BOSTON – A Massachusetts judge dismissed criminal charges Monday against a backer of Karen Read who admitted placing dozens of yellow rubber ducks and fake $100 bills around town in support of Read.
Richard Schiffer Jr. had argued in Stoughton District Court that he had a First Amendment right to support the defense theory that Read — accused of ramming into her boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving the Boston police officer to die in a snowstorm — has been framed in the polarizing murder case.
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Schiffer's attorney Timothy Bradl said Monday that the judge made the right call by quickly tossing the felony witness intimidation and criminal harassment charges against Schiffer.
The ruling comes as another judge decided Monday to push back Read's retrial to April after a mistrial was declared in July when jurors couldn’t reach an agreement. Read was facing second-degree murder charges and two other charges. Her attorneys have argued that other law enforcement officers were responsible for O’Keefe’s death.
Regarding Schiffer's charges, Bradl said, “There wasn't a leg to stand on.”
“Hats off to the judge. He didn’t make everyone wait and ruled from the bench. Everything was completely protected by the First Amendment. This was political speech," Bradl said.
The Norfolk District Attorney’s office declined to comment.
Schiffer has said he got the ducks idea after thinking about a defense lawyer’s closing argument that Read was framed. Alan Jackson told jurors 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 harassment "nor does his speech, or in this case his written word on fake currency and use of rubber toys, which are afforded the protections of the First Amendment," Judge Brian Walsh wrote.
“It is the view of this Court that the defendant's conduct and speech, though a rather sophomoric expression of his opinion, is nonetheless protected speech,” he wrote.
Walsh concluded the two-page ruling with quotes from Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley, believed to have coined the “walks like a duck” phrase, and Robert McCloskey, author of the children's book “Make Way For Ducklings.”
The defense alleged that O’Keefe was actually killed inside the home of his fellow Boston officer Brian Albert and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
Schiffer has been among the dozens of Read supporters who accuse state and local law enforcement of a widespread cover-up. Their demonstrations have led to confrontations, especially in the town of Canton where the murder happened, between those who support Read and others who believe she is guilty.
Schiffer, who owns Canton Fence and has said that he knows practically everyone in town through his contracting work, was accused of placing some of the ducks outside a pizza shop run by Brian Albert’s brother, Canton Selectman Chris Albert. Other ducks appeared in O’Keefe’s neighborhood.