Kevin Albert, the Canton police officer and brother of the person central to the protection’s third-party killer concept within the Karen Learn homicide case, has been on paid administrative depart because the center of June.
Canton Choose Board Chairman Michael Loughran dropped the bombshell Tuesday evening throughout the first assembly since Norfolk County Decide Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial within the Learn case on July 1.
“Chief (Helena) Rafferty has placed Kevin Albert on paid administrative leave,” Loughran stated, “while an outside, independent investigation is being conducted relative to his actions in a case he investigated with (Trooper) Michael Proctor approximately two years ago.”
Kevin Albert is the brother of retired Boston Police Sgt. Brian Albert, who owned the house at 34 Fairview Highway the place John O’Keefe’s bloody physique was discovered lined in snow the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. O’Keefe was additionally a Boston police officer.
Loughran instructed the Choose Board and residents that Kevin Albert has been on depart since June 13 and can stay out till the outcomes of the investigation are supplied. He didn’t point out when that could be.
Rafferty positioned Albert on depart a day after Proctor, the state trooper and lead investigator who has been suspended with out pay, testified he and the Canton police officer had been ingesting buddies who went out ingesting a number of months after O’Keefe’s loss of life.
The friendship didn’t affect the investigation, Proctor insisted.
Learn, 44, of Mansfield, is accused of killing her boyfriend of two years, a 16-year Boston Police officer, by backing her Lexus SUV into him at excessive velocity, leaving him to die within the chilly throughout a serious snowstorm.
O’Keefe died at age 46.
Learn is being charged with second-degree homicide, manslaughter whereas working a motorized vehicle below the affect and leaving the scene of an accident leading to loss of life.
Proctor additionally acknowledged he and Kevin Albert labored on a chilly case collectively and communicated about coordinating facets of the O’Keefe case although the Canton Police Division recused itself from the investigation because of the Albert brothers’ connection to the case.
Kevin Albert didn’t testify throughout the 9-week trial that featured 74 witnesses taking the stand.
Learn’s protection attorneys have stated the federal probe into the investigation that led their shopper to be charged with homicide consists of telephone calls they are saying paint a clear image of a conspiracy to border their shopper.
Protection legal professional David Yannetti in a March pre-trial listening to indicated that the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for Massachusetts — which is conducting a grand jury investigation into the Learn case — discovered that telephone calls had been occurring instantly following O’Keefe’s homicide between principal members of the protection workforce’s conspiracy concept.
The decision pool allegedly included Kevin Albert, then-Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz, Brian Albert, and ATF Agent Brian Higgins, the latter two are central to the protection’s third-party killer concept.
“My goodness … with all the allegations of witness intimidation thrown around by this DA’s office,” Yannetti stated in that listening to, “why is Kevin Albert not being investigated?”
The Related Press contributed to this report
