What's different about Jennifer McCabe in Karen Read's second trial?

CBS News

01-05-2025

There is no Karen Read trial today due to a court holiday called Law Day. When the trial resumes Friday, key witness Jennifer McCabe will be back on the stand for additional cross-examination from defense attorney Alan Jackson.
Jennifer McCabe testimony in Karen Read trial
McCabe first took the stand on Tuesday as a prosecution witness in Read's second trial. Direct examination continued Wednesday morning before Jackson took over cross-examination that lasted several hours that day. When court ended for the day, Jackson said he expected to question McCabe for around two more hours on Friday.
Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of personal injury and death. She has pleaded not guilty.
She is accused of hitting and killing Boston police officer John O'Keefe, who she was dating at the time, with her SUV after a night of drinking and leaving him to die in the cold outside a Canton home in January 2022. Read claims she is the victim of a coverup, and her attorneys say that McCabe is one of the key figures who is allegedly trying to frame her.
Prosecutor Hank Brennan shows some images of Fairview Rd, to witness Jen McCabe during the Karen Read murder trial in Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham, Mass., Wednesday, April 30, 2025.
Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger via AP, Pool
What's different about Jennifer McCabe?
Jackson handled a fiery cross-examination of McCabe during Read's first trial, which ended in a mistrial due to a hung jury. WBZ-TV's Kristina Rex asked legal analyst Katherine Loftus how McCabe has been different so far during Read's second trial.
"I thought virtually everything was different about Jen McCabe this time around," Loftus said. "She seems much more relaxed, she's not taking the bait that Alan Jackson wants her to take. She seems calm in her demeanor, she's not trying to explain things as much as she was last time. I think that's largely attributable to the fact that she's testified so many times at this point and she knows what's coming from the defense. She knows that she's going to be one of the main targets. She was the last time."
Loftus was asked if Jackson's cross-examination of McCabe has been less effective for the defense so far this time.
"So far at least, I find it to be less effective," Loftus said. "You see a real shift in the way that Alan Jackson is cross-examining her. I think inherent is that sort of acknowledgment that the defense knows that Jen McCabe presented largely well to the jury on direct examination. So they have to tread a little bit lighter this time around because they don't want to cross-examine her so aggressively so that her points get lost because the jury feels bad for the witness on the stand."
Karen Read's public statements
Outside of court on Wednesday, Read was asked about McCabe's testimony to date.
"Another witness, another instance of perjury or instances I'd say," Read said. "It's just more of the same. "Inconsistencies, every statement is different. Under oath, not under oath, the cops are all wrong."
It was the latest example as read serving as her own spokesperson in during the trial. Attorneys in the case are currently under a gag order issued by Judge Beverly Cannone. Read has participated in several interviews, including a documentary. Prosecutors have been playing clips from Read's various interviews, attempting to use her own words against her.
Loftus spoke about Read's strategy to continue speaking to reporters during the trial.
"Obviously there's sort of a two-prong presentation from the defense perspective both inside the courtroom and outside the courtroom because they're playing not only to the jury but they're playing to the larger public as a whole," Loftus said. "Part of that, especially with the defense attorneys being under the gag order, is having a representative really be able to speak to what the defense is feeling. And that comes down to Karen Read. It's so different and unusual. Normally in any case you would never heard the defendant speak like this or even commenting on a witness' testimony, but this is not the norm."