A Canton resident and lead member of the “Free Karen Read” movement says the town remains “deeply divided,” calling for a partnership between residents and elected officials to build trust.

Rita Lombardi, who was seen leading chants outside Norfolk Superior Court in Dedham throughout the Read murder trial, made her plea during Tuesday night’s virtual Select Board meeting.

“Since the murder of John O’Keefe, this town has been deeply divided,” Lombardi said. “Instead of seeing improvement, we continue the downward spiral of destruction.”

“For the Select Board, I ask you, please, let’s work together to restore trust and safety in this community,” she added. “I would like us to partner with the Select Board, come together, talk and listen, and exchange ideas.”

The Select Board did not provide a reason for the move to Zoom to residents and others tuning in, and Town Administrator Charles Doody did not respond to a Herald inquiry on the meeting.

It came a week after residents packed Town Hall for the first meeting since Norfolk County Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial in the Read case on July 1. Residents, supporting Read, urged for greater transparency from the police and the town, as a whole.

In Lombardi’s eyes, she told the Select Board that she felt the division in town was “amplified,” highlighting how a “group of entitled townies who refer to themselves as Canton First” attended that meeting with the “sole purpose of heckling and bullying peaceful and passionate citizens.”

The loaded meeting featured Select Board Chairman Michael Loughran dropping the bombshell that Canton police Det. Kevin Albert has been on paid administrative leave since the middle of June.

Albert’s brother, Select Board member Christopher Albert, who testified during the trial, also apologized for “two recent verbal altercations with members of the public” that he called “inappropriate” and “unbecoming.”

Members of the Albert family are principals in the defense’s coverup theory.

Read, 44, is indicted on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. A status hearing is scheduled for July 22 where a new trial date is expected to be set.

She is accused of killing Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years, by striking him with her SUV and leaving him to die on a Canton front yard during a major snowstorm on Jan. 29, 2022.

Lombardi, who ran an unsuccessful campaign for a spot on the Select Board in the spring, during Tuesday’s meeting, called out a letter she said the group “Canton First” has circulated within the past week.

The letter starts and ends with “Rita Lombardi DOES NOT speak for us, blasting the “Free Karen Read” movement for “making a murder trial a spectator sport.”

“WE, THE SOUND MINDED PEOPLE OF CANTON, declare our independence from this sad group of bullies and reject in every way their tactics, false allegations, misdirected anger and hatred,” a part of the letter states.