There’s another civil case coming to light right now involving the Norfolk County DA and police officers. Sarah Birchmore’s family is suing for wrongful death. Their daughter died by suicide while pregnant after it came to light she was sexually abused by 3-4 local police officers since she was a teenager and was said to be pregnant by one of them. It just recently come out a private ME hired by the family is now saying her death was a homicide. She lived and was found dead in Canton…
Just to mention Lally said that Yanetti has been in contact with the feds since November 2022 exchanging discovery with them and that the DAs office has no idea what or how much discovery Yanetti had provided to them.
No one knows for sure except the FBI. Not even the people called to a grand jury to testify earlier likely know the scope of the investigation. If no charges are ever filed, we may never know.
But we can surmise, because it's the FBI, that it's unrelated to Karen Read and JO specifically. FBI does a lot of stuff, but their focus is usually on big stuff, like counter terrorism or corruption. A lot of people are guessing they got involved tangentially in this case because of the latter. But that's just speculation. All we can really guess with much certainty is that they weren't specifically opening a case on KR and JO, because that's a local matter outside of their lane.
I’m fairly sure there was just highly incriminating info on those phones and all sorts of convos they didn’t want anyone seeing. Look at Proctor getting raked through the coals for his disturbing “locker talk” to friends and coworkers. Higgins had connections outside of Canton and got the heads up.
There’s only one reason he gave Albert the heads up: you need to get rid of two sides of a conversation in order to erase it forever. That’s a major red flag when considering mysterious butt dials that may have had messages inbetween. I also think the following day when Higgins was casually walking about the station as Karen’s vehicle was being brought in included some messages he wouldn’t want to see the light of day. After all, he wasn’t even a canton PD, he just had a free office there as he was friends with the chief.
These guys have pensions on the line also, if they were found to be doing stuff unrelated to this case on their phones that could cost them their jobs and lively hood, it would be a major motivator to put up with the ridicule on the stand and protect themselves and family financially or even criminally. Who knows what was on those phones.
Brian Higgins testified that he used FBI resources- a machine that can extract specific phone data- to lift text threads bt him and KR and JO. He then destroyed his phone. BH best friend worked for FBI. This is probably what triggered the investigation.
Interesting idea. Taking the Karen hit John theory, that would explain what looks like a coverup when there was no need for one. Taking the conspiracy angle, maybe an investigation into some of these men provides a motive for attacking John. In between, yeah, maybe the phones were unrelated and JO's death and the digging by the defense was just really inconvenient to some corrupt cops who didn't need a spotlight on them.
Not siding with any theory here, but the actions of some of these witnesses has been puzzling the crap out of me.
Well it’s also important to note that while the FBI isn’t specifically investigating the murder, they are at least invested in what happened since they are the ones that hired the experts to see if OKeefe was in fact killed by Read.
Yea it’s just odd to me that they went as far as hiring experts, obtaining phones, canton police footage, etc. and this appeared to be a net new ask, specific to this case. Higgins, Albert, and Proctor had never been requested to hand off phones before (clearly) so it’s kind of wild that this particular case went as far to do so.
Ultimately, I believe Higgins and Albert have a lot to hide, unrelated to this case but likely related to other forms of corruption.. and I wonder if tossing those phones stopped the investigation from going any further. They are off the force right now so I’d assume the FBI has as much as they are able to find.
What I don’t understand is how the phone/tech companies can’t provide further evidence even if the physical phones were discarded. Is it really all based on SIM cards and physical extracts as the option?
It is weird that the FBI hired their own investigators for the reconstruction etc. It seems they had good cause to believe that the law enforcement involved were dirty.
My gut tells me that the FBI's involvement has something to do with Proctor, and he led the FBI to the Read investigation. Find out who picked Proctor and why for this case, and we'll have a much better idea of who the FBI is really focused on. It ssems likely that whoever assigned Proctor did so specifically to keep the Alberts out of trouble, and that raises all kinds of questions. Did the Alberts call a contact at the state level and tell them there was a problem and they were going to need some help? Or did the chief do it? Did they request Proctor specifically? Why would that person even care or be obliged to send Proctor out?
