Canton Cover-Up Part 59: Judge Cannone Denies Defense Access To Brian Albert, Jen McCabe’s Cell Phone Records After Bating Turtleboy To Leak Ruling In Fishing Expedition
– Donate to the Karen Read Legal Defense Fund
– See all parts of the Canton Cover-Up Series
– Watch the Live Shows and Videos
Judge Beverly Cannone has issued her ruling denying Karen Read’s defense team access to Brian Albert and Jennifer McCabe’s cell phone records, more than two months after a hearing was held on the matter in Norfolk Superior Court.
I expected nothing less from the judge, who Jennifer McCabe’s brother in law referred to as “Auntie Bev,” and whose Cape Cod summer home yard Sean McCabe promised to bury my corpse in.
Cannone said that she must balance Karen Read’s right to mount a third party culpability defense with “unwarranted harassment of witnesses and third parties.”
Yet this same judge just a few weeks prior issued a ruling granting the defense access to Canton animal control records. She specifically stated in her ruling that Karen Read’s theory that John O’Keefe was bitten by Brian Albert’s dog “is supported by expert evidence that an animal caused some of the injuries.”
Thus she affirmed her belief that the dog bit O’Keefe. Thus she conceded that there was reason to believe that John O’Keefe stepped foot in the house, which means Karen Read didn’t kill him, which means someone in the house did. Therefore it’s not “unwanted harassment” to grant the defense access to Albert and McCabe’s call records, since they would be considered suspects, not witnesses. Beverly Cannone is preventing access to Albert’s phone in order to protect them.
Cannone further states that the unanswered phone call that McCabe made to Albert after discovering O’Keefe’s body does not establish a meaningful connection to Albert’s cell phone and this case, and that Karen Read has not pointed to any evidence that does so.
Except they have. In their filing the defense team pointed out that Apple Health data recorded O’Keefe ascending and descending stairs inside 34 Fairview Road.
Judge Cannone completely ignored this critical evidence that O’Keefe was inside Albert’s house, despite previously affirming that he likely was in the house when she approved the motion for animal control records.
The defense also wanted access to Jen McCabe’s call records. Although McCabe handed over her phone and a forensic expert found the deleted 2:27 Google search for “hos long to die in cold,” there could be more phone calls, text messages, or searches deleted by McCabe. McCabe can delete her calls and texts, but she cannot delete her phone records. However, Cannone ruled that Read “has not provided a sufficient factual basis that the cell phone records may be relevant to her defense.”
This is utterly absurd and insulting to anyone who’s been following this case. Of course the defense has provided sufficient factual basis that McCabe’s cell phone records may be relevant to her third party defense strategy. Forensic expert Richard Green testified under oath that McCabe deleted incriminating Google searches and phone calls made before and after O’Keefe’s body was discovered. Unfortunately Cannone decided to cancel the evidentiary hearing where the Commonwealth would’ve been able to cross examine Richard Green in an attempt to prove he was mistaken.
Cannone even put a footnote in the ruling that the court assumes McCabe’s deleted 2:27 Google search was legitimate, despite Lally’s baseless assertion that it never happened.
Nevertheless she denied the defense access to critical evidence that could prove who killed John O’Keefe because it would intrude on the murderer’s privacy interests.
It’s interesting to note that Cannone made her ruling yesterday afternoon. How this usually works is that the court enters that a new filing or ruling has been made on the docket found on Masscourts.org. Normally it takes about 30 minutes AT MOST for the court to add an attachment with the memorandum explaining the ruling. I checked repeatedly yesterday and no link to the ruling was added. When I woke up today I checked again and it still wasn’t there.
This was suspicious so I tweeted about it and made a Facebook post:
Cannone has been looking for a reason to gag the defense, and currently has a motion from the prosecution to do so. The Commonwealth made it clear that they believe that the defense is feeding me confidential, non-public information, which is leading to harassment of Jen McCabe. If I were to make a post about what her ruling was, without that information being made public, it would prove I got information from the defense.
In other words – she’s going on a fishing expedition for turtles.
Of course I didn’t have that information so I never posted it. I don’t work for the defense, I work for the law abiding public that demands answers. Within 30 minutes of my tweet and Facebook post Cannone uploaded her ruling to Masscourts.org. There is no way this is a coincidence. Cannone and Lally are monitoring my social media and blog, and tried to bate me into posting information I did not have in an attempt to gag the defense.
Beverly Cannone is a corrupt judge and a disgrace to her profession. Her father previously worked for the Norfolk County DA’s Office, who she is now doing favors for.
Prior to that she worked as a public defender. Cannone has always favored the underdog, and has a soft spot for murderers.
This may lead you to believe that she would be favorable towards Karen Read. But this is not a normal case. In this case Cannone views Lally as the underdog because he’s the home town kid going up against some of the best attorneys from Boston and Los Angeles. She views Jen McCabe as the underdog because I have confronted her in public twice, prompting her to apply for a harassment prevention order, and the public overwhelmingly believes she helped coverup O’Keefe’s murder. She views Albert and McCabe as underdogs because millions of people know that they’re hiding information about a murder. She DOES NOT view Karen Read as an underdog because Read gets cheered on the way into and out of court, has some of the best defense attorneys in the country on her team, and overwhelming support in the court of public opinion.
In other words, she views McCabe and Albert as defendants, not witnesses, and has always had a soft spot for protecting the privacy rights of criminal defendants like the individuals she represented.
Many have asked me if they can ask for a new judge, and the short answer to that is no. You can’t go judge shopping in a murder trial. However, the judges in every court work on a rotation. In the Tony Branch lawsuit we argued in front of at least three or four judges because the case went on for three years. Cannone was not the original judge on this case, and the previous judge (Krupp) made more favorable rulings for the defense. It’s unclear when Cannone’s turn in the rotation is up, but it’s likely coming soon because she’s been on this case for almost a year now.
What is clear is that when this is all said and done Judge Cannone is going to look foolish, unethical, and corrupt.
