Key witness Jennifer McCabe denies deleting phone calls linked to Karen Read murder trial

Karen Read’s lawyers say she was framed in a widespread conspiracy. And they allege Jennifer McCabe was in on the coverup.

Facing rapid-fire questioning from

’s defense Tuesday, witness Jennifer McCabe denied erasing her call log before handing her cellphone over to police, though she acknowledged a phone extraction report indicated she deleted a number of calls to John O’Keefe the morning he died.

As McCabe took the stand for cross-examination, she and defense attorney Alan Jackson traded barbs and jabs in a tense line of questioning more than two years in the making. Pointing to McCabe’s phone records, Jackson asked her about a series of calls she made to O’Keefe between 12:29 a.m. and 12:50 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022 — around the time prosecutors allege O’Keefe was mortally wounded.

“Every single one of those calls was deleted off your phone, correct? According to the reports,” Jackson asked.

“According to that report, yes,” McCabe confirmed.

She previously testified that she was drinking with family and friends at the Waterfall Bar & Grille in Canton on Jan. 28, 2022, when O’Keefe and Read arrived and joined the group. As their time at the bar came to an end, McCabe’s sister and brother-in-law, Nicole and Brian Albert, extended an open invitation to continue the festivities back at 34 Fairview Road.

Prosecutors allege that while dropping O’Keefe off at the Albert home, Read, 44, backed her SUV into her boyfriend of two years and left him to die in the snow. However, lawyers for the Mansfield woman say she was framed in a widespread conspiracy among law enforcement and witnesses.

In fact, they allege, McCabe was one of the key players in the coverup.

‘Where was the body?’

McCabe previously said she looked outside 34 Fairview Road several times after midnight on Jan. 29, 2022, and saw a dark SUV consistent with Read’s car. On Tuesday, McCabe confirmed she had a clear view of the SUV across the front lawn and saw it move farther up the street multiple times, before leaving.

“So I have a question, Ms. McCabe. Where was the body?” Jackson asked, referring to O’Keefe, who was found outside 34 Fairview Road later that morning.

“I have no idea,” McCabe replied. “I’m assuming the body was on the front lawn.”

“The problem with that is you were looking at the front lawn, weren’t you?” Jackson pressed.

“I was looking at the vehicle and where it had moved,” McCabe explained. Later, she clarified that she was looking straight at the SUV, not at the ground.

“Let me ask you a question about that,” Jackson continued. “You’re focusing right now on my face as you’re answering these questions. Do you think you’d see, I don’t know, an alligator sitting in front of me if it was there?”

Judge Beverly Cannone sustained an objection from prosecutors.

McCabe confirms speaking to other witnesses about ‘vicious harassment’

McCabe also testified about seeing fellow witness Brian Higgins’s Jeep parked outside 34 Fairview Road when she and her husband arrived on Jan. 29, 2022. Higgins was friends with Brian Albert and had attended the earlier gathering at the Waterfall.

Jackson pointed out that McCabe and her husband both placed the Jeep in the same location in front of the home, asking McCabe whether she told her husband what to say.

“Absolutely not,” she replied. “It’s because we drove together in the car.”

Jackson further alleged that McCabe never mentioned Higgins’s Jeep when she spoke with Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on the case. Proctor had been asking specific questions about Read’s vehicle, McCabe countered.

Jackson also asked McCabe if she had spoken with Brian Albert’s brother and sister-in-law, Chris and Julie Albert, about the case.

“Of course I speak to them all the time about the vicious harassment we are all receiving,” McCabe answered, prompting a testy exchange with Jackson.

“That wasn’t my question,” he said. “My question was, ‘Did you talk to them about this case, Ms. McCabe?’”

“Yes,” McCabe replied.

“I realize you want to give additional answers and editorialize. I’m asking you very specific questions,” Jackson said in admonishment.

Last week, McCabe’s daughter Allison broke down on the stand as she testified about the harassment her family and the Alberts have faced throughout Read’s case. She described “constant phone calls, emails, awful messages” and said her family has had “people showing up at our house, people emailing my school.”

Did McCabe hear Read say ‘I hit him’?

Jennifer McCabe, who was with Read when she found O’Keefe’s body, testified that she remembers Read saying “I hit him, I hit him, I hit him” that morning with “100% clarity.”

