Canton homeowners in Read trial take the stand
Alberts both testify that Read and John o’Keefe ‘never entered my house’
DeDHaM — brian and nicole albert, who owned the Canton home where John o’Keefe was left outside in a blizzard in January 2022, testified friday that o’Keefe had never come inside the house and that they only learned he had died when nicole’s sister burst through their bedroom door with the news.
“She was very upset,” brian albert, a former boston police officer, said of his sister-in-law, Jennifer McCabe. “almost hysterical. She said something to the effect [of], ‘John is dead.’”
as the second week of the murder trial of Karen read concluded in norfolk Superior Court, the alberts testified that while many friends and family members came back to their home on fairview road after gathering at a local bar, o’Keefe and read did not, contradicting a central claim by read’s defense team.
“they never came into my home,” nicole albert said.
Prosecutors allege that read dropped o’Keefe, her boyfriend and a boston police officer, off at the house and then intentionally and drunkenly backed her SuV into him at high speed, knocking him to the ground before driving away and leaving him for dead. but read’s lawyers contend that o’Keefe was beaten inside the home after read left before his body was dumped at the edge of the road.
on friday, the alberts told jurors they had gathered with friends and family at the Waterfall bar & Grille on the night of Jan. 28, 2022.
brian albert testified that he and a friend, brian Higgins, met earlier at a Canton bar called the Hillside, where they “had a drink and hung out” for a while before nicole albert told him that a group was at the Waterfall and invited him to come by.
albert said he never recalled working directly with o’Keefe at the boston Police Department, which at any given time has upwards of 2,000 sworn officers. albert has since retired from the department.
“i knew him to be a friend of my brother Kevin’s” and other relatives, he said. brian albert said he also