John O'Keefe and Karen Read. (Images via BPD portrait and WBZ-TV screengrab, respectively.)
The adjunct lecturer accused of murdering her Boston police officer boyfriend during a historic nor'easter in 2022 is actually innocent, and another Boston cop's cell phone evidence will prove it, defense attorneys said in a "bombshell" motion this week.
Attorneys for Karen A. Read, 42, asserted that the defense motion filed Wednesday "completely undermines the prosecution's theory of the case" and, in fact, supports their third-party culpability theory about what happened to 46-year-old John O'Keefe in Canton, Massachusetts between Jan. 28, 2022 and Jan. 29, 2022. The lawyers asked the trial court to permit additional discovery relating to Boston police officer Brian Albert's phone and the phone of Jennifer McCabe, Albert's sister-in-law.
In February 2022, Read was accused of leaving O'Keefe to die in the snow after a car collision outside of Albert's home.
Authorities claimed that Read and O'Keefe had gone to at least two bars on the Friday before the incident, after which point they went to Albert's home. Read claimed she wasn't feeling well and went home – leaving O'Keefe at that residence.
Read allegedly told investigators she later tried to contact O'Keefe but was unsuccessful. The next morning, the defendant allegedly told police, she noticed that her vehicle had a broken taillight.
"Could I have hit him?" Read allegedly said upon returning to where she dropped off her boyfriend, according to prosecutors. "Did I hit him?"
Read's lawyers suggest that there's a reason other than booze as to why Read didn't have any recollection of hitting O'Keefe: It didn't happen.
In service of that argument, the defense said Jennifer McCabe — described as "the government's seminal witness" — Googled "hos [sic] long to die in cold" after 2 a.m. that Jan. 29. The defense said that McCabe meant to Google "how" not "hos." Read's lawyers also said that McCabe tried to delete evidence of her contact with Albert.
"McCabe explicitly told law enforcement that she 'did not think much' of O'Keefe's failure to enter the residence that night and assumed that O'Keefe and Ms. Read simply decided to go home. Yet, three hours before Jennifer McCabe had any reason to suspect O'Keefe hadn't gone home with Ms. Read, three hours before she inserted herself into Ms. Read's search for O'Keefe and delayed her return to the Albert Residence, and three hours before her 'discovery' of his lifeless body in the cold snow of her brother-in-law's front lawn, Ms. McCabe had only one thing on her mind: how long does it take to die in the cold," the defense motion said. "What's even more shocking, is that the very next day, before turning her phone over to law enforcement, Ms. McCabe took calculated steps to purge her phone of this inculpatory search and, at the same time, attempted to delete her communications with Brian Albert and remove a screenshot of his contact information from her phone, which she had obviously shared with someone that morning."
The defense asserted that the new evidence should prompt the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office to "immediately do what's right and file a nolle prosequi" and end the case against Read.
Scene where Officer John O'Keefe died (court exhibit)
If that does not happen, the lawyers said, Read should at minimum be allowed to conduct additional discovery and mount a vigorous defense in court.
"Ms. Read's constitutional right to defend herself against these false allegations demand that she be permitted to obtain the critical information that law enforcement failed to obtain and preserve from the outset, namely communications and location information associated with the actual perpetrators of this crime, Jennifer McCabe and Brian Albert," the defense said. "The requested information will undoubtedly further implicate Jennifer McCabe, Brian Albert (and others) in the murder of O'Keefe and the sinister coverup that resulted in these false charges being brought against Ms. Read."
Alleging a "demonstrable pattern of attempting to manipulate, conceal, and destroy evidence that might expose their involvement in O'Keefe's murder," the defense asked the court to issue a "pretrial summons" for Albert's and McCabe's cell phone records between Jan. 28, 2022 and Feb. 5, 2022.
