The division in Canton over the Karen Learn homicide case has develop into so unhealthy and “hate-filled” that the native paper is placing a maintain on publishing any letters associated to it.
“(A)fter 15 months of providing residents a forum to express their opinions on the Karen Read case, I believe the sometimes hate-filled letters are creating more hate in a town that is truly suffering,” Canton Citizen writer and editor Beth Erickson wrote in Thursday’s challenge of the weekly newspaper. “Because of this, the Citizen is placing a moratorium on any letters or columns related to the trial or the police audit between this week and at least the first week in September.”
Erickson added that the Citizen “will, of course, continue to publish (and welcome!) letters that are not related to the above topics.”
The trial of Learn, 44, of Mansfield, led to a mistrial July 1, on the fifth day of deliberations following a nine-week trial. She is indicted on costs of second-degree homicide, manslaughter whereas working a motorized vehicle below the affect and leaving the scene of an accident leading to loss of life. A standing listening to is scheduled for July 22 the place a brand new trial date is predicted 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. Her protection attorneys alleged a conspiracy through which others killed O’Keefe and labored with state and native cops to border Learn.
The case has garnered nationwide consideration, however Canton, the place O’Keefe lived and died, is the epicenter of white-hot debate and vitriol within the case the place fallout continues every day and each a part of the city appears affected.
The obvious fallout is the reputational harm to the Massachusetts State Police, which was in command of the case. Lead investigator Trooper Michael Proctor, who was already below inner evaluate, was this week suspended with out pay; the chief of the company itself mentioned that it might face “additional scrutiny”; the governor has voiced considerations; and an company watchdog is demanding a probe of the company.
The impassioned conflict between partisans on both facet of Learn’s guilt or innocence doesn’t simply disguise behind screens — although even a brief wade into associated posts on X might depart anybody feeling deflated — however was on full show outdoors the courthouse all through the trial and effectively earlier than.
And it extends into the underworkings of the city itself. Christopher Albert, a city Choose Board member, says he’ll maintain himself to the next normal following “two recent verbal altercations with members of the public” relating to the case. Christopher Albert was a prosecution witness.
His brother, Kevin Albert, is on paid administrative depart from the native police division for alleged actions of his that had been uncovered in the course of the trial. Each are brothers to Brian Albert, the then-homeowner of 34 Fairview Highway in Canton, on whose garden O’Keefe’s physique was discovered, and a central determine within the protection’s conspiracy idea.