Jackson grilled her on whether she told a state grand jury as much. He pointed to her testimony, where she allegedly indicated that Read asked, “Could I have hit him?” and “Did I hit him?” McCabe maintained that Read said all three statements throughout the morning of Jan. 29, 2022.

“Ms. McCabe, the truth of the matter is you’ve manufactured this new story for this jury because you think it helps you out,” Jackson alleged.

“Absolutely not,” McCabe replied.

McCabe denies deleting any phone calls

McCabe further testified that while she called Nicole and Brian Albert multiple times that morning, they never picked up. She said she went inside the home and woke them up as first responders swarmed their front lawn.

“You do agree with me that Brian and Nicole Albert, Brian Albert being a police officer, never came out of the house, right?” Jackson asked.

“Correct,” McCabe replied. “Neither did any neighbor.”

“I know you’d like to continue editorializing after the fact,” Jackson said. “There’s probably a time and a place for it; this isn’t it. If you can answer my question, I’d ask that you do that.”

McCabe also denied conferring with Brian and Nicole Albert about police interviews and said they didn’t discuss the calls she placed before waking the couple up.

“Did you ever discuss the idea of potentially deleting any of those calls that were made that early morning?” Jackson asked.

“Absolutely not,” McCabe said.

“Would you tell us if you did?” Jackson pressed.

“Yes, because I’m an honest and truthful person,” McCabe replied.

Jackson later turned his attention to McCabe’s phone records, comparing them with O’Keefe’s. McCabe maintained that she handed her phone over to police “willingly.”

“After you deleted your phone call logs, correct?” Jackson asked.

“Absolutely not,” McCabe replied. She clarified that she spoke with police and received permission to delete texts from “personal conversations” with her daughters before turning in her phone. However, she didn’t recall deleting any phone calls and denied erasing any calls with O’Keefe or other witnesses in the case.

She also testified that she doesn’t remember making any calls to O’Keefe between 12:29 a.m. and 12:50 a.m. on Jan. 29, 2022. McCabe indicated in prior grand jury testimony that the calls were “butt dials.”

“I don’t remember making any of those calls, so my assumption is I put my phone in my back pocket, and that was it,” she explained Tuesday.

‘Is there some big coverup story? No.’

McCabe also pushed back on the defense team’s efforts to insinuate that she colluded with Kerry Roberts, who was with Read and McCabe when they found O’Keefe’s body. Roberts was one of O’Keefe’s longtime friends.

McCabe said she didn’t take any steps to influence Roberts’s statements to police and denied reaching out to Roberts in an effort to “control” her story, as Jackson alleged. She did, however, confirm that Roberts came over to her house at one point to discuss a timeline of events.

“The two of us were trying to figure out what had happened to our friend,” she explained. McCabe also confirmed that Roberts spoke with investigators while she was at McCabe’s home.

Jackson questioned McCabe about a group chat she and her husband shared with Brian and Nicole Albert. In one message, he said, McCabe texted about Roberts telling police “EVERYTHING!!” McCabe explained that her text was regarding an opinionated statement Roberts made to investigators.

“I was horrified, because Kerry’s a blunt person, not like me,” McCabe said. “And she had made a comment about Ms. Read and Mr. O’Keefe’s relationship, and I was shocked and horrified that she said it the way she did.”

McCabe said she was eating dinner in another room and occasionally overheard Roberts as she spoke with investigators.

“I’m saying there’s a possibility, if I’m sitting in this room, eating dinner, and someone’s in another room talking — you can hear bits and pieces,” McCabe said. “Was I eavesdropping? No. Is there some big coverup story? No.”

She said she provided updates to the group chat because everyone was trying to piece together what had happened to O’Keefe.

“Because at the end of the day, our friend was dead and we were trying to figure out what had happened to him, together,” McCabe testified. “There was no direction. We were all trying to figure out what had happened, because that’s what you do when you lose somebody you love.”

McCabe also confirmed that she and Roberts dropped off Roberts’s daughter at the home of Canton Police Lt. Michael Lank on Jan. 30, 2022. Lank was among the first police officers to arrive at 34 Fairview Road the day O’Keefe died.

McCabe said she never spoke with Lank himself on Jan. 30, but the officer’s wife came out to the car and ended up chatting with them for 45 minutes to an hour.

“Kerry is a talker,” McCabe explained.

McCabe’s cross-examination will continue Wednesday as Read’s trial returns for a full day in court.