A Canton resident and lead member of the “Free Karen Read” motion says the city stays “deeply divided,” calling for a partnership between residents and elected officers to construct belief.
Rita Lombardi, who was seen main chants outdoors Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham all through the Learn homicide trial, made her plea throughout Tuesday evening’s digital Choose Board assembly.
“Since the murder of John O’Keefe, this town has been deeply divided,” Lombardi mentioned. “Instead of seeing improvement, we continue the downward spiral of destruction.”
“For the Select Board, I ask you, please, let’s work together to restore trust and safety in this community,” she added. “I would like us to partner with the Select Board, come together, talk and listen, and exchange ideas.”
The Choose Board didn’t present a motive for the transfer to Zoom to residents and others tuning in, and City Administrator Charles Doody didn’t reply to a Herald inquiry on the assembly.
It got here per week after residents packed City Corridor for the primary assembly since Norfolk County Choose Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial within the Learn case on July 1. Residents, supporting Learn, urged for better transparency from the police and the city, as an entire.
In Lombardi’s eyes, she advised the Choose Board that she felt the division on the town was “amplified,” highlighting how a “group of entitled townies who refer to themselves as Canton First” attended that assembly with the “sole purpose of heckling and bullying peaceful and passionate citizens.”
The loaded assembly featured Choose Board Chairman Michael Loughran dropping the bombshell that Canton police Det. Kevin Albert has been on paid administrative depart for the reason that center of June.
Albert’s brother, Choose Board member Christopher Albert, who testified throughout the trial, additionally apologized for “two recent verbal altercations with members of the public” that he known as “inappropriate” and “unbecoming.”
Members of the Albert household are principals within the protection’s coverup principle.
Learn, 44, is indicted on fees of second-degree homicide, manslaughter whereas working a motorized vehicle beneath the affect and leaving the scene of an accident leading to dying. A standing listening to is scheduled for July 22 the place a brand new trial date is anticipated to be set.
She is accused of killing Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, by hanging him together with her SUV and leaving him to die on a Canton entrance yard throughout a serious snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022.
Lombardi, who ran an unsuccessful marketing campaign for a spot on the Choose Board within the spring, throughout Tuesday’s assembly, known as out a letter she mentioned the group “Canton First” has circulated inside the previous week.
The letter begins and ends with “Rita Lombardi DOES NOT speak for us, blasting the “Free Karen Read” motion for “making a murder trial a spectator sport.”
“WE, THE SOUND MINDED PEOPLE OF CANTON, declare our independence from this sad group of bullies and reject in every way their tactics, false allegations, misdirected anger and hatred,” part of the letter states.
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