Karen Read Lifetime movie premiering in January

Karen Read is getting the movie treatment next month with the release of a new ripped-from-the-headlines Lifetime flick, “Accused: The Karen Read Story.”

Debuting Jan. 10, the movie stars Katie Cassidy as Read and Luke Humphrey as her late boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. 

Prosecutors alleged Read drunkenly backed into O’Keefe with her SUV while dropping him off at a house party in January 2022, ultimately charging her with second-degree murder. However, Read and her lawyers offered a far more sordid theory: that O’Keefe was beaten after entering the Canton home, attacked by the homeowner’s dog, and left for dead on the snowy front lawn. 

Following a highly publicized 2024 mistrial and subsequent retrial, a jury acquitted Read of murder and manslaughter charges in June. 

The Lifetime adaptation is one of several in the works, and the first to dramatize Read’s case outside of a docuseries. 

“Based on a true story, Accused: The Karen Read Story is an unrelenting pursuit of justice in order to clear Karen’s name as the trials fracture the tight-knit Massachusetts town of Canton,” a Lifetime description reads. “Karen’s story is one of resilience, integrity, and the growing movement of supporters rallying behind her.”

“Accused: The Karen Read Story” is produced by A New England Road and Front Street Pictures for Lifetime. Gregory Small and Richard Blaney wrote the script for the movie, which is directed by Linda-Lisa Hayter.

Cassidy, the daughter of “The Partridge Family” star David Cassidy, is best known for her role on “Arrow,” and for her work in horror films such as the 2010 remake of “A Nightmare on Elm Street.” Humphrey played John Wayne Bobbitt in the 2020 Lifetime true crime movie “I Was Lorena Bobbitt.” 

“Accused: The Karen Read Story” premieres at 8 p.m. on Jan. 10.

Abby Patkin is a general assignment news reporter whose work touches on public transit, crime, health, and everything in between.