Judge dismisses charges against Karen Read supporter who scattered rubber ducks and fake $100 bills
BOSTON — A Massachusetts judge on Monday dismissed criminal charges against a financier Karen Lees who admitted to planting dozens of yellow rubber ducks and counterfeit $100 bills around town in support of Read.
Richard Schiffer Jr. had argued before the Stoughton District Court that he had a First Amendment right to support the defense theory that stated: accused of ramming in her boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving the Boston police officer to die in a snowstorm – is framed in the polarizing murder case.
Schiffer’s attorney, Timothy Bradl, said Monday that the judge made the right decision by quickly filing charges of witness intimidation and criminal intimidation against Schiffer.
The ruling comes after another judge decided Monday to postpone Read’s retrial until next April a mistrial was declared in July when the judges could not reach an agreement. Read was confronted second-degree murder charge and two other charges. Her attorneys have argued that other law enforcement officers were responsible for O’Keefe’s death.
Regarding Schiffer’s accusations, Bradl said: “There was no leg to stand on.”
“Hats off to the judge. He didn’t keep everyone waiting and ruled from the bench. Everything was fully protected by the First Amendment. This was a political speech,” Bradl said.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Schiffer has said he got the duck idea after thinking about a lawyer’s closing argument Reading was framed. Alan Jackson told the judges that “if it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.”
Schiffer’s actions did not rise to the level of witness intimidation and criminal intimidation, “nor did his speech, or in this case, his written word about counterfeit money and the use of rubber toys, which enjoy the protection of the First Amendment,” Judge Brian Walsh . wrote.
“It is the position of this Court that Defendant’s conduct and speech, while a rather sophomoric expression of his views, is nevertheless protected speech,” he wrote.
Walsh concluded the two-page statement with quotes from Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, believed to have coined the phrase “walks like a duck,” and Robert McCloskey, author of the children’s book “Make Way For Ducklings.”
The defense claimed that O’Keefe was actually killed in the home of his fellow Boston officer Brian Albert and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because that was her a “handy outsider” which has prevented them from considering law enforcement officers as suspects.
Schiffer was one of dozens Read supporters accusing state and local law enforcement of a widespread cover-up. Their demonstrations have led to confrontations, especially in the city of Canton where the killing occurred, between those who support Read and others who believe she is guilty.
Schiffer, who owns Canton Fence and has said he knows virtually everyone in town through his contract work, was accused of planting a number of ducks outside a pizzeria run by Brian Albert’s brother, Canton Selectman Chris Albert. Other ducks appeared near O’Keefe.