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Karen Read trial: Defense grills police lieutenant on ties to homeowner’s family
Lawyers for Karen Read spent much of Tuesday picking apart Canton Police Lt. Michael Lank’s decades-old relationship with the Albert family.
On the stand Tuesday:
- Lt. Charles Rae, Canton Police Department
- Lt. Michael Lank, Canton Police Department
- Sgt. Sean Goode, Canton Police Department
1 p.m. update: Police lieutenant testifies about well-being check on John O’Keefe’s niece and nephew: ‘It seemed like the right thing to do’
Before Judge Beverly Cannone ended Tuesday’s court session, Canton Police Lt. Charles Rae testified briefly about performing a wellness check on John O’Keefe’s young niece and nephew.
O’Keefe had taken custody of the two children years prior, after their parents died.
When O’Keefe failed to return home on Jan. 29, 2022, Karen Read went out searching for her boyfriend and later found him cold and lifeless in the snow outside 34 Fairview Road. Investigators soon realized the children may have been left unattended.
“It seemed like the right thing to do, to do a well-being check on the children at 1 Meadows Ave., which was Mr. O’Keefe’s residence,” Rae testified.
12:30 p.m. update: Read’s lawyers zero in on police lieutenant’s relationship with homeowner’s family
Judge Beverly Cannone allowed the defense team to question Canton Police Lt. Michael Lank about his relationship to the Albert family, who owned the home where John O’Keefe’s body was found. Specifically, defense attorney Alan Jackson sought to probe a 2002 incident in which Lank said he intervened in an altercation on behalf of homeowner Brian Albert’s brother Chris.
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“But keep in mind, Mr. Jackson, the Alberts are not all one entity, so you must do it individually,” Cannone said of Jackson’s line of questioning. “And simply because the witness had a relationship with Chris Albert doesn’t mean that it has any bearing on favoritism or bias to Brian Albert or to Tim Albert,” another brother.
Lank testified that he grew up in Canton and knew Brian Albert prior to O’Keefe’s death on Jan. 29, 2022. He described his relationship with Albert as “civil” but said they didn’t socialize. Lank also confirmed that he knows Brian Albert’s brothers and was “pretty good friends” with Chris Albert from childhood into their 20s.
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He was off-duty in 2002 when he intervened in a bar fight on Chris Albert’s behalf, initially attempting to de-escalate the situation before the confrontation turned violent.
“Officer Lank, what we just talked about, is that an example of you using your position as a police officer to come to the aid of one of the members of the Albert family?” Jackson asked.
“It was me coming to the aid of a citizen who was terrified and scared for him and his family on that night. … Who happened to be Chris Albert,” Lank replied.
Flash forward to January 2022, and Lank was one of the first police officers to speak with Brian and Nicole Albert after O’Keefe was found unresponsive on the couple’s lawn.
“They appeared — especially Mr. Albert appeared disheveled,” Lank testified. “It looked like he had just woken up.”
Inside the Alberts’ home at 34 Fairview Road, he said, “Everything appeared in order.”
Lank testified that while at the scene, investigators put up crime scene tape to protect the area where O’Keefe’s body was found, “but it was a futile effort because of the wind. But there were marked patrol cars in front of the yard at all times, so the scene was fairly secure at all times.”
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Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally asked Lank about investigators’ decision to collect blood samples from the snow using Solo cups borrowed from a Canton police lieutenant who lived nearby.
“We did the best that we could with the situation, with the weather and the deteriorating situation,” Lank replied.
Lally also brought a police evidence box to the stand, containing a bag labeled “broken drinking glass.” Lank held the glass up for the jury, confirming it was the broken cocktail glass found near O’Keefe’s body.
He said he returned to 34 Fairview Road several days after O’Keefe died, because then-Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz spotted more evidence in the melting snow. Prosecutors have said pieces of plastic consistent with Karen Read’s broken tail light were discovered on the Alberts’ lawn, and Lank testified that Berkowitz directed his attention to a piece of red “glass” in the area where O’Keefe was found.
“I photographed the piece of plastic as it sat,” he testified, adding that a Massachusetts State Police trooper arrived at the scene and secured the item in an evidence bag.
During cross-examination, Jackson zeroed in on Lank’s actions at the crime scene on Jan. 29, 2022. Lank confirmed that in a call to dispatch that morning, he stated that O’Keefe had some head trauma and told dispatchers, “I don’t know if he has been in a fight.”
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If Lank suspected that O’Keefe’s injuries might have come from a fight, Jackson pressed, why didn’t he turn his attention to the Alberts’ house? Lank explained that Jennifer McCabe — Brian Albert’s sister-in-law and one of the women who accompanied Read to 34 Fairview Road that morning — told him O’Keefe never made it inside the home.
“So you just took Ms. McCabe’s word for it?” Jackson asked.
“At that point in time, that was the only person I had spoken to, and she gave me a timeline of events from that night where Mr. O’Keefe was supposed to come back to the house but never made it,” Lank replied.
Jackson asked if a witness had ever lied to Lank before. Yes, the lieutenant said.
“You need to actually investigate the circumstances for yourself and to your own satisfaction, is that a fair statement?” Jackson continued, earning confirmation from Lank.
Lank testified that he didn’t notice anything out of place inside the Alberts’ house but said he didn’t enter the home’s basement or make it past the front foyer. He confirmed he didn’t search the house for evidence of a fight or seek a search warrant to do so, citing lack of probable cause.
Jackson asked Lank if he had ever notified any of his law enforcement superiors about his personal relationship with members of the Albert family. Lank said he hadn’t.
Livestream via NBC10 Boston.
The Karen Read murder trial returns to court Tuesday following a long day of testimony from Canton police officers who responded to the scene at 34 Fairview Road the morning John O’Keefe was found unresponsive in the snow.
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Read, 44, is accused of backing her SUV into O’Keefe — her Boston police officer boyfriend — in January 2022. Prosecutors allege she drunkenly struck O’Keefe while dropping him off at another Boston officer’s home in Canton following a night out. However, lawyers for the Mansfield woman say O’Keefe was actually beaten inside the home, arguing that Read was framed in an elaborate coverup involving witnesses and law enforcement.
Canton Police Lt. Paul Gallagher testified Monday that investigators borrowed Solo cups from another Canton lieutenant who lived across the street from the crime scene, then used the cups to collect several blood samples from the area where O’Keefe’s body was found.
More on Karen Read:
Gallagher’s description of the improvised evidence collection protocol was met with skepticism from defense attorney Alan Jackson, who questioned whether the cups were sterile and sealed from possible cross-contamination. To illustrate his point, Jackson showed jurors a photo of the cups sitting uncovered in a brown paper Stop & Shop bag on a garage floor at the police station.
“Do you think it’s standard practice for a police department to borrow red Solo cups from a neighbor to gather evidence?” Jackson asked.
“Of course not,” Gallagher answered. “Nothing about the scene was standard.”
Also on Monday, defense attorney David Yannetti asked Judge Beverly Cannone to revisit her earlier ruling regarding photos that show Canton firefighter Katie McLaughlin socializing with Caitlin Albert, whose family owned the home where O’Keefe’s body was found.
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The Albert family was subject to additional scrutiny when lawyers on both sides debated whether jurors should hear about a 2002 incident in which Canton Police Lt. Michael Lank allegedly intervened in a fight on behalf of homeowner Brian Albert’s brother Chris. Cannone has yet to weigh in on either matter.
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