A witness intimidation charge has been dropped against supporter Karen Reed who threw the duck

In the 36-page report, police said that on March 6, March 13, April 6 and July 11, Schiffer allegedly littered the area outside D & E Pizza and Subs, a Canton business owned by a witness in Reed’s trial, Chris Albert. whose son, Colin, also testified — with fake $100 bills with the words “Justice for John O’Keefe’s BPO” on one side and “COLIN DID IT!” on the other He also left yellow rubber ducks with “COLIN DID IT” stickers outside the pizzeria on April 6, the report said.

The phrase refers to a theory advanced by Reed’s defense attorneys and strongly rejected by the government that Colin Albert was responsible for O’Keefe’s death, the report said.

Reed, 44, has pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree murder, intoxication manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death. Prosecutors say she drove her Lexus SUV into her boyfriend’s house while drunk. Boston police officer John O’Keefeon the morning of Jan. 29, 2022, after he dropped him off at a home in Canton after a night out at the bars. Her lawyers they say that she was framed and that O’Keefe entered a home owned at the time by a fellow Boston police officer who is Colin Albert’s uncle, where he was fatally beaten before his body was dumped on the front lawn.

Colin Albert, 21, testified at Reed’s trial that he left his uncle’s house approximately 20 minutes before Reed and O’Keefe arrived at the residence. He has not been charged with any criminal offence.

Court of Red ended in July in a jury trial and its retrial is scheduled for April. She remains free on bail.

In the report on Schiller, police said the ducks were a nod to a statement about the case that one of Reed’s attorneys, Alan Jackson, had made during a preliminary hearing in which he told the court that “if he walks like a duck, he talks like a duck , it’s a duck.” The report did not specify what Jackson was referring to at the time.

Police said Schiffer’s alleged actions prompted others to go to Chris Albert’s Pizzeria and harass employees, show up in “big duck costumes” and leave rubber ducks with various messages outside the business.

Schiffer also left rubber ducks “at the residence of Chief Investigator (State Police) Michael Proctor” and throughout the city of Canton, including in the area where O’Keefe’s parents live with his niece and nephew, whom he was raising at the time of his death after their parents died of cancer, police said.

Proctor was fired hours after the wrongful conviction in the Reed case. He remains on unpaid leave during the inspection of internal affairs bodies rude and misogynistic texts he sent about Read to friends and colleagues during the investigation.

Three times last summer, Schiffer left additional fake $100 bills and rubber ducks with “IYKYK” stickers, which stand for “If You Know What You Know,” outside the pizzeria, police said.

Surveillance cameras captured Schiffer’s pickup near the pizzeria in the days before the incidents, and he did not deny leaving the items when a Canton detective confronted him in May with a warrant to search his truck’s electronic system, police said.

Schiffer told investigators that “he was just littering and did not commit a crime,” police said. A box with yellow ducks and stickers was taken from his car.

Schiffer posted a photo of the search warrant on his Facebook page on May 19, police said.

“Received this visit yesterday…for spreading propaganda/garbage,” Schiffer wrote.

After he was charged in October, Schiffer told the Globe that his activities are protected by the First Amendment.

“It’s all a hoax,” he said of the allegations. “They just don’t like the message. … It’s about John O’Keefe and the release of the people who did this to him. It’s a shame what they did with”

In the dismissal decision, Walsh said a Hoosier bard from a bygone era originally coined the phrase “duck,” and he suggested that rubber ducks left on the ground were ultimately harmless.

“Indiana poet James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916) may well have been the originator of the ‘duck test,’ coining the phrase, ‘If it walks like a duck, it swims like a duck,'” Walsh wrote. “In this case, a duck is just… a duck. No accusations (of) the birds’ games, “when night comes they sail to their little island and go to sleep.” Make Way for the Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (1941)’.

This report uses material from previous Globe stories.

Travis Andersen can be reached at [email protected].