Karen Learn could have been cleared on prison homicide fees Wednesday — however she isn’t legally off the hook but as nonetheless faces a civil wrongful loss of life case introduced by the household of her deceased cop boyfriend, John O’Keefe.
The 2024 lawsuit in opposition to Learn, 45, has been on maintain pending the result of her prison case.
However after she was acquitted within the Boston police officer’s loss of life Wednesday — and was sentenced to a yr probation for drunk driving, the one cost she was discovered responsible of — the civil case is presumably free to go ahead.
The Aug. 26 case was introduced by O’Keefe’s mother and father, brother and niece almost two months after the primary trial in opposition to Learn led to mistrial.
The household claimed Learn, of Mansfield, Mass., deliberately hit O’Keefe together with her Lexus SUV whereas she was drunk after which left him to die in a snowstorm.
The family members additionally blamed two bars — C.F. McCarthy’s and Waterfall Bar & Grille — for allegedly over-serving Learn when she and O’Keefe, 46, went out bar hopping within the hours earlier than his loss of life on Jan. 29, 2022.
Learn — a monetary analyst — allegedly had 9 drinks the evening of Jan. 28 earlier than she drove O’Keefe from the Waterfall Bar to his retired cop buddy’s afterparty in Canton, Mass., the go well with claimed.
Learn inflicted emotional misery on the members of the family who had been compelled to endure the investigation into O’Keefe’s loss of life, the go well with stated.
And Learn traumatized O’Keefe’s then-14-year-old niece — for whom he was the caretaker when he died — when Learn woke the teenager up at 4:30 a.m., ranting about what might need occurred to her boyfriend, the go well with claimed.
Then Learn left the niece at residence alone when she went looking for O’Keefe, the submitting stated.
The go well with is searching for at the least $50,000 in damages.
Authorized professional Randolph Rice, who has been following the Learn case, famous that the burden of proof to seek out Learn liable in O’Keefe’s loss of life is far decrease than a prison continuing.
“Within the civil case, there’s a preponderance of the proof which is a a lot decrease customary,” than the usual of past an inexpensive doubt in prison instances, the Maryland-based lawyer defined.
Proving claims in a civil case is “a lot simpler for a plaintiff,” Rice stated.
“She’s not out of the woods civilly.”
Rice stated now that the prison case is behind her, she doesn’t have a authorized motive to not sit in for a deposition.
“Her legal professionals will definitely attempt to maintain issues out throughout a deposition however depositions are vast open,” he stated. “If it’s even remotely related to the reason for motion the plaintiff’s attorneys get to ask it and she or he’s acquired to reply it.”
Learn has maintained all alongside that she was framed in a sweeping legislation enforcement cover-up and that O’Keefe was truly killed when he acquired in a battle together with his buddies on the afterparty.
Learn’s protection arguments have gained her a cult-like following of supporters of her innocence who’ve donated over $1 million to her authorized protection, and who confirmed up in droves exterior court docket all through each trials.
When the decision was learn out in court docket Wednesday — and broadcast on a livestream — roars from crowds of excited Learn followers exterior might be heard penetrating the courtroom partitions.
Attorneys for C.F. McCarthy’s declined to remark. The attorneys for all the opposite events didn’t instantly return requests for remark Thursday.
