{"id":506687,"date":"2026-01-10T18:03:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T18:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506687\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T18:03:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T18:03:10","slug":"what-lifetimes-new-karen-read-movie-gets-right-and-what-it-gets-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/506687\/","title":{"rendered":"What Lifetime\u2019s new Karen Read movie gets right \u2014 and what it gets wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been nearly four years since Karen Read<\/a> found her boyfriend, Boston Police officer John O\u2019Keefe, in the snow on the front lawn of a fellow officer\u2019s Canton home.<\/p>\n

But the Read phenomenon shows no signs of slowing down, with several adaptations of her story in the works, including a forthcoming series starring Mass. native Elizabeth Banks<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lifetime is throwing its hat in the ring on Saturday, when \u201cAccused: The Karen Read Story<\/a>\u201d premieres. It\u2019s a largely faithful telling of the saga surrounding Read, which began when O\u2019Keefe died on Jan. 29, 2022 and led to two widely watched criminal trials (Read was acquitted in June of all charges having to do with O\u2019Keefe\u2019s death).<\/p>\n

Katie Cassidy stars as Read in the film, with Luke Humphrey playing O\u2019Keefe. MassLive was provided an early copy of the film.<\/p>\n

What \u2018Accused: The Karen Read Story\u2019 gets rightRead\u2019s panicked phone calls<\/p>\n

The film depicts a seemingly hungover Read making a series of panicked phone calls on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022 after she wakes up to find O\u2019Keefe hasn\u2019t returned to his home in Canton. Read calls two of O\u2019Keefe\u2019s friends: Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts, and the three of them venture out to look for him. <\/p>\n

McCabe is later shown taking the stand during a dramatized version of Read\u2019s trial. <\/p>\n

The Red Solo Cups<\/p>\n

Police officers famously \u2014 or infamously \u2014 used red Solo cups at the scene of O\u2019Keefe\u2019s death to collect evidence, storing blood-soaked snow in the cups. The film depicts red slush inside one of the cups. <\/p>\n

Those Proctor texts<\/p>\n

Michael Proctor, the former Massachusetts State Police trooper who led the criminal investigation into Read, is depicted sending the unprofessional text messages about Read that ultimately led to his firing. In a group chat with friends from high school, Proctor called Read a \u201cwhack-job (expletive),\u201d adding she was a \u201cbabe\u201d with a \u201cweird Fall River accent.\u201d<\/p>\n

He is later seen being questioned about his texts on the stand during Read\u2019s trial. <\/p>\n

Read\u2019s voicemails<\/p>\n

After dropping O\u2019Keefe off at 34 Fairview Road in Canton, where he would later be found, Read left him several angry voicemails. Those voicemails, including one where Read says, \u201cJohn I (expletive) hate you,\u201d were a central part of the evidence against Read at her two criminal trials. In the film, an actor playing prosecutor Adam Lally (who is not named) asks for the voicemails to be played aloud. The cursing is removed.<\/p>\n

Verdict reached \u2014 then withdrawn<\/p>\n

Jurors during Read\u2019s retrial did actually alert court officers that they had come to a verdict, then swiftly changed their minds and reported they no longer had a verdict. It was a dramatic enough moment that the script didn\u2019t even have to fake it.<\/p>\n

What \u2018Accused: The Karen Read Story\u2019 gets wrongThe police response<\/p>\n

At the scene of O\u2019Keefe\u2019s death, viewers clearly see a Boston Police officer collecting blood in Solo cups. Though O\u2019Keefe was a Boston officer, Canton Police led the initial response \u2014 and used the Solo cups.<\/p>\n

\u2018Turtleboy\u2019<\/p>\n

Aidan Kearney, the blogger who goes by \u201cTurtleboy\u201d online, is portrayed in the film as a mostly mild-mannered advocate for peaceful protests in support of Read. While Kearney was arguably Read\u2019s most fervent supporter, his methods were more confrontational than portrayed.<\/p>\n

Kearney held what he dubbed \u201crolling rallies\u201d and regularly accused McCabe and others of being \u201cmurderers\u201d responsible for the death of O\u2019Keefe. He has since been charged with numerous counts of witness intimidation for his conduct, which his lawyers say is protected by the First Amendment. <\/p>\n

An omission<\/p>\n

The film leaves out Elizabeth Little, one of the lawyers who worked on Read\u2019s defense. Little is a partner at Alan Jackson\u2019s Los Angeles, California, law firm. Jackson headed up Read\u2019s criminal defense. <\/p>\n

Little was on the defense team for both of Read\u2019s trials. While she didn\u2019t question many witnesses, she was responsible for writing many of the pre-trial motions. <\/p>\n

The film spends most of its time portraying the first trial, meaning Robert Alessi, who joined the team ahead of Read\u2019s retrial, is also left out. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been nearly four years since Karen Read found her boyfriend, Boston Police officer John O\u2019Keefe, in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":506688,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[171,53,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-506687","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-movies","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115872124411421491","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506687"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506687\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}