Kevin Albert, the Canton police officer and brother of the man central to the defense’s third-party killer theory in the Karen Read murder case, has been on paid administrative leave since the middle of June.
Canton Select Board Chairman Michael Loughran dropped the bombshell Tuesday night during the first meeting since Norfolk County Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in the Read case on July 1.
“Chief (Helena) Rafferty has placed Kevin Albert on paid administrative leave,” Loughran said, “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 home at 34 Fairview Road where John O’Keefe’s bloody body was found covered in snow the morning of Jan. 29, 2022. O’Keefe was also a Boston police officer.
Loughran told the Select Board and residents that Kevin Albert has been on leave since June 13 and will remain out until the results of the investigation are provided. He did not indicate when that may be.
Rafferty placed Albert on leave a day after Proctor, the state trooper and lead investigator who has been suspended without pay, testified he and the Canton police officer were drinking buddies who went out drinking several months after O’Keefe’s death.
The friendship did not influence the investigation, Proctor insisted.
Read, 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 high speed, leaving him to die in the cold during a major snowstorm.
O’Keefe died at age 46.
Read is being charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
Proctor also acknowledged he and Kevin Albert worked on a cold case together and communicated about coordinating aspects of the O’Keefe case even though the Canton Police Department recused itself from the investigation due to the Albert brothers’ connection to the case.
Kevin Albert did not testify during the 9-week trial that featured 74 witnesses taking the stand.
Read’s defense attorneys have said the federal probe into the investigation that led their client to be charged with murder includes phone calls they say paint a clear picture of a conspiracy to frame their client.
Defense attorney David Yannetti in a March pre-trial hearing indicated that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Massachusetts — which is conducting a grand jury investigation into the Read case — found that phone calls were going on immediately following O’Keefe’s murder between principal members of the defense team’s conspiracy theory.
The call 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 defense’s third-party killer theory.
“My goodness … with all the allegations of witness intimidation thrown around by this DA’s office,” Yannetti said in that hearing, “why is Kevin Albert not being investigated?”
The Associated Press contributed to this report
