The family of a Boston police officer filed a wrongful death lawsuit Monday against Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman whose murder trial in the officer’s death ended with a hung jury in July.

The civil suit, filed in Plymouth County Superior Court by relatives of John O’Keefe, also accuses two bars of wrongful death, alleging they served Read alcohol when she was already intoxicated on the night of Jan. 28, 2022.  

The suit accuses Read, 44, of plowing into O’Keefe, 46, with her Lexus SUV after having had a series of drinks at C.F. McCarthy’s and Waterfall Bar & Grille.

Read claimed innocence at her criminal trial. Her defense team alleged that law enforcement officers framed her. Read could not be reached for comment Monday. The lawyer in her criminal case did not respond to a request for comment. 

A person who answered the phone at C.F. McCarthy’s on Monday would not comment on the lawsuit. No one could be reached at Waterfall Bar & Grille.

The suit alleges that Read left her boyfriend for dead outside the home of a former Boston police officer in Canton, south of Boston.

The suit, which does not specify damages, also accuses Read and the two bars of negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Prosecutors had alleged that Read mowed O’Keefe down amid a deteriorating relationship. She was charged with second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while driving under the influence and leaving the scene of a collision causing death.

On July 1, after five days of deliberations, a judge declared a mistrial when jurors could not reach a unanimous verdict. 

According to Read’s lawyers, four jurors have come forward and said the entire panel reached not guilty verdicts on two charges: second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a collision.

The jury remained deadlocked on the remaining manslaughter charge, according to the lawyers. Citing that evidence, the lawyers asked the judge in the case to dismiss the charges, but she declined.

Prosecutors vowed to retry the case. A new trial is scheduled for Jan. 27.

The O’Keefe family lawsuit accuses one of the bars, C.F. McCarthy’s, of serving Read seven drinks over roughly 1½ hours on the night of Jan. 28. The second bar, Waterfall Bar & Grille, served Read a shot and a mixed drink shortly afterward, the lawsuit alleges.

After she left the second bar around midnight on Jan. 29, the suit alleges, Read drove O’Keefe to the Canton house, where the other Boston officer was having a gathering.

O’Keefe and Read had been arguing, the suit alleges, when O’Keefe got out of the vehicle and Read fatally struck him.

In her criminal trial, Read’s lawyers said she watched O’Keefe enter the Canton house after she dropped him off. Hours later, she discovered that he had never come home and raced back to the house, where she found his body on the morning of Jan. 29.

The lawyers have alleged that O’Keefe was most likely beaten inside the home and left outside in the snow.

The San Francisco 49ers have released former Pittsburgh Steelers punter Pressley Harvin III in their first wave of cuts. The 49ers signed Harvin on August 9 to help with an injury to starting punter Mitch Wishnowsky.

Now, Harvin is back on the market and will search for another spot, but will likely either be stashed on a practice squad or wait for an injury to get an opportunity. In his opportunities in San Francisco, Harvin averaged a 44.9 yards per punt average, with seven of them landing inside the 20-yard line. His consistency is still an issue, but Harvin proved he has a big boot.

The Steelers pivoted to former Houston Texans punter Cameron Johnston and signed him to a three-year contract worth $9 million over its entirety. Pittsburgh has already seen Johnston impressively boot the ball, though his net punts have been lackluster due to Pittsburgh’s poor punt coverage.

Harvin was a seventh-round pick in the 2021 NFL Draft out of Georgia Tech. The former Ray Guy Award Winner, the Steelers saw him punt at his pro day in Atlanta in the rain and fell in love with him as a prospect. However, the same consistency that made him one of the best in college football did not translate to the NFL. The Steelers released him on February 12 as they turned over a new page to Johnston.

More school leaders are considering restricting cell phones in the classroom.

It comes after the state recently urged districts to come up with rules for the devices.

Students in Waterbury are already joining the list of communities where access to cell phones is limited, and it seems to have been met with mixed reaction.

“There’s benefits, but there’s there’s ups and downs,” Imaje Pitt, a Kenney High sophomore, said.

Students in Waterbury began the new year with a new policy that requires cell phones to be locked up in a pouch for the day at the middle and high schools.

“Nobody was OK with it. Like at all. Everyone was like, ‘No, I don’t want to put my phone in this,’” Jayleyah Harris, a Kennedy High sophomore, said.

Students were missing the devices and everything they use them for, but they were also seeing the positives like not having the distraction in class and connecting with others.

“To see people who were like interacting with each other where they were like, I don’t know. People were making new friends,” Pitt said.

There’s also a learning curve for parents, according to the interim superintendent.

“It’s kind of reteaching parents how to contact their child during the school day, which is through the main office,” Dr. Darren Schwartz, the Waterbury Public Schools interim superintendent, said.

“The reality is that also, you know, texting and using the phone during a real emergency actually could be putting their child in danger. And so removing that opportunity for students is actually going to make them safer in many cases,” he continued.

Waterbury joins districts around the state finding ways to limit access, including in Hartford and Ellington. Now, it appears other communities are taking action.

This comes after Governor Lamont last week urged schools statewide to come up with rules to restrict the use in classrooms to help improve learning and mental wellbeing.

“I think at this point virtually every board in the state has started a conversation or will be doing so,” Patrice McCarthy, Connecticut Association of Boards of Education executive director, said.

Those talks can take a while and it’s suggested everyone gets involved. Potential solutions can range from pouches to just leaving a cell phone in a designated area in class.