FRAMINGHAM, Mass. — Disgraced Massachusetts State Police Trooper Michael Proctor, the lead investigator in the Karen Read murder case, was suspended Monday without pay amid an ongoing internal affairs investigation into his “unprofessional” behavior.
Interim Massachusetts State Police Col. John Mawn accepted a three-person board’s recommendation following a duty status hearing in Framingham, making Proctor’s suspension effective immediately.
Proctor was tasked with investigating the death of John O’Keefe, Read’s Boston police officer boyfriend, but he came under fire during witness testimony during trial for a series of disparaging texts about Read that he sent to friends, family, and supervisors, which he read aloud in court during her trial.
Read’s two-month-long trial ended in a mistrial last week, but the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office intends to set a date for a new trial later this month.
Boston 25 legal expert Peter Elikann said Proctor could be fired or charged criminally by the time a retrial of Read comes around.
“There’s no dancing around the fact that by the time this retrial happens, he could very well be completely fired or facing certain kinds of charges against him for his behavior in the investigation – so it’s certainly agreed by all that he’s going to look bad if he has to testify again,” Elikann explained.
Mawn relieved Proctor of his duty after Judge Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial due to a deadlocked jury. Proctor was then transferred out of the Norfolk District Attorney’s State Police Detective Unit. He was administratively assigned to Troop H in field services, but he remains ineligible to work.
Proctor admitted on the stand that the texts were “unprofessional” and he apologized multiple times, telling the jury his texts did not impact his investigation into the death of John O’Keefe, Read’s Boston police officer boyfriend.
In those texts, Proctor commented on Read’s physical appearance, used vulgar language, suggested he had made up his mind based on evidence as to Read’s guilt, and said he wished Read would kill herself.
Read is accused of killing O’Keefe by striking him with her SUV and leaving him in a snowstorm in Canton in January 2022.
Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away.
The defense sought to portray Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside and left for dead.
Lawyers for Read have since filed a motion to dismiss two of the three criminal charges that she faces in connection with the death of O’Keefe.
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