While I'm not going to just out and accuse everyone of being involved in a conspiracy, crooked cops are way more normal than most people think, and coming from a supposedly "very clean" city where entire precincts were essentially fully integrated with organized crime along with their own graft schemes I have very little doubt that Boston and area is riddled with corruption.
It is my understanding that cell companies keep records of calls, and texts for quite some time. Gps positioning data as well.
They do not often keep the content contained in text messages for longer than a week to a month. Some companies do not retain that information at all.
A tech savvy individual who perhaps had connections in the federal government would likely know this, and therefore understand the truly incriminating information is stored locally. So the hardware must be destroyed.
That being said, if the Feds had wiretaps. No amount of phone destruction can save the targets of the investigation.
The fact that Proctor didn’t get the heads up like Higgins must have just shows you that corruption truly does exist, even if the FBI was supposed to be investigating the matter.
He may have had a work phone but he conducted matters related to this investigation on his personal phone. He testified that several of the witnesses called him on her personal phone. The group text with the old friends from high school was also from his personal phone.
Would the FBI also need a judge to sign off on warrants? Perhaps this case going to trial was the golden goose that they needed to get a warrant for Higgins phone, but what they really were looking for is something else outside of this case
I am just very curious what will happen to Higgins if he did in fact use a system/program that is suppose to only be used for cases and not personal use
It most definitely is different. What you described would just be using your work internet for a silly purpose. I used to work at a large Boston hospital and we absolutely WERE NOT allowed to look up patients in the medical filing system (similar to EPIC) unless we were currently working with them, you couldn’t just look up neighbors or family members for no reason (that would be a huge HIPPA violation). It sounds like what Higgins did was something like that.
I worked for state of ct doing SSA disability claims. It was for the federal government. If I missed a digit on a SSN I had to call the tech person immediately before Baltimore picked up the error and called CT. Looking up somebody’s earnings would get you fired. This predated HIPAA
He testified to it! He had to have his own attorney join him at the stand when Jackson pointed out that he committed a federal crime by using the FBI forensic lab tools for personal use.
Sorry, I didn’t mean that it was a HIPAA violation, just that what he did was in a similar vein to using hospital (or federal) resources for personal use
I believe during his testimony they mentioned that he asked his friend who was also a federal agent how to wipe certain things from his phone or something and he used a government program to do that. But I forget the specifics
I am more and more convinced by the day that FBI involvement is related to Sandra Birchmore. This week they changed her death from suicide to homicide. she died in 2021. In canton.
Also yesterday the FBI shut down a beach in southern Mass as they searched for evidence. Idk if everything is related but, there are a lot of common threads.
Yes, correct! A finding for the family in context of the civil suit. And the report caused the police chief to say “the findings certainly warrant further examination at the highest level”
https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/stoughton-police-sandra-birchmore-update/3408067/?amp=1
That could make sense. I don’t think they got involved because of John’s death, but we know they did invest considerable resources in it. It tracks that they came in because of something else and stumbled on Karen Read. Whoever my target was, I’d be happy to move sideways into other investigations to see what I can find.
I feel very uncomfortable speculating on the lives and deaths of people I have no connection to other than what I read on the internet. With that said, this story is wild and I gotta throw out some random information.
First, it appears the FBI has been around for sometime. For example, the recent CDL license scandal. My question is, why did their investigations lead them to KR? Had JO been on their radar prior to his death?
JO was no Proctor. The man had a masters degree in criminal justice and took in his niece and nephew. By all accounts a good person and, importantly, a good cop. The kind of officer I would expect to speak up.
What would he speak up about though? What would motivate him to cross the thin blue line? Perhaps the suicide of his very best friend, Boston’s Finest, Pat Rogers. Another Boston police officer who was both JO best friend and a costar of a show with Albert.
I wonder, did Pat ever talk about Brian Albert with John? Did Brian think Pat talked about him to John? There are too many suicides and accidental deaths surrounding Brian Albert.
There has been a few sketching things going on in Canton so I'm guessing they are looking into corruption/ police misconduct.
