Jennifer McCabe faces intense cross-examination in Karen Read trial
Jennifer McCabe, a key witness in the Karen Read trial, was on the stand for hours of tense cross-examination Wednesday during the seventh day of witness testimony in Norfolk Superior Court.
Read is accused of hitting and killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her SUV during a blizzard after a night of drinking and leaving him to die in the snow. Read's first trial in 2024 ended with a mistrial due to a hung jury.
She has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death.
McCabe first took the stand Tuesday as a prosecution witness. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan finished questioning her Wednesday, and defense attorney Alan Jackson began cross-examination.
When court ended for the day Wednesday, McCabe was still being cross-examined. Jackson said he still has about two hours of questioning for McCabe. No proceedings are scheduled on Thursday due to a court holiday called Law Day, so McCabe will be back on the stand Friday morning.
Who is Jennifer McCabe?
Brian and Nicole Albert owned 34 Fairview Road in Canton at the time of O'Keefe's death. His body was found in the yard of the home near the flagpole. Nicole Albert is McCabe's sister.
McCabe went out with Karen Read and Kerry Roberts just before 6 a.m. on January 29, 2022 to search for O'Keefe. The women found his body in the snow and called police.
Read's defense argues that she is being framed by several people, including law enforcement. They say O'Keefe was actually killed in a fight inside Brian Albert's home, then dragged outside. Defense attorneys attempted to show during Read's first trial that McCabe played a key role in what they say was a coverup.
"I hit him, I hit him, I hit him"
One key piece of McCabe's testimony has been what she said she heard Read say shortly after O'Keefe's body was found. McCabe said she heard Read say "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him" while she was standing near a female EMT.
"Was it important to you to tell these jurors that you heard my client say 'I hit him' three times?" Jackson asked McCabe.
"I answered the questions and I'm telling the jurors what I know," McCabe said.
During a tense exchange, Jackson noted that during her grand jury testimony on April 26, 2022, McCabe never mentioned that she heard Read say this.
"I have testified a number of times. But I was there the morning of January 29 when your client said 'I hit him, I hit him, I hit him,'" McCabe said.
"Did you tell that to the grand jurors?" Jackson asked, and McCabe said she was not sure.
"That's because you didn't, did you?" Jackson asked, prompting McCabe to respond, "Again, I'm not sure."
"I've spoken in a few grand juries. What I said specifically at different ones I don't recall at this moment. But I do know that morning your client said 'I hit him, I hit him, I hit him' three times, and there was a female EMT there," McCabe said.
What did Jennifer McCabe see?
Jackson asked McCabe about her testimony that several times she looked out the front door of Brian Albert's house while she was waiting for Read and O'Keefe to arrive.
Read's attorney asked McCabe if she ever saw O'Keefe when she looked outside. O'Keefe's body was found hours later near the flagpole in the area where McCabe testified that she saw Read's SUV near. McCabe said she did not see O'Keefe.
"And you saw no body in the snow, did you?" Jackson asked.
"I didn't look for a body in the snow," McCabe responded.
Jackson then asked McCabe about what happened when she left the home around 1:45 a.m. on January 29, 2022.
"Did you see you anything out of the ordinary on that lawn as you drove by in that SUV?" Jackson asked.
"No, because I wasn't looking at the lawn," McCabe said. She previously testified that she was looking to the backseat of the SUV as they left.
Alan Jackson says Jennifer McCabe was "coordinating information"
Jackson asked McCabe about a screenshot of a text message she had Julie Nagel, who was at the party at 34 Fairview Road the night O'Keefe died, send her. Julie Nagel's brother sent the text message telling her he had arrived to at the home to pick her up. McCabe said that while Julie Nagel went outside when her brother arrived, she came back inside and Nagel's brother left because she decided to stay longer.
The screenshot of the message was found when investigators extracted data from McCabe's phone.
"This is another example of you coordinating information with other witnesses in the case, correct?" Jackson asked. McCabe said that was not true.
McCabe said she had Nagel send her the screenshot because she was trying to piece together a timeframe of what had happened.
Brian Albert's dog Chloe
Jackson asked McCabe about Chloe, the German Shepherd owned at the time by Brian Albert. The dog has since been rehomed after it attacked a neighbor in the months after O'Keefe's death.
The defense has argued throughout the case that injuries on O'Keefe's arm are consistent with a dog attack, not a vehicle strike.
Jackson attempted to show Wednesday that when McCabe came into 34 Fairview Road to wake up Brian and Nicole Albert after O'Keefe's body was found in the lawn, the dog did not bark.
"I have no memory of the dog, no," McCabe said.
"The reason you don't remember the dog being there is because the dog wasn't there, was it?" Jackson said.
Michael Proctor interview
On January 29, 2022, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, who has since been fired for his actions in Read's case, came to McCabe's house to interview her.
Jackson noted that Brian Albert was also at McCabe's house when Proctor conducted the interview. McCabe said she asked her brother-in-law to be there.
The defense attorney highlighted that when police spoke with McCabe and other members of her family, they were together as a group.
"None of you were separated?" Jackson asked. "There was no reason to separate us," McCabe responded.
Federal investigation in Karen Read case
Jackson questioned McCabe about an interview she had in April 2023 with members of a law enforcement agency that was not Massachusetts State Police and was not the Canton Police Department. Attorneys are not allowed to specifically mention the now-closed federal investigation into how police handled Read's case, so Jackson cannot specifically mention who the interview was with.
