DEDHAM, Mass. — Defense Attorney Alan Jackson continued his cross-examination of Jennifer McCabe as Karen Read’s murder retrial resumed Friday, grilling her over text messages she exchanged in group chats with friends and family after John O’Keefe’s death.
Read is accused of striking O’Keefe, her Boston police officer boyfriend, with her SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert following a night of drinking.
McCabe, a mother from Canton, was with Read when she found O’Keefe’s body in the snow outside of 34 Fairview Road in Canton on the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. She is also Albert’s sister-in-law.
As Jackson questioned McCabe over the texts pulled from her phone records, he suggested that she and her family were “coordinating” their stories and conducting “damage control” after O’Keefe was found dead.
“Were you and your family coordinating some sort of damage control in terms of the language that your family would use to the public, to the press, to law enforcement?” Jackson asked.
McCabe denied the allegation, but Jackson proceeded to show the jury relevant texts she sent to family after O’Keefe’s death.
“Kerry talked to cops and kept simple,” McCabe wrote to her sister at 7:54 p.m. on Jan. 29, 2022.
Kerry Roberts was also with McCabe and Read when they found O’Keefe shortly after 6 a.m. Roberts was one of the first witnesses to take the stand in Read’s second murder trial.
Roberts told the jury that Read called her at 5 a.m. the day after the house party, screamed “Kerry! Kerry! Kerry! John’s dead!” and hung up.
Two minutes after the “Kerry talked to cops and kept simple” text, Nicole Albert responded, “OK! Try and get some sleep. Talk tomorrow!!”
Nicle then texted McCabe at 8:59 p.m., writing, “Text me in am. Or if you hear anything later!!”
Jackson then referenced other texts from a chat McCabe had on Feb. 1 with her husband, Matthew McCabe, and Brian and Julie Albert.
One text in that thread from Brian said, “Julie said Channel 4 is in DE,” a sub shop owned by Canton Select Board member Chris Albert.
“Eating I assume,” McCabe’s husband responded in the chat. “Ask Chris to ask some questions. Tell them the guy never went into the house.”
When Jackson asked McCabe who the “guy” was, she told the court, “John.”
Brian Albert responded, “Exactly.”
McCabe responded, “Ong,” and clarified she meant “Omg.”
In another text to the group, McCabe wrote, “To ask if we heard if she is in a mental hospital.”
McCabe also read part of a text conversation when she could hear an interview between Roberts and Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator assigned to O’Keefe’s death, who has since been fired.
“She is telling him EVERYTHING!” McCabe texted, referring to Proctor’s interview with Roberts.
McCabe’s husband texted the group in response, “yep. If she pleads out, it will end. If she fights it, it will be an episode.”
When Jackson asked who “she” was, McCabe responded, " I’m assuming that would be Miss Read."
McCabe’s testimony continued, reaching a point where Jackson asked of the messages, “That is a textbook example of witnesses colluding with one another...correct?”
Judge Beverly Cannone sustained an objection from the prosecution and asked the jury to disregard the question.
Earlier this week, McCabe testified that she was standing next to a police officer and a paramedic as Read told them “I hit him” three times — corroborating earlier testimony from paramedics.
The U.S. Supreme Court rejected Read’s double-jeopardy appeal Monday, effectively clearing the way for her trial to continue.
Read’s defense had argued that putting her on trial again for two of the charges is an unlawful case of double jeopardy. They told the Supreme Court that the jury at her first trial reached a unanimous but unannounced verdict acquitting her, so a second trial on those charges should be barred as double jeopardy.
The court didn’t ask the prosecution to respond to the appeal, a sign the justices did not think there was a difficult legal issue at stake.
Prosecutors allege Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense has claimed that she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.
A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse and deliberating further would be futile.
Read has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence, and leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death.
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