The hits simply hold coming for the Canton Police Division.
After their officers had been grilled on the stand for his or her questionable ways throughout the Karen Learn investigation, one of many division’s cops has been suspended amid “misconduct” allegations.
The city on Oct. 24 was reportedly alerted to the misconduct allegations involving Sgt. Sean Goode — which was found throughout an investigation right into a former member of a unique legislation enforcement company.
“Immediately after becoming aware of the allegations, the Town engaged an independent investigator to conduct a thorough administrative investigation into the allegations of misconduct,” the city and Interim Canton Police Chief Joseph Perkins mentioned in a press release.
“Sergeant Sean Goode was immediately placed on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of that internal affairs investigation,” the assertion reads. “The Town of Canton and the Canton Police Department take this matter very seriously. As this is an active and ongoing administrative investigation, no additional information is available for release at this time.”
Goode, who took residence $205,787 in 2023, on the night time of John O’Keefe’s dying was supervising the Canton PD’s in a single day patrol and was particularly assigned to the dispatch heart. He was the third cop on scene, and testified Learn was making suicidal statements there.
Across the time final month when the city was notified in regards to the allegations involving Goode amid a probe into a unique company, ex-Mass State Police Trooper Michael Proctor withdrew his attraction to get his job again because the Norfolk DA’s workplace mentioned they’re texts and different information from Proctor’s cellphone.
Proctor, the lead investigator into the dying of O’Keefe, was fired from MSP for his “sexist” habits relating to Learn.
Protection attorneys have been combating for Proctor’s texts, which they are saying might include necessary proof that might clear their purchasers.
“The extraction (of Proctor’s phone) has yielded hundreds of thousands of items, some of which are dated as far back as 2013,” Norfolk DA prosecutors wrote in a current courtroom movement.
Within the city of Canton’s preliminary press launch in regards to the CPD officer’s suspension, the city mentioned it couldn’t share confidential personnel data attributable to legal guidelines governing worker privateness.
“The Town and the Town’s Police Department take all allegations of misconduct seriously,” the city added. “Members of the City’s Police Division are anticipated to carry out their duties in an expert method.
“The Town is committed to providing the quality and level of service that the citizens of Canton deserve from their Police Department,” the city mentioned. “To that end, we will take the necessary steps to ensure that actions by individual officers do not jeopardize that quality and level of service.”
Earlier this 12 months, the Canton Police Division audit dropped on the identical day the Learn retrial began — and included suggestions on how the crime scene surrounding the physique of O’Keefe might have been labored higher.
The entrance yard of 34 Fairview Highway in Canton was a hotbed of police and EMS exercise within the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2022, as Boston Police Officer O’Keefe lay lifeless or dying there.
The dealing with of the crime scene by the native police in these essential early hours has been extensively criticized, with Learn protection seizing on investigative and protocol failures.
The dying of O’Keefe, a Canton resident, and the controversy surrounding how native police dealt with the scene spurred a neighborhood motion to have the division audited.
The report wasted no time highlighting its findings of how the Canton Police Division dealt with the O’Keefe crime scene.
The manager abstract of their findings included a number of suggestions:
- The police did not {photograph} O’Keefe’s physique the place it lay earlier than Canton Hearth EMS members moved him to the ambulance.
- Interviews with vital witnesses on the scene ought to have been carried out on the police division constructing and “Consensual Recorded Witness Interviews” ought to have been made. The report mentions Jennifer McCabe and Kerry Roberts, the 2 ladies who found O’Keefe’s physique with Learn, by title as examples.
- Each Canton and State Police ought to have maintained a presence on the crime scene pending secondary crime scene searches.
- Canton Police ought to have preserved all their surveillance digicam video recordings whereas Learn’s Lexus SUV, the alleged homicide weapon, “was housed at Canton PD from January 29 through February 2, 2022.” That approach, the footage would have been out there for the prosecution and protection.
Norfolk DA prosecutors accused Learn of backing up into O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, along with her SUV, leaving him to freeze and die on the entrance yard of a Canton residence the place the pair was imagined to proceed an evening out after the bars closed that chilly, snowy early January morning.
The jury cleared Learn of killing O’Keefe, convicting her of simply drunken driving.
