For discussion, when people hear “cover-up,” they imagine 30 to 50 people sitting in a room plotting together.
When Brian Albert went on ABC Nightline and told the world it would take “30 to 50 people” for this to be a cover-up, was he defending himself or was he accidentally describing the size of the blast radius?
Because look at what happened after this case finally hit daylight. Brian retired. Michael Proctor is no longer MSP. Tully is gone. Yuri was moved. Kelly Dever is no longer Boston PD. Helena Rafferty was allowed to retire instead of having the Select Board vote on her contract. A huge chunk of Canton police either retired, transferred, or quietly moved on. Judge Bev was moved to Plymouth. Court workers moved on. Katie McLaughlin took almost a full year off after testifying.
And that is only the short list.
Sometimes it starts small. One bad report. One missing phone. One ignored contradiction. One professional courtesy. One supervisor not asking the question he should have asked. One person looking the other way because they trust the wrong person, fear the wrong person, or don’t want to be the one who blows up the department.
then years go by.
Trials happen. Texts come out. Data gets compared to testimony. Careers start falling. People retire, transfer, resign, get reassigned, or suddenly disappear from the public eye.
And now the people who thought they were just “helping,” “staying out of it,” or “protecting the case” may realize they were part of the insulation.
So when Brian Albert said it would take “30 to 50 people,” maybe the real question is not whether 50 people planned it.
Maybe the question is how many people became exposed once the original story had to be protected.
the bigger question....How many more will come out when its over..... this case did not leave one bad apple behind.
It left a trail.