The lead investigator in Karen Read's murder case was fired Wednesday for sending vulgar texts about the suspect. Defense lawyers referred to the texts at Read's 2024 trial, which ended with a hung jury, saying they showed Michael Proctor was biased against their client and singled her out while ignoring other suspects in the murder of Boston police officer John O'Keefe. Massachusetts State Police later launched an internal affairs investigation, suspending the state trooper without pay. On Wednesday, Superintendent Col. Geoffrey Noble said he'd accepted a disciplinary board's recommendation that Proctor be fired, per the AP.
Proctor sent texts calling Read a "wack job c---" and saying he wished she would "kill herself," per WGBH. The State Police Trial Board said Proctor not only sent "derogatory, defamatory and disparaging and/ or inappropriate text messages" about Read but also provided confidential information about the case to people outside of law enforcement and operated his cruiser after consuming alcohol on the job, per NBC News. Noble said he moved to terminate Proctor after considering "the nature of the offenses, their impact on our investigative integrity, and the importance of safeguarding the reputations of our dedicated women and men in the State Police."
Proctor's family blasted the police decision in a statement, per the AP, saying it "lacks precedent, and unfairly exploits and scapegoats one of their own." They stressed the text messages had been found on Proctor's personal phone and only prove Proctor "is human—not corrupt, not incompetent in his role as a homicide detective, and certainly not unfit to continue to be a Massachusetts State Trooper." Read, to be retried for murder beginning April 1, is accused of drunkenly striking O'Keefe with her vehicle outside the home of another police officer in January 2022. Her lawyers have suggested O'Keefe was instead killed in a fight with fellow officers. (More Karen Read stories.)
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