The Karen Learn fallout continues — and its ripple results are spreading past Canton into Boston Metropolis Corridor.
Learn’s lawyer in a blistering letter to Mayor Michelle Wu is slamming Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox for being “caught in a lie” about ex-cop Kelly Dever, a controversial witness within the homicide trial.
Learn’s lawyer Alan Jackson within the bombshell missive to Wu is asking for Cox to be positioned on the Suffolk DA’s checklist of officers with credibility points — often known as the Brady checklist.
Additionally, Jackson within the letter to the Massachusetts Peace Officer Requirements and Coaching (POST) Fee, desires the POST Fee to launch a disciplinary investigation into Cox.
“This is not a political issue. It is a question of credibility and public trust,” Jackson wrote in Monday’s letter. “When Boston’s high law-enforcement officer lies about his personal information of a case beneath federal scrutiny, the stain spreads throughout your complete system. Accountability can’t cease on the Commissioner’s door.
“The people of Massachusetts deserve law enforcement leaders who tell the truth — not those who hide behind it,” the lawyer added. “In light of the documented evidence now in the public record, there is only one responsible course: Add Commissioner Cox to the Brady list and open an immediate POST inquiry.”
Dever was working as a patrol officer in Canton when Learn’s Boston police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, died within the early morning of Jan. 29, 2022.
Dever then joined the Boston Police Division, and he or she grew to become a family title for Learn trial watchers when she testified within the retrial earlier this yr.
Jackson introduced Dever to the stand, questioning her over how she initially advised federal investigators that she noticed witness Brian Higgins and then-Canton Police Chief Kenneth Berkowitz enter the police division storage and spend a “wildly long time” with Learn’s SUV.
This gave credence to the protection’s concept that police tampered with proof, together with the busted taillight, items of which had been later discovered on the crime scene.
Dever mentioned she later recanted this assertion as a “false memory” after being proven a timeline of occasions that proved that it wasn’t doable.
Following the Learn retrial, Cox advised reporters that he “didn’t know” that one in every of his officers was related to the Learn case, contradicting Dever who testified within the retrial that he advised her to “tell the truth up here.”
Cox additionally mentioned he had “nothing to do with Karen Read,” denying accusations from the protection that he influenced Dever’s testimony.
Throughout her direct examination, Dever testified that Cox known as her into his workplace and that the commissioner advised her the division would help her and to inform the reality.
“As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know this person was associated with the Karen Read case,” Cox advised reporters this summer time. “You understand, I’ve a corporation stuffed with over 3,000 individuals, and we help all our people.
“And the reality is that I get information passed on, whether those people are high or low, and I encourage everyone,” the commissioner added. “And if you’re going to work here and you belong here, then we’re going to encourage you. I have no idea what they’re talking about with Karen Read.”
Now, Learn’s lawyer is pointing to newly obtained proof that allegedly proves “Cox knowingly misrepresented his involvement.”
Again on Feb. 22, 2024, the FBI’s Boston Area Workplace reportedly despatched Cox an e-mail that references Dever and the Learn investigation.
“Just a reminder, the documents were released to the DA’s office late last night. The officer we spoke about is Kelly Dever,” reads the e-mail from FBI Boston Assistant Particular Agent in Cost Stephen Kelleher.
Pat Greenhouse/Pool
Kelly Dever, previously with Canton Police, testified in the course of the homicide retrial of Karen Learn. (Pat Greenhouse/Pool)
The day after that e-mail, Cox’s official calendar lists a gathering with Dever, based on Jackson.
“Boston Police Commissioner Michael Cox has been caught in a lie — and not a small one,” Jackson wrote within the letter to Wu and the POST Fee.
“When a police commissioner lies about his own contacts with the FBI and meetings with an implicated officer, he forfeits the credibility and integrity his oath requires,” the lawyer later added. “That is the very definition of a Brady-Giglio violation. Under Brady v. Maryland and Giglio v. United States, prosecutors have an affirmative duty to disclose any evidence of dishonesty by a government witness or official in every case where the official might either testify, or influence the testimony or evidence provided by others. Commissioner Cox now fits squarely within that category.”
Jackson added that the POST Fee must overview Cox for “dishonesty, lack of candor, and conduct unbecoming an officer.”
Dever lately resigned from BPD.
BPD, the mayor’s workplace and the POST Fee didn’t instantly reply to remark about Jackson’s letter.
Norfolk DA prosecutors accused Learn of backing up into O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, together with her SUV, leaving him to freeze and die on the entrance yard of a Canton dwelling the place the pair was alleged 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.
