Crime
Read’s lawyers contend she was framed in a vast conspiracy, and they claim McCabe was in on it.
Under rapid-fire questioning by Karen Read’s defense Wednesday, witness Jennifer McCabe denied lying to law enforcement in connection with Read’s case, even as she acknowledged she had been less than forthcoming with agents who interviewed her in 2023.
Defense attorney Alan Jackson paced near the lectern as he traded barbs with McCabe during a testy line of questioning, the pair occasionally interrupting or talking over one another.
McCabe previously testified she was drinking with friends and family at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton on Jan. 28, 2022, when Read and her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, arrived and joined them. As the bar closed for the night, McCabe’s sister and brother-in-law, Nicole and Brian Albert, extended an open invitation to continue the festivities back at 34 Fairview Road.
Prosecutors allege Read drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at the afterparty. Read’s lawyers contend she was framed in a vast conspiracy, and they claim McCabe was in on it.
McCabe was still on the stand for cross-examination when court ended for the day. Court is not in session Thursday, so she is set to return for additional testimony Friday.
Here are five takeaways from McCabe’s cross-examination so far:
Jackson accuses McCabe of lying to law enforcement
Jackson grilled McCabe about a meeting she had with an unspecified law enforcement agency in April 2023, seemingly referring to the U.S. Attorney’s Office probe into the state’s handling of Read’s case. The attorneys are not allowed to mention the federal investigation, which has since ended with no charges announced.
McCabe told jurors the agents initially approached her as she was in her car, and she gave them the wrong name at first because she thought they were salespeople. They called her soon after to identify themselves and ask for an interview, and she told them she needed 10 minutes to get ready.
When the agents asked if she had contacted anyone in that 10-minute span, McCabe testified she told them she’d reached out to her husband and Kerry Roberts, who was with Read and McCabe when they found O’Keefe’s body in the snow on Jan. 29, 2022.
Jackson noted McCabe answered “no” when the agents asked if she had contacted anyone else.
“And that was a lie, correct?” he asked.
While she confirmed she did contact others, McCabe maintained she didn’t lie to the agents.
“Is there some shade of lie I’m not aware of?” Jackson shot back.
In a brief outburst of frustration, McCabe explained she had just dropped her children off at school and hadn’t even had a chance to brush her teeth when the agents first approached her.
She testified she had “forgotton” to mention the others she contacted, including her witness advocate with the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office, O’Keefe’s mother, and Brian Albert. McCabe said she called the agents back to supply the additional names after a conversation with her husband jogged her memory.
Asked why she reached out to Roberts, McCabe testified she was curious to hear whether the agents had already questioned her.
“And you also wanted to find out what she told them if she had been contacted by them, correct? That was your motive in calling her?” Jackson pressed.
But McCabe denied trying to contact Roberts to get their stories straight. She explained she and Roberts would give each other a heads up when reporters or investigators came calling.
“We’re just, like, normal moms,” she added. “We’re not used to this.”
Jackson appeared skeptical as McCabe denied ever discussing testimony with Roberts, though McCabe acknowledged she and Roberts have talked about the case after bonding over their shared experience.
“This case has traumatized us,” she added.
Did McCabe soften her approach for Read’s retrial?
Jackson focused at one point on McCabe’s image, questioning her about her preparation for Read’s retrial. McCabe testified about meeting with prosecutors and Massachusetts State Police and said she reviewed video of some of her prior testimony from Read’s first trial, which ended in a mistrial last July.
Jackson asked whether those meetings included any discussion about McCabe’s demeanor and how she came across during Read’s first trial.
McCabe testified she was simply told to “slow down” and answer questions to the best of her memory. She denied there had been any discussion about crafting her testimony to soften her approach and denied practicing her testimony with any member of the DA’s office.
McCabe said she didn’t see the Albert’s dog at 34 Fairview Road
McCabe’s cross-examination touched on another hot-button issue in the case: the Alberts’ former pet dog, Chloe. Read’s lawyers have suggested O’Keefe was not only beaten inside 34 Fairview Road before he died, but also attacked by a dog. The Alberts rehomed Chloe after she purportedly attacked another dog months after O’Keefe’s death.
McCabe said she didn’t recall seeing the dog inside 34 Fairview Road when she entered to rouse her sister and brother-in-law shortly after 6 a.m. on Jan. 29.
“Doesn’t mean it wasn’t there or it was there. I just don’t remember seeing it,” she added.
Jackson attempted to emphasize Chloe’s reaction to the commotion — or lack thereof.
Jackson says McCabe was ‘coordinating information’ with witnesses
After first responders rushed O’Keefe to Good Samaritan Medical Center, McCabe said she sat inside 34 Fairview Road and tried to process what had happened. Other witnesses arrived at the home that morning, including Brian Higgins.
“None of you witnesses were ever separated, were you that morning?” Jackson asked.
“There was no reason to separate us,” McCabe replied. She also testified that she asked Brian Albert to accompany her when former State Police Trooper Michael Proctor interviewed her on Jan. 29, 2022.
Jackson pressed McCabe repeatedly on what she’d seen when she looked outside 34 Fairview Road while waiting for Read and O’Keefe to arrive shortly after midnight on the 29th. She said she looked out the front door a few times and saw a dark SUV she believed was Read’s, though she testified she did not see O’Keefe.
McCabe also told jurors she saw a truck outside the house, explaining that a man named Ryan Nagel had arrived to pick up his sister Julie, who was friends with Nicole and Brian Albert’s son. McCabe said she asked Julie Nagel for a screenshot of a text message Ryan Nagel had sent her when he arrived, as a way of piecing together the timeline.
“That is another example of you coordinating information with witnesses in this case, correct?” Jackson asked.
“No, that is not correct,” McCabe answered. She said she wasn’t sure whether she ever provided the screenshot to investigators.
‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.’
A key moment in McCabe’s testimony was her claim that Read made a series of damning comments to first responders shortly after finding O’Keefe’s body.
“‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,’” McCabe recounted. “It’s just as fresh today as it was three years ago.”
Jackson pointed to McCabe’s 2022 grand jury testimony, noting a section where she phrased Read’s comment not as a confession, but as speculative questions — “did I hit him?” and “could I have hit him?”
McCabe was adamant about what she allegedly heard.
“There are certain things I will never forget, Mr. Jackson,” she testified.
While she said she couldn’t remember everything she’d told the grand jury, McCabe testified Wednesday, “I can tell you with 100% accuracy, she screamed, ‘I hit him, I hit him, I hit him.’”
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