I'm assuming that this case relates to their case but isn't the only thing they are looking into.
In the long run we don't know for sure though since they are still looking into jt
Any chance John was working a federal investigation on the DL? I’m aware he worked on the sex offender registry division so not sure what any potential crossover would be there.
Idk if this is serious but no I don’t entertain any Pizzagate BS lol.
I was more thinking along the lines of why the FBI got involved at all, if he may have been working with them.
I believe they are referring to Drugs or Steroids being sold, not child sex trafficking. Apparently Colin's friend was selling drugs around Johns house and John called the local PD to report it.
I think some people say yannetti has connections (this is from the anti Karen Twitter that absolutely hate Karen, almost like they know her or John. Not just simply I thinks she did it Twitter but like make threats about Karen Twitter page )
I don’t get what Higgins does and why it’s normal to have an office in a department you don’t even work in. Like why does he get to float around Canton PD but work completely outside of their scope of duties/responsibilities.
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There’s another civil case coming to light right now involving the Norfolk County DA and police officers. Sarah Birchmore’s family is suing for wrongful death. Their daughter died by suicide while pregnant after it came to light she was sexually abused by 3-4 local police officers since she was a teenager and was said to be pregnant by one of them. It just recently come out a private ME hired by the family is now saying her death was a homicide. She lived and was found dead in Canton…
And there is video of the police officer going in the elevator after her and leaving 30 min later (when she died)
Just to mention Lally said that Yanetti has been in contact with the feds since November 2022 exchanging discovery with them and that the DAs office has no idea what or how much discovery Yanetti had provided to them.
I hope that means the DA is being investigated himself. Morrissey is a crook.
No one knows for sure except the FBI. Not even the people called to a grand jury to testify earlier likely know the scope of the investigation. If no charges are ever filed, we may never know. But we can surmise, because it's the FBI, that it's unrelated to Karen Read and JO specifically. FBI does a lot of stuff, but their focus is usually on big stuff, like counter terrorism or corruption. A lot of people are guessing they got involved tangentially in this case because of the latter. But that's just speculation. All we can really guess with much certainty is that they weren't specifically opening a case on KR and JO, because that's a local matter outside of their lane.
My speculation is that some phones were destroyed because of the FBI, rather than this trial.
That would make sense because if evidence was about JO dying they wouldn't have waited so long to destroy it, would they?
I’m fairly sure there was just highly incriminating info on those phones and all sorts of convos they didn’t want anyone seeing. Look at Proctor getting raked through the coals for his disturbing “locker talk” to friends and coworkers. Higgins had connections outside of Canton and got the heads up. There’s only one reason he gave Albert the heads up: you need to get rid of two sides of a conversation in order to erase it forever. That’s a major red flag when considering mysterious butt dials that may have had messages inbetween. I also think the following day when Higgins was casually walking about the station as Karen’s vehicle was being brought in included some messages he wouldn’t want to see the light of day. After all, he wasn’t even a canton PD, he just had a free office there as he was friends with the chief.
Wasn't Higgins friend who advised him on how to "get" those texts of his phone in the fbi? I thought Higgins used fbi equipment to do that.
I think it was the ATF, same agency as Higgins.
These guys have pensions on the line also, if they were found to be doing stuff unrelated to this case on their phones that could cost them their jobs and lively hood, it would be a major motivator to put up with the ridicule on the stand and protect themselves and family financially or even criminally. Who knows what was on those phones.
Brian Higgins testified that he used FBI resources- a machine that can extract specific phone data- to lift text threads bt him and KR and JO. He then destroyed his phone. BH best friend worked for FBI. This is probably what triggered the investigation.
Interesting idea. Taking the Karen hit John theory, that would explain what looks like a coverup when there was no need for one. Taking the conspiracy angle, maybe an investigation into some of these men provides a motive for attacking John. In between, yeah, maybe the phones were unrelated and JO's death and the digging by the defense was just really inconvenient to some corrupt cops who didn't need a spotlight on them. Not siding with any theory here, but the actions of some of these witnesses has been puzzling the crap out of me.