McCabe said that the officers first approached her at her car near her home. She told them she was Nicole Albert, not Jen McCabe. She testified that was her response because she thought they were selling something. The officers then called McCabe and she told them she needed 10 minutes to get ready.
McCabe told the agents that she had called her husband Matt McCabe and Roberts during that 10 minutes. Jackson later attempted to show that McCabe had been untruthful and had contacted other people during that time. McCabe said she had called Matt McCabe, Roberts, a witness advocate from the Norfolk District Attorney's office, John O'Keefe's mother, and Brian Albert.
Jackson asked McCabe if she was trying to form her answers with Roberts.
"Your motive in calling her was to make sure her story would line up with your story, isn't that right?" Jackson asked. McCabe said that was not true. "We're just like normal moms, we're not used to this," McCabe added.
Jennifer McCabe cross-examination
Jackson started by asking McCabe about meetings she had with Brennan leading up to Read's second trial.
The defense attorney asked if there were any discussions about McCabe's demeanor and how she performed during the first trial. McCabe said now. Jackson followed up by asking if Brennan discussed McCabe changing her testimony in any way to develop a "softer" approach. She said that conversation did not happen.
Jen McCabe talks to police
On direct examination, McCabe said that after O'Keefe's body was removed from outside Brian Albert's home, brought to the hospital and police had left, she spent the next several hours inside the house the several of her family members.
According to McCabe, while in the home, she remembered that she had heard Read say "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him" so she contacted Sgt. Michael Lank, and asked him to come back to the house.
Later on January 29, 2022, Proctor came to McCabe's house along with State Police Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik to interview her. Bukhenik, who was on a group text where Proctor sent inappropriate messages about Read, forfeited five vacation days following an internal affairs investigation.
Several hours after the initial state police interview, McCabe said she remembered that Read had told her about her broken taillight, so she contacted police again.
On January 30, 2022, McCabe said Peg O'Keefe, John's mother, asked her and Roberts to write down a timeline of what they remembered happening the morning he was found.
"I wanted to help in any way I could," McCabe said.
Just after 10 a.m., Brennan completed his direct questioning and Jackson took over for cross-examination.
Jennifer McCabe's Google search
Earlier in her testimony, McCabe said police suggested Read sit in the back of a cruiser while first responders worked on O'Keefe. McCabe said she joined her in the police cruiser's back seat.
According to McCabe, the women saw first responders moving O'Keefe's body toward the ambulance.
"At that point, myself and Ms. Read got out of the car and she started yelling and pulling on me to Google hypothermia and Google how long it takes for somebody to die in the cold," McCabe said.
Defense attorneys have argued that McCabe made that Google search at 2:27 a.m., hours before O'Keefe was found. Earlier this week, a prosecution witness attempted to show that the timestamp on the search showed 2:27 a.m. because McCabe used a tab that was first opened at that time.
McCabe said she went into her sister and brother-in-law's home and woke them up. At one point in police dashboard camera video, you can see a light turn on in the home.
"There's a man in the snow"
Brennan played the 911 call McCabe made after the women found O'Keefe on Fairview Road.
She told the dispatcher "There's a man in the snow." Brennan asked why she used those words, instead of being more specific about who the victim was.
"I think I just wanted to get out the most specific details. So 'A man in the snow' versus 'John O'Keefe' and into a story. I think I just was, get the details to them as fast as possible to get help there to him as fast as possible," McCabe testified.
McCabe described the scene as "a bit chaotic," as Roberts and Read can be heard screaming in the background of the 911 call.
Karen Read on Jennifer McCabe's testimony
"Another witness, another instance of perjury or instances I'd say," Karen Read said outside court Wednesday.
That was Read's takeaway from a full day of McCabe's testimony.
"It's just more of the same," Read said. "Inconsistencies, every statement is different. Under oath, not under oath, the cops are all wrong."
Read also commented on McCabe's Google search.
"I did not tell Jen to make a Google search," Read said. "I certainly didn't tell her to make the one at 2:27 either."
Turtleboy appears in courtroom next door
In the same courthouse, Aidan Kearney, the blogger who is known as "Turtleboy", appeared before another judge. Prosecutors were seeking to revoke his bail.
Kearney is facing a number of charges for allegedly intimidating witnesses in Karen Read's trial.
Prosecutors presented an online video in which Kearney comments on his disdain for Massachusetts State Police Lt. Brian Tully, who is expected to testify in the case.
Prosecutors said Kearney stated in the video: "If I found out tomorrow that Brian Tully was burned alive in the most painful way possible, I would be so happy. Like I would be awesome. I'd be great. I hope he dies."
The judge will decide the bail issue at a later date, but warned Kearney that he was on thin ice.
Karen Read trial latest
Ian Whiffin, a forensic cellphone expert, completed his testimony on Tuesday before McCabe took the stand.
After McCabe stepped down for the day, a hearing was held without jurors present, centered around two crash reconstruction experts who were hired as part of the federal investigation. Judge Beverly Cannone ruled that the witnesses will be allowed to testify as they did in the first trial, but admonished attorneys for "repeated and deliberate" reciprocal discovery violations.
"No more nonsense. Let's just try this case," Cannone said.
