Five people who took the witness stand in the high-profile Karen Read murder case are planning to sue her for defamation, a legal brief obtained by Boston 25 News on Monday reveals.
Jennifer McCabe, Matthew McCabe, Nicole Albert, Brian Albert and Brian Higgins sent Karen Read’s attorneys and blogger Aiden Kearney a brief claiming that Read spun a “vile work of fiction” when she blamed them for the death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe.
Read was accused of striking O’Keefe with her Lexus SUV and leaving him to die alone in a blizzard outside of a house party in Canton at the home of fellow officer Brian Albert on Jan. 29, 2022, following a night of drinking. Read’s second criminal trial, ended in June with a jury finding her not guilty of murder and manslaughter.
During her two trials for O’Keefe’s death, Read’s legal team painted a sinister picture of police misconduct and theorized that O’Keefe was, in fact, killed by colleagues, followed by a vast cover-up.
“These outlandish allegations are part of Defendant Read’s scheme to defame and wrongly malign the Commonwealth Witnesses to evade responsibility for her actions on the morning of January 29, 2022,” the brief by the former witnesses states.
Her defense team asserted that there was no collision between O’Keefe and the 6,000-pound (2,700-kilogram) SUV driven by Read, arguing instead that the crew of tightly knit local and state cops were shielding one of their own and framing her.
Brian Albert confirmed on the stand that he traded in his cell phone for a new one the day before a court order was issued to preserve it. He said he did not know all of the data on that phone would be factory reset and destroyed.
Brian Higgins, a federal agent, acknowledged at trial destroying his phone and SIM card afterward and disposing of them in two different locations on a military base.
Jennifer McCabe infamously Googled, “hos long to die in cold,” on the morning of O’Keefe’s death. During Read’s second trial, McCabe was asked about the discovery of O’Keefe’s body and the preceding events. She said that Read and O’Keefe were invited to a get-together at 34 Fairview Road in Canton. She saw Read’s Lexus pull up, but she says neither she nor O’Keefe ever came in. McCabe told special prosecutor Hank Brennan that O’Keefe never texted her during the time in question.
Blogger Aidan Kearney, “Turtleboy”, relentlessly questioned the prosecution in Karen Read’s trial, echoing the claim Read had been framed in a cover-up. He also attended Read’s trial and listened to testimony from the press bench.
In September, Read’s team announced plans to file her own lawsuit against Brian Albert, Nicole Albert, Brian Higgins, Jennifer McCabe, and Matthew McCabe, as well as state troopers assigned to the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office, the Canton Police Department.
O’Keefe’s family filed the civil lawsuit against Read in Plymouth Superior Court last summer after her first trial ended with a hung jury and Norfolk Superior Court Judge Beverly Cannone declaring a mistrial.
Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts.
Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
©2025 Cox Media Group
/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/cmg/7QOJU3BNCJERBNKJC5LWTBYFLU.png)