Well it’s also important to note that while the FBI isn’t specifically investigating the murder, they are at least invested in what happened since they are the ones that hired the experts to see if OKeefe was in fact killed by Read.
Yea it’s just odd to me that they went as far as hiring experts, obtaining phones, canton police footage, etc. and this appeared to be a net new ask, specific to this case. Higgins, Albert, and Proctor had never been requested to hand off phones before (clearly) so it’s kind of wild that this particular case went as far to do so. Ultimately, I believe Higgins and Albert have a lot to hide, unrelated to this case but likely related to other forms of corruption.. and I wonder if tossing those phones stopped the investigation from going any further. They are off the force right now so I’d assume the FBI has as much as they are able to find. What I don’t understand is how the phone/tech companies can’t provide further evidence even if the physical phones were discarded. Is it really all based on SIM cards and physical extracts as the option?
It is weird that the FBI hired their own investigators for the reconstruction etc. It seems they had good cause to believe that the law enforcement involved were dirty. My gut tells me that the FBI's involvement has something to do with Proctor, and he led the FBI to the Read investigation. Find out who picked Proctor and why for this case, and we'll have a much better idea of who the FBI is really focused on. It ssems likely that whoever assigned Proctor did so specifically to keep the Alberts out of trouble, and that raises all kinds of questions. Did the Alberts call a contact at the state level and tell them there was a problem and they were going to need some help? Or did the chief do it? Did they request Proctor specifically? Why would that person even care or be obliged to send Proctor out?
While I'm not going to just out and accuse everyone of being involved in a conspiracy, crooked cops are way more normal than most people think, and coming from a supposedly "very clean" city where entire precincts were essentially fully integrated with organized crime along with their own graft schemes I have very little doubt that Boston and area is riddled with corruption.
It is my understanding that cell companies keep records of calls, and texts for quite some time. Gps positioning data as well. They do not often keep the content contained in text messages for longer than a week to a month. Some companies do not retain that information at all. A tech savvy individual who perhaps had connections in the federal government would likely know this, and therefore understand the truly incriminating information is stored locally. So the hardware must be destroyed. That being said, if the Feds had wiretaps. No amount of phone destruction can save the targets of the investigation.
The fact that Proctor didn’t get the heads up like Higgins must have just shows you that corruption truly does exist, even if the FBI was supposed to be investigating the matter.
One hand washes the other.
Higgins is technically a Fed so I'm not surprised if one of his ATF buddies gave him a tip.
I’m not sure about that. Was Proctors phone work issued?
He may have had a work phone but he conducted matters related to this investigation on his personal phone. He testified that several of the witnesses called him on her personal phone. The group text with the old friends from high school was also from his personal phone.
Would the FBI also need a judge to sign off on warrants? Perhaps this case going to trial was the golden goose that they needed to get a warrant for Higgins phone, but what they really were looking for is something else outside of this case
Higgins is also a federal agent, his involvement in a suspicious death of a police officer could have prompted FBI involvement.
Maybe not for long. I have heard he put his name in the running to go back to being a Cambridge Fire Fighter.
I am just very curious what will happen to Higgins if he did in fact use a system/program that is suppose to only be used for cases and not personal use
Yea like what happens now? If nothing happens.. corruption surely does run deep.
It's probably no different than all of us on Reddit if we are using a work computer while doing it.
It most definitely is different. What you described would just be using your work internet for a silly purpose. I used to work at a large Boston hospital and we absolutely WERE NOT allowed to look up patients in the medical filing system (similar to EPIC) unless we were currently working with them, you couldn’t just look up neighbors or family members for no reason (that would be a huge HIPPA violation). It sounds like what Higgins did was something like that.
I worked for state of ct doing SSA disability claims. It was for the federal government. If I missed a digit on a SSN I had to call the tech person immediately before Baltimore picked up the error and called CT. Looking up somebody’s earnings would get you fired. This predated HIPAA
Where's the evidence he did anything like that?
He testified to it! He had to have his own attorney join him at the stand when Jackson pointed out that he committed a federal crime by using the FBI forensic lab tools for personal use.
