Trial victim Karen Read was a devoted father figure

CANTON, Mass. (AP) — John O’Keefe’ His title was Boston Police Officer, but to those who loved him he was Johnny, JJ or affectionately, the Godfather. His girlfriend once called him “the patron saint of Canton.”

This girlfriend, Karen Readis currently on trial, accused of O’Keefe’s murder in a case that attracted national attention and called into question the integrity of a large portion of the Massachusetts law enforcement community and even some of O’Keefe’s friends.

Born and raised in suburban Braintree, O’Keefe graduated from Northeastern University and received a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Massachusetts. He was 46 years old at the time of his death and had been a Boston police officer for 16 years.

During much of this period, O’Keefe also raised her niece and nephew in Canton after her sister and her husband died within months of each other. He also lost his best friend, Pat Rogers, a fellow Boston police officer, to suicide. Rogers’ girlfriend was pregnant at the time, and O’Keefe quickly volunteered to support her as well, acting as her son’s godfather.

“He was the first person to come into my delivery room after I gave birth,” Laura Sullivan testified at trial, describing O’Keefe as a “constant” presence in her son’s life.

Other witnesses described O’Keefe’s devotion to his niece and nephew, who called him JJ and were only 6 and 3 when he became their guardian. O’Keefe’s younger brother, Paul, was the first witness called by the prosecution. When asked to name his siblings, he struggled to remain calm as he named his late sister and “my brother John.” Everyone called him Johnny, he said, “especially if you were family.”

Paul O’Keefe said he had planned to see his brother the day before he died, but they canceled because of a coming snowstormTheir last communication was in a group text with family members. John O’Keefe was excited, he said, because their niece had been accepted into a private high school.