Updated 4/30/25 4:40 p.m.
DEDHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Wednesday was day 7 of testimony in the Karen Read murder retrial at Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in the snow on Jan. 29, 2022. Read’s defense team has claimed she is innocent and is being framed.
Jennifer McCabe Continues Testimony
McCabe returned to the stand when the court was back in session on Wednesday. McCabe testified on Tuesday about searching for O’Keefe’s body with Read and Kerry Roberts.
Special prosecutor Hank Brennan played McCabe’s 911 call for the jury, which happened shortly after the group found O’Keefe. As first responders arrived and started asking questions, McCabe said Read was “running around crazy,” while yelling and screaming.
Cellebrite digital forensics examiner Ian Whiffin, who was on the stand prior to McCabe, spent a large portion of his testimony on her “hos [sic] long to die in the cold” Google search. McCabe testified that she made the search at the request of Read, who also asked her to look up hypothermia.
“Was this the first time, that morning after the defendant asked you to search, that you searched that phrase?” Brennan asked.
“Yes, it was,” McCabe responded.
McCabe also testified about making a second search, but said she did not pay attention to what came up for either because they “were already on to the next thing.”
“Karen was already moving and screaming about the next thing to Kerry. ‘Are they working on him? Is he dead?’” said McCabe.
As testimony continued, McCabe recalled being “in shock” at the scene as O’Keefe’s body was carried away by first responders. Massachusetts State Police (MSP) Trooper Michael Proctor and Sgt. Yuri Bukhenik came to McCabe's home later that morning to interview her.
“I know I had said what Karen had said to me, and then she said, ‘Could I have hit him? Did I hit him?’ I told them how she showed up at my house. I just basically gave them the events of that morning,” said McCabe.
McCabe said she did not mention anything about the broken taillight on Read’s SUV during that conversation. “A few hours later,” she had a conversation over the phone with the investigators, where she remembered that Read had told her about the taillight.
Jennifer McCabe Cross-Examination
Defense attorney Alan Jackson handled the cross-examination of McCabe once Brennan had no further questions. Jackson asked her about conversations in the wake of O’Keefe’s death with Roberts, who McCabe testified was not a friend prior to the incident.
“You two have probably talked hundreds of times, that’s fair to say, about your individual perceptions, your respective perceptions of this case. Correct?” Jackson asked.
“This happened three years ago and we’ve talked about it time and time again. This case has traumatized us and it’s a huge part of our lives,” McCabe answered.
Jackson then asked McCabe about four meetings with representatives from the District Attorney’s office between the conclusion of the initial trial and the start of her testimony on Tuesday. She said she watched parts of her first testimony during one of the meetings, but denied practicing or discussing her demeanor in the first trial.
“No, I was just told to slow down, answer the question and, you know, answer it to the best of my memory,” said McCabe.
Jackson had McCabe confirm her relationships with several law enforcement officers and civilians connected to the case. Those included her sister Nicole Albert and brother-in-law Brian Albert, who owned the 34 Fairview Road home where O’Keefe’s body was found.
Judge Beverly Cannone called for a sidebar shortly after Jackson started down this line of questioning, which ultimately turned into an extended break. After almost an hour and no clear indication of what the sidebar was about, McCabe returned to the stand.
Jackson focused in on a meeting with “another law enforcement agency that was not MSP and not [the] Canton Police Department,” which occurred in April 2023 at her home. During the interview, she admitted to contacting her husband, Matthew McCabe, and Roberts in the 10 minutes before she sat down with the officers. Further along in her testimony, McCabe admitted that she also contacted Peggy O'Keefe, Brian Albert and her witness advocate at the District Attorney's office during that time.
McCabe denied calling Roberts for the purpose of having their stories match, saying, “There is no story, there’s what happened and that’s it.” Roberts had not been interviewed by those officers at the time of the interview.
Jackson then accused McCabe of lying to the investigators by not telling them about contacting O’Keefe’s mother, Brian Albert and her witness advocate. McCabe said she called the investigators back to tell them about the other people, after her husband recommended it.
“There was some reason that was important enough for you to lie about that, even though you had been admonished that it’s a crime to lie about that to those officers. Correct?” said Jackson.
“Incorrect, I didn’t lie to them. I had forgotten who I had called,” said McCabe.
Jackson switched his focus to the series of events before O’Keefe’s body was found, starting at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton, Mass. McCabe said she had invited Read to drive with her to the Alberts’ House, but Read decided to drive with O’Keefe. She went on to describe what she witnessed when she arrived at 34 Fairview Road, saying Brian Albert and Brian Higgins were already there.
Jackson then asked about the early hours of the investigation, focusing on the group of people at McCabe’s house when Proctor first came to interview her. Jackson suggested that the key witnesses had a chance to corroborate their stories, but McCabe said there was no reason for them to be “separated” since they are all family.
The court broke for lunch as Jackson was questioning McCabe about what she saw outside 34 Fairview Road when Read and O'Keefe were expected to arrive. Cross-examination picked up where it had left off, once they returned from the break.
Jackson started going through the texts that McCabe had sent to O’Keefe in the early hours of Jan. 29, 2022. McCabe testified that she had texted him several times when she saw Read’s SUV parked outside 34 Fairview Road, but he never came inside. Jackson questioned her memory of the number of times she saw Read’s SUV, now three years removed from O’Keefe’s death.
“Well, some things unfortunately I think about every single day with this case, the trauma of it, and what I experienced and went through,” said McCabe. “There are some things that I’m certain I will never forget, and I know for sure where the car was and I know for sure I sent those two texts, but I apologize if I misstated [that] I went out more than I did. I’m just trying to give you what I remember today.”
Jackson asked McCabe about whether she saw O'Keefe outside the SUV or his body on the lawn at any time. McCabe said no, and further testified that when she left the house later, she was sitting in the passenger seat of an SUV as they passed the location where O'Keefe's body was later found. McCabe said she was looking toward the backseat and did not see anything out of the ordinary on the lawn.
Jackson then asked McCabe about returning to the house the next morning. McCabe testified that after O'Keefe's body was found, she saw Read cradle O'Keefe's body and say "I hit him, I hit him, I hit him." Jackson pointed out that during McCabe's grand jury testimony in April 2022, she did not testify that Read said "I hit him." Rather, McCabe testified that Read had asked her "Could I have hit him? Did I hit him?" McCabe said that she did not remember everything she said during grand jury testimony, but stood by what she said.
"I do know that morning your client said 'I hit him, I hit him, I hit him' and there was a female EMT there," McCabe told Jackson.
McCabe testified that in the aftermath of discovering O'Keefe's body, she told Canton Police Sgt. Michael Lank about Read saying "I hit him." Jackson pointed out that Lank's report said "I hope I didn't hit him." McCabe said that that is not what she told Lank.
Jackson asked McCabe about what she said to other officers on the scene. McCabe said it was a chaotic scene and most officers were asking about O'Keefe's condition. McCabe insisted again that with "100 percent accuracy," she could tell the court that Read said "I hit him."
Cannone attempted to adjourn the court, but Jackson kept pressing McCabe about the discrepancy with her previous testimony, saying "I can't let it end like this. You said that she said 'Could I have hit him? Did I hit him?' in the presence of the female EMT, that's what you testified to under oath at the grand jury."
Cannone dismissed the jury for the day after ordering them to ignore Jackson's final comment. Cannone asked Jackson how much longer he would need to cross-examine McCabe. Jackson said he would need another one-and-a-half-to-two hours. Brennan said he would need another 20 minutes.
Court will resume on Friday.
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