Massachusetts Police Det. Kevin Albert faces discipline following investigation into misconduct
Published in News & Features
BOSTON — Canton Police Det. Kevin Albert, placed on paid administrative leave in June, faces additional “discipline” following an investigation into misconduct allegations.
Select Board Chairman Michael Loughran, reading from a prepared statement at the beginning of a virtual meeting Tuesday night, revealed that a “resolution had been reached in a Canton Police personnel matter.”
The specific nature of Albert’s discipline and when it was handed out are unclear, with Loughran referring to the statement when community members pressed him for details during public comment.
The statement in full reads:
“The Canton Police Department hired an independent investigator who conducted a thorough investigation of the allegations of misconduct by Detective Albert.”
“Following the investigation, the Select Board reviewed the report and had an opportunity to question the investigator and Detective Albert about the scope and sufficiency of the investigation as well as the substance of the allegations.”
“The Select Board voted that discipline be imposed by the Chief of Police which Detective Albert has accepted.”
“Select Board member Chris Albert (Kevin Albert’s brother) recused himself from the hearing.”
Rafferty placed the detective, who earned $176,387.91 in total pay last year, on paid administrative leave the day after embattled Massachusetts State Trooper Michael Proctor testified in the Karen Read murder trial, in June.
Canton officials waited a month to publicize Albert’s leave, announcing it during a July 9 Select Board meeting. The “outside, independent investigation … relative to (Albert’s) actions in a case he investigated with (Trooper) Michael Proctor approximately two years ago” also became known at that time.
Proctor, pulled off duty the day the Read murder trial ended in a mistrial and later suspended without pay, testified that he and Albert had worked on a cold case together, and the two were drinking buddies.
Proctor also acknowledged he and Albert communicated about coordinating aspects of the Read case even though the Canton Police Department recused itself from the investigation due to the Albert brothers’ connection to the case.
Albert is the brother of retired Boston Police Sgt. Brian Albert, who owned the Canton 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 who died at age 46 when prosecutors allege Read, 44, of Mansfield, backed her Lexus SUV into him at high speed, leaving him to die in the cold during a major snowstorm.
Defense attorneys counter that outside actors killed O’Keefe and conspired with state and local police to frame Read for his murder.
Kevin Albert did not take the stand during the 9-week trial that featured testimony from 74 witnesses.
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