An elderly Boston man who has allegedly been spreading material, including rubber ducks and counterfeit $100 bills, in support of a defendant in a murder case has now been charged with witness intimidation, amongst other criminal charges.
65-year-old Richard Schiffer Jr. was charged with witness intimidation, criminal harassment and littering after he reportedly covered homes and businesses in a Boston neighborhood with rubber ducks and fake cash, said court documents obtained by CNN. The materials displayed messages in support of Mansfield resident Karen Read, who currently faces manslaughter charges for the death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe.
O'Keefe was found dead outside of fellow officer Brian Albert's home in January of 2022, with his cause of death determined to be blunt force trauma and hypothermia. The prosecution alleges that Read hit O'Keefe with her SUV when dropping him off at Albert's house, leaving him injured in the snow.
However, Read's attorneys have argued that Read, who has pleaded not guilty, is being framed to protect the group of people present in Albert's home the night O'Keefe died. They argued that O'Keefe was killed by the group he went to meet up with in a physical confrontation that resulted in them dumping his body outside.
The case has deeply divided the community within the Boston neighborhood, with many residents coming out in support of Read and insisting upon her innocence. Some have gone as far as to demonstrate outside of municipal areas or buildings, such as Norfolk Superior Court, bearing signs that display the words "Free Karen Read" among other slogans.
Traffic cams, surveillance footage and witness testimony were among the evidence Canton-area police used to link the rubber ducks and counterfeit cash to Schiffer. The ducks, in particular, are seemingly a reference to a statement that came from defense attorney Alan Jackson during a pre-trial hearing in January.
"If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it's a duck," Jackson said.
Since March, the ducks have been found at locations somehow related to the case surrounding O'Keefe's death, including at a restaurant belonging to Brian Albert's brother, outside of O'Keefe's own home, outside of two bars O'Keefe visited prior to his death, at a restaurant owned by the sister of a witness involved in the trial and even outside of the home of the lead investigator on the case.
Some of the messages the materials display point to other suspects as responsible for O'Keefe's death. Others simply call for "justice for BPO John O'Keefe."
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