The legal battle over who is to blame for the death of a Boston police officer during a snowstorm has taken another bitter turn.
Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe died while outside a Canton home on Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022, as the storm pounded the region.
Defense attorneys for Karen Read — the woman accused in the death — say others are culpable. But that has sparked some high-powered pushback.
“My client, Jennifer McCabe, has been vilified in pleadings. They are spinning it,” attorney Kevin Reddington told the Herald Monday. “It’s going nowhere. The whole scenario is baseless.”
Reddington, a top lawyer in the region, is hitting back at Read’s legal team who claim in motions that McCabe and Brian Albert were inside the Canton home on the night of the death and are partly responsible.
Read, 43, of Mansfield, faces charges in Norfolk Superior Court of second-degree murder, motor vehicle manslaughter while under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a collision causing the death of O’Keefe, 46, of Canton, that night.
Read’s lawyers last week filed a motion claiming a Google search was made on McCabe’s phone — “ho(w) long to die in cold” — as O’Keefe was presumably already in the front lawn of the house suffering from physical trauma. Read’s lawyers add that search was not disclosed to them by prosecutors.
Reddington said McCabe passed a polygraph test showing “no evidence of deception” or any conspiracy or coverup.
“This rabbit hole the defense is trying to go down will sputter,” Reddington added, saying his client called 911 and any search was done on behalf of Read.
What this case has done is stir up allegations swirling around Canton as the case has gone before a grand jury.
Reddington said his client “has been through hell and back” as others push different scenarios.
Read has been out on bail since initially being charged in Stoughton District Court on Feb. 2, 2022, when she posted $50,000. Following her indictment that following June, the Superior Court set a bail of $100,000, which she posted. Her bail has since been lowered to $75,000.
Last week, as the Herald reported, her defense attorneys filed a motion compelling the court to grant them “all cell phone(s) in the possession of and/or used by Brian Albert between January 28, 2022, and present” so that a defense expert can perform a forensic examination of communications on those phones from between Jan. 28, 2022, and Feb. 5, 2022.”
The case returns to court on May 3.