Crime
A Stoughton man is facing criminal charges after authorities say he scattered rubber ducks around Canton in a show of support for Karen Read.
A barrage of rubber ducks branded with messages protesting the Karen Read case has prompted authorities to pursue witness intimidation charges in a bizarre episode some of Read’s supporters have dubbed “Duckgate.”
For months, the toy ducks have been popping up around Canton, where prosecutors say Read drunkenly and intentionally backed her SUV into her boyfriend — Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe — and left him to die on Jan. 29, 2022. Read’s lawyers allege she was framed in a vast law enforcement conspiracy, and they’ve sought to implicate the Alberts, a local family who owned the Fairview Road home where O’Keefe was found unresponsive in the snow.
Read’s first trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial July 1. A retrial is set to begin in January.
The case has drawn national attention, with “Free Karen Read” supporters gathering outside the courthouse during her trial and promoting the defense team’s coverup theory. Some of the scrutiny has focused on homeowner Brian Albert’s nephew Colin, who was present at 34 Fairview Road the night O’Keefe was killed but purportedly left the home before Read and O’Keefe arrived. Colin Albert also testified there was no animosity between him and O’Keefe, his former neighbor.
Yet in the months leading up to and following Read’s trial, Canton police documented several incidents where rubber ducks and fake $100 bills bearing the tagline “COLIN DID IT!” popped up around town. A Stoughton man is now facing witness intimidation, harassment, and littering charges after officials say he was behind the months-long campaign.
Authorities allege Richard Schiffer Jr. used rubber ducks and fake bills to frequently target a local pizza shop owned by Colin Albert’s father, Canton Select Board member Chris Albert. Other alleged targets include a neighborhood where O’Keefe’s family resides and a home belonging to embattled Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator on Read’s case.
According to a statement of facts filed in Stoughton District Court, the first documented incident was in early March, more than a month before Read’s trial began. Police allegedly traced the ducks and fake $100 bills back to Schiffer through witness tips, traffic camera and surveillance footage, and empty packages plucked from Schiffer’s garbage. Officers visited Schiffer in May in an attempt to recover data from his truck, allegedly finding yellow ducks and “COLIN DID IT!” stickers inside the vehicle.
Schiffer did not respond to interview requests.
Why rubber ducks?
The statement of facts links the rubber ducks to an expression Alan Jackson, one of Read’s defense attorneys, used during a pre-trial hearing last year: “If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck, it’s a duck.”
Authorities allege Schiffer “took the phrase used by Attorney Jackson while the Commonwealth vs Read matter was being adjudicated, and used it to insert himself into the matter and began to commit several crimes … through the use of the yellow rubber ducks and counterfeit $100 bills.”
The court document also points to a video from the YouTube channel The Young Jurks, which livestreamed a Sept. 14 demonstration outside the Canton Police Department. In the video, a man who identifies himself as Schiffer says he began the duck and money campaign in February.
“It’s just a joke,” Schiffer explains.
“I’ve got nobody involved in this, I did this on my own, smoking a joint at night, thinking, ‘What more can I f—ing do to help?’” he continues. “So that was it, and these are my signs I made up and I started with the ducks and it’s been hilarious ever since and I can’t believe how it’s grown.”
Schiffer also speculated that authorities might be trying to connect him to “Turtleboy” blogger Aidan Kearney, who faces criminal charges of his own for allegedly targeting witnesses in Read’s case. In the statement of facts filed in Schiffer’s case, a Canton police officer clarified that Kearney — who rose to national prominence as the face of the “Free Karen Read” movement — “has never been a subject of this investigation.”
Kearney has ridiculed the rubber duck-related charges through his blog and livestream. He also reported that an unidentified woman is facing a clerk magistrate’s hearing later this month on charges of witness intimidation and littering, stemming from a similar incident involving rubber ducks labeled “FKR.”
“Sadly, this is the type of authoritarian state that Norfolk County, Massachusetts has become, as men with guns are now attempting to put civilians in prison for dropping rubber duckies in public places,” Kearney wrote on his blog.
Schiffer’s arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 23.
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Abby Patkin