Canton Select Board member, witness in Karen Read murder trial, apologizes for verbal altercations
A Canton Select Board member who testified in the Karen Read murder trial says he will hold himself to a higher standard following “two recent verbal altercations with members of the public” outside of his role as an elected official.
Christopher Albert, father of Colin Albert and brother of retired Boston police officer Brian Albert, apologized during Tuesday night’s rowdy Select Board meeting for the incidents he described as “inappropriate” and “unbecoming.”
Members of the Albert family are principals in the defense’s third-party killer theory.
“Despite the tremendous harassment, stress, and anxiety that my family, extended family, and I have been subjected to over the past 16 months, my interactions were inappropriate,” Christopher Albert said, reading a prepared statement. “And as an elected official, I am held to a higher standard, and I understand the residents of Canton expect public officials always to conduct themselves professionally and focus on the business of the town.
“I apologize for my recent reaction,” he added, “and will refrain from any further public incidents that are unbecoming as a member of this Canton Select Board.”
The apology came moments before Select Board Chairman Michael Loughran announced Albert’s brother, Kevin Albert, has been on paid administrative leave from his role as a detective with the Canton Police Department since the middle of June.
Kevin Albert investigated the Read murder case with State Trooper Michael Proctor, who on Monday was suspended without pay after John O’Keefe’s bloody body was found covered in snow on Brian Albert’s front lawn, 34 Fairview Road in Canton, on Jan. 29, 2022.
O’Keefe, Read’s boyfriend of two years and a 16-year Boston Police officer, died at age 46.
At least one of the incidents Christopher Albert was referring to unfolded outside of his downtown business, D & E Pizza, on June 23, the Sunday before jurors in the Read murder trial started deliberations.
The drama involved Aidan “Turtleboy” Kearney, a blogger who has extensively covered the case and is indicted on multiple counts of witness intimidation.
Those counts barred Kearney from being inside Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham for Albert’s testimony, along with that of Colin Albert, Michael Proctor, Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, Brian and Nicole Albert, Yuriy Bukhenik, Brian Albert Jr., and Julie Nagel.
Some of those witnesses are seen in a video of the altercation that Kearney posted on social media. Canton police charged two people – Jillian Daniels, Brian Albert’s sister-in-law, and Jim Farris – with assault and battery in connection with an attack on Kearney, MassLive reported.
The expletive-laced tirade included Daniels and Farris knocking Kearney’s phone out of his hand on separate occasions.
Throughout the video, Christopher Albert is heard telling Kearney, “Two seconds, I would beat your face up and down this sidewalk,” “This guy is a piece of (expletive). He goes after these women, bangs them all, so then when he’s done with her, he gets another one, and then another one,” among other remarks.
In a blog post following the incident, Kearney explained that he traveled to Canton that evening “to conduct a test” to check the validity of an assertion made by a state witness during testimony. He then got a meal at CF McCarthy’s, an oft-mentioned bar during the trial, before the altercation went down.
A woman who identified herself as a resident of Canton is heard in the background of the video asking Albert, “Why do you think the whole town is the way they are? You’re supposed to represent this town … You’re supposed to be a representative of this town.”
Canton Town Hall on July 10. (Staff Photo By Stuart Cahill/Boston Herald)