Karen Learn’s lawsuit in opposition to investigators strikes to federal courtroom
Crime
The lawsuit, filed by Learn in opposition to investigators, the McCabes, the Alberts, and Brian Higgins, was filed in federal courtroom Tuesday.
Karen Learn’s civil lawsuit filed in opposition to the witnesses who testified throughout her homicide trial, together with the Alberts and the McCabes, has been moved from state courtroom to federal courtroom, data present.
The lawsuit, initially filed in Bristol Superior Court docket Nov. 17, alleges the investigators allowed the Alberts, McCabes, and Higgins to “direct the investigation away from themselves, and in the direction of Ms. Learn” and detailed their alleged actions to cover-up the homicide and body Learn.
Learn, who’s going through a wrongful dying go well with linked to the 2022 dying of her boyfriend Boston officer John O’Keefe, filed a lawsuit in opposition to State Police Sgt. Yuriy Bukhenik, former Trooper Michael Proctor, and Lt. Brian Tully, all of their private capability.
Brian and Nicole Albert, Jennifer and Matthew McCabe, and Brian Higgins — witnesses who went out consuming with Learn and O’Keefe the evening he died — are additionally named as defendants.
James Tuxbury, the lawyer representing the McCabes, the Alberts, and Higgins filed a discover of elimination to maneuver the case to the US District Court docket of Massachusetts, based on courtroom data. The case was filed Tuesday in federal courtroom, based on the brand new docket.
“The case is a vengeful abuse of the judicial course of,” the discover of elimination filed by Tuxbury in federal courtroom mentioned. Whereas represented by others, Bukhenik, Proctor, and Tully all consented to the transfer of venue, Tuxbury wrote. He argued for the transfer as a result of federal civil rights declare that Learn’s Fourth Modification rights have been violated.
When reached for remark, a spokesperson for Tuxbury referred to the movement, which calls the lawsuit Learn’s “ongoing and malicious try and evade accountability for the dying of John O’Keefe by smearing and defaming witnesses who participated within the prosecution of her.”
Learn was charged with second diploma homicide after O’Keefe was discovered useless within the snow exterior the Albert’s Canton dwelling in January 2022. Prosecutors argued that Learn struck O’Keefe in a drunken rage together with her SUV whereas dropping him off at an afterparty after the pair had spent the evening consuming with mates.
Her first trial resulted in a hung jury, however after she was tried once more, she was discovered not responsible of homicide and convicted solely of drunk driving — a misdemeanor for which she acquired a 12 months of probation. Prosecutors spent greater than $1.4 million retrying the case earlier this 12 months.
Damon Seligson, Learn’s lead lawyer for her civil issues, known as the protection’s transfer to federal courtroom a “procedural maneuver” in an announcement.
“Karen Learn and her authorized staff are assured that her claims will obtain the honest and fulsome consideration they deserve in any federal or state courtroom,” Seligson advised Boston.com. “We’ll proceed to hunt justice, and are ready to take action in as many venues as obligatory.”
Lawsuit: Investigators shielded the Alberts, McCabes, and Higgins whereas they orchestrated a cover-up
The criticism accuses the investigators of deliberately shielding the opposite defendants, tampering and planting the taillight materials proof, and sharing info with the Alberts by way of his private telephone and thru his sister’s shut pal Julie Albert, Brian Albert’s sister-in-law.
“Proctor and his colleagues didn’t search the (Albert’s home) for blood proof ensuing from the gash to the again of Mr. O’Keefe’s head, or for fingerprints, or for DNA proof,” the criticism alleges. “At Proctor’s path, the Home was by no means processed by a criminalist and even photographed. No member of the MSP, together with Proctor, set foot inside 34 Fairview for almost every week.”
The criticism claims that O’Keefe entered the Alberts home the evening of his dying, and Learn waited for a “time frame” earlier than assuming he meant to remain. Whereas there, O’Keefe was concerned in a bodily altercation, attacked by the household’s German shepherd, and suffered a head wound after falling backward and hitting a ridged floor, the lawsuit claims.
Higgins allegedly left the home and drove to the Canton Police Division in the midst of the evening, whereas he and Brian Albert appeared to name one another a number of occasions “to coordinate their tales,” the lawsuit mentioned. The lawsuit additionally claims Jennifer McCabe’s notorious “hos lengthy to die in chilly” Google search occurred at 2:27 a.m.
“The plan was devised to make it seem that Mr. O’Keefe had been struck by Ms. Learn’s car after which died on account of publicity to the chilly,” the lawsuit mentioned. “The Commonwealth nonetheless has not sought or offered justice — to not the O’Keefe household, to not the group at massive, and definitely to not Ms. Learn.”
Beforehand, attorneys for the McCabes, Alberts, and Higgins mentioned they might contemplate counterclaims in opposition to each Learn and Turtleboy blogger Aidan Kearney “for defamation and different torts that they’ve dedicated, individually and in live performance.”
Timothy Burke, who’s representing Tully, didn’t return a request for remark Wednesday night.
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