keefe off around 12:45 a.m., made a three-point turn and left, but did not see O'Keefe go inside the house.

During the hearing, David Yannetti, her attorney said she became worried and tried to phone O'Keefe several times around 4:30 a.m. Sunday. She asked a friend to drive to the home, where they found O'Keefe in the snow with cuts on his arm, eyes swollen shut and bleeding from the nose and mouth.

Read was arrested Tuesday night by Massachusetts State Police homicide detectives on a manslaughter warrant "after several days of intensive investigation," the Norfolk County District Attorney's office said. She was processed at the Blue Hills State Police Barracks.

Read pleaded not guilty Wednesday morning in Stoughton District court, where she was charged with manslaughter, leaving the scene of a motor vehicle collision causing death, and motor vehicle homicide.

She was released on $50,000 cash around 11:30 a.m., according to a spokesperson from the Stoughton Distict Court. A probable cause hearing will be held on March 1.