Detective might face felony charge

Boston Police anticorruption investigators have sought a criminal complaint against a celebrated detective for allegedly stealing a pair of sunglasses from a Back Bay boutique during a robbery investigation, a police official with direct knowledge of the investigation said yesterday.

The complaint against Sergeant Detective Daniel Keeler, who was the department's lead homicide detective for more than a decade, will not become public unless a Boston Municipal Court clerk finds probable cause for the charge. The police official, however, said investigators decided to seek the charge after reviewing a store surveillance tape.

Keeler, 55, has been on paid administrative leave since August, when the allegations first surfaced that he pocketed the sunglasses while investigating a robbery at Solstice on Newbury Street. Local media outlets showed images from the security camera that appeared to show Keeler placing sunglasses in his pocket, but it was unclear whether Keeler left the store with the glasses.

The police official told the Globe yesterday that investigators believe Keeler stole the glasses because his explanation is not supported by their review of the surveillance tape. Keeler told investigators that he put the glasses down somewhere in the store when he realized they didn't belong to him, but the tape doesn't show him putting the glasses back, the official said.

Keeler did not respond to a message left on his cellphone yesterday afternoon. Employees at Solstice declined to comment.

Keeler was decorated as a hero by the department after saving a man drowning in the Charles River in 1980, earned the moniker "Mr. Homicide" for investigating more than 200 murder suspects, and was a lead character on a reality television show.

He has also become a lightning rod for criticism by defense lawyers.

In 2004, he testified that he prepared a police report in a homicide case that contained inaccuracies. A federal judge that year also dismissed a lawsuit against Keeler and a partner for their role in another homicide case that led to a wrongful conviction.

Legal specialists said that if the stolen item is worth less than $250, a person faces misdemeanor charges, which are typically handled by a court clerk who determines whether there is probable cause for an arrest. But if the stolen item is worth more than $250, the alleged theft would be considered a felony and police would be more likely to issue a criminal summons instead of submitting an application for a criminal complaint.

Hearings with court clerks give defendants a degree of privacy that does not exist when summonses are issued, the legal specialists said.

"As a matter of routine this is the way police treat matters of larceny dealing with less than eye-popping amounts," said David Rossman, a professor of criminal law at Boston University.

Rossman said that while probable cause is a low standard, court clerks sometimes do not find it in cases that appear to warrant charges. He cited the case of Cambridge City Councilor Anthony D. Galluccio, who was not criminally charged by Boston Municipal Court Clerk Magistrate Daniel J. Hogan in April despite testimony from three witnesses who said the councilor appeared to be driving drunk in December when he was involved in a four-car crash, and by two police officers who said Galluccio was so disruptive that he had to be restrained.

Under Boston Police Department rules, there is no automatic dismissal for officers convicted of crimes, department spokeswoman Elaine Driscoll said. Instead, the department assesses cases on an individual basis, she said.

Driscoll said she could not comment on the Keeler case, and Acting Police Commissioner Albert Goslin also declined to comment yesterday.

Suzanne Smalley can be reached at ssmalley@globe.com

(Clarification: A story in yesterday's City & Region section about a top Boston police detective, Sergeant Detective Daniel Keeler, possibly facing charges for allegedly stealing a pair of sunglasses from a boutique during a robbery investigation contained headlines saying the detective may face a felony charge. While Keeler could face a felony charge, it is more likely that he will face a misdemeanor charge because police have submitted an application for a criminal complaint. If the sunglasses were worth more than $250, the alleged theft would be considered a felony and police would be more likely to issue a criminal summons, according to legal specialists.)