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Karen Read case: Alberts, McCabes, Higgins eyeing defamation claims against Read and Turtleboy
The witnesses from Read’s high-profile murder case are denouncing her coverup claims as “a vile work of fiction.”
Still hounded by conspiracy theories months after Karen Read’s acquittal, several witnesses from the high-profile murder case are denouncing Read’s coverup claims as “a vile work of fiction.”
The “outlandish” frame job allegations were part of Read’s “scheme to defame and wrongly malign” prosecution witnesses and evade responsibility for the death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, lawyers for Brian and Nicole Albert, Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, and Brian Higgins argue in a new brief recently served on Read’s legal team.
All five witnesses attended an ill-fated afterparty at the Alberts’ home in Canton, where O’Keefe’s badly wounded body was found in the snow on Jan. 29, 2022. Prosecutors alleged Read drunkenly backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at the gathering, but she claimed investigators and afterparty guests conspired to frame her.
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In June, a jury found Read not guilty of her most serious charges, convicting her only of a drunk driving misdemeanor.
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However, Read’s legal saga is far from over. She still faces a wrongful death lawsuit from O’Keefe’s relatives, who maintain Read was to blame for killing the Boston police officer. During a September hearing in the civil case, Read’s lawyers announced her plans to bring legal action against several witnesses and Massachusetts State Police investigators, further complicating the proceedings.
Read is seeking to combine her conspiracy and civil rights claims with the wrongful death suit for efficiency’s sake, but a judge has yet to rule on the request. The Alberts, McCabes, and Higgins are asking that Read’s motion be denied and her claims filed in a separate case.
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“The Commonwealth Witnesses vigorously dispute Defendant Read’s allegations and will defend against these false claims,” their lawyers explained.
They said that their defense will include motions to dismiss, a potential request to move the claims to federal court, and counterclaims against both Read and Turtleboy blogger Aidan Kearney “for defamation and other torts that they have committed, individually and in concert.”
A staunch supporter of Read’s innocence, Kearney racked up several criminal charges after he was accused of intimidating witnesses in the case, including the Alberts and McCabes. Authorities later alleged Read leaked non-public information to Kearney, though she was never charged with witness intimidation. Meanwhile, Kearney maintains his actions were protected free speech.
Lawyers for the Alberts, McCabes, and Higgins said they had “planned to seek justice in a separate action” over allegations that Read and Kearney “defamed and substantially injured” them through “myriad false statements.” Combining those defamation claims with Read’s conspiracy claims and the O’Keefes’ wrongful death suit “is procedurally improper at this stage” and will make for a much more sprawling case, the lawyers argue.
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Reached for comment on the potential defamation claims, Read defense attorney Damon Seligson said via email, “Truth is an absolute defense to a claim of defamation, and we will defend Karen Read vigorously against such baseless claims.”
Kearney said in an email he has not been served by anyone involved in Read’s case. He cited Jennifer McCabe’s heavily debated “hos long to die in cold” Google search and testimony from other witnesses in Read’s criminal trial, including defense crash reconstruction experts who said O’Keefe’s injuries were inconsistent with having been struck by Read’s SUV and a defense dog bite expert who opined O’Keefe had been wounded in a dog attack.
Kearney also pointed to several witnesses who denied seeing O’Keefe’s body on the Alberts’ front lawn early in the morning of Jan. 29 — a group that included Higgins and the McCabes. Given that evidence, he alleged, “the only logical conclusion a reasonable person could reach is what I have been saying for the last year – the people inside Brian Albert’s house murdered John O’Keefe.”
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“The only reason they have not been arrested or treated as suspects is due to the corruption and incompetence of the Canton and State Police, many of whom had direct ties to the Albert family,” Kearney wrote. “Pointing out these facts is not defamation. They are free to sue me and bring this to trial, as I would be more than happy to keep their crimes in the public eye as much as possible, and to explain these facts to a jury and let them decide who they think killed John O’Keefe.”
Notably absent from the opposition brief is Brian and Nicole Albert’s nephew, Colin Albert, who was also present at 34 Fairview Road the night O’Keefe died. While Read previously sought to implicate Colin Albert in her third-party culprit theory, she has not named him in her civil conspiracy claims.
The wrongful death lawsuit is due back in court Friday.
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