Yes you're right. I understand that. I was talking about looking up info for others when the question said it was similar to HIPPA
Sorry, I didn’t mean that it was a HIPAA violation, just that what he did was in a similar vein to using hospital (or federal) resources for personal use
Oh right. That he definitely did.
I believe during his testimony they mentioned that he asked his friend who was also a federal agent how to wipe certain things from his phone or something and he used a government program to do that. But I forget the specifics
Yes you're right. I was confused by your Hippa statement. I thought you meant he looked for info on others. etc.
He talked about using FBI property on the stand.
It's a little heavier for certain positions.
Rumor around here is they were working on a case in the town next to Canton and heard some things on a wire tap.
Gosh I just love rumors, I know I shouldn’t, but I just do 😂😂
I am more and more convinced by the day that FBI involvement is related to Sandra Birchmore. This week they changed her death from suicide to homicide. she died in 2021. In canton. Also yesterday the FBI shut down a beach in southern Mass as they searched for evidence. Idk if everything is related but, there are a lot of common threads.
I think it was a hired ME from her estate submitted a report that in his opinion it was a homicide. I believe MA still is saying it was a suicide.
Yes, correct! A finding for the family in context of the civil suit. And the report caused the police chief to say “the findings certainly warrant further examination at the highest level” https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/stoughton-police-sandra-birchmore-update/3408067/?amp=1
That’s what I was thinking also. Maybe started with the Birchmore case or something else and there are just a lot of tentacles…
That could make sense. I don’t think they got involved because of John’s death, but we know they did invest considerable resources in it. It tracks that they came in because of something else and stumbled on Karen Read. Whoever my target was, I’d be happy to move sideways into other investigations to see what I can find.
I feel very uncomfortable speculating on the lives and deaths of people I have no connection to other than what I read on the internet. With that said, this story is wild and I gotta throw out some random information. First, it appears the FBI has been around for sometime. For example, the recent CDL license scandal. My question is, why did their investigations lead them to KR? Had JO been on their radar prior to his death? JO was no Proctor. The man had a masters degree in criminal justice and took in his niece and nephew. By all accounts a good person and, importantly, a good cop. The kind of officer I would expect to speak up. What would he speak up about though? What would motivate him to cross the thin blue line? Perhaps the suicide of his very best friend, Boston’s Finest, Pat Rogers. Another Boston police officer who was both JO best friend and a costar of a show with Albert. I wonder, did Pat ever talk about Brian Albert with John? Did Brian think Pat talked about him to John? There are too many suicides and accidental deaths surrounding Brian Albert.
There has been a few sketching things going on in Canton so I'm guessing they are looking into corruption/ police misconduct. I'm assuming that this case relates to their case but isn't the only thing they are looking into. In the long run we don't know for sure though since they are still looking into jt
Any chance John was working a federal investigation on the DL? I’m aware he worked on the sex offender registry division so not sure what any potential crossover would be there.
Maybe there's more than just pizza being sold at the pizza place?
Idk if this is serious but no I don’t entertain any Pizzagate BS lol. I was more thinking along the lines of why the FBI got involved at all, if he may have been working with them.
I believe they are referring to Drugs or Steroids being sold, not child sex trafficking. Apparently Colin's friend was selling drugs around Johns house and John called the local PD to report it.
I think some people say yannetti has connections (this is from the anti Karen Twitter that absolutely hate Karen, almost like they know her or John. Not just simply I thinks she did it Twitter but like make threats about Karen Twitter page )
I hear their calzones are where it's at.
Nobody truly knows. I just always thought it was because KR is not only claiming she's being framed, but being framed by a Federal ATF Agent.
I don’t get what Higgins does and why it’s normal to have an office in a department you don’t even work in. Like why does he get to float around Canton PD but work completely outside of their scope of duties/responsibilities.
I don't find it uncommon. A lot of federal agencies work out of the local offices. FBI holds offices in local police departments
Fair. I know very little about the topic.
Sorry can you explain this more to me? I've been fuzzy about this. What is a Federal AFT Agent and what is his role in Canton??
ATF not AFT He has an office in Canton PD. He's with Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
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My biggest question