Photo: WBZ NewsRadio
DEDHAM, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Jen McCabe, a key witness in the Karen Read re-trial, returned to the stand Friday during the eighth day of witness testimony at Norfolk Superior Court.
Read is accused of hitting Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, her then-boyfriend, with her SUV and leaving him for dead in the snow outside of a home at 34 Fairview Rd. in Canton, Mass. McCabe was with Read and Kerry Roberts, another witness in the case, the morning that O'Keefe's body was found.
Defense Attorney Alan Jackson continued his cross-examination from Wednesday of McCabe. He dug into her text and phone records from the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022 to the days following O'Keefe's death.
Cross-examination ended just before a lunch break. Afterward, Special Prosecutor Hank Brennan asked McCabe questions during re-direct, which lasted less than an hour. Jackson returned for re-cross shortly after.
Communications after John O'Keefe's death:
Attorney Jackson questioned McCabe about who she spoke to in the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022. McCabe told law enforcement and testified before a grandy jury in 2023 that she only spoke with Karen Read, and called Julie Albert and O'Keefe's friend Tom Beatty. But, Jackson said that phone records show she also called her sister, Nicole Albert, at 5:07 a.m., and the call lasted 38 seconds. McCabe denied speaking to her sister, and was not sure if the call had gone to voicemail.
"There's nothing nefarious," McCabe said on the stand Friday. "I remembered who I called. I didn't go back and look at phone records."
Jackson also had McCabe read texts between herself and members of her family, arguing they were evidence McCabe and her family coordinated a story they told police, which McCabe denied.
In one text to her sister, McCabe said Kerry Roberts had talked to police and kept her story simple.
McCabe then testified about a text message she sent in a group chat while Roberts was talking to Massachusetts State Police trooper Michael Proctor. "She's telling him EVERYTHING!" the text read. McCabe testified that "him" referred to Proctor and "EVERYTHING!" referred to Roberts' personal opinions about Read. Proctor has since been fired from the Massachusetts State Police for inappropriate conduct during the investigation.
During re-direct, Brennan brought up different communications from McCabe. He read a message where McCabe expressed distress to Roberts.
"Every time I close my eyes, it's all I see. I feel like I'm going to vomit. I just can't even. I know how close you two were, can't imagine how hard this situation is for you," Brennan read.
Calls to John O'Keefe:
Jackson also asked McCabe about seven phone calls she made to O'Keefe just after midnight, hours before his body was found in the snow. McCabe has maintained that she made the calls by mistake.
"That evening I didn't pay attention to butt dials or calls, I was going back and forth, listening to music, being with family. So, if I had inadvertently called his phone, I did," McCabe said on the stand. Jackson pointed out she didn't just butt dial him once, but that she did it seven times. He said "we only know about these calls" because they were extracted from O'Keefe's phone.
"Correct, but I also turned over my phone so you could have also gotten that off of my phone as well," McCabe responded. Jackson said none of those calls appeared on an extraction of her phone.
During re-direct, Brennan asked her if she frequently makes calls by mistake. "Many times," McCabe said.
'Hos long to die in cold' Google search:
McCabe made a Google search, time stamped at 2:27 a.m., for 'hos long to die in cold.' She claims did not make the search until hours later at Read's request after they found O'Keefe's body. A cell phone expert for the prosecution testified earlier this week the time stamp is likely from when the tab was created, and not the time of the actual search.
Jackson pointed out there's no video or audio of Read asking McCabe to make the Google search, and no one was there to witness it. "So it's your word and your word only, Ms. McCabe, that my client demanded a Google search. Is that right?" "Yes," McCabe responded.
"The fact is you instructed Kerry Roberts to say that she heard that Google hypothermia statement from my client before she testified at the grand jury, didn't you?" Jackson asked. McCabe denied this and said she "never instructed her to do anything."
During re-direct, McCabe reiterated to the prosecution that it was Read who told her to make the search.
After McCabe's testimony:
After McCabe's testimony, the prosecution player a couple of short interview clips of Read. Hannah Knowles, a forensic scientist with the Massachusetts State Police Crime Laboratory, was then called to the stand for direct examination.
Read's blood alcohol content was tested at Good Samaritan Hospital around 9 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. Using that testing, Knowles calculated that Read's BAC would have been between 0.14 and 0.28 at 12:45 a.m. that morning.
During cross examination, Defense Attorney David Yannetti argued that the hospital was a third party to the lab.
"Basically, you cannot personally vouch ethanol testing that was performed at Good Samaritan, correct?" Yannetti asked.
"That's accurate," Knowles responded. "My calculations are only as good as the numbers that I was provided."