The defense believes that, if approved, the summons will "undoubtedly reveal text messages and calls that Ms. McCabe deleted from her phone in an effort to interfere with the investigation." Read's lawyers added that the available evidence "incontrovertibly establishes" that O'Keefe, Read, Albert, Albert's wife, and McCabe, among others, drank with each other at the Waterfall Bar and Grille in Canton on the night before the cop's death.
"As the bar was closing around midnight, the parties discussed going to Nicole and Brian Albert's residence located close by […] to continue the party and celebrate their son, Brian Albert, Jr.'s, birthday," the motion said. "Although O'Keefe and Ms. Read were not well-acquainted with the Alberts, the invite was extended to them by O'Keefe's longtime friend, Jennifer McCabe."
The lawyers argued that Apple Health app data helps prove their request is no "fishing expedition."
"O'Keefe's arrival at the Albert Residence at 12:20 a.m., between 12:21 a.m. and 12:24 a.m., Apple Health recorded O'Keefe taking 80 steps (i.e., traveling approximately 200 feet or 60 meters) and climbing the equivalent of three floors with his location data pinging at or near the Albert residence," the motion continued. "The only reasonable interpretation of O'Keefe's Apple Health Data, which shows an elevation gain of three floors at or near the Albert Residence, is that he made it inside the Albert's three-floor residence."
"Thus, location data from O'Keefe's cell phone directly contradicts Brian Albert's assertion to police that O'Keefe never entered his home or arrived at the party on January 29, 2022," the defense added.
Attorney Alan Jackson, a high-profile lawyer who has represented actor Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein, released a statement with Read attorney David R. Yannetti on the latest development.
"Today is a turning point for Karen. Finally, the truth has come out. We have presented a Motion today asking the Court for additional discovery in this matter based on a stunning revelation of evidence that the prosecution failed to turn over to us. As we explain in the Motion, we have discovered that Jennifer McCabe, homeowner Brian Albert's sister-in-law, was searching on her phone 'Ho[w] long to die in cold' on January 29, 2022, at 2:27 a.m.," the lawyers said. "The prosecution has maintained that John O'Keefe's body was not discovered in Brian Albert's yard until about 6:00 a.m., some three-and-a-half hours later."
Jackson has called the case "an abject injustice" from the start.
"As we stress in the Motion, there is simply no innocent explanation for McCabe's search at that time. This evidence unequivocally exonerates Karen, because it establishes that individuals who were in the house at 34 Fairview that night were aware that John was dying in the snow before Karen even knew he was missing," the lawyers added.
The lawyers, noting a crucial hearing is set for May 3, wondered why it took so long for the prosecution to fulfill their Brady obligations and disclose this favorable information to the defense.
"Why did we have to find all this evidence? Why did the prosecution hide this bombshell exculpatory information?" the lawyers asked. "It's unthinkable that the prosecution would have McCabe's cellphone in their possession for more than a year, do a forensic analysis on that phone, and then fail to turn over this extraordinary exculpatory evidence. But that's exactly what happened. It makes you wonder what else the prosecution has failed to turn over to the defense. We will not rest until we have uncovered all the evidence, which will establish that the prosecution of Karen was a miscarriage of justice from the start."
Read, who worked as an adjunct lecturer at Bentley University prior to her arrest, is the victim of an incomplete investigation marred by tunnel-vision, the lawyers argued.
"The significant and reliable direct and circumstantial evidence outlined above clearly supports Ms. Read's longstanding assertions that she is innocent, and that the McCabes and Alberts are responsible for O'Keefe's death," the defense said. "The government utterly failed to investigate any suspects other than Ms. Read in connection with this case. Because the McCabes and Alberts were never questioned as suspects, the government failed to recover (and uncover) significant evidence suggesting that they are at fault."
Beyond this motion, no allegations of wrongdoing have been made against McCabe and Albert, and they have not commented on the claims, the Boston Globe reported. Prosecutors, on the other hand, have reportedly promised to file a "formal and detailed